Just when you thought you've tried about all there is to try on Sichuan food, along comes something new that tickles your taste buds. In this case, it burns your tongue and make you want to come back for more. This what I found at Chongqing (重庆) restaurant Xiangguomen (香锅门) whose signature dish is the mixed spicy pot. The menu is simple. You order a mix of ingredients, very much like you would for hot pot (火锅) and instead of having to cook it yourself in the hot pot, the chef then proceeds to mix everything you ordered and stir fries it with a generous dollop of Sichuan chillis and peppers. You may choose from a variety of meats, seafood, vegetables, bean curd and mushrooms. And the result is amazingly good! The pot I had was a combination of beef, shrimp, lotus rhizome, bean curd, mushrooms and bitter gourd. I requested for it to be low on the spiciness and numbness scale. As a result, I was able to enjoy the flavours of the various ingredients that was ordered instead of getting my taste buds over-powered by the spices. My only complaint was that if you order beef, you need to eat it really fast while it is piping hot, or else, once it cools down a little, the beef starts to get a little old and it is not as tender as it was when it was freshly served. Incidentally, this one pot was enough to feed a table of three adults to the brim.
In addition to the spicy mixed pot, the restaurant also serves a variety of more traditional fare found at Sichuan restaurants. In particular, the fish in boiling oil (招牌翠云沸腾鱼) more commonly known as shuizhuyu (水煮鱼) caught my eye. I believe I shall be paying a return visit soon.
The address:
Xiangguomen, Basement 1, Xinhechuntian Shopping Mall, Nanhai Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 香锅门 深圳南山南海大道信和春天广场负一楼
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