Spicy Sichuan

Some of my first Chinatown experiences were at Spicy Sichuan and even after all these years, it's still heavy in the rotation. My favorites are the crispy chicken and mapo tofu. The tofu is so silky and smooth and cooked in that delicious hot oil. MMMM! Other hits are the spicy eggplant, dry friend green beans, and the spicy tri-vegetable plate. It's really great, really spicy Sichuan food all around!

As part of a birthday celebration for my auntie (not by relation, but by choice), we ventured out to Spicy Sichuan on a dreary Monday night. The restaurant only had a few parties and the cold dish buffet table looked lonely and sad. We were promptly seated and my parents launched into a debate over what dishes they wanted to get. We got the traditional mala pepper covered fish, pigs blood and intestines served boiling hot in cast iron pot with a chafing candle underneat, fantastic fried tofu with vegetables, and some other vegetables that I have no idea what the English name is. Unfortunately, I can't help too much with the names of the dishes, but I can comment on the overall experience and flavor of the dishes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dishes weren't just mindnumbingly hot, but they actually had flavor behind the punch. The non-spicy dishes were as good or better than the spicy dishes. The pigs blood and intestine was cooked perfectly. The dish could have used a couple extra notches of spice, but the intestines were the perfect texture and had fantastic flavor! There was no gamey/dirty bits here. The boiling hot pot provided a great spectacle, but the food being temperature hot helped all the flavor come out of the dish. I've always thought pigs blood tasted like agar or no flavor jello, but it has a very subtle nuance that came out with the excess heat applied. The standard offering of mala covered fish came out and it tasted phenomenal. I accidentally chewed on a few peppers and my entire mouth became numb. Water tasted salty. The fish tasted sweet. It was trippy, but definitely fun! One thing my parents really liked about the restaurant was how hot (temperature) all the food was. How it seemed like everything was really, really fresh and they cooked it at really high temperature to get the right tastes into the food. The waitstaff spoke mostly Mandarin, but there was one woman who spoke Cantonese there. My parents asked for recommendations from the Cantonese server and she seemed to genuinely care about their preferences before recommending anything. She asked what they were going to order and tried to help fill in the gap. Overall, we had a great experience and the food was delicious. If you're only looking to get your tastebuds numbed, this is not the place to go. If you're looking for flavor-packed dishes served piping hot, you've come to the right place.