Saturday, March 15, 2008

3/14/2008 Dinner at Sichuan Gourmet framingham:
6 of us went last night to SG framingham.

We started with:

Dan Dan noodles - a favorite of the group. Angel hair like pasta with a spicy sauce and bits of pork.
Sichuan Wonton w. Spicy Chili Sauce (10) - Small wonton-soup-like dumplings in a similar red sauce as the dan dan noodles.
Scallion Pancakes - smaller then most and not cooked very dark, still tasty.
Shrimp Toast - These were nice. Deep fried white bread with shrimp paste on top. What made these ones interesting is they had bits of waterchesnut in the shrimp mix and generous amounts of sesamee seeds on top.
Main dishes:
Fresh Whole Fish w. Sichuan Chili Bean Sauce
- Similar red spicy sauce with beans in it this time. Fish was moist and flaky. Some at the table got frustrated with the bones.
Beef & Napa Cabbage w. Spicy Chili Sauce - Again similar red spicy sauce but more of it and alot of crushed red pepper flake made this the spiciest dish we had i think.
Cumin Flavored Dry Beef w. Chili Sauce - Always a favorite of the table. Sort of a beef jerky with cumin sorta thing.
Smoky Hot Shredded Chicken w. Cayenne - The cayenne is not what you expect but more of a fresh green pepper sorta thing. Nice flavor.
Ma Po Tofu - chunks of tofu in a similar red spicy sauce as many other dishes. Wasnt a big hit at the table. I liked it but i prefer a firmer or fried tofu. This was your basic soft-white cubed tofu.
Cellophane Noodles & Minced Pork - We added this at the end and the waitress replied "have you had it before?" which made us think that she thought we wouldnt like it. Well it was interesting. Clear noodles with the consistancy of gummy bears in the red spicy sauce with bits of pork thrown in. Was tough to eat and wasnt a big hit of the table but most people were pretty full by then.
White rice.
Sesame Sweet Potato Cakes
- These dessert cakes have mashed sweet potato and a dollop of red bean paste in the middle. The outside it a thin crust with sesame seeds. I would have liked them sweeter but they were good and very hot filling.

Total bill with some drinks and tip was $186.

Overall I felt it was all tasty but I would have liked more variety of sauces/flavors. I think we ordered too many dishes that had the same sort of sichuan red sauce/oil. Bill seemed a bit high for the amount of food we got but we did have 5-6 cocktails at the table as well.