Word: szechwan
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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...
...such ambiguity on the menu, which starts with superior spring rolls and delivers reliably satisfying Szechwan main dishes. This is a far better restaurant than its predecessor, House of China, which wasn't bad. Only the sameness about the sauces keeps it from greatness, the greatness we so yearn for in the leaderless Mandarin-Szcechwan cuisine of today...
...sauce ($8.95). The latter is a very generous portion (a dozen large-to-middling size shrimps) in a sauce made complex by the addition of fermented black beans. The beans are the basis of a rich sauce of their own in Cantonese cookery. Here their aromas blend with the Szechwan bouquet in a way that I find very novel. Perhaps this is the "continental cuisine" of Taipei, where Chef Hou won his epaulettes at a major hotel...
...such ambiguity on the menu, which starts with superior spring rolls and delivers reliably satisfying Szechwan main dishes. This is a far better restaurant than its predecessor, House of China, which wasn't bad. Only the sameness about the sauces keeps it from greatness, the greatness we so yearn for in the leaderless Mandarin-Szcechwan cuisine of today...
...sauce ($8.95). The latter is a very generous portion (a dozen large-to-middling size shrimps) in a sauce made complex by the addition of fermented black beans. The beans are the basis of a rich sauce of their own in Cantonese cookery. Here their aromas blend with the Szechwan bouquet in a way that I find very novel. Perhaps this is the "continental cuisine" of Taipei, where Chef Hou won his epaulettes at a major hotel...