Sichuan Chengdu Food @ Taoweifang 淘味坊成都风味

Chengdu (成都), the provincial capital of Sichuan (四川) province, is famous for her street food stalls offering a variety of spicy and savoury snacks and quick meals. Chengdu has exported their street fare all to the rest of China. Of course, Sichuan food has been very popular in major cities in China but it has mostly been restricted to hot pot restaurants and spicy crab restaurants.

Chili oil bamboo shoots (红油小笋) is a popular appetizer that is a spicy and crispy. Sichuan is also home to pandas and I wonder how many pandas were deprived of their meals to serve up this dish. In any case, I am glad this made it from the pandas' grasp as it was excellent.



Crunchy black fungus (爽口木耳) was the other starter and like the bamboo shoots before it, the fungus was excellent as well. The fungus is scalded and then doused with vinegar and chili.



Chili beef noodles (素椒牛肉面) are the Taoweifang's house special. This is basically a dry noodles with sauce and a generous topping of dried chili, minced pork and peanuts. While the ingredients are not exactly generous, the taste is excellent. It is like a great tasting instant noodles, in a nice kind of way. I love this and will definitely go back for more. But I would advise going for some other dishes to go with your noodles.



Pork noodles in chili oil (大肉面) is a more soupy variant with a more generous topping of pork belly meat and the noodles are soaked in a soup that is probably 50% chili oil. I found this a bit too oily and ordinary. The taste is not as multi-layered and interesting as the chili beef noodles too.



Flour balls in glutinous rice wine (粉子飂糟) is a traditional dessert in Sichuan and Hubei. Many families actually make their own glutinous rice wine as well. The wine made the soup mild and slightly sweet and this made the flour balls a bit easier and smoother to eat. Compared with the dish served in other restaurants that I have tried, this is one of the better ones. It is the perfect end to a hot, spicy and oily meal.



The address:
Taoweifang Sichuan Restaurant Jiaxinmao Shopping Mall (next to Sam's Club), Nonglin Road, Futian District, Shenzhen 淘味坊 深圳福田农林路嘉信茂购物中心负一楼山姆会员店旁
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Hexu Sichuan Noodle Bar 和旭面吧
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Fried Spicy Crab @ Thirty Three Rooms 三十三间堂

One of the most popular Sichuan cuisine dishes around is fried spicy crab (香辣蟹). Thirty Three Rooms Restaurant (三十三间堂) is one of the more popular restaurants in Shenzhen China that specializes in fried spicy crab and the restaurant does it with their own particular style and taste.

When I settled down on the table to order your food, the first thing I ordered was the crab. There are usually two kinds of crab. First, the normal crab which is usually puny in size, about two to three inches across the shell. Then there is the Bangladesh king crab (孟加拉蟹王) which is the bigger crab, spanning four to five inches across the shell. Pictured below is the basket at the front of the restaurants containing the Bangladesh king crabs from which I selected a larger specimen weighing a kilogram.



The fried spicy crab (香辣蟹) arrived in a black iron pot that is about a foot in diameter. As part of a promotion incentive from the restaurant, an additional pound of shrimp was also added to the dish free of charge. The crab is cooked in a mix of chili, peppercorn, plenty of onions, peanuts, ginger and other Sichuan spices. The result is a potent mixture of spicy and fragrant food, along with the occasional numbness if you accidentally chewed a peppercorn by mistake. You have to be very careful in eating the food as first time attempts at chewing peppercorn usually ends up with swollen lips and tongue. If you ever try this dish, do make sure you pick out the bits of onion as the natural sweetness of the onion, fused with the spicy oil, makes an excellent topping to go with your white rice.



In addition to the spicy fried crab, we ordered the pork with taro (香芋扣肉). The pork is sinfully fat but excellent and from the picture, you cannot see the taro which is underneath the layer of pork. The combination is tasty but a bit heavy going.



