Hong Kong - Sijie Sichuan Dishes 四姐川菜

It's labeled as a private kitchen in some places, but it's not that kind of place.  Housed in a building which looks like every other building in Wanchai (or known in some quarters as the World of Suzie Wong), the only hint of a restaurant behind the door is the bunch of of red hot chili peppers hanging on the front door.  Inside, it is as spartan as spartan can be with tables of varying sizes lined along what looks like 2 units leased by the restaurant.  But the smells are mistakably Sichuanese.  You can almost feel yourself immersed in an oil of Sichuan peppers, deeper and deeper as the night progresses, especially as Sijie whips up a storm in the kitchen.  Tip: do not wear clothes which have to be dry-cleaned or carry any leather bags to dinner.. 

Service is extremely friendly and helpful.  I had to call ahead for directions and parking facilities and the dude who answered very patiently guided me through the streets of Wanchai, which for those living here will know, is not car-friendly.   

The focus is on the food here since there is little else except for Sijie's chugging antics at the end of a long night.  Refined cuisine is not on offer either.  What you get is a piece of Sichuanese authenticity tucked in central Hong Kong and all the fiery robustness of what makes a hearty Sichuanese meal.

The huge bonus of eating in a big group, and a group of like-minded foodies is that you get to order almost everything on the menu.  Pricing works on a per person basis and so depending on how many people you have, you are allowed to order the number of dishes for that price.  No more, no less.  

Cold noodles tossed in Chili Oil

This was the quintessential Sijie appetiser which kicked us off and was easily the unanimous favourite of the evening.  Chilled al dente pulled noodles tossed in an addictive spicy oil with all the classic ingredients of a Sichuan spicy oil, complete with a kick from the chilies and a numbing madness, it was definitely the way to get us all started on an excited note.

And with most Sichuan appetisers, the rest become variations and subsets of the same spices but provided with different platforms/textures to bring out different notes of spice.

Salivating Chicken

This is meant to make you salivate as the name suggests but sometimes, there may be so much numbness created that you may temporarily lose control over tongue and degenerate into a drool but fortunately, none of that occurred here but just the pleasurable sucking and slurping you are supposed to do when savouring wine..  no need to spit though.

Slices of Husband and Wife's lungs

Textures here are a little crunch, a little beefy meatiness...

Thinly sliced pork in a garlic based chili oil

Then a more pungent delivery through the fragrant garlic-laced oil, complementing the thinly sliced pork, allowing the flavours of the spices to come through without too much of a porky flavour.

Cucumbers tossed in a chili oil

Refreshing cool crunch from the cucumbers as temporary halfway house..

Steamed eggplant in mild spicy sauce

Sweetened with juicy eggplants in a comparatively mild sauce with a sweet finish..

Crunch pig ears in numbing oil

Then, a finale of crunch again this time from pig's ears, which are slightly gelatinous around a crunchy cartilage, given taste by the sauce only.  One of my all-time faves.

Mandarin fish in boiling oil

The main courses started with the classic Sichuan dish of what it literally "boiling water cooked" Mandarin Fish.  As you probably figured out, it's not really water but oil.  And lots of it.  There as a medium for cooking and not to be drunk (no it's not gravy).  This allows for the fish to be just cooked without being overly so.  The fish is sweet and succulent and good with a bowl of steamed rice.

Beef slices in boiling oil

Beef is the other popular choice for this dish and beef soaks up the spices and is therefore extremely flavourful.  Sijie's renditions were competent but can't beat some of those I've had in China where the spices are more apparent than the oil.

Salt and pepper Shrimps Sichuan Style

Very well fried so you can crunch on the shells too.  Extremely tasty and very good with the ice cold beer on offer..

Sauteed crab in Salted egg yolk

This was my favourite main dish of the evening.  Every bit of the crab was generously coated with the fragrant salted egg yolk mixture and complemented the fresh crab very well.  The priceless bits were the salted egg yolk over the crab roe.  Cholesterol from hell but all things bad are good...

