The Hot, the Spicy and the Oily - Sichuan food
We read up on Sichuan cuisine and looked forward to experiencing the unique "tongue numbing" quality of notoriously spicy hot dishes created from their exquisite blend of chili peppers and peppercorns.
We got to try out the popular signature dishes which included
Kung Pao Chicken 宮保雞丁
Twice cooked pork 回鍋肉
Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐
The food is not chili-pepper hot like where a mere whiff of the chili is enough to induce sweat droplets to pop out on one's forehead. Instead, it is a taste altering medley of tongue numbing sensation when one bites into the peppercorns. A couple of times of this unexpected burst of citrusy-bitter-numbness taking over my taste buds is enough to make me pick out all the peppercorns and sit them aside where they will do no further harm to my culinary enjoyment.
We found the local (read original) version of sichuan food much too oily and salty. The experience helped decide for us to give their famous spicy hotpot meals a miss. We happily complemented our meals with trusty Chinese standards like dim-sum.
We much prefer the internationalised version of Sichuan food for it's tamer and more straightforward taste.
10 comments:
*gulp* that's alot of food!! all these weren't eaten in one sitting with just the 2 of you right??!
I picked out all the peppercorns while eating at Sichuan Douhua too. Biting into them a couple of times was more than enough. But I love the food there. Maybe it's not "authentic" enough. :P
imp - not at one sitting lah hehe.
wg - oh weren't those peppercorns just awful when they explode in your mouth?
recognise some of those....no "liang fen" and "kou suai ji"?
suziewong - sadly no :( couldn't do sichuan food anymore.
They're awful alright. Thank goodness the ones last night were milder than what I had. At least, the 2 I bit into were.
wg - sorry abt that but the man so wanted everyone to experience those peppercorns. i can live without them.
No prob. They're really mild. And besides, not a surprise like the first time. ;)
Nice post. I was recently fortunate to have been invited to a Sichuanese colleague's home for dinner, cooked by her mother visiting from Chendgu. Ten wonderful dishes, made with unique family recipes, served with love, and very different from Sichuan restaurant food
http://goodfood65.blogspot.com/2008/04/sichuan-home-cooking-evening-to-cherish.html
argha sen - thanks for comment and visiting :) u have a lovely blog; i plan to visit often.
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