The fried bamboo shoots (香箭脆笋) was pretty well done. The bamboo shoots were well selected as they were tender and crisp.



Finally, we ordered the goose gizzard fried with yellow peppers (黄椒炒鹅胗). I found this dish to be a tad bit too greasy and the gizzard was leaning towards tough. The thing with gizzard is that you need to put in the appropriate amount of cooking time into the dish or the gizzard will be tough on your jaw muscles. Chewing the goose gizzard was heavier going than a high impact aerobic exercise for the jaws. The chef clearly did not put the cooking time needed to tenderize the gizzard and this ruined an otherwise excellent dish.



In all, other than the house special fried spicy crab, the rest of the food was average or above average and I would highly recommend going there just for the crab and minimizing the rest of the food you order.

The address:
Thirty Three Rooms Crab Restaurant, Second floor, Donghai Plaza, Nongyuan Road, Futian District, Shenzhen 三十三间堂 深圳福田农园路东海购物广场二楼
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Other Sichuan restaurants reviewed:
Xianguomen Sichuan Restaurant 香锅门川菜馆
Another Village in Bashu Sichuan Restaurant 巴蜀又一村川菜馆
Baguobuyi Sichuan Restaurant 巴国布衣川菜馆
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Spicy Mixed Pot @ Xiangguomen 香锅门

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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Sichuan Noodles @ Hexu Noodle Bar 和旭面吧

Hexu Noodle Bar (和旭面吧) is a tiny eatery that serves traditional Sichuan street food. This is the type of food where you expect to see at a roadside stall. Hexu Noodle Bar's specialty is noodles, a Sichuan variant called guamian (挂面) or a literal translation being noodles that are hung and these noodles are typically served in soup. In addition, there is a usual mixture of spicy dishes with enough go to light anyone's tongue on fire.

The first dish is an appetiser Sichuan mouthwatering chicken or koushuiji (口水鸡) . It is basically a boiled chicken that has the traditional spicy sauce consisting of peppers and chilli oil and a mix of other condiments garnished with a leaf of lettuce and a generous sprinkling of fried peanuts. The chicken arrived warm and tender which was a surprise since I usually have this dish served cold. But no matter, this is much better than cold chicken. The sauce was appropriately fragrant although it was quite spicy.



The main courses arrived. I selected the Sichuan chili oil dumplings or hongyouchaoshou (红油抄手). The sauce is the same as what you get in the chicken dish earlier sans garnishing of lettuce and peanuts. The dumplings are hand made and they were well done. This dish has to be eaten quickly while it is hot as if you leave it for too long, the dumpling skin will get soggy and expand. Then it would lose most of its texture and not taste as good. An excellent meal for me.



The second main dish we ordered is the Sichuan mouth tomato and egg noodles in soup (西红柿炒蛋挂面) and one of the signature dishes at the restaurant. Contrary to popular belief, Sichuan food is not all spicy and numbing. This is like the Sichuan equivalent of a bowl of rice noodles and the soup tasted fragrant and pleasant.



The final main meal we ordered was the chili oil noodles (红汤杂酱面), another specialty of the restaurant. It consists of noodles soaked in the spicy chili oil soup base and topped off with minced pork. Quite excellent as a meal since it came from the same spice base as the other dishes that we ordered.



In all, it was an excellent meal that was quick to serve and light on the pocket. Well worth trying if you happen to be in the neighbourhoood.

The address:
Xexun Noodle House, JinHui Furniture Mall, Nanhai Road (opposite Nanyou Building), Nanshan District, Shenzhen 和旭面吧　深圳南山南海大道金辉广场(南油大厦对面)
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Hot Spicy Frog @ Yilangtianji 一郎田鸡

This is one of my favourite foods in Shenzhen. The star attraction in this restaurant is frog and according to the publicity posters on the wall, frog is deemed by Chinese Medicine practitioners to be excellent for strengthening the body, especially if you have been weakened from a long illness. In addition, the restaurant further claims that frog meat is high in protein and low in sugars and fat and compared to all the commonly eaten meat, frog is the most nutritious. The owners of this restaurant have taken spices from Guangdong, Sichuan and Hunan cuisine and amalgamated it into a fiery fusion of tastes and then took herbs from Traditional Chinese Medicine and fortified the health benefits. Who says healthy eating has to taste bad?

