Liking Sichuan Food…

I’ve never been fond of Sichuan food as the signature dishes are often too spicy for me to handle. My previous dining experiences with my Chinese national friends leave me either eating just rice, or hosing my burning mouth with glasses after glasses of ice water! Don’t get me wrong, I do like spicy food, but I think Sichuan food has a different kind of spice than what I’m able to handle. Husband knows how much I abhor Sichuan food and that I would never look forward to dining at Sichuan restaurants. However, my recent dining experience at a Sichuan Restaurant changed my perception on dishes from the Sichuan Province of China that not all Sichuan food are spicy crazy!

Hubby’s friend treated us to some Sichuan food for lunch, a bribe advance thank you gesture for helping him and his girlfriend move. Lunch was at Sichuan Palace located in Chelmsford, MA. We let the friend order the dishes for us since he’s a little more familiar with the food.The food was overall tasty. This is my first time actually enjoying eating Sichuan food, though some of you might say what I had are not signature Sichuan dishes such as Boiled Sliced Fish Fillet in Hot Chili Sauce (“Sui Zhu Yu Pian”.., my best Mandarin translation!). Did not take picture of the food we ate as I did not want to scare hubby’s friend…just yet! Let me share with you what was ordered at the restaurant :

1) Herb Spiced Pork Tongue (Wu Xiang Zhu Se) @ $6.95 : I did not try this… It looked interesting, thinly sliced and if you don’t know any better, it looked just like meat.

2) Beef & Tomato Soup (Fan Qie Niu Rou Tang) @ $8.95 / 2pp : This was quite tasty,not that spicy. The beef was surprisingly delicious and I don’t usually take beef. It looked and tasted like pork to me…. The soup tasted like it had some Chinese pickled cabbage in it.

3) Fish Fillet in Spicy Bean Sauce (Dou Pan Yu Pian) @ $13.95 : Not too spicy, well at least I can take it. This is pretty yummy.

4) Rice Vermicelli With Spicy Ground Pork (Ma Yi Sang Su) @ $8.95 : Although it said rice vermicelli on the menu, I think they actually serve bean thread vermicelli. I don’t mind ask I love both kinds of vermicelli. This dish was fairly simply yet yummy. Not too spicy for me either.

5) Stewed Duck In Beer (Pi Jiu Ya) @ $15.95 : The duck meat was a little gamey. The sauce wasn’t that bad and it also had some mushroom and tofu. I might not order this again! I prefer my duck, roasted……mmm crispy roasted duck!..Yums!

6) Chef Shao’s Tofu with Shrimp & Vegetables (Sichuan Kou Tai Tou Fu) @ $12.95 : MUST ORDER!!!!! MUST ORDER!!!! Have I stressed it enough?? This was the highlight dish of the day and the best Sichuan dish I had ever tasted!! It was so yummiliious. The tofu was mixed with shrimp and vege, then fried…it was so soft and fragrant. The special tofu was stir fried with some other vegetables. 2 thumbs up for this dish!!! I’ll definitely be back for more!

After a satisfying meal at Sichuan Palace (and before we started helping our friend move), we stopped by a pet store a few shops down from the restaurant to hunt for premium dog food for Brady. Isn’t he a lucky pooch? =P. We’re trying to feed him better quality food than what is offered at our local Petco/Petsmart. My friend Caroline who has done extensive research on premium dog food recommended for me to feed Brady Evo brand dry dog food. Evo dog food has one of the highest protein content among all other dog food. We got a small bag @ $15/6.6 lb for Brady to try and this should be able to last him about 15 days or so.  If he likes it and is able to handle the high protein diet, his mom and pop will continue feeding him Evo brand dog food.