Sichuan Food in Cambridge

After the Sichuan intro in last post, now let's taste some real authentic Sichuan cuisine!!

Thailand Café, located at 302 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, is actually a Sichuan cuisine restaurant, despite its name—I am still confused why it is called that way. It is not a spacious and fancy decorated restaurant, but it is close to Harvard and MIT, and it has some good dishes (not every dish is great though). Here are the dishes we ordered:

Roast beef, tongue & tripe with chili-peanut vinaigrette: it is a hot appetizer. It is one of the best house special dishes. Tender beef with flavorful chili-peanut vinaigrette. Yummy! Strongly recommend it if you are into spicy food.

Roast beef, tongue & tripe with chili-peanut vinaigrette

Poached chicken with chili sauce: it is a hot appetizer. Tender chicken with authentic Sichuan chili sauce, and a mixed flavor if you eat it with the peanut on the top. Another dish I'd recommend :)

Poached chicken with chili sauce

Double cooked Chinese style bacon: it is not a spicy dish, so you might want to try it if you are not a big fan of spicy food. But I’ve had better in other restaurants which I’ll write about later.

Double cooked Chinese style bacon

Chong Tsing dry hot chicken: not recommend—it is supposed to be a hot dish, but to me, it is neither dry nor hot enough.

Chong Tsing dry hot chicken

Braised whole fish with Sichuan chili sauce: not recommend—it is supposed to be a spicy dish, but still, it is not spicy enough, and it even tasted a little bit sweet…

Braised whole fish with Sichuan chili sauce

Szechuan Beef

Sichuan Food Intro

Sichuan (also known as Szechuan in the states) food is an important regional cuisine in China, one of the four major Chinese cuisines as well as Canton food, Shanghai food and Shandong food. It is originally from the region of Sichuan, a province in southwestern China.

Video about Sichuan, which is also the hometown of the lovely Pandas :)

Sichuan food is famous for its hot and spicy dishes, but not all Szechuan cuisine is spicy. Some dishes even have five taste flavors (sweet, sour, spicy, salty and bitter).

Common ingredients include chili peppers, peppercorns, Sichuan peppers (also known as flower pepper), sugar, vinegar, dried orange peel, garlic, ginger, etc. Common cooking methods are smoking and simmering, which allow all the ingredients enough time to infuse food with rich tastes and flavors.

You can find Sichuan dishes in almost every Chinese restaurant, and you can ask them to alter the spicy flavor according to your own taste.

Sichuan Brunch in Belmont

HI foodies, how do you like the previous post on Shanghai brunch? I hope you love brunch as I do, because... we are gonna do Sichuan (which is spelt as Szechuan in many Chinese restaurants) brunch today!!

Shangri-La, located at 149 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA, 02478, is the place my friends and I would go to when we crave for a traditional Sichuan brunch. Be aware that they are usually super busy on weekends. Here are the dishes we ordered:

Roast beef in soy sauce (cold dish): perfectly cooked beef, chewy but not too chewy, not like the well-done steak nor the soft stewed beef.

Roast Beef in Soy Sauce

Beef noodle soup: tender beef and soft and thick noodles with flavorful soup.

Beef Noodle Soup

Five flavor beef with pancake: I don’t know for sure if it has exact five flavor, but definitely tasty beef and crispy pancake.

Five Flavor Beef with Pancake

Steamed pork chop with rice flour: a traditional Sichuan dish that not every Chinese restaurant has to offer. A mixed flavor with soft pork chop and sticky rice—strongly recommend it if you have never tried.

Steamed Pork Chop with Rice Flour