Among the Sichuan-style Chinese dishes I’ve eaten while living in Malaysia, I can confidently say that this Chong Qing restaurant I’m introducing today is a restaurant that cooks the most original Mara flavor.
Currently, in all Asian countries, such as Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia, Chinese cuisine with the flavor of Mara from mainland China is a crazy hit. I think my opinion is valid to some extent because I have eaten a lot of Mara-style food while traveling to Sichuan, Yunnan, and Xinjiang, where the Uyghurs live.
In order to properly release the flavor of mala, in any mara related dishes, literally one cup or more of whole peppercorns should be used along with a massive amount of dried red chillies.
Essentially, those spices and herbs used in oriental herbal medicines must also be included. So, after eating Sichuan cuisine, you can’t help but find that there is always a huge bed of chili in the leftover bowl.
I always like spicy food, so I was very happy to find two Sichuan restaurants in the neighborhood where I live. Just by looking at the exterior and interior, you can easily tell whether it is a localized restaurant or an authentic restaurant close to Sichuan style, China.
As soon as I first moved into this neighborhood, I actually went the first two times with my husband and my 2 year old son. At the time, we ordered a spicy dry dish with squid and lotus root. It is RM49 that says “Dry wok with cuttlefish” on the menu, and can be enough as a dish for three persons.
It comes in a large stainless steel deep-bottomed pot. If you finish some squid and lotus root from the pot, a huge amount of dried red chillies is exposed. It was a pity that there were so many chili leftover, so I ate 1/3 of them like a chili snack with beer.
In fact, if you like spicy, there is no reason not to eat the chili. right? Isn’t this part of the food too?
To my surprise, the fried potato dish we ordered together was really delicious. The vinegar flavor is moderately added, and the thinly sliced potatoes are quickly fried over high heat and have a great crunchy taste in your mouth.
Afterwards, I went to this restaurant with my Vietnamese colleague Grace and Korean acquaintance Jayden, who wanted to try spicy Mara-style Sichuan cuisine.
Three of us ate the same wok dish with squid and lotus root with rice, mapo tofu with minced pork meat, and spicy noodles, and I was happy to see them enjoying the food as much as I did despite of the fact that they felt the food extra spicy to their liking.
I went back with Grace just before the Covid outbreak, this time for the famous Sichuan style hotpot. The red mara broth is simmering in front of us, and the flavor of mara is stinging your mouth and tongue. Just think of a taste that numbs your lips instantly, and makes your lips tingle nonstop. Those who eat spicy food in moderation will hardly find it easy to enjoy these original mara-flavored hotpots.
By the way, when you want to eat the hot pot, you have to choose which soup base you want to eat. In general, you can choose from a variety of soups, including Chongqing Mara, clear pork broth, tomato broth, and duck broth etc.
In fact, the well-known Thai Tom yam broth that can be found elsewhere, but it’s not here. After choosing the base soup, you can choose a variety of foods to put in the broth, mark the item name and number of it on a piece of paper on the table and hand it over to the staff.
The menu has a great variety of items. Starting with the main ingredients such as pork, beef, chicken and seafood, there are various vegetables, noodles, tofu, sausages, fish balls and pork balls.
During Covid, I stopped by this restaurant by myself because I suddenly wanted spicy noodles while going to my favorite Chinese TK Bakery nearby. And although it is not necessarily a meal shared by several people for hotpot or gigantic dish I had previously, there are also some a la carte menus that can be eaten alone. The price is very reasonable, so you can try various rice or noodle dishes for about RM10 to RM12.
The RM10 pork noodle I chose was so flavorful, spicy, and the texture of the noodle was nice chewy that I really enjoyed it a lot. And, thanks to the black stone pot that the noodles were served in, it was really good because the soup was boiled until it was all eaten. In fact, the amount of pork itself was too small, but the Chinese sausage and vegetables were fresh. So it was a really satisfying meal.
If you live or visit Malaysia, you should definitely visit this Chong Qing style restaurant if you want to taste the flavors of mainland China, cooked by a Chinese chef from Chongqing. You will not regret!
However, all of the food at this restaurant will be spicy because it uses a lot of real whole peppercorns, a huge amount of dried chilies, lots of spices and herbs.
So make sure you know the spicy level at which you can take before ordering. And it is better enjoying some of the spicy food together with some plain or fried rice and mild noodles to offset.
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No.35 MY Selangor Petaling Jaya Kota Damansara, 1, Jalan PJU 5/12, Dataran Sunway, 47810