I know not about this Californian band but I refer to the toungue tingling food we ate this afternoon. Its a place that serves Sichuan Food and it was clearly something to be experienced.
Under the pseudonym of Schezuan or Schezwan we have tried various incarnations in the states before but not having been to the province I am not sure what to believe when it comes to matters of taste.
Kung Pao chicken was our most famous encounter with this central Chinese province over the last couple of decades. Cooked from coast to coast it has stood its test of time and I almost equate that to comfort food.. land at an unusual airport late one night and go out to seek some nourishment chances are you will find a burger joint and someone selling Kung Pao.
This place we ate today was amazingly different. So the common thread between Kung Pao and the dishes we enjoyed was the preponderence of Red Chillis and Chilli or Sesame oil.. we had a fish soup that was essentially covered with a bed of these red beauties that the server expertly filters out to reveal what is underneath. The fish was tender and the glass noodles had a slurpy quality to them.. enjoyed the heat that resonates on the palate like an after taste.
That was followed by two other dishes..one was a fried and stuffed eggplant cake..it had minced cabbage (my guess) and this wonderful gravy on top of it that just melted in the mouth. It tasted like baingan pakodas to be honest although no such dish exists back in India.
The other dish consisted of grilled tofu over spicy oil and served with thick noodles that resembled Japanese Udon. This was my least fave as it tended to stick to the palate and did not have texture complexity nor the flavor complexity the other two did. Hey two out of three was a good deal and left feeling full and replete with a good week's worth of cholestrol.
Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
Was it the cholesterol or the chilli which gave you the high?
ReplyDeleteIt was the stereo (aside - Greek meaning solid) effect
ReplyDelete