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2011-03-13
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Recently there is a Sichuan madness spreading across my friend group as well as my family. Decent Sichuan restaurant had adapted too much of a localization, the Sichuan taste has distorted and I could no longer tasted that spiciness back I had in China. There was one particular Sichuan restaurant that I love, named Little Chilli, which serves authentic Sichuan Food. It was not until recently I found it is Michelln-starred. Well, the food there no doubt was delicious but the environment I doubt i
Anyhow last time, I went to 渝川菜館 which is another Sichuan Private Kitchen located in Wanchai, the dishes wasn't spicy until you started taking in the Sichuan Peppers and Chilli Peppers, you would then started screaming, drinking and crying un-controllably. So I was expecting something similar here. These private kitchens are usually located in some residential-commercial uses buildings, Sijie Sichuan Dishes is located in a much older building which the elevator could only hold a max of 6 people. That night, a family unknown to me rushed into the elevator which it broke down the minute it went up the building! Apparently that family has more than 6 people, and definitely not small in size I presume. What a tragic but funny news!
I wasn't expecting decentness in decor of these Chinese private kitchens, but to be blunt Sijie Sichuan Dishes is pretty worse. The restaurant was spacious especially when there wasn't much decoration around. There were some hideous colour-faded panda posters at the side but there were some nicer Chinese Calligraphies hanging on the wall. The table clothes were kind of cheap in texture or appearance, (I work in Apparel Industry, but I don't think I am harsh on this.) So was the texture of the tissue rolls in the bathroom, I might be picky but bad quality tissue was intolerable. Every wooden stool which stacked at the side that I touched was sticky, and so was the rotating plate on our table.Despite the environment, the service was really nice. The waitress explained everything in details and recommended quite a few delicious dishes for us. I did not check the restaurant up before visiting, so I ordered solely accordingly to her recommendations and my personal preferences. The set portion included 4 cold dishes and 5 hot dishes with a free veggie at a price of $220/head.
1) Sichuan Cold Noodles (四川涼麵)
I was shocked by the portion of this Sichuan Cold Noodles. The plate came in a very large bowl which could be served as a main course for 4-6 people. This Sichuan Noodles reminded me of the Spicy Noodles I had in China but it was thousand times nicer! The Sichuan Noodles are thin noodles which were made nice and chewy. On top of the noodles, there were also crunchy peanuts, fresh green spring onions as well as some hot sauces. Mixing all the ingredients together with the hot sauce made the bowl extremely scrumptious. Beware of the extreme spiciness it brought at the end of the bowl when all the hot sauce sank back down the bottom. Spiciness, I'm Loving it.2) Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce (蒜泥白肉)
Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce was actually quite a disappointing dish. The porks were sliced in large chunk and its appearance somehow gave me a perception of low quality meat. The fat did have a jelly-like texture but still it was slightly too fat to enjoy. The dish was not spicy at all and the pork was not particularly nice either.3) Marinated Chicken (口水雞)
The marinated chicken was served in chilli oil with a few chilli peppers and Sichuan Peppers. The chicken was quite tendor in texture, and captured the essence of spiciness from the bowl. Occasionally, you ate the chicken along with some Sichuan peppers which create a tingly numbness in the mouth, which is interesting and fun.4) Sour and Spicy Aubergine (酸辣茄子)
I prefer Aubergine in spicy oil over Cucumber as I reckon aubergine could absorb more of the essence of spiciness. The aubergines were cut into mouth sized cubes. They were at perfect softness in texture. The dish only had a pint of spiciness and sourness with it, and if you take the aubergine right after you had some killingly spicy food, the sourness could literally bring down the spiciness magically!5) Poached Fish in hot chilli oil (水煮魚)
I always prefer poached beef in chilli oil then fish as I can't handle bones. We ordered poached fish anyawy since my parents wanted to try it. In the end I was quite elated to find Sijie used fish fillet for the dish, so no bones picking was required! The fish fillet was extremely tender and soft, it also absorbed the essence of spiciness from the broth. There were so much chilli peppers and Sichuan peppers that floated all over the broth, making it looked horribly looking but the spiciness was at acceptable range. There were also bean sprouts and flat noodles in the bowl. I held much expectation to the flat noodles but it was under cooked, they were crazily hard to chew. It was a big disappointment since I used to have lots of delectable flat noodles in China.6) Beef with pickled Peppers (泡椒牛肉)
The beef literally tasted and looked similar to the cold chicken dishes but was served hot, I actually took a while to figure that out. The hot dish was a bit more spicy than the cold dish, as the chicken was fried to give more taste. The Beef had a dry appearance, like it was grilled but interestingly it could still keep its tenderness. But overall, it wasn't a special dish.7) Fried Four season beans (乾扁四季豆)
Fried Four Season beans seems to be a must order dish for either Shanghai or Sichuan cuisines, it was grouped into the category of strong flavoured veggie. I love the texture of the four season bean and the heavy taste that went along with it. There were also chilli peppers as well as some fried minced pork to give some taste to the dish. The dish was very tasteful but was rather oily.8) Fried Fatty Pig's Intestine with Sichuan Peppers (辣子肥腸)
This dish is so well done, the fatty pig intestine was amazingly delicious. The pig intestine was really fat, which was great in texture! The dish wasn't spicy at all. If you like pig intestine, you must order this dish.9) Fried Veg (清炒油麥菜)
This was a complimentary dish from the restaurant. I was just thinking about how little the portion of vegetables we were having at that dinner when she announced the complimentary offer, so I was delighted about that. There wasn't much to commend about this veggie, I was literally too full to taste anything already lol.
Well generally, the dishes weren't that spicy. If given a spiciness scale to Sijie Sichuan Dishes, it is only at around 4, while the other Sichuan Restaurant 渝川菜館 scores around 6 and Little Chilli at 8. Despite the spicines, Sijie was also less tasteful (less strong a flavour) than the other two mentioned restaurant. The portion was good though, it was at least twice as much as 渝川菜館, which was better. However judging in overall, Sijie Sichuan Dishes wasn't as tasty nor spicy as I expected, and I believe I wouldn't be visiting again.
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