Deep fried chicken with dried chillies 

This was well done too although the chicken bones were a little too bashed up and made eating a tad difficult since you need to be careful with splinters.  Otherwise, step aside KFC Hot & Spicy...

Twice fried Long beans with minced pork

Tasty but a tad oily...  although this dish rarely isn't.  It is after all deep fried then stir fried to give it that creased but glistening look and extra crunchy texture.

Sauteed eggplant in sweet chili sauce

Good with a bowl of rice and a nice reprieve from all the heat.

Deep fried battered pork

This was tasty but unfortunately the meat was too tough and it just was a let down given the other goodies.

Mapo Tofu

I had the pleasure of taking this one home after "winning" the table spin prize.  Too much ginger and garlic bits and detracted from what I usually prefer is the numbing chili goodness of the sauce.

Rice Crispies with a seafood sauce

Rice crispies are always fun to eat but this one was only an "ok" since the sauce wasn't very exciting.  Can be missed.

Sweet Cooling Tea

Being what they call a "hot-based person" I downed 2 cans of this stuff through the night.  Still didn't prevent a series of pimples from surfacing... oh well.  It was good for the sugar anyway.  Next time, I follow in Sijie's footsteps.  She beat every hot blooded male in the room in a beer chugging competition at the end of her illustrious night in the hot kitchen.  And you know what?  She has flawless, poreless complexion despite her exposure to all that heat.  The magic of beer...

All in all, an extremely fun night with foodie friends, eating and laughing the night away.  Thanks to @g4gary for organising!

Shop 289, 2/F, Ko Wah Building
285-291 Lockhart Road
Wanchai灣仔駱克道285-291號高華大廈2樓289號舖
Tel: +852-2802 2250

Hong Kong - Yu 渝酸辣粉

As the Chinese economy grows from strength to strength, the world is ever more intrigued by what the country has to offer, especially in cuisine.  The vastness of the country and the different climates within makes for a dizzying array of cuisines to suit local palates.  And Sichuanese, one of the renowned cuisines, is certainly gaining in popularity, especially as people from around the globe takes to spicy food a lot more than they used to.  A lot of what the world saw (outside of Sichuan that is) had been largely bastardized, tamed versions, since the mainstay of the cuisine, the Sichuan pepper, was not readily available.  Also the use of sugar to neutralize the heat has been frowned upon by Sichuanese.  Today, with world distances shrinking by virtue of increasingly convenient transportation, and the growing popularity of immigration, the world is seeing Sichuanese cuisine, that is closer to the real thing.  The little eatery in Causeway Bay is testament to this.

On a wet and muggy night, full from the day's intake of junk food, we were looking for something light to fill up before heading to bed.  The lights from this eatery on a backstreet of Causeway Bay, where many bars and restaurants have popped up, looked inviting enough.  So before the decided to call it a night, we quickly ordered 2 summer coolers - Green Bean laced soya milk, and a Sichuanese jelly drink.  Both refreshing and none too cloying.

Our orders were heavier on the appetizers, the first being a century egg special with Sichuanese chillies.  When it showed up, I asked if the lighter colored eggs were salted eggs, but was told they are actually Sichuanese century eggs.  Similarly tasting, they were perhaps less mercuric and had a firmer yolk, while the Canto versions we are used too were creamier although more pungent.  Both went well with the sesame-laced chili slivers.

Our other appetizer was a marinated wood ear salad dressed with garlic and vinegar, and well chilled to make for yet another refreshing dish.  Of course, the toasted sesame and Chinese parsley added the complimentary fragrance to what would seem a bland dish.

The bean jelly sheets with a typical Sichuanese numbing spice with crunchy beans and peanuts was just spicy.  Nothing else to speak of - the bean sheets were too soft to not have any texture to them and the spice was unfortunately one -dimensional.  No hint of salt, vinegar or other taste-grabbing feature.  A little disappointing unless you just want to get a lot of heat into the system.

