Keith_W
Master Contributor
Breaking my self-imposed rule of not posting pictures of food that I did not cook myself. Here are two Sichuanese fish dishes:
Fish fillets with pickled vegetables. Here, the vegetables used are Chinese mustard greens. They are packed in salt and allowed to ferment. It ends up tasting a bit like Sauerkraut, but with a slightly funky kick. It is a VERY assertive ingredient and must be used sparingly. Here it is paired with two types of Sichuan peppercorns (red and green), ginger, and spring onions. When done well, as it was in this restaurant, it is slightly sour, savoury, fragrant with citrus notes, and slightly earthy. I try to fish out as many peppercorns as I can - you need them for the fragrance, but if you eat too many you will get a "sichuan peppercorn high". It feels like being intoxicated except that there is no alcohol. Not to mention, if you bite into one you get a strong burst of flavour with the mouth-numbing properties. It's not entirely unpleasant, but it will be if you eat too many.
Fish fillets with dried chilli. This is similar to the above dish, except there are no pickled vegetables. Instead, they use a LOT of toasted dried chillis which gives it that ominous red colour. The flavours here are spicy, smoky, earthy, with a particular dried chilli fragrance and the mouth-numbing feel of sichuan peppercorns. It's the classic mala flavouring that is the signature of Sichuanese cuisine. You will notice the slotted spoon - use it to scoop out as many chillis and sichuan peppercorns as you can, and dump it into another bowl.
This restaurant didn't do the spiciest fish I have ever eaten. That honour goes to Sichuan itself, where I was served a dish where you could see nothing but the dried chillis floating on top. It was unreasonably spicy, and there were so many sichuan peppercorns in it that the experience was rather overwhelming. I have fairly strong spice tolerance, but eating in Sichuan had me sweating and crying within a few bites. It was paired with the local wine, but "wine" is a polite term to describe their fortified vodka-like baijiu (literal translation: "white alcoholic drink"). By the end of dinner I was almost seeing double and I cold barely walk back to the hotel. My Chinese dining companion said that it was the best in Chengdu.
This restaurant obviously cut down the spice to suit Australian tastebuds, but even then I suspect it may be a bit too assertive for many Aussies.
Fish fillets with pickled vegetables. Here, the vegetables used are Chinese mustard greens. They are packed in salt and allowed to ferment. It ends up tasting a bit like Sauerkraut, but with a slightly funky kick. It is a VERY assertive ingredient and must be used sparingly. Here it is paired with two types of Sichuan peppercorns (red and green), ginger, and spring onions. When done well, as it was in this restaurant, it is slightly sour, savoury, fragrant with citrus notes, and slightly earthy. I try to fish out as many peppercorns as I can - you need them for the fragrance, but if you eat too many you will get a "sichuan peppercorn high". It feels like being intoxicated except that there is no alcohol. Not to mention, if you bite into one you get a strong burst of flavour with the mouth-numbing properties. It's not entirely unpleasant, but it will be if you eat too many.
Fish fillets with dried chilli. This is similar to the above dish, except there are no pickled vegetables. Instead, they use a LOT of toasted dried chillis which gives it that ominous red colour. The flavours here are spicy, smoky, earthy, with a particular dried chilli fragrance and the mouth-numbing feel of sichuan peppercorns. It's the classic mala flavouring that is the signature of Sichuanese cuisine. You will notice the slotted spoon - use it to scoop out as many chillis and sichuan peppercorns as you can, and dump it into another bowl.
This restaurant didn't do the spiciest fish I have ever eaten. That honour goes to Sichuan itself, where I was served a dish where you could see nothing but the dried chillis floating on top. It was unreasonably spicy, and there were so many sichuan peppercorns in it that the experience was rather overwhelming. I have fairly strong spice tolerance, but eating in Sichuan had me sweating and crying within a few bites. It was paired with the local wine, but "wine" is a polite term to describe their fortified vodka-like baijiu (literal translation: "white alcoholic drink"). By the end of dinner I was almost seeing double and I cold barely walk back to the hotel. My Chinese dining companion said that it was the best in Chengdu.
This restaurant obviously cut down the spice to suit Australian tastebuds, but even then I suspect it may be a bit too assertive for many Aussies.
