17 January 2013

Red Chilli Sichuan. Restaurant Review

| johnboy
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red chilli

On our way to the Phoenix last night for Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! GoosePig and I stopped into Red Chilli, which has taken over the spot formerly occupied by the Singaporean based La Pasa.

Red Chilli is part of a Sydney chain of restaurants promising Sichuan food.

The fitout is certainly ornate but also tends to foodcourt with chain flyers stuck under the tables glass tops.

The menu is crammed full of glossy photographs of the dishes and hotness indicators, and yet strangely impenetrable.

It also features a very great deal of seafood which strikes as odd when you look at a map.

map of sichuan

Considering over half the world’s population live within 60 miles of the sea Sichuan is positively unusual in being a densely populated region a very great distance from the ocean.

The menu also featured what felt like a lot of dishes featuring “intestines”.

It could be there were only two, but intestines on a menu makes a memorable impression.

We went for twice cooked pork belly strips and green beans.

The service was OK without being great and to be honest much the same can be said about the food.

The pork belly strips were spicy enough to cause GoosePig to lose feeling in her lips. I can’t say I had the same problem.

To be honest it didn’t seem to be of a much higher grade than the Hot Lantern hole in the wall at Jamison.

It also must be said Tsing Tao beer is always nice on a hot day.

So Red Chilli…

It’s not bad, but it’s not great either, and it’s on the expensive side.

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This place gets my recommendation. Big serves and reasonable prices. Might be an acquired taste for some, though – it can be pretty spicy.

LSWCHP said :

Spykler said :

mmmm….Tsing Tao beer, i am guilty of quaffing large amounts of it when I travel to China and now that Woolies stock it at half the price it used to be, there is always a fair supply of it in my ice box. Pity I can’t find Yanjing (Beijing) beer out here, that’s even smoother.

The story I was told is that a bunch of DutchGerman folks were living in China back in the day, and they introduced Heineken style lagering techniques, thus resulting in Tsing Tao and other great Chinese beers.

The internet seems to confirm this, and everything on the internet is true. Whatever the case, it’s a lovely drop, and it might be time to pick up a case, given the current weather.

Spot on LWSCHP, the city of Qingdao (Tsing Tao in English) was indeed occupied by the Germans for 20 years or so at the start of last century. They introduced their beer making techniques to the Chinese and the famous Qingdao (Tsing Tao) drop is drunk all over China. I have been to Qingdao a couple of times and there are still a few German beer-houses standing in the old quarter.

Spykler said :

mmmm….Tsing Tao beer, i am guilty of quaffing large amounts of it when I travel to China and now that Woolies stock it at half the price it used to be, there is always a fair supply of it in my ice box. Pity I can’t find Yanjing (Beijing) beer out here, that’s even smoother.

The story I was told is that a bunch of DutchGerman folks were living in China back in the day, and they introduced Heineken style lagering techniques, thus resulting in Tsing Tao and other great Chinese beers.

The internet seems to confirm this, and everything on the internet is true. Whatever the case, it’s a lovely drop, and it might be time to pick up a case, given the current weather.

And while I’m here JB, I’m assuming that GoosePig is your partner. If that’s the case, how does your relationship survive with you calling her that? I think if I affectionately addressed my wife as GoosePig or anything remotely similar my gonads would be used as Maracas. 🙂

mmmm….Tsing Tao beer, i am guilty of quaffing large amounts of it when I travel to China and now that Woolies stock it at half the price it used to be, there is always a fair supply of it in my ice box. Pity I can’t find Yanjing (Beijing) beer out here, that’s even smoother.

That’s interesting because I had dinner there the other night with some friends, one of whom is Chinese and another who has lived in Sichuan. They and I all agreed that it is some of the best Chinese food in Canberra. Further, the prices were good with each of 6 of us ordering a dish and rice with the total coming out at $23 a head.

The highlights were the Fish Hot Pot, Braised Pork Belly with Pickled Vegetables, the Hot and Sour Beef Soup and the Stir Fried Calamari Rolls with Dried Chillies.

The fish was excellent (yes, there are rivers and lakes in Sichuan province). Perfectly cooked and in a wonderfully rich and tasty chilli broth. The Pork Belly was amazingly tender with a nice note added by the pickled vegetables. The Beef Soup was one of the most unique Chinese dishes I’ve had with a wonderful combination of sichuan peppercorn and pickled chilli and garlic adding depth. Finally, the calamari was beautifully salty, spicy, numbing and lightly tart.

The choice of dish appears to be very important here. If you stray away from the Sichuan dishes which involve lots of sichuan pepper, chilli and pickled vegetables it may not be as good but choose wisely and it is one of the best value meals in Canberra.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd4:06 pm 17 Jan 13

Sounds either gross or acquired taste.

lol @ that map. Wtf are they doing selling seafood?

Was the entire sea food menu land crabs?

La Pasa was always hit or miss for me, so I was keen to try this one out. Almost mishe for La Pasa back.

So this thread is about tripe…

I’m glad that’s been clarified.

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