China's South Beauty Restaurant

I'm sure that the name of this impressively posh Sichuan restaurant chain sounds better in Chinese, but I liked the food either way. My colleagues ordered a bunch of things, including shui zhu yu, as well as a bunch of similarly big pots full of chili peppers and oil, but with variations in the ingredients, like shrimp or pig's blood.

Indeed, it turns out that my colleagues were intentionally trying to go for shock value, particularly with something that they caled a "Sichuan salad." No, that wasn't anything like that Let's Toss! place, but rather something with actual greens, and to be specific, something like that Vietnamese fish mint stuff, which I absolutely hate. To their surprise though (and even my own), I didn't mind it too much when it was drenched in all of that Sichuan chili oil and salt, as the taste of that leaf was hardly noticeable after that. In fact, I kept going back for more and more of it.

And yes, I liked the non-spicy food that they had here too, including a refreshing soup as well as some thinly sliced beef reminiscent of a Yoshinoya gyudon. I should have been more careful when eating my cold noodles though. That dallop of freshly minced garlic was the last thing I needed before heading off to meet a client for the first time.