No soup dumplings here

Last Friday, Zack, Ana, Sarah and I went to see God of Carnage. Sarah and I got there early to pick up tickets and then went to pick a place for dinner. We've gotten tired of our usual places, so we decided to try a place I read about in the New York Times last summer, but never managed to go to: Szechuan Gourmet. It's known for its spicy and authentic food, plus it's not super expensive. Off we went.


Sarah and I had to wait a bit for Zack and Ana to arrive so we ordered some small plates - Sliced Pork Belly with chilli garlic soy:


Hand Shredded Chicken with chili sesame vinaigrette and Spicy Cucumber Salad:


When we ordered these dishes, the old man by the door leaned over and said "Ah, good choice." This gave us some confidence. They were all good. The cucumbers had a nice bite to them and I liked the sauce on the chicken - it was almost like peanut sauce. The pork was great too - nice and spicy. None of these are for the faint of heart. Zack ate a bite of cucumber and coughed for about five minutes. It was cute.

We moved on to Camphor Tea Smoked Duck.


I love duck. I'll order duck almost any time it's on a menu and this did not disappoint. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender. I'm normally not a huge fan of smoked things, but this gave the meat a good bunch of flavor. We finished up with some vegetable noodles.


They were good, but not super impressive. I mean, they're just noodles. Overall though, the meal was good. I would go back and order more things. The menu is super long and it has frogs on it. I'm so ordering frogs some day.