In the Twin Cities, Chinese food is often identified with egg rolls, cream cheese wantons, lo mein, fly lice (fried rice), mushu this or that, sweet and sour chicken... YUCK! That's just plain wrong and does no justice to what Chinese cuisine have to offer. Most, if not all of the Chinese food in the Twin Cities area is predominantly Cantonese (some province of China) style, which is correctly exemplified by wanton noodle soup, beef chow fun, Char Siew (BBQ pork) and dim sum.
However, recently the Szechuan style of Chinese cuisine have been wildly popular among the dissidents of the Twin Cities. As a result, Szechuan restaurants have been spreading like wildfire in the suburbs and St Paul. Akin to Japanese, Thai and Mexican cuisine, Szechuan is here to stay.
Szechuan cuisine is unique and different from the cantonese style cooking that the Twin Cities is accustomed to. Its dishes are typically flavored by dried hot peppers, infused hot pepper oils, garlic, fermented beans and pickling spices. Therefore giving most of their dishes vibrant red color accompanied with a SPICY kick. In some dishes, a unique and novel (to the Twin Cities) spice called the Szechuan Peppercorn is used. What is brings to the dish is a mild lemony-zest and also a numbing-tingling sensation to your tongue! This odd feeling/taste is described as ma`la in Chinese, which literally translates to numb and spicy. Additionally, Szechuan cooking also involves a bevy of cooking methods such as steaming, scalding, deep-frying, double cooking which adds a tremendous variety of taste to the dishes.
For this piece, I would like to give you a brief glimpse of Minneapolis' very first Szechuan Restaurant (not takeout station...) that is about to open in a matter of days. How we came across this restaurant was a classic case of serendipity. It was a freaking cold day before Christmas and we were driving around looking for something to eat. So, we thought that we'd go to Zen, located on Lyndale and Lake St. (3016 Lydale Ave S.), which is a contemporary asian restaurant. We walked in and were greeted by extremely friendly staff and the most friendly co-owner on earth, Andy (a very charming young man). Andy provided us with two menus, the Zen menu and an introductory Szechuan Menu. Immediately we zeroed in on the Szechuan menu and flung the latter menu away. It turns out, that Zen WILL BE reopening as La` Mei Zi, a HARDCORE Szechuan restaurant (located next to Smitten Kitten) with fabulous food. We are truly excited about La` Mei Zi and cannot wait till they fully open. Anyway, here are a few dishes that we have tried.
Stir-fried Spicy Smoked Tofu. This is my first time having this fabulous vegetarian dish. The main ingredient here is the smoked tofu. The texture of the tofu is very firm and it is sliced into long strips and quick stir-fried with strips chinese celery, bell peppers, carrots and spiced up with ginger, garlic, dried hot peppers and some soy sauce. It is not overly spicy and is bursting with the fresh flavors of the crunchy veges and spices.
Our next dish was the Beef Slices scalded in spicy hot broth. One look at this thing and you will feel your sweat pores opening up in sync with your salivary glands working OT. This is a signature dish of Szechuan cuisine, and can be served with your protein of choice. This dish is uniquely prepared; first a bed of vegetables (napa cabbage and chinese celery) together with the meat is placed in a deep bowl. The chef then separately prepares an ultra hot chilli broth that is made of yummy spices and pours it into the bowl where everything gets cooked. It's somewhat like steeping a big pot of tea. Mmmm sooo goooood! I must warn you... it is spicy. For the weaklings, a solution to your bitching and whining that this is too spicy is to order your food less spicy.
Anyway, this is all I have for now and I will up more stuff after their grand opening on Friday (15th Feb). Please come back and see what more this place has to offer!
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