Sichuan Cuisine

油麦菜，花生酱。

The evening's menu was 川菜 at Pin Chuan Sichuan Restaurant. We only have a vague impression of Sichuan food, and not all good. It manifested in the peanut sauce for the raw strands of Chinese lettuce (油麦菜). There was something chilli-numbing in there. It's called 麻酱汁. Eiooow. It wasn't our kind of tasty chilli, but a sourish bitter aftertaste lingered. I hate that.

We ordered a ton of dishes. Not quite normal for us. The bff and her partner aren't the sort to require ten dishes on the table to show their guests that they're good hosts. We operate on a need-to-eat basis. In spite of a heavy lunch, all the brisk walking had burnt off enough calories to eat again at dinner. We eat late, usually at 8.30pm or so, after the usual rush of the regular 7pm diners.

People say that food in Beijing and Shanghai are generally cooked with too much oil. I agree. Nothing on this table didn't gleam. But we made do and found dishes with less oil. After all, we aren't going to eat like this on a daily basis. Apparently the kung pao chicken was good. I didn't mind the bamboo clams. There was a tasty dish of baby cabbage and vermicelli. Not that oily. The dish of soft tofu and crunchy peanuts was good! Almost bland. Yummy. It was meant to have that numbing peanut sauce drizzled over it. We were glad that it came in a separate gravy bowl so that we could opt not to have it.

麻辣水煮鱼。

That 麻辣水煮鱼. (I've no idea how to translate this. The menu stated "water boiled fish". It was a freshwater perch soaked.in.oil. For the lack of description, it was thoroughly drowned in oil and chilli/pepper bits. It was unbelievable. In my heart, I thought, "What a waste of a good fish!" You know what? I dipped pieces of the fish in the cup of tea before eating it. Hurhurhur.

None of us dared to try the peppers. They looked menacing. We've never taken up any challenge to chew on chillies or peppers. We aren't foolish (or drunk) enough to try to kill the tastebuds. Sichuan cuisine is full of these numbing peppers and chilli oil. Not something I can relate to in terms of edible food. But if you pick the right mix of dishes, some would be non-spicy, and Sichuan cuisine can be a robust meal in the middle of different flavors in your food intake for the week.

Had space for beer, but not dessert. Ought to try something though. The bff had recently fallen in love with this 酿酒丸子 or also known as 米酒丸子. It's a dish of glutinous rice balls with peanut filling steeped in rice grains with rice wine. We ordered 2 bowls to share and hoped they would come in a smaller portion than what the photos indicated. They did! In two cute giant Chinese wine cups. Didn't like the sourish rice wine broth. But the balls were okay. They arrived small and tiny, totally bite-sized. So cute that I decided to chew on two.

酿酒丸子。