· Blog · 13 min read
Meet the most authentic Sichuan cuisine in Canada
I went back to Chongqing for the Chinese New Year to make up for the regret of not having eaten spicy food for nearly a year. As a native of Chongqing, I am not a fan of spicy food, but I sincerely believe that the spicy and fresh taste and hearty taste of Sichuan cuisine are incomparable to any other cuisine. When I came to Vancouver, I met many friends from all over the world. When talking about Sichuan cuisine, many people showed that they liked it as much as I did. Some people even said that in their eyes, all cuisines can be generally divided into two categories, one is called Sichuan cuisine, and the other is called non-Sichuan cuisine.
The strong stimulation of spicy food on the taste buds is very addictive, just like the saying "once you have seen the sea, you will never taste the water again". After eating Sichuan cuisine, it seems that other cuisines are not so addictive. Every time I go back to China, the various flavors of Sichuan cuisine always make me linger, and I still savor it for a long time after returning to Vancouver.
As soon as I came back this time, I heard that a new Chongqing restaurant had opened near the PNE in Burnaby, so I couldn't wait to try it. This restaurant located at 3760 Hastings street is called MR.Chili, and it specializes in Chongqing flavor. In fact, Hastings can be regarded as a food street. There are many delicious restaurants on this street, but not many Chinese people visit it. The reason why MR.Chili chose this location and gave it a Western name shows that its positioning is not limited to Chinese customers, but also hopes to present the Chongqing flavor to more local diners, so that more people have the opportunity to get in touch with and like Sichuan cuisine. The restaurant only opened on February 18th, and the business has been very hot in just over a week. It is often full before the peak hours.
This restaurant is located in a white house with a pointed roof. It looks cute and makes people like it at first sight. The first impression it gives people is not the kind of Jianghu market feeling that is common in Chongqing restaurants. Instead, it makes people feel very fresh and literary. Walking into the restaurant, it feels even more elegant. The lake blue wall hits the polka dot pattern, the wood-colored floor and tables and chairs, the long bar, and the rattan chandelier are simple and refreshing without losing style. Several decorative paintings of flowers and birds and several pots of green plants make the restaurant more interesting. Later I heard that this restaurant was designed by Kong Xiang, the design director of Chongqing Big Bird Environmental Art Design Co., Ltd., one of its partners. His name is well-known in the Chongqing decoration industry, and he is also a very senior interior architect in China. In addition to his main job of designing and opening a gallery, he also crossed the border to open an inn, a cafe and a restaurant. The most unexpected thing is that he actually crossed the ocean and opened a restaurant in Vancouver. Since it is from the hands of a master, it is not difficult to understand why this restaurant is so pleasing to the eye.
The restaurant sign reads "Flower and Sea Peppers", and the logo also has a vivid pattern of a Chinese pepper and a chili pepper. Chongqing cuisine is seasoned with Chinese pepper and sea pepper (this is how chili peppers are called in Chongqing dialect), and these two seasonings can be said to be the essence of Sichuan cuisine. Many people think that Sichuan cuisine is authentic only if it is so spicy that it makes you cry, but this is not true. Good chili peppers are not necessarily very spicy, but they can be very fragrant. The chili oil in this restaurant is made by grinding chili peppers by itself, which retains the unique fragrance of traditional chili oil, but is not very dry. Many foreigners who have eaten it say that this level of spiciness is acceptable and they don't feel uncomfortable after eating it.
Looking through the menu, you can see familiar dishes: spicy skewers, chicken, Sichuan jelly, steamed pork with rice flour, mapo tofu, boiled beef, pickled fish, spicy chicken, spicy hot pot... Just looking at the menu makes you salivate. The most popular dishes in the restaurant are spicy chicken and spicy hot pot. The spicy chicken is brown and shiny, the chicken is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and very tasty. The spicy hot pot has rich side dishes, fragrant aroma, and strong spicy flavor.
When I was in Chongqing before, I particularly liked pig's trotter soup, especially Hu Ji Pig's Trotter near Huangjueping Academy of Fine Arts. I ordered one here and it tasted exactly like what I remembered. The soup was fragrant and white, the skin and meat were soft and glutinous, and the peas were stewed until soft. No MSG was added, but pepper was used to enhance the flavor. It was extremely delicious with chopped green onions sprinkled on it, and every mouthful was full of collagen. If you think the original flavor is too light, the boss will serve a dipping sauce of chili oil, which is also my favorite way to eat it.
Steamed pork with rice flour is also a home-cooked dish I like. I once ordered it at another Sichuan restaurant in Vancouver. I don’t know why, but the steamed pork with rice flour and shaobai, two dishes that seem completely different to us, are actually no different. The steamed pork with rice flour in this restaurant is completely authentic Chongqing. It is served in a small bamboo steamer, with sweet sweet potatoes as the base. The meat is fat but not greasy, glutinous and fragrant, tender but not mushy, and the rice flour is oily and has a strong five-spice flavor. Sprinkle with coriander before serving, it looks really first-class.
In addition to the above signature dishes, the noodles in this restaurant are also excellent, including cold noodles with shredded chicken, spicy noodles, braised pork intestine noodles, pea sauce noodles, cross-bridge wontons, and hot and sour noodles. They are all Chongqing style. The boss told me that their most popular dish is beef noodles. Now the catering industry in Vancouver seems to be dominated by Taiwanese beef noodles, but in fact, Chongqing beef noodles also have a long history. Friends who know about it must know that Chongqing's glasses beef noodles and Baobao white beef noodles are both very famous and delicious. The beef noodles here do not have any additives. They are made with pure beef bone soup. The soup is bright red, the noodles are tangled, and the beef is made of top-quality beef tendon meat, which is soft, glutinous, and melts in the mouth.
MR.Chili brings not only the original flavor of a restaurant to fellow Chongqing residents and other diners, but also the original flavor of a city, an original flavor of life, and an original flavor of emotion. It is very touching to be able to taste such hometown flavor in a foreign country.
