Posted by
roxiao on July 2nd, 2010
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And we’re back with more back-logged China trip entries! While we were looking for restaurants in Shanghai, Amanda and I came across a lot of positive reviews for Yuxin Sichuan. I know it’s kind of weird to be looking for Sichuan food in Shanghai, but Amanda and I were craving it and going to Sichuan was little bit out of the question 
. We’ve mentioned Sichuan food in our past entries, so we figured it’d be a good to taste the real McCoy for a point of reference.
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Posted by
roxiao on January 24th, 2010
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If I’m at a Sichuan restaurant, I always have to get their hui guo rou, or double cooked pork. This is another dish that I picked up from my parents while I was home for break. The main star of this dish is pork belly, which is first boiled in water until cooked, and then cut into slices and refried with vegetables, hence the “double cooked”. The pork belly is usually accompanied with peppers and leeks. Another must have is Lao Gan Ma hot sauce. I’ve started using this in all my spicy dishes and it definitely adds more flavor and more heat than the typical chili sauce that I use.
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Posted by
roxiao on January 16th, 2010
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In a departure from our usual NYC venue reviews, this review is for a restaurant from our hometown in Rockville, Maryland. For those of you familiar with the area, this restaurant is located in the Rockville Town Center close to Bob’s Noodle 66, one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. Sichuan Pavilion specializes in Sichuan cuisine (obviously) which is a style of chinese cooking involving lots of garlic, peppercorns, and chili peppers. And here’s a disclaimer: my dad and I love melt-your-face-off spicyness so when I say its spicy I mean really spicy. [continued...]
Posted by
roxiao on September 1st, 2009
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If you’re diligent, you may remember that there was another mapo tofu entry. Well, this one is much truer to my Mom’s recipe, enough that it warrants an entirely new rewrite!
Ingredients:
1 brick of tofu
1 clump of zha cai (pickeled cabbage)
0.5 lbs ground pork
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tsp cooking wine
1-2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp corn starch
1 cup water
1 tbsp hua jiao you (pepper oil)
chili sauce
Directions:
Prep the tofu by submerging it in hot water. After a couple minutes, chop the tofu into small cubes and dice the zha cai. If you’re using pre-diced zha cai, about half a cup will do. Also take the time to prepare the mixture of corn starch and water.
Heat about 3 tbsp oil in a pan
When oil is hot, add ginger and cook until fragrant
Add the pork and the cooking wine and cook until the water from the pork is mostly evaporated
When the water is evaporated, turn the heat to medium and add the zha cai and the black pepper.
Cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the tofu and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the corn starch mixture and stir until the the contents start to thicken.
Add the hua jiao you and the chili sauce. I usually put in two tbsp since Amanda doesn’t like things too spicy (manda – hey i’m getting better!).
And that’s it. As an optional garnish, my mom sometimes adds three tbsp of peas just to give the dish
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