San Gabriel: Getting Spicy at Szechuan Chef

 

Like  many people these days, I’m addicted to spicy Sichuan food. There’s something about that numbing mala spice that fascinates me. I got together with friends before Thanksgiving to check out the new Szechuan Chef in San Gabriel. The brightly lit medium sized restaurant was full of other spice seekers.

We started out with my favorite mung bean jelly. I had noticed pricing seemed a little bit more than Chengdu Taste and Szechuan Impression but it turns out you get a tad more jelly noodles. It was good to have this dish to take a break in between the really spicy dishes.

 

We had actually ordered a different frog dish but this hot pot (dry style) was sent out instead. It was a pleasant mistake because the frog was just so tasty and tender. However, if you don’t like bones in your food, I wouldn’t recommend this dish. You spend a lot of time picking at tiny bones. We also got the “chicken mix” which is also indeterminate bits of chicken. Could that be cartilage? Intestine? I was told it’s basically all of the chicken. But I suspect it’s the bits that people from Chengdu really eat while the rest of us would settle for chicken thighs. I found it harder to pick through the hot pot because of the insane amount of dried chiles in the dish.

 

I like to get a few different dishes to compare to what I had before. One of these dishes is the water boiled fish. No matter where I go, I tend to like the green chile version better. Szechuan Chef’s version was full of tender fish. Make sure you grab a pot of rice to go with your meal.

I’d return to try the noodles and dumplings. And a few other Sichuan dishes like the jelly and fish.

Szechuan Chef

937 E Las Tunas Dr., Ste B, San Gabriel, CA 91776  —  (626) 872-0106

© The Minty  2016