Word: chien
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Although salvador Dali wrote a cook book, the Chinese painter Ta Chien is the only modern artist to make it to the common menu, with the Szechwan specialty Ta Chien chicken. Through menu notes I have learned over the years that Ta Chien is "the Chinese Picasso," living in South America, given to bright colors (hence the Gaugin green peppers of the dish), and a native of the Szechwan province. I do not think that I have ever seen a picture of Ta Chien, or understood the relationship between the painter and the entree...
According to the owners of the restaurant, Ta Chien is alive and living in Taiwan. He likes hot, spicy food. That's the wole story, were not the mystery rekindled by the limited edition Ta Chien print on the wall. It is a landscape, viewed through a peculiar window a foot high and perhaps ten feet long. There are sea, land and river mouths, but the whole is rendered abstract and emotionally disturbed by the odd shape and the subtle colors. It is a plain and impenetrable as Dylan's "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," despite helpful paper signs...
Main dishes are consistently satisfying, with no mistaking among six but must order carefully. It is not apparent to the menu reader that Ta Chien chicken, scholar's dry-fried jumbo shrimp, and rose shrimp are all as similar as adjoining arms of Ta Chien's China...
...usual bland stuff, enabling one to drink many cups. Water could be replenished faster, although this is not a kitchen for especial fire in the spicing. Blessedly, there is no music. Decor is minimal, which only shows off the Ta Chien work to better effect. The best of the fortune cookies tells us, "Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food." Is this subtle criticism of gossip journalism...
...Chien 491-3900 18 Eliot St., Cambridge Harvard Square...