Man, this review of the LA restaurant Best Szechuan Chili & Seafood
makes me wish I lived on the other side of the continent!

from
http://www.calendarlive.com/dining/c...y?track=widget

COUNTER INTELLIGENCE: CHINA
Real Sichuan's worldly side
After decades of wannabe fare, L.A. has Best Szechuan Chili & Seafood,
offering the real deal in modern urban Sichuan cuisine.
By Linda Burum
Special to The Times

September 7, 2005

In Sichuan province, where the Yangtze River penetrates deep into
China's western region, the cuisine has two faces. In the mist-shrouded
mountainous rural villages, cooking was traditionally rough-edged and
earthy. Of necessity, the daily fare was assembled from preserved
ingredients — pickled greens and salty fermented bean paste added
complex flavors to vegetables and meats. And, as chiliheads know, the
dishes were (and are) often packed with potent hot peppers.

Meanwhile, in cities such as Chengdu and Chongqing, even before the
recent modernization, the cooking had already developed a genteel,
worldly side, incorporating refined banquet dishes from other regions
such as steamed sal****er fish into everyday menus and adapting
favorites such as Shanghai meatballs to Sichuan tastes.

The recent mini-trend of Monterey Park cafes specializing in Sichuan
food has finally brought authentic Sichuan flavors to the Southland
after decades of mock-Sichuan fare that is really Cantonese dishes with
a few chile peppers and peanuts thrown in. And while the cooking at
these true Sichuan places has been a revelation, the focus has been on
traditional rustic dishes.

None has represented the modern urban side of the cuisine until Best
Szechuan Chili & Seafood opened in the former Rong Hawa space. Here,
although the fish tanks and availability of lobster trick some passersby
into thinking it's a Cantonese place, there's a menu that's solidly
contemporary Sichuan.

You'll find duck hot pot, chopped chicken with chiles, eel with pickled
peppers and pork innards stewed with chiles and bean paste at every
Monterey Park Sichuan restaurant. But at Best Szechuan, you'll also find
golden lobster, tea-smoked duck and a delicately seasoned chicken and
bamboo-pith soup. Here a dish may have an initial flash of heat, but the
heat opens your palate to the clear, bright tastes that follow: the
fresh tang of ginger or vinegar, the sweetness of garlic and the
nut-like roastiness of sesame oil. Many dishes are beautifully seasoned
without the use of chile at all.

Best Szechuan, situated unobtrusively at the back of a minimall, is
spacious but simple, its two dining rooms lined with dark cherrywood
wainscoting. White cloths drape the tables. Next to tanks holding
lobsters, crabs and freshwater fish sits a typical Sichuan-style
mini-buffet generously stocked with appetizers: silky paper-thin slices
of braised tongue, lightly dressed young soy beans or cucumbers and
ragingly hot dry-fried beef slivers, cooked to an almost jerky-like
texture. A selection before tackling the menu takes the edge off
everyone's hunger as they ponder the meal's possibilities.

Listed on a separate photocopied page that accompanies the colorful
bound menu are what our waiter described as "popular dishes cooked by
the sous chefs." The dishes on the main menu are said to be prepared by
a chef schooled in Sichuan; items from either always seem to be of equal
quality.

Lamb dishes here are simply stunning. Sautéed lamb with chile pepper
comes tossed with a frightening quantity of roughly cut green jalapeños.
But while the meat, accented with fermented black beans, thickly sliced
garlic cloves and western-style leeks, picks up the fruity perfume of
the chiles, it isn't incendiary itself. The interplay of these elements
is powerful, yet subtle.

A sautéed dish called Ze Zen lamb with its light veil of dry cumin and
pepper-laden sauce clinging to slices of meat tastes almost like a
curry. One evening's special of lamb riblets came in the typical rustic
style, fried with an equal quantity of lethally hot, tiny red dried
chiles and hua-jiao, or Sichuan pepper. Sichuan devotees will recognize
its similarity to a dish (also served here) made with tiny nuggets of
marinated, fried chicken. Hua-jiao, actually a flower bud of the prickly
ash, imparts a slight tingling and numbing sensation on the lips. The
Chinese call this effect ma; it adds a secondary wave of flavor and a
sensory dimension found nowhere else but Western Chinese cooking.

Crowd-pleasing

As with many Chinese restaurants, it takes at least a party of four or
even six to put together a diverse meal. With its live fish, abundant
vegetable dishes and long list of pepper-free dishes, Best Szechuan
makes it easy to balance Sichuan's hair-raising heat with soothing,
delicately seasoned choices. Try the crisp-skinned, lean tea-smoked duck
(called herbal duck on this menu). Chiliheads may be disappointed, but
connoisseurs of complex flavoring will detect the subtle smokiness and
light herbal scent of the meat. Both the rich, ultra-chickeny soup with
bamboo pith and the crispy rice-cake seafood soup that sputters like a
volcano as the waiter pours the saucy stock over toasted grains, are
terrifically palate-calming.

Live seafood is what sets Best Szechuan apart and the preparation can
run from the sweet-fleshed, barely seasoned steamed white fish to the
tonsil-jolting chile-doused "full-house red lobster."

One evening, we had polished off an order of golden lobster, a dish of
luscious, white lobster meat coated in egg yolk, deep fried and served
with crunchy roe strewn over. It was so good that when we'd finished the
meat but before the platter was removed, one guest jumped up and added a
bowl of rice to the remaining juices and roe. We blended the rice into
the sauce to give ourselves a second round of its incredible
buttery-salty sweetness. Inspired, we repeated the act with the peppery
peanut-y sauce of a dish called dan dan noodles; no one wanted to waste
even a drop.

*

Best Szechuan Chili & Seafood

Location: 230 N. Garfield Ave., No. 12D Monterey Park; (626) 572-4629.

Price: Appetizers, $3; entrées, $5 to $36 (family-size portions).

Best dishes: Ze Zen lamb, golden lobster, herbal duck (tea-smoked duck),
dan dan noodle, crispy rice seafood soup.

Details: Open for lunch and dinner 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through
Saturday; 11a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Lot parking. Cash only. Beer and
soft drinks.