"Today, there was an opportunity for a bunch of friends to meet up for lunch at Mala. First time for all of us at this 2nd location, though most of us had been to, and enjoyed, the original out on Bellaire Blvd. Also attending were two zomatoes of my acquaintance, Michelle and Amanda. The large number of us, besides allowing for a totally 21st Century photo of a bunch of hipsters photographing food at the same time (hey, we 're taking pictures to share here! was that it meant we could order and sample a whole bunch of food. I am embarrassed that I don 't remember the names of all the dishes. But can confirm that I personally really liked the eggplant. Now, the word mala refers back to the Chinese word that describes the interesting effect that the Szechuan pepper (not really a pepper...look it up on Wikipedia does on one 's tongue...citrus, pepper burn, tingling, slight numbing, etc. Most of the dishes had the Szechuan pepper in them to some degree. There was a killer broth with green Szechuan peppers. A glass noodle soup. A beef or chicken with cumin. And other stuff. We all came away full and pleased. And the cost per person including tip was incredibly fair considering how much we had to eat."
