It was Brian last day in Liverpool, and he is generous enough to treat we three gals a luxury chinese Szechuan cuisine at china town. Szechuan cuisine or 四川菜 is a style of Chinese famous dish originating in the Sichuan Province of southern China which are well known for being hot and numbing. there arent many Szechuan restaurant in Liverpool (apparently just one) as Brits not really fond of spicy food. It was quite ironic to see the waitress try to recommend something which is not spicy on the food list to an english couple. Well, If you cant eat spicy food, the rule of thumb is dont choose Szechuan restaurant, dork!
thats me, dress up in a very girlie way (which is a rare thing ;p), Brian and his ex housemate, Alice, a sweet szechuan gal, who was being helpful introducing all the Sze chuan dishes on the table to us.
She had ordered lots of meat but only one vege. The dishes are consist of 口水鸡, chicken fillet which dip in spciy red oil, 夫妻肺片, which is lung and beef pieces dip in the numbing hot oil, 干扁豆角, beans fried with salted fish like stuff, 麻辣锅, the spicy steam boat alike soup which contain lots of ingrediants such as prawn, chicken piece, bean sprout, pak choy etc., 粉蒸肉, rice flour coated pork thin chops and 青椒肉丝, finger chillies fried together with pork.
青椒肉丝
夫妻肺片 麻辣锅
粉蒸肉 干扁豆角
The food although were all spicy, but were surprisingly good. Its very appertizing and rich in taste. The 夫妻肺片, literally ‘Married Couple’s Slices of Lung‘ was one of the rare dish which caught my interest, Alice was kindful to tell us the story behind the dish. There was a married couple in Chengdu famous for making beef lung slices. The husband and wife were dainty about the lung slices they made, and often experimented with new ingredients. As a result, their lung slices had a distinct taste from the other lung slice vendors, and their business boomed. Well, the end. simple story, but a warm one indeed.
The Szechuan dish is not recommended for those who had low tolerance for spicy stuff. My housemate has to gulped down copious amounts of water all evening in an attempt to soothe her burning tastebuds. However, i was told later by my friend that its not wise to drink water while eating Szechuan food, ever hear the expression “Oil and water don’t mix”? It’s true, since most spices are oily, the water just rolls over the spice. So eat rice instead.
The evening ends with a nice desert- xi mi lu, a cold coconut milk with some fruits and jelly balls inside. The luxury meal costed around 50 pound, curtesy of Brian, thanks pal!
