Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Private Kitchens: Sijie Sichuan

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A few weeks ago I went to a private kitchen of a different sort.

Deep within the bowels of Wan Chai lies a nondescript apartment building, and on it's second floor you'll find Sijie Sichuan. It's a converted apartment that will feed 6 or so tables of people. Bring someone that can speak AND read cantonese. Many American born, Canadian born, Aussie, or Brit-Chinese might be able to speak cantonese but few of them can read it.

Since, as usual, I had no idea what was going on, I let the experts select the menu.

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Sorry, I can't explain to you what any of this is. But it was good.

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Everyone on that side of the table I had just met.

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Even though this is a szechuan restaurant, most of the food was quite mild. I think they were holding off til the very end.

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Don't worry-lah. This is not worms or anything creepy. It's just pork.

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And here's where it starts to get HOT

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And here it is folks. The final, face burning dish. The special kind of peppers are called mala peppers, and are so f'ing hot that your mouth and lips tingle.

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Oh yeah, it was goooooood.

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And I was not kidding about the peppers burning your face off.

The best part about the restaurant was the owner. A hilarious lady who would challenge all the guys to chug a glass of beer faster than her. And 95% of the time she would win. I hear that during the week she busts out some moonshine.

I admire Sijie. She lives a good life. Gets to cook good food for good peeps, and drink them all under the table 7 nights a week.

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