Welcome to the West 102nd & 103rd Streets Block Association
Contact us via
  • Home
    • Board of Directors
  • Join Us
  • Blog
  • Events Calendar
  • Block Party
    • Vendor Agreement
    • FAQs
  • Resources
    • Newsletter Index
    • Alternate Side Parking
    • Tree, Hydrant, and Lamp Map
    • Eco-friendly Block
    • Open Streets W. 103rd Street
    • Bloomingdale Aging In Place
    • Hunger Resources
    • Bloomingdale History
    • TriBloomingdale
  • Quarterly Newsletter
  • Neighborhood Hall of Fame
    • 2022 Honorees
    • 2021 Honorees
    • 2020 Honorees
    • 2019 Honoree
    • 2018 Honorees
    • 2017 Honorees
    • 2016 Honorees
    • 2015 Honorees
    • 2014 Honorees
    • 2013 Honorees
    • 2012 Honoree
    • 2011 Honorees
    • 2010 Honorees

Hyper Local Eats: Nice 'N Spicy

12/26/2016

2 Comments

 

A Dry and Crispy Cumin Lamb Umami-Fest at Szechuan Garden

By Caitlin Hawke
The "Hyper Local Eats" feature is not intended as a place for restaurant reviews, per se.  Our quarterly newsletter does a great job of that (see here and here for examples).

But rather, it's meant to sing praise to one special dish or delicacy found nearby.  Writing this, I realize that one day, I should sing a Proustian song to delicacies lost to time:  the cucumber salad once sold at PicNic's market, or Jean-Luc and Jennifer's peppery celery remoulade for that matter, would top the list.  But so would the normal-sized buttery blueberry muffin with a lacy, crunchy edge from Positively 104th Street (now Café du Soleil), or the café con leche from La Casita with flattened toast when that restaurant sat at the corner of Broadway and West 106th Street (now a KFC).  Maybe someone around here remembers the deliciousness that was Hudes deli going back 70 years? But probably not the even older "Old Vienna" and the "New Vienna" featured in the photo of a prior Throwback Thursday post?
Today's praise is lavished on a relative newcomer: Szechuan Gourmet.  Already two and a half years old, SG ably inhabits a feng-shui challenged space under the old beloved Movie Place on West 105th Street just east of Broadway.  You'll recall short-lived spots like Pitaya and Zen Palate that followed the longer-lived Métisse.  (Have I missed any others that tried and failed?). 

But now the space is in SG's hands and the place is on fire, if Christmas evening was any indication.
Picture
Picture
So what's so good about this place?  Let me encapsulate that in one special dish for you: crispy lamb filets with chili cumin.  You'll find thin slices of lamb dredged in a flour, cumin, salt mixture and flash fried and tossed with dry scallions and an equal volume of chili peppers, which you'll literally have to eat around.  Add mala-making sichuan peppercorns and you've got yourself a scrumptious main course.  Mala (numbingly spicy or spicily numbing -- I never know which) is a sort of tongue-taming, almost paralyzing, flavor-sensation that when first experienced can be disconcerting.  Think of it as white-hot versus red-hot, if that makes any sense.  Once your tongue recovers, your brain converts the experience into a pleasure center.

But I don't want to scare you away with all this talk of spicy. It's not mild, don't get me wrong. But there is umami aplenty in this dish.  That juicy lamb, crispy on the outside, squirts its savory flavor through the cumin-salt coating.  They also make a beef version of this traditional Sichuanese dish. However, the lamb meat must be less moist because it crisps up better.  The beef tends to be softer and is good in its own way.

Top this off with a plate of garlic-sauteed greens or spicy cucumber salad and it's a perfect meal.

There must be a dozen other great eats here -- mostly spicy.  But you'll come back to the lamb time and again.  Also, it seems best to stay away from the Americanized versions and go for the authentic dishes.

I am determined to have the mapo tofu in the new year.  King of mala.  It will be another barometer of how good it gets here on W. 105th Street.  I'll let you know if it is post-worthy!

To receive Block Association blog posts directly to your email, please enter your email address:

2 Comments
Ira Gershenhorn
12/27/2016 06:28:13 pm

Szechuan Garden is my favorite place ver.

Reply
Terence
1/4/2017 06:14:18 pm

We ordered in tonight: the hot n sour soup to start, and then the lamb dish with a side of garlic sauteed veggies. Just as hot and as good as you said.....

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Aging In Bloomingdale
    BA Events
    Blog Favorites
    Community Issues
    Families
    From The Vault
    Green Neighborhood
    History
    Hyper-local Eats
    It's Elemental
    Local Events
    Mom & Pop
    Neighbors
    Seen
    Throwback Thursday
    Traffic

    Archives

    October 2022
    December 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Subscribe to our email list and receive regular news.

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.