I grew up on Chinese food. Besides Italian, it was the only ethnic cuisine my conservative (on the food front, not politically) parents ever dared to let me try. I begged them to let me try sushi when I was younger, but their fear got the best of them.
Interestingly enough, the two cuisines I’m least likely to pick now are Italian and Chinese. Maybe it was because of the overload in my younger days.
I did discover when I moved to New York that the egg rolls and pu pu platters of my youth are examples of the Cantonese style of cooking (and as Americanized as you can get). I would be fine if I never had another Cantonese dish again, but I have discovered a new appreciation for Chinese food through Szechuan cuisine.
And believe it or not, Grand Sichuan International specializes in Szechuan food (didn’t see that one coming). There are quite a few locations around Manhattan, but Time Out mentions the Chelsea location and points out their sliced fish with chili sauce as one of the Top 100 dishes.
We ordered a number of specialties, including the spicy and delicious dan dan noodles, the amazingly crispy and sweet tea-smoked duck, flavorful pork soup dumplings, and well-balanced spicy Chinese broccoli. The only thing that was less than good here were the aforementioned sliced fish.
They basically take chunks of tilapia (which is a very mild fish to begin with), dredge it in batter, deep fry them, cover them with a thick garlicky chili sauce, and garnish the whole mess with chili peppers and pickled cabbage.
The fish tasted like nothing but batter and the chili sauce was anything but spicy. I had to really seek out one of the peppers to get any heat at all. The flavors here were garlic and batter. The only thing I enjoyed on the plate was the crunchy cabbage. This was the only dish that I easily didn’t finish. And if it wasn’t on Time Out’s list, I probably would never have ordered it in the first place.
Everything else here was really delicious and was so much better than the Chinese of my childhood. And if I had ordered myself (instead of letting Time Out pick one of my dishes), we would have had a pretty great meal.
Would Grand Sichuan International’s Sliced Fish with Chili Sauce make my Top 100 of the year? It gets a 4 out of 10 because it had no flavor to speak of except an overwhelming greasy garlic flavor. At least I did discover something: Next time I visit Grand Sichuan (which is generally delicious), I’ll know what not to order. own. They are reminiscent of passed appetizers but more complex and flavorful than anything you’d find at a catered affair.
