When Lon’s ex-coworkers wanted to have Szechuan food, we took them to Wu Liang Ye (3 locations). The two Szechuan must-haves are Dan Dan Noodles and the Hot Oil Dumplings. The Dan Dan Noodles are covered in minced pork, scallions, and some spinach. The sauce is sweet, meaty, and moderately spicy.
The Hot Oil Dumplings sit in a pool of sweet and spicy vinaigrette, topped with garlic cream. Stir it up before serving to everyone who’s willing to have garlic breath for the next 24 hours. I could eat several bowls of this by myself.
Beyond that, we were open to suggestions, and our waiter was ready to fire away. I think we took all of his suggestions, and besides this Spicy Beef that was too sweet and too chewy, I was glad we ordered the rest.
Their Crispy Whole Fish is a non-authentic dish but it’s still really good. They de-bone the entire fish, but put it back together before deep-frying it. That’s got to be a lot of work! It’s drenched in sweet and sour sauce with pine-nuts, corn, and peas, yet manages to stay crispy.
Lon loves Camphor Tea Smoked Duck, but it’s so hard to find. It’s also a good dish to have since you’ll need at least one break from the spicy stuff.
Our waiter kept raving about Streaky Pork (that’s what is written on the menu). We didn’t really know what he was talking about but said ok. It turns out, it’s sliced pork belly with hot green peppers and szechuan peppercorns. This was the spiciest dish.
The Ma Po Tofu was also quite spicy, with minced pork and plenty of szechuan peppercorns. (This is different from my Ma Po Tofu which is more Taiwanese style.)
I hadn’t been here in 2 years and while I really enjoyed the food, it seamed a little less authentic (more sugar, less spicy), which seams to be the trend these days. (You have to head to Flushing for the authentic Chinese food.) I’m not complaining though because at these prices (about $23 per person with tax and tip), this was a steal. We had some left-overs for lunch the next day too.
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“Shezwan” chicken/ fish/ rice/ noodles are very popular in ‘Chinese Restaurants’ at Mumbai. This is very different from the Sichuan food that you have shown here.
In Mumbai shezwan stands for a dish in a bright red colour, which is spicy and hot, and caters to the Indian palate
is it true that duck takes at least 3 or 4 hours to prepare?
Pearl – It can take 3-4 DAYS to prepare… It all depends on the preparation style. The style we had was camphor tea smoked. Camphor, a type of wood, can impart a very strong flavor, so that part is usually short (under an hour perhaps); but tea is quite light, so that may take more time. Also, the process to get the skin crisp requires multiple cooling periods. Here are two recipes: fast & slow.
Everything here looks so good! I love Chinese food.
Asianmommy, Chinese food is the most popular international cusine in India though we have added an Indian touch to it
I can’t speak to the flavor of the fish you ordered but I’m not sure where you come off calling that style of fish non-authentic. Inauthentic to Sichuan? Perhaps, but certainly not inauthentic when discussing the cuisine of Jiangsu province. In fact a similar (if not exact same dish… sauce maybe a bit too brown) is the specialty of Suzhou and there is refered to as “Squirrel Shaped Mandarin Fish” due to its perceived resemblence to a squirrels tale. I’ve had plates which mirror the picture above, down to the corn and peas. Anyway, maybe hesitate before pontificating on authenticity in the future and educate yourself on the variety inherent to Chinese food. Also, while the average place in Flushing has better Chinese food, it’s plain ignorant to say there’s not an occasional authentic gem in Manhattan. Does something have to be in the Taiwanese style to make it authentic to you?
Steve, hold your horses. You’re getting way to hyped up. I called that dish non-authentic because that’s what the waiter implied when he talked about the de-boning of it for Americans. In terms of the other dishes tasting not as authentic, it’s because it all got sweeter and less spicy.
Towards the end of your comment there, you’re just starting to make lots of assumptions about me and/or what I said so, chill out.