My favorite from supper was actually the Sichuanese dumplings.  Tasty minced pork fillings with traces of shrimp in a very rich and tasty chicken superior stock.  If not for fear of MSG (which my MSG-sensitive brain indicated there was little of it used here), I would have finished the whole bowl.  Perhaps I needed it badly to neutralize the heat, but it was in any case a satisfying way to end the meal.

4 Yiu Wa Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong 
Tel: +852-2838 8198

Hong Kong - Da Ping Huo

Possibly one of the earliest private dining places in Hong Kong, around since at least the earlier part of this decade, and still at the same "hidden" locale, simply for the deceptive address.  The entrance is actually a "hole in the wall" on Graham Street.

The concept is actually better than the food.  Run by a couple from Sichuan, the husband is the "host" and artist behind the art on the stark white walls.  The wife is the chef and does her rounds at the tables, with a diminutive hello, then ends off with a powerful Chinese ditty that shows off her vocals and range.

Service is very spotty, with the help looking stressed and watching where they need not be watching.  If you're not too good with spicy, my advice is to try and get them to part with an entire pitcher of lemon-infused water at your table so you don't have to cry for help ever so often.

Appetisers were slightly underwhelming until the appearance of the dry-roasted beans in a quintessential Sichuanese pepper based sauce.  The heat is not the apparent type but increases as you dig in.  The numbness is addictive, and as you down each spoon, your lips pucker up naturally.  Who needs collagen lip balms or for that matter, red lipstick.

The other appetiser which acted as a good counter to this was the cucumber strips in a chilled mollasses and vinegar combo sauce.

The first mains was a steamed chicken in a sauce made with few chillies but lifted by a variety of spices native to Sichuan and with added fragrance from the roasted peanuts.

The use of clear soups to cleanse the palate was a good idea, but the only snag is that they were pretty tasteless by Cantonese standards.  Maybe that's the intent but I thought they bordered on bland.

So after our Chinese cabbage soup topped with minced chicken, we were very pleasantly surprised and excited by the braised beef brisket with whole Sichuan peppers.  This was rightly served with a bowl of steamed rice, and the 2 went together like a house on fire (pun intended).  The brisket was very well braised, and required little to no chewing, and did well enough to soak up the flavors from the chillies and other spices.  Possibly my favorite from the entire evening.

Consistent with the host's theme of serving one spicy dish with one non-spicy, the next dish of minced pork with sweet potato topped with glutinous rice was homy but perhaps a little rustic to deliver much flavor, especially with the presence of such other spicy friends at the meal.

My dining friends definitely enjoyed the next dish of shrimps with a spicy sauce that much more, and this was also perfect with rice.  Even on its own, the chopped up vegetables of celery, chillies, spring onions, etc. was a crunchily fresh yet spicy and importantly tasty accompaniment on rice.

The other winner of the night was the Ma Po Tofu.  Possibly the most famous dish and most associated with Sichuan, this was done with minced beef, instead of the bastardized more usual minced pork.  The tofu was silken smooth, like good Sichuanese tofu.  Maybe a little known fact for the uninitiated, Sichuan is actually famous for its tofu, and especially the silken texture they are able to achieve, and best eaten with a spicy sauce, aka Ma Po tofu.  The story has it that Mrs. Ma was a poor woman from the province tasked with making a dish that would impress a rich guest and the result has gone on to become the province's most famous dish.

After being served with yet another bland lettuce soup this time, the last dish of the evening of minced chicken dumplings in a spicy sauce arrived.  The use of minced chicken was disappointingly tasteless and perhaps pork would have been a better choice.  So while the sauce was pretty decent, I was too full to want to make the most of the dumplings and left mine after a singular bite.

Dessert was a welcome chilled Sichuan tofu with water chestnuts and attap seeds.  An interesting variation of almond tofu, and a decent enough finish to the evening.

Overall, nice for a visit after a long while, but given the limited variety, is not something to go back to too often.


LG/F, 49 Hollywood Road
SOHO
Central
Tel: +852-2559 1317