photo/Figgy DiBenedetto
Sichuan Kitchen
612 Congress St., Portland
536-7226
sichuankitchenportland.com
When it comes to DEI, Portland still has work to do on the equity and inclusion parts, but we’ve definitely got diversity. One can culinarily travel the globe without leaving the peninsula. For example, I only have to walk a few blocks to experience the food of a famous Chinese province at Sichuan Kitchen on Congress Street.
For more than eight years, Qi Shen and her family have been tingling the tongues of Portlanders with their authentic Sichuan delights. On my most recent trip, I was granted full reign to order for our party of four. Like any wise ruler, I strove to balance the yin and yang of flavors on offer.
We started simple, with one of my favorite dishes, a delicacy that’s been on the menu since they opened: the mushroom salad ($10). Made with frilly cloud ear mushrooms, its subtle garlic, soy and sesame flavors are just adornments to the star of the dish: its texture. The firm yet super-flexible shrooms keep your chopsticks dancing around the bowl for each jiggly bite. Likewise, the cucumber salad ($10) — these slippery lil’ suckers are dressed much like the mushrooms but have a red-chile-pepper zing to prime your salivary glands for the spice to come.
The Tian Shui Noodles ($10) weren’t as easy to share — it seems like one long noodle — but we’re all close and didn’t mind passing it around. Made in-house, thick and super-chewy, it was lightly dressed but packed more punch than the cukes, balanced with a sweet soy dressing and peanuts. Once again, texture was the prime attraction.
We alternated bites of the noodle(s) with the Soup Dumplings ($19): four ground-pork-filled, half-moon-shaped dumplings patiently bathing in a soy bone broth to provide reprieve from the heat.
From here, I led our group on to the entrées. Sichuan Kitchen’s Gong Bao Chicken ($20) is an authentic, spicy and far superior take on the sticky sweet version commonly called Kung Pao. It has a massive amount of chicken spiked with red pepper and just a touch of sweet and sour, garnished with a hefty handful of toasted peanuts. This is the kind of dish you go back for.
I ordered us the Yu-Xiang Eggplant ($17) and I’m glad I tried it, but I’m not sure I could handle a full bowl. The eggplant acts more as a garnish, with ground pork and a heavily cornstarch-thickened sauce best served in small portions over white rice. There’s lots of spice, but also sweet, sour, bitter and umami notes.
With that, we hit our limit for the night, feeling pleasantly full and slightly damp. Some standouts from earlier visits with noting include the fried green beans ($16) with ground pork (or not) and pickled mustard greens, and my all-time fave, Fish with Pickled Greens ($25): delicate white fish, pickled greens, red chile peppers and tingly Sichuan peppercorn in a hearty bone broth.
Why get on a plane when it’s cheaper (and safer) to travel to downtown Portland? No passport or “real ID” required.
