Chinese food takeout in Marlboro. Good fish dish is a requirement. Sichuan cottage, JinLi, or somewhere else? Anything specific at either as a recco for those who don’t need the fish?
Thanks
Happy holidays everyone!
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Sichuan Cottage’s fish in chili oil (#922 on the dine-in menu) is the answer. TRUST ME. I trusted @joonjoon and now I’m passing the wisdom along to you!
Separate of that, my favorites include the Westlake beef chowder, lamb with cumin (you have to LOVE cumin), sesame noodles, the dumplings in Chile oil (sensing a theme?), and the triple pepper chicken. (#911).
@seal needs to chime in…
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Sichuan Cottage would be my choice as well. The fish filet with eggplant is another great fish dish and this one is less fiery.
They do great versions of fried salt n pepper shrimp or pork chops, Dan Dan Noodles, and Shanghai noodles. Honestly, I’ve rarely had anything there I didn’t like.
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Lol, this is why I love this site! Reading this thread helped me decide to get takeout from Sicuan Cottage today. I had forgotten just how good their Kung Pao chicken was! Not that I’m any kind of judge but it may be the best version of that dish I’ve ever had!
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Does anyone know if there is any place that is doing tamales in Freehold, Marlboro area?
Merry Christmas HO ‘s
All I can add is Mapo Tofu, because everything Curlz lists is great!
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Thanks all
Hot and sour soup
Mapo tofu
Lamb with cumin
Fish and tofu casserole
Pad Thai vegetarian
Yummy as always.
Enough for lunch tomorrow
And for dessert, cannoli from del ponte
Merry Christmas everyone!
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You’re killing me… may need to do a run to SC this week thanks to this discussion! Glad you enjoyed it!
Our plan for Christmas day was Indian food (pouches). Our actual meal for Christmas day was King Pao Chicken and Meat Loaf from Shanghai Bun, because at 2am Christmas morning the power went out (and won’t be back until late tonight). Luckily the Holiday Inn has a microwave to reheat the leftovers and the Indian, which is good because Mark is supposed to quarantine between now and his cataract surgery Wednesday.
We did do our first indoor dining since March: breakfast at Park Place Diner. After sleeping in a 57-degree house, we needed heat!
(Power should be back by tomorrow.)
I really feel sorry for all my neighbors (43 houses out) who had Christmas turkeys to cook. I hope at least some could grill them.
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Christmas Eve was takeout from Happy Garden which never fails. A nice break with lots of cooking the next day!
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We got Sichaun Cottage on Christmas day. Gen Tsos chicken and shrimp, orange beef, veg lo mein. Very good. I have to try the fish in chili oil. We usually get the dumplings in chili oil. The lamb with cumin was too cuminey for me, and I like cumin.
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No question that dish is POTENT. I always warn people and assure them that if they don’t like it, I’ll gladly take the leftovers home! But the fish in chili oil is spectacular. I have @joonjoon to thank for the intro to that one and I’ve mentioned it enough this week that I think I’m going to make the trek in the next few days. My sinuses will appreciate it, so that’s a good enough excuse!
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Tried some new things from JinLi and Sichuan Cottage recently so thought I’d chime in even though it’s late!
JinLi:
Sichuan pig kidney - Now I usually love kidney, this one was slightly on the gamey side. Standard sichuan flavor in gloppy sauce. Kind of steep for the amount of food (18.95), I would not recommend this unless you’re really in the mood for kidney.
Pig foot soup: The broth was incredibly creamy, to the point where I began to suspect they may have added some kind of milk based product, but it gelled up like crazy and there’s no mistaking that lip smackiness. It was decent overall, good amount of foot and interestingly it comes with fava beans. And it’s served with a chili oil/sauce you’re supposed to put on top. I enjoyed it and I think it’s a decent value for the money. Not a huge fan of fava beans in general so that was a miss for me.
Sichuan cottage:
909 House Special sauteed - this one is again that standard red sichuan style sauce, but in a dry fry style. It was ok, nothing special happening, but at 12.95 who can complain.
925 Fish with chopped chili and black bean sauce - this used to be perhaps my favorite dish there, but it was totally different this time. Maybe because I asked for it extra spicy? They used fresh red thai chilis instead of the usual green and the sauce went from being white/green to red. It was absolutely blazing hot but not in the way I was looking for. I hope it’s not a permanent change to the dish!
901: Ox Tongue and Tripe - I don’t think I’ve ever ordered this from here but it reminded me of the stuff I used to get in Flushing, a good amount of kick and decent mala.
One complaint I have here is that no matter how much I ask for extra spicy/mala, they never jack up the numbiness to “authentic” levels. So I now own a fresh bag of sichuan peppercorns! 
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When we had the SC HO-Down, we had two tables. One was specifically the “Tongue and Tripe” table and the other was not.
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