Jason King
AmyHuangRed Chilli Szechuan (or Sichuan) Restaurant
June 14th 2006 08:07
Shop 3/ 51 Dixon St Sydney 2000 - 9211 8122
I really like the whole idea of Szechuan food, for a couple of reasons.
One, the intense, overpowering chilli factor. Not all Szechuan food is screamingly hot, but most of it looks that way, fully decorated with chillies of every kind.
And as we all know, the hotter the better.
Next, the community feeling that comes with eating together. Szechuan food is based on big stews or hot pots, and you all share a couple of dishes. Then there's the shared suffering in terms of the chilli. If you're going to burn, it's better and much more fun to burn together.
Third, the use of oil. There is quite a lot. But that's ok. Most of the time, oily food is just unhealthy, excessive and greasy, but here it seems devilishly right. There's a certain comfort in hoeing into oily, chilli chicken; you feel satisfied, and we all deserve that once in a while, no matter what the calories.
And finally, the most famous of Szechuan ingredients, the Szechuan peppercorns. To paraphrase Anthony Bourdain, while the chilli is pure burn, the peppercorns are pure freeze. What this means is that they numb the mouth, tastebuds, and even sometimes the whole face. It's an amazing tingling sensation, like the instant before the fire hits you from a huge chilli, in that anticipation. And yet it's the complete opposite to that burn; it freezes you up, lets you eat more chilli then normal, and while you may not notice it as you eat, when you pause for a moment you realise "gosh so this is what it's like to eat dry ice and/or pure carbon dioxide". Good times.
Having laid this out for you, let me now introduce you to Red Chilli, the most fantastic Italian restaurant.
Just kidding.
Red Chilli is a Szechuan restaurant in Chinatown, and is a great example of good Szechuan food. The decor is not much to look at and seems a bit ad hoc, and you have to pass the spruikers outside the other Chinese restaurants (Seriously, if a restaurant needs a spruiker how good can it be? Who wants to eat at the $2 shop restaurant?) but Red Chilli is all about the food. Which is fine by me.
The mapo doufu is, as hoped, a wonderful mix of creamy fresh tofu in the traditional oily chilli sauce with plenty of Szechuan pepper. It's not as hot as expected, and more emphasis is put on the softness of the tofu. A definite must have, Szechuan classic.
The braised duck with konjak is also not very hot, but completely different flavours. The konjak looks like stewed pear, but in fact it's similar to sweet potato, and the duck pieces are bones, skin and all, and meltingly tender. That said, I prefer the spicy, fiery dishes; yet while I find this less interesting, others prefer it - it's up to you.
One we all agree on is the chicken in chilli sauce. This is chicken braised in oil and chilli, once again, but the best example of Szechuan pepper and heat. The top comes completely covered in dried chilli, which looks hugely intimidating, but it doesn't taste nearly as hot as it looks. It's flavourful, interesting and different, and seriously addictive. And after a while you realise your mouth is tingling and slightly numb. Love it.
The pork tenderloin with rice fried cakes is completely different to the other dishes. What looks like a pork stir fry is deceptively hot, to the point where it's the hottest of all the dishes we had. Its poured on to fried rice cakes at the table, and the combination of spicy, saucy pork and vegetables on a crunchy base is an interesting textual change; but apart from that it too seems less interesting then the others.
Finally the green onion pancake, at $3.20, seems like a definite choice. It's a thin, fried disk of pastry layers with green onion through it. Oily, greasy, and thankfully not chilli, it's a fantastic accompaniment for those who want to stuff themselves silly. Because there's already way too much food for four average eaters. The servings are massive. Two dishes (hopefully the mapo doufu and chilli chicken, if I had to choose) would have been plenty, which makes Red Chilli great value. Each main is around $20, and the mapo doufu, an entree, at $10. So while you can spend as much as you want trying different things, you can also eat for $10 or less a head. Which for food like this - hot, fiery, tasty, comforting and thankfully different - is a definite bargain.
I really like the whole idea of Szechuan food, for a couple of reasons.
One, the intense, overpowering chilli factor. Not all Szechuan food is screamingly hot, but most of it looks that way, fully decorated with chillies of every kind.
And as we all know, the hotter the better.
Next, the community feeling that comes with eating together. Szechuan food is based on big stews or hot pots, and you all share a couple of dishes. Then there's the shared suffering in terms of the chilli. If you're going to burn, it's better and much more fun to burn together.
Third, the use of oil. There is quite a lot. But that's ok. Most of the time, oily food is just unhealthy, excessive and greasy, but here it seems devilishly right. There's a certain comfort in hoeing into oily, chilli chicken; you feel satisfied, and we all deserve that once in a while, no matter what the calories.
And finally, the most famous of Szechuan ingredients, the Szechuan peppercorns. To paraphrase Anthony Bourdain, while the chilli is pure burn, the peppercorns are pure freeze. What this means is that they numb the mouth, tastebuds, and even sometimes the whole face. It's an amazing tingling sensation, like the instant before the fire hits you from a huge chilli, in that anticipation. And yet it's the complete opposite to that burn; it freezes you up, lets you eat more chilli then normal, and while you may not notice it as you eat, when you pause for a moment you realise "gosh so this is what it's like to eat dry ice and/or pure carbon dioxide". Good times.
Having laid this out for you, let me now introduce you to Red Chilli, the most fantastic Italian restaurant.
Just kidding.
Red Chilli is a Szechuan restaurant in Chinatown, and is a great example of good Szechuan food. The decor is not much to look at and seems a bit ad hoc, and you have to pass the spruikers outside the other Chinese restaurants (Seriously, if a restaurant needs a spruiker how good can it be? Who wants to eat at the $2 shop restaurant?) but Red Chilli is all about the food. Which is fine by me.
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Comment by Cibbuano
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It's oily, but you don't eat too much of the oil... it just looks really oily...
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Do you have the name and location of the hotpot restaurant you went to?
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Shancheng HotPot King -
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