Spicy Sichuan Restaurant and the easiest Chocolate Ripple Cake

We've all been so busy lately, that my nephew thought we had forgotten about his birthday. Well, we didn't forget, and I let him choose what restaurant he wanted to go to. I gave him a list of restaurants, including the Spicy Sichuan Restaurant in Glebe. When I mentioned that Sze Chuan food is all spicy, he immediately went "YEH! That one!".

I have driven past the restaurant every time I had a Volleyball game at Broadway, and I've been meaning to take my parents there for months, so this was the perfect opportunity.

Beancurd skins and pickled shallots

I loved the pickled shallots. We used to buy tins of them and eat them straight out of the can. The beancurd skins were also quite aromatic, but didn't have much actual taste.

Spicy Pork Knuckle

My Dad's favourite thing, meat on bones to knaw on! hehe They gave each of us a plastic glove so we didn't have to get our hands dirty, and allowed us to grab onto our piece of knuckle with the entire fist as we knawed on it like a hungry puppy! Surprisingly, this wasn't that spicy even though it was sitting in a pool of chilli oil.

Steamed chicken wings with Glutinous rice

We got this as a "safe" spice free dish. But this turned out quite tasteless compared to the other firey dishes. I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more if I was eating other dishes.

Lamb ribs in spicy sauce

Heavy on the cumin combined with the lovely charred bits reminded me of Turkish food, except for the chilli kick that came with it. This dish doesn't look spicy (Those red bits are capsicum), but damn it was hot! But so very very good as well. My parents didn't enjoy this as much as it was quite heavy on the cumin, but I lurrrrrrve my cumin!

Braised belt fish in chilli oil - Can you spot the fish?

This looked NOTHING like the photo in the menu (check the website), if the photo looked like this, I would NOT have ordered it!!! However, despite 60% of the dish being chilli, it wasn't that hot. I ate a piece of fish completely encrusted with chilli seeds, and I still found this more mild than the lamb ribs.

Meat and vegetable dumplings

These were ordered for my youngest nephew who doesn't eat anything spicy. He demolished the whole thing!

Eggplant braised with sweet paste sauce

This dish was HOT. And I'm not talking chilli hot. I'm talking "OMG! I think its burned a hole through my tongue" temperature hot. This was cooked with a layer of chilli oil, which basically trapped the heat in. Even by the end of the meal, it was still really hot! With that aside, it still tasted quite nice, I only wished it wasn't so oily.

Double cooked pork

This is a new way of making this dish. Whenever we've had double cooked pork (Wu Wor Yuk), its a big piece of pork belly that has been cooked until it falls apart. This is more like cooked pork belly, sliced up and stir fried. I much prefer the way we cook it. Still nice though.

Kung Pao Chicken

I didn't get to try this dish much as my nephews polished most of it off, until they bit into something in the dish they didn't like and left the rest for me. A plate of peanuts and onions. I think they left me one piece of chicken ;)

Dried mushrooms, pork shreds and vegetables

This was the BEST dish of the night. The mushrooms is called "Monkey head" mushrooms and they taste fantastic stir fried! We usually boil them in soup only, but it looks like we're going to start stir frying them. I don't know how to describe this dish, but it was amazing! A must have. Actually, I'm tempted to go back just for this!

After dinner, we went over to my nephew's place to cut his birthday cake. I've been talking to my workmates about the Chocolate Ripple cake for the last week, and I originally had planned to take this cake into work, but my nephew's birthday present hadn't arrived yet, so I decided to turn this into his birthday cake instead.

Chocolate Ripple Cake

This is the most amazingly easy and amazingly delicious cake to make! It took almost no effort to make, just cookies and cream!! We polished most of the cake off and I went home and made another one that night to take to work the next day!

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Spicy Sichuan Restaurant
1-9 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe NSW 2037
Ph: 02 9660 8200

http://www.spicyfood.com.au/