Saturday, May 02, 2009

Sichuan in Jersey

I have finally found authentic Chinese food in the US--tonight was 100% better than last year's encounter with a Chinese restaurant that promised us authentic food because we were living in China.

Grand Sichuan (大四川) on Grove St. and Newark Ave. in Jersey City is a great meal. They also have a few locations in New York City. With six of us in the small restaurant, we ordered a small and spicy feast.

We started with spicy sliced beef (麻辣牛肉) and some cold noodles. The 麻辣牛肉 was great--not as neatly sliced as it usually was in China, but the beef was tender and the spices were just right. I'm not a big fan of cold noodles, but Jia enjoyed them.

For the main course, we ordered sweet & sour fish (糖醋鱼片), dried string beans (干煸四季豆), spicy beef (水煮牛肉), spicy frog and vegetables, and smoked tea duck (樟茶鸭). Everything was great, but the fish wasn't quite what I was used to in China (still enjoyed it though). I don't recall trying smoked tea duck in China and now I think I should have because I really enjoyed it at Grand Sichuan. Everything that was supposed to be spicy was about as spicy as I remember them being when Jia and I visited Sichuan.

In Jersey City, Grand Sichuan does not have a liquor license, but you can bring your own Tsingtao (or baijiu if you really want it). They also have an "American Chinese" menu page for those who don't want anything really spicy or tasty.

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