Restaurant review: China Sichuan, one of the most comfortable and comforting restaurants
Ma Po Tofu, China Sichuan
- China Sichuan
- The Forum, Sandyford, Dublin, D18XH28
- Tel: 01-2935100
- china-sichuan.ie
'Husband and Wife Lung Slices' suddenly became famous in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics after it was announced this classic Sichuan dish was to be banned for the duration of the games. In fact, the local authorities had merely requested a name change for fear that this dish and others such as Ma-Po-Tofu (‘Pock-Marked Granny’s Tofu’), would offend visiting westerners' delicate sensibilities (and perhaps lead dim ones to think that it was the husband or wife’s lung that was being served).
This amused me greatly as it was a dish I regularly ordered in the Mandarin House Restaurant on Parnell Street — one of the best places to eat Chinese food aimed at Chinese people in the mid-2000s. The dish originates in the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province in Southwest China and the version made by a husband and wife team became particularly famous. Traditionally the recipe consists of lung, heart or tongue slow-cooked and then marinated in sesame paste, chilli oil, soy sauce, Sichuan pepper, and other spices and served cold or at room temperature. The Mandarin House version was mainly tongue I think but I was too polite to ask — I adored the heat from the chilli and the ‘mala’ spicy numbing flavour of the peppers — a perfect match for Tsingtao beer.
The influx of young Chinese students here to learn English in the early 2000s led to lots of traditional Chinese restaurants opening in Dublin — these included China House on Moore Street and M&L on Cathedral Street (which still thrives). But it is easy to forget that China-Sichuan had been serving traditional Sichuan food for a couple of decades by then.
Kevin Hui’s China Sichuan is in the middle of the business district of Sandyford but just a few minutes from the Sandyford Luas stop — and is a world away from the restaurants on Moore Street and Parnell Street. This is one of the most comfortable and comforting restaurants in Dublin and seemed a perfect choice to offer some takeaway comfort during lockdown.
Of course, I ordered the Spicy ‘Man & Wife’ Beef Slices which turned out to be supremely tender beef fillet lightly coated by a spicy nutty sauce. While the traditionalist in me would have preferred tongue or lung I suspect this is an easier sell — and we should remember that the reason the Man & Wife version became famous in Chengdu was that they often used better quality cuts.
Crispy Salt & Chilli Squid (€8.50) was generous chunks of deep fried crispy squid and contrasted nicely with the ‘Hon Yu Guozi’ poached dumplings which were delicate and lithe and served in a light broth. For mains, the standout dish was the Half-Lobster and Prawns in XO Sauce (€26.50).
XO is a rich Cantonese sauce with sweet and sour elements but also lots of umami from the use of dried seafood. The richness of the sauce did maybe over-power some of the seafood flavours but we didn't mind as it tasted so good —managing to be both intense and complex as well as elegant. The pungent full-on chilli and pepper flavours in the Ma-Po Tofu meanwhile were the perfect foil for the delicate silkily textured tofu chunks.
In simpler Chinese restaurants in Dublin, the desserts are often bought in or ignored, but China-Sichuan has employed the talents of Karen Smith who came to them from the Michelin-starred Lady Helen in Mount Juliet. We ordered the Millionaire’s Twix and were gifted a Hazelnut Opera Ganache.
China-Sichuan is still knocking it out of the park after all these years. And — even eating at our kitchen table — the intense and complex flavours of Sichuan Province brought us out of lockdown Dublin to a place much more exotic.
