Like a Taste That Tingles? Then This Bud's for You

At Anthos restaurant in New York, where chef Michael Psilakis is said to be at the vanguard of new Aegean cuisine, the buttons are employed as an acid, "like lemon juice," Psilakis told Esquire.

Washington chefs are still in the lab with Sechuan buttons, one might say. This past summer, Mazard made seven stops around town, with Michel Richard Citronelle, Poste, Equinox, the Occidental and PS-7 on his list. Richard liked them, says restaurant spokeswoman Mel Davis, and is thinking about ways he might use them. Todd Gray of Equinox says his staff "went crazy for them" -- "a little intense, raw!" Their cocktail experimentation continues; the chef-owner has just put the buttons to use on the fall menu in a garnish presentation for cheese plates. The tiny petals and some lemon thyme infuse a small pot of honey that accompanies roasted kabocha squash, sweet peppers and toasted walnuts.

At Poste in Penn Quarter, chef Robert Weland offers patrons a Concord grape soda float with lemon verbena sorbet into which shreds of Sechuan buttons are dispersed through a soda siphon. The dessert is concocted tableside.

"I'm definitely getting some feedback," says Weland, who is intrigued by the Sechuan button's citrusy, numbing effect. He says there may be another application on the way.

"I'm still thinking about it, but my mind's going toward a melon soup or pastry. It's really amazing!"

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News researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this article.