This restaurant is part of a chain which spans Guangzhou where the first dining establishment opened and pioneered this new way of cooking frog, and various other cities in Guangdong province. As such, the interior is cookie cutter style. And as you can see from the picture, standard hot pot tables and some attempt at differentiation due mostly to the posters extolling the virtues of frog cooked their way on all the walls.



The frog is cooked hot-pot style and as is fashionable among hot pot establishments, some concessions are made to those who will not brave the spicy food. The clear soup base is actually quite tasty but in my opinion, no where in the class of the spicy half.



The frog is HUGE. And here's a tip. When the dish is first served, although the frog is pre-cooked and ready to eat, curb the urge to dive into it immediately. Let the contents of the hot pot boil for about 10 minutes before starting. At this point, the frog meat will be absolute heaven - tender, succulent, and it simply drops off the bone at the first bite.



Here is another shot of the frog to get an idea of scale.



The rest of the menu is hot pot style. You pick an assortment of meat and vegetables which are served raw and you cook it in the hot pot. Having tried this place several times, I would venture to suggest that you skip all the rest of the menu altogether. Perhaps pick a vegetable or some mushrooms to complement the frog but no more. The rest of the food is average and pale in comparison to the frog.

The address:
Yilangtianji, Nanhai Road (opposite Nanyou Building), Nanshan District, Shenzhen 一郎田鸡　深圳南山南海大道(南油大厦对面)
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Sichuan Food @ Another Village in Bashu 巴蜀又一村

Today, the family went to try a restaurant we passed by several times but never went in. It is along Baishi Street which is next to the Overseas Chinese Town in Shenzhen. While the exterior and interior decor is simple, the place appears to be well patronized and I noted when I entered that almost every table ordered either their fish scalded in boiling chilli oil (水煮鱼) or their sour fish soup (酸湯鱼). Clearly, fish is their specialty.

Upon settling down, we looked at the menu, which was filled with the usual Sichuan dishes and interlaced with some Hunan cuisine as well. Obvious fish had to be on the menu but I wasn't too prepared to have the fish in chilli oil (水煮鱼) or the sour fish soup (酸湯鱼). So instead, I ordered a more typically home cooked fish dish, what they call village fish (乡村鱼). The sauce and the fish are separately prepared. The fish is deep-fried till the skin is crispy while flesh remains tender and juicy. In the mean time, the sauce is prepared using traditional Sichuan condiments, a bit of chilli pepper, fresh chilli, preserved soya beans and other spices and once done, liberally poured over the freshly fried fish. A little celery is added as garnishing. The dish was done to perfection. The fish was fresh and tender and the sauce enhanced the flavour of the fish without overpowering it with spiciness. This was excellent!



The next dish stir-fried asparagus lettuce strips (莴笋丝) is a simple home dish that is a great test of the chef's basic skills. A test that the chef passed with flying colours. The asparagus lettuce was neither over cooked nor was it overly oily. The vegetables retained the fresh crispiness and sweetness and they left a fragrant flavour in the mouth that was a pleasure to savour.



To me, the twice cooked pork belly (回锅肉) is yet another timeless dish that deserves eating over and over again. Different restaurants have different ways of doing it. Some do it more flashily and make it a more formal dish like Baguobuyi (巴国布衣) but others do it the home cooked style. This one belongs to the latter. The dish is presented simply and casually but the meat portions are generously sized yet tender and in line with the rest of the dishes tried so far, finely done. The spiciness is always apparent but never overpowering so you are always able to enjoy the natural flavours of the dish you are having, rather than reaching for a glass of water to cool down your tongue.



