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.
Today's world is hyper connected. I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot. It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is. Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy. It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff? Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality. So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing? Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
Was it the cholesterol or the chilli which gave you the high?
ReplyDeleteIt was the stereo (aside - Greek meaning solid) effect
ReplyDelete