I am reading Anthony Bourdain's (famous author of Kitchen Confidential and tv personality No Reservations) new book Medium Raw and he said the funniest thing about eating Szechuan hot pot. He said it was like being spanked AND licked at the same time. I found that hilarious. The spanking was from massive amounts of hot chile peppers and the licking was from the mouth numbing Szechuan peppers which really aren't peppers. Anyone who hasn't had the experience of Szechuan pepper mouth numb hasn't lived! You know you've got the full effect when you sip some plain water and it instantly becomes soda water in your mouth!

Here Bourdain talks about the hot pots in another source --

I think it's just a jaded palate. When you've tasted so much extraordinary food but within the western flavor spectrum, it's really exciting. There's a sadomasochistic dimension to it, a combination of searing hot peppers and the flower peppers that go in a Szechuan hot pot. And you look around and it's not just you, but it's the people from Szechuan as well, sweating flop sweat and holding their stomachs and shoveling this stuff in near agony. And yet you want more immediately.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1678626-2,00.html#ixzz1ELVGOTL1

I can relate indeed