The delight of Sichuan cooking The delight of Sichuan cooking (January 07, 2005)

Regional dishes highlight of New China Delight's menu

By Mandy Erickson

Chixing Lee began his long restaurant career at the age of 14, when he started training at a popular restaurant in Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province.

"It was common practice in the '60s in China for poor families to send their children to restaurants so they could learn a skill," he explained through an interpreter. That skill has earned him a 40-year career and taken him around the globe, from Beijing to New York and the Bay Area. Now the slim, bespectacled man has joined his friend, co-owner Cheny Xu, at New China Delight, which opened on Castro Street on Oct. 3.

Xu, who worked at downtown's Hunan Chili for two years, said his goal with New China Delight is to introduce Americans to lesser-known Chinese cooking. "I want them to know more than sweet-and-sour pork and kung pao chicken," he said, also through the interpreter.

Xu's business plan and Lee's culinary expertise have combined to create an extensive menu of sumptuous dishes such as diced rabbit in Sichuan oil, calamari with sizzling rice and fish soup with pickled vegetables. Everything I tried at the restaurant --classic Sichuan dishes, preparations typical of other regions, even the Chinese-American standbys -- was quite good, some of it superb.

Though the dishes are unusual to an American palate, Lee said the menu items, many of them Sichuan, are traditional. Sichuan cooking is distinct in its assertive sauces made of hot chilies, pickled garlic and ginger, and spices. The province, a valley surrounded by mountains in western China, has traded with India for centuries and assimilated some of its cooking styles.

One excellent example of Sichuan cuisine at New China Delight is the dry-braised live fish ($13.95 small, $18.95 medium and $23.95 large). Don't worry, you don't eat it live: Lee explained that first he kills a tilapia pulled from one of the fish tanks in the back of the restaurant. Then he fries the white fish at high heat in a paste of garlic, pickled ginger, pickled chili, green onion, pork and a special sauce imported from China.

The result is a supremely fresh fish that stands up to the potent sauce. It was so good that my husband and I reduced it to a skeleton, tearing the meat off the bones and cleaning up the tiniest bits of sauce and fish.

Another Sichuan-style dish, julienned duck in capsicum (a pepper-infused oil), was a surprisingly light dish ($8.95). It consisted of slices of duck meat stripped of its fatty skin and matchstick-sized pieces of celery stir-fried in a hot oil sauce. The rich, dark duck meat married well with the strong-flavored celery, and their textures, soft and crisp, contrasted perfectly. The dish had plenty of heat, but it wasn't tastebud-killing.

A cold appetizer of diced rabbit in Sichuan red oil ($6.75), however, burned fiery hot. The menu did warn us, with its two chili peppers instead of the usual one denoting a spicy dish. The rabbit, which arrived sprinkled with sesame seeds and peanuts, was fresh and full of flavor, tasting a bit stronger than chicken. Unfortunately, many of the pieces were mostly bone. We left much of it on the plate, as it proved to not be worth the effort to tear off the tiny bits of meat.

A hallmark of Sichuan cooking, besides the spices, is the use of pickled vegetables. We tried them in fish filet soup ($5.95 small, $8.95 large), a successful balance of fresh, mild white fish and vinegary pickled vegetables.

Dishes on New China Delight's menu that weren't typically Sichuan proved to be just as tempting. The house special shredded pork soup ($5.50 small, $8.50 large) was a celebration of good fresh food well combined: a clear, aromatic broth with bright, fresh vegetables -- tomato slices, green onions, spinach, winter melon and mushrooms --shredded pork and clear noodles. We had this as a first course but we couldn't help dipping the ladle in and tasting just a little more throughout our meal.

The calamari with sizzling rice ($11.95) was a stir-fry of squid, carrots, bok choy, mushrooms and bamboo shoots in a sauce of scallion, vinegar, sugar, ginger and garlic, and rice that had been toasted until golden brown.

The waiter poured the squid and vegetables over the rice, and it sizzled as promised. The result was a sweetish dish of crisp vegetables, chewy squid and crunchy rice. The only downside was that the squid tasted a tad fishy.

We tried a few Chinese-restaurant-menu standards at New China Delight, and these also proved to be quite good. The pot stickers (six for $5.50), which Lee prepares with a mix of ground chicken and pork, fresh ginger, soy sauce and scallion, were moist and flavorful. The first time I tried them, the wrappers were a little too soft and fell apart as I picked them up with chopsticks. But the second time they held together well.

Our dry-sauteed green beans ($6.95) were also well executed; they were salty and crunchy and full of garlic. This is a favorite dish of mine, and the restaurant's rendition was one of the best I've tasted. The beans were still good eaten two days later cold and directly out of the carton.

The restaurant's decor is a modest scheme of pink-and-black chairs, white textured walls, fake plants and a few pieces of artwork. Though the restaurant is large, it feels fairly cozy, and the noise level is low. We found the service to be prompt and professional, though there were occasional problems with English.

If New China Delight featured only the standard cashew chicken, egg rolls and broccoli beef (all of which appear on its menu), Lee's skill in the kitchen would still make it a fine restaurant. But such temptations as fish in seaweed batter, lamb with cumin and braised yellow eel -- all dishes I hope to try soon -- puts it in an entirely different class. Why bother with the time-worn meals when such delectables await?
Dining Notes

New China Delight 360 Castro Street 961-6635 Open Sunday through Saturday 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5 p.m.-midnight

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