No wines at all, but it meant that for once I could really enjoy the food and not be distracted by a lot of Riesling.
We started with two rounds of dim sum; xiao long bao (Shanghai-style pork soup dumplings) and pan-fried chicken dumplings with chives. Pork soup dumplings are one of my favourite items (particularly here), but this time it wasn't quite up to expectations with the skin a little too thick - or that may be because I had them raised too high from past visits/being spoiled by the same dish in Singapore. Still very good, and the chicken dumplings (with accompanying chili oil) were very good as well.
Next they brought out a platter of boneless smoked tea duck, which was delicious as usual - but the real surprise was the accompanying scallion pancakes which were amazing on their own and went great with the duck. Not something I normally order, but I loved it (and we ended up ordering seconds of the pancakes to accompany the next two dishes).
Then two rounds of chicken as the meal got progressively spicier - first the fresh-killed au zhou chicken, which was stir fried with leeks, ginger and a very generous amount of red chilli and Szechuan peppercorns. Very, very good (with the meat incredibly tender), though the heat meant I could barely taste the sesame noodles accompanying.
Finished with the chongqing chicken, which may be the second-hottest dish I've ever eaten while in the US (the hottest would be Szechuan Gourmet's version of the same dish, which is pretty much a weaponized chicken dish that's addictive as hell). Small boneless chunks of chicken that were basically cooked and served over a bed of Szechuan peppercorns, chillies and garlic (wish I had taken a photo of it). Seriously hot to the point that I was sweating by the end of the meal, but um - WOW. Amazingly tender meat with a really nice, crispy exterior and despite the heat neither my friend or I could stop eating this. (Thank heavens for a big bowl of the rice on the side.)
Finished with a plate of very fresh mandarin orange slices that cooled off the heat nicely. And I hope that'll satisfy my Szechuan food craving for the next couple of weeks.
) than with the food itself; now I see that that impression was mistaken. Also, they actually have some genuine Sichuan dishes on the menu (mirabile dictu!). Will have to give it a try next time I visit the Big Apple.