Anytime you want, text me and I will meet you there.
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After @joonjoon reminded me about this place during yesterdayâs HO meal, I mentioned it again to my husband and we went for dinner last night. I was glad I gave this thread a quick read and called ahead to reserve a table. By 615/630 there was a huge crowd waiting. I still wasnât hungry after dim sum and tried to keep it light. I forget to ask for the pickled veggies but the baby likes the fried noodles (of course). We ordered dry sauteed string beans (delicious), tofu and vegetables (good but I wouldnât order again. I didnât realize the tofu would be fried. So much for keeping it light!) And beef in hot oil. OMG this was incredible. Iâm usually not a fan of spicy. It wasnât all that spicy to my wimpy tounge. Bold flavors with a variety of spices. I picked up cinnamon and cumin. That tingly sensation is very odd! Iâm jazzed to eat it again today. Huge thanks to the group for reminding me. Only 15 minutes away!
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Just a reminder to allâSichuan Cottage is now closed on Tuesdays (as is Shanghai Bun).
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@gracieggg I loooove that you kept the Chinese food going yesterday! If I hadnât been headed north for a friendâs birthday dinner, I probably wouldâve picked some up on my way home to have for dinner!
Iâve said it before but it bears repeating-even if you generally donât eat/enjoy spicy food, Sichuan is something altogether different. The heat dissipates on your tongue in a different way and it doesnât completely kill your taste buds! A chef friend is the one who first convinced me to try it, and I havenât looked backâŚglad you enjoyed it! Thereâs also a fish fillet version of that beef dish that @joonjoon. Introduced us to and I love that one as well.
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That fish pot is indeed good. It is catfish. I had my friend ask the waitress (fact of the day) 
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Working our way through the menuâŚ
Well, we just had what I had translated as âSour Hot Pot with Seafood and Squidâ. Itâs been too long since we had the soup to compare, but I can at least correct/improve my translation; it should be âSour Cabbage with Squidâânot a hot pot, and no other seafood. The flavor is kind of like squid with brine pickles. As with the Potatoes with Vinegar Sauce, itâs not something I would want to make an entire meal of, but as one dish shared by several people, itâs at least not the same-old, same-old.
We also had the Double-Sauteed Porkânot as fatty as last time, but still very oily, and fairly salty. (We are perhaps more sensitive to salt than others, because I rarely use it at home.)
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Just a quick noteâSichuan Cottage has (slightly) changed their menu (including Chinese lunch menu) again. Details to follow, made a bit difficult by the fact that I couldnât manage to get the waiter to give me a Chinese lunch menu to take home, so Iâm working from a printout of a photo off my cell phone. Biggest change is that their prices for their âauthenticâ dishes and some of their lunch menu has gone up, but there are also a few additions and deletions. Stay tuned!
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I await your news with bated breath.
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So here it is:
The photo is practically unreadable and my notes on it even more so (it has a dark lavender background for some reason), so I will just give my translations in order. The names of anything with a number were taken by matching the main menu. Others were taken either from âThe Eaterâs Guide to Chinese Charactersâ or Jin Liâs menu. If they sound like just a list of ingredients (e.g., âTofu Fish Dicedâ), Iâm winging it. â???â means I havenât a clue. (Note that they have renumbered the items in the menu to reflect additions and deletions, so if you are used to ordering by number, you may be in for a surprise!)
First column:
Steamed Chicken Leg in Hot Szechuan Sauce (903)
Steamed Chicken Leg in Hot Sesame Sauce (904)
???
Kung Pao Chicken (910)
Three-Pepper Chicken (911)
Shredded Chicken with String Beans
Double Sauteed Pork (912)
Pork with Sweet & Sour Hot Bean Sauce (915)
Shredded Beef with Hot Green Pepper (916)
Salt & Pepper Pork Chops (917)
Salt & Pepper Pork Chop Beijing Stylle (918)
Tofu Fish Diced
???
Bitter Melon Pork Chops
???
Sour Cabbbage and Squid
Second column:
Fish Filet with Eggplant (926)
Sour Hot Pot with Fish Filet
Sauteed Vermicelli with Spiced Minced Pork
???
Eggplants with Chili & Garlic Sauce
???
Potatoes with Vinegar Sauce (936)
???
Shredded Noodles Spicy Fish Filet
???
Beef Stew Casserole
Spicy Beef Stew Casserole
Sichuan Shrimp (?)
Baby Shrimp with Soft Tofu and White Sauce
Shredded Beef with Spicy Green Chile
Fish Filet and Intestine with Chili Sauce
Everything from âShredded Noodles Spicy Fish Filetâ down is $8.95 rather than $7.95. All the items in the âAuthentic Sichuan Dishesâ section have increased by $1, and the price of some of the lunch menus items have increased as well.
Iâm not sure of the difference between left column #9 and right column #15. I suppose weâll just have to order R-15 next time and see.
New items in the âAuthenticâ section of the dinner menu include âShredded Pork with Sweet Bean Sauceâ and something entirely in Chinese (#935) that I havenât translated yet.
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Early dinner at SC last night (HINT: 5pm on a gorgeous summer Sunday is the right time to arriveâit was almost full an hour later)⌠the two of us had dumplings in hot chili oil, potatoes in vinegar, Chinese broccoli w garlic (amazing wok flavor), fish in hot chili oil (NOTE: now #922, used to be #921), and triple-pepper chicken. DAMN. IT. WAS. ALL. DELICIOUS.
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Looks like prices went up a buck or two with the new menu. Damn you inflation!!
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They may have figured that if Jin Li had higher prices, they could nudge theirs up as well. That said, most of the authentic lunch specials stayed the same, and the higher priced ones are new additions.
Now if only Mark and I could agree on the desirability of brown pepperâŚ
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Yeah I did notice that Jinli was a buck or two higher across the board. To be fair the previous prices at Cottage were insanely low.
Whatâs brown pepper?
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Also called Szechuan pepperâthe stuff that numbs your mouth. Itâs one of the peppers in Three Pepper Chicken.
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Ah of course. So who is for/against?
I like it, or at least I like some of the dishes that use it, but Mark finds it less appealing and would prefer to avoid them. In a big enough group it doesnât matter, but with only two people, itâs hard to share.
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Today was my birthday, so Mark told me to choose anyplace I wanted for lunch. And so Sichuan Cottage it was. Itâs been a while, but the Three-Pepper Chicken and Cold Noodle with Spicy Sesame Sauce were just as yummy as ever.
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Good choice. I had take out from SC last night - beef in hot chili oil, spicy wontons, shanghai rice cakes. Delicious meal.
Oh, and Happy BDay!!!
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Happy Birthday, Evelyn!
Happy Birthday!
