Relish: Sichuanese Cuisine
Seattlest loves Chinese food, but has been spoiled rotten by our (Chinese) grandma's home cooking. We had given up, several years ago, on finding a restaurant that could compare. But then we met our downstairs neighbor who took Seattlest out to Sichuanese Cuisine and, dare we say it? Found some of the dishes to be just as good as grandma's...
Sichuanese Cuisine is by no means fancy. It's located in the Asian Plaza strip mall on the northwest corner of 12th and Jackson. There are only about eight glass-topped tables and two of them are round family style tables, where you may be seated with strangers (if that freaks you out, you can request a two- or four-top). The menu is not very descriptive, so unless you're familiar with Sichuanese cooking styles, you may not know exactly what you're ordering. Luckily the waitresses are welcoming and kind, and are happy to answer questions about the menu.
Sichuanese Cuisine is the kind of place where once you find your favorites, you never order anything else. After our first few visits we quickly fell into this trap, but on our latest trip we branched out. Yes, Seattlest used this post as an excuse to order a ridiculous amount of food, all in the name of research. We ordered five dishes for two people, while our waitress politely smiled and shook her head.
Seattlest started with the braised beef noodle ($4.95) which we hadn't tried before. The soup was unbelievably flavorful and scented with star anise, which gave it an unusual and deep flavor. The rounds of sliced beef had visible tendons in them, but they melted in our mouth. The noodles were thick and chewy--just how we love them--and we were impressed when we learned that the noodles are made in-house. Between the two of us, we could have filled up on just the bowl of soup... but no, we kept going.
Next was the dried cooked chicken ($6.75), which is one of our favorite dishes at Sichuanese Cuisine. The plate was full of chicken "nuggets" that reminded us of our grandma's fried chicken; lightly breaded, fried and tossed with a pungent, fermented black bean sauce. Mixed in were perfectly cooked, wrinkly, fried string beans. This is a simple, but stellar dish.
From there Seattlest again deviated from the norm to Mandarin spicy chicken ($6.75). Because we didn't really know what we were ordering, the chicken in this dish ended up being exactly like the prior dish (not complaining), except that it had a different sauce. It was sweet, tangy, spicy, salty and savory all at the same time--such a different flavor combination that we're still not sure if we liked it a lot or just a little. We suspect it's something we may grow to love. (This dish contained a few, real Sichuan peppercorns which we bit into, so that was exciting.)
Seattlest was stuffed by this point, but we still had two more dishes coming. The Hunan beef ($6.50) was prepared in a similar fashion to Mongolian beef, but it wasn't as hot. It was also a bit tangy, like the Mandarin spicy chicken. We fear that our palate may not be used to tang, so again, we couldn't tell if we loved it or didn't love it.
We ended our feast with our favorite dish: prawns in black bean sauce ($7.25). This dish is basically prawns and cabbage sauced in a slightly thickened black bean sauce. It's to die for. The prawns were perfectly cooked and tasted incredible with the wilted, yet still crunchy cabbage.
We ate a ridiculous amount of food, but didn't manage to make it through half of any dish (Seattlest was secretly hoping for lots of leftovers). The portions are meant to be shared and at $4-$8 a plate, the prices are extremely reasonable. Sichuanese Cuisine is fast becoming our new favorite Chinese food. Just don't tell our grandma we said that.
Sichuanese Cuisine
1048 S Jackson Street
206.720.1690