The final dish we ordered is the large intestines cooked in a pot (干锅肥肠) which technically is more at home in a Hunan restaurant. I would love to say that this was excellent and rounded up what could be described as a perfect dinner outing. Unfortunately, I cannot. The intestines were well selected but poorly treated before cooking. As a result, the smell of the intestines were still detectable and even though the generous helping of spices could not mask the taste and this was the most spicy dish of the evening on our table. It certainly was not bad enough to make the food inedible but it was a small blemish in a great meal.



The address:
Another Village in Bashu, Shahe Street, Nanshan District, Shenzhen
巴蜀又一村,深圳南山沙河街
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Spicy Sichuan Food @ Baguobuyi 巴国布衣

Baguobuyi Restaurant (巴国布衣餐馆) is a traditional Sichuan restaurant serving authentic Sichuan cuisine. The decor of the place was brilliant. Clearly a lot of thought had gone into the renovation of the restaurant which featured plenty of photo opportunities as well as traditional art and craft. Unfortunately, I was caught without my camera which meant I could only use my Nokia e71's camera to do what is hopefully a half-decent job of showing off the place.



Even the restaurant's bar-cum-cashier's counter was brilliantly decorated with ancient Chinese motifs lining the top and a pair of stone statues below.



This is a poor shot but I love the lanterns lining the ceiling as well as the motifs covering the flourescent lighting on the ceiling.




The attention to detail in decor extended even to the tissue boxes and the toothpick boxes on each dining table.





And on to the food. As there was just three adults eating, we picked a small number of dishes representative of classic Sichuan cuisine.

First off, the pork belly friend with chillis and leek accompanied by pan fried buns (回锅肉). The dish was excellently done with the right amount of spicyness and yet I could appreciate the texture of the meat as it was cooked twice to give it a bit more chewiness, hence the name 回锅肉 which means twice cooked meat. I would consider this dish to be medium spicy and the spicyness can always be countered with a generous bite of the pan fried buns.



The next dish was sour fish soup (酸汤鱼) which is fish slices cooked in a sour soup made using a form of pickled vegetables. My main complaint about this sort of dish is why do they always have to pick the fish that has so many miniscule bones embedded in the flesh. Having this dish then becomes an exercise in patience and total concentration as any careless swallowing of the food could lead to a painful and bloody end with a pointy fish bone embedded inside your throat. Otherwise, the sour soup was average and I have had far better than this. Worth a try and only if you have nothing else you can order in the menu.



The next dish was a new one for me - vegetables in bean paste (青菜豆渣). The dish came with a small saucer with chopped chilli. Call me a Philistine but this dish tastes strange. It was dry and the taste of finely chopped beans that appeared to have gone through a Moulinex food processer interlaced with diced vegetables bits. I couldn't figure out whether to mix it into my rice or to eat it on its own. I did not bother to ask the serving staff as I did not like the taste. Next.



No sichuan meal could be without the dandan noodles (担担面) to finish it off and I certainly love a good bowl of noodles. The noodles are fragrantly seasoned and this would rank as mild-medium spicy. This is a decent sized serving unlike most other sichuan restaurants that serve you the noodles in the smallest bowl that money can buy. Granted, this isn't much better, but in comparison to other sichuan restaurants I have been to, this is fairly generous. I will admit, however, I still had another bowl of rice as well. And I have another admission to make. I was so eager to tuck into it, I had mixed up the noodles before realizing "oops, I have not done the photographs yet". In two words, above average.



In summary, this restaurant offers great decor and an excellent environment but mixed bag of goodies food-wise. Some hits and some misses. Still worth a go.

The address:
Kingkey Banner Plaza on the fourth floor opposite the cinema, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 深圳南山区京基百纳广场四楼（电影院对面）




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