A colleague from Washington wanted some authentic Sichuan food in Hong Kong. Honestly, I rarely eat spicy food, let alone something that could be regarded as the king of spices.
The first time that I had Sichuan food was in Beijing. It was the spicy stewed beef, topped with an ocean of chopped chili. It looked pretty scary to me at first but surprisingly, I kinda liked it. I later learnt that Sichuan spicy food started to get popular in Beijing in the early 2000s. And of course, the spiciness was slightly tuned to the palate of the Beijing people.
Stood on a discrete corner on the Garden Road, the restaurant Sanxilou was quite hard to locate for a person who did not know the area very well. Nevertheless, the place was quite packed with foreigners who were there for spicy hotpot.
Me and my colleague was quite brave that afternoon that we decided to order all spicy dishes other than a plate of veggie. We started with a Sichuan Jelly Noodles with Hot and Sour Sauce. The jelly noodles was very slimy, a very smooth jelly like texture. I thought the texture was quite refined. The spiciness was just right for me. It was particularly good.
The next dish was the Marinated OX-Tripe with Chili Sauce, a very typical Sichuan appetizer. The tripes were quite chewy, slicked in the bright red chili oil and sprinkled with sesame on top. Not a bad call.
Then, it was the Small Sichuan Wontons with Spicy Sauce, another very typical Sichuan dish. It’s quite a common dish in Hong Kong but this one distinguished itself from the others. The insignificantly tiny piece of minced pork was folded into a very smooth wrapper and dipped into a red hot sauce.
Another dish that you cannot give a miss for a Sichuan meal would be the spicy stewed fish or beef. I voted for the Spicy Sichuan Style Stewed Mandarin Fish. The texture of the fish was smooth and tender. It was cooked with bamboo shoots, sprouts, and yam noodles (薯粉). The yam noodles was very chewy, or maybe rubbery would be a more accurate word for it? But it was quite good as the spiciness was soaked in it and it gave some variation to the texture.
I guess the biggest let down was the dirty windows. As it was located in a rather old building, it was covered with black stains. But the dishes were quite enjoyable.
Sanxilou
Address: 7/F, Coda Plaza, 51 Garden Road, Mid-Levels
Tel: 2838 8811
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday 11am – 11pm
K's Luxe Dining Table 