Critics’ choice: Getting past the fire of Sichuan cuisine

Taste of Chong Qing San Gabriel, Calif.

Sichuan food mounts such an intense assault on the senses that you might at times “stagger out of the restaurant a little food-drunk,” said C. Thi Nguyen in the Los Angeles Times. The cuisine’s fire comes from two sources: the chiles common to other Chinese food and “the pins-and-needles tingle of the Sichuan peppercorn.” But the deepest pleasures of this food from central China spring from the juxtaposition of that incendiary pop with the “subtle complexity” of its many milder flavors. A newcomer to the San Gabriel Valley’s Sichuan scene, Taste of Chong Qing handles those paradoxes masterfully. You’ll notice that touch in the usuals—tender eggplant, twice-cooked pork belly, fried chicken cubes. But the restaurant truly excels at fish dishes. While the steamed “Sichuan-style” fish is terrific, “for maximum flavor sensation, the ‘baked’ fish in peppers is the golden ticket.” The fish is in fact not baked; it’s fried into “a firm, concentrated, meaty fury of savor” and arrives covered with chiles and fermented soybeans. “Somebody here loves you.” How else to explain the attention that’s given to each little detail? 172 E. Valley Blvd., (626) 288-1357

Mala Tang Arlington, Va.

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“Hot-pot meals are a long-standing tradition” in Sichuan province, and they’re the “pride and joy” of this new D.C.-area restaurant, said Candy Sagon in The Washington Post. In Chengdu, the province’s capital, families typically gather around a communal hot pot, cooking fresh vegetables and strips of tender meat in a flavorful bubbling broth. Here, customers are served individual hot pots, and have three choices of broth, including vegetarian. Though the spicier of the two chicken broths has been toned down some for Western palates, “sensitive types will still find it eye-wateringly hot.” Pair the broth with beef, lamb, seafood, or chicken, plus a variety of vegetables. Just be warned: You may never get to the hot pot if you start with several xiao chi—little street-food dishes that we find irresistible. 3434 Washington Blvd., (703) 243-2381

Café China New York City

Though it’s located in a “no-man’s land” section of Midtown Manhattan, this narrow café “tastes a lot like the Sichuan province,” said the editors of TastingTable.com. Husband-and-wife owners Xian Zhang and Yiming Wang have chosen a decor that deliberately evokes 1930s Shanghai, but their kitchen is “unrelenting” in its commitment to serving Sichuan food “unadulterated” by the province’s interaction with its neighbors, let alone with Westerners. Their chef is classically trained Xiaofeng Liao, a veteran of Midtown’s nearby Lan Sheng. To enjoy the kitchen’s range, start with the “mouth-watering” chicken, which has been poached tender before being “assaulted with a flood of chile oil and garnished with peanuts and sesame seeds.” Cool off with an order of dan dan noodles, then call for the ma po tofu, a dish in which “cubes of tofu are awash with ground pork, a cavalcade of red chile, and a wallop of Sichuan’s iconic tingling peppercorn.” You’ll no doubt need a plate of ginger-laced bitter melon and many bowls of rice for relief. 13 E. 37th St., (212) 213-2810