Listen, if you don't know what putting your mouth through a paper shredder feels like, try the…read moreSichuan pork in chilli at Barshu.
Barshu has been serving what I can only imagine is authentic Sichuan fodder, (for surely you couldn't make this stuff up) for a good 20 years. It sits a stone's throw from Chinatown, north of Shaftesbury and it's worth the short detour from the mainly Cantonese Gerrard St and its environs.
Intimate and intricate, the space and the wooden carvings that adorn it. It gives a sense that the proprietors want to give you a flavour of their beloved Sichuan culture as well as their food. And they don't hold back. There's no catering for those of a nervous culinary disposition here.
The menu is unfathomably and reassuringly long. If you will make use of every part of your animal, that's will happen. Pig's feet stand next to Pig's ears who listen intently to intestines as they growl that nobody is being brave enough to eat them.
Sichuan pepper and chilli feature heavily in many dishes.
Two things I can confirm. The pork is most definitely in chilli.
And the Dandan noodles are most definitely, as described, legendary.
I spent the weekend trying and failing to create the same unctuous loveliness that arrived in a bowl in front of me.
A more comforting, yet powerful concoction it would be hard to produce and for under a tenner, an absolute bargain.
The noodles are fresh, soft, chewy. We could be in italy were the noodles not smothered in a minced pork and sesame paste concoction that adds to the velvetiness. Smoother than the cream in a Twinkie, word up.
the Pork in Chilli came on a plate they snaffled from Wimbledon ladies champ Iga Swiatek once she'd finished brandishing it in celebration. In amongst a million dried chillies which have been fried with Sichuan pepper, you'll find hard nuggets of pork. They have been incinerated and infused with the flavours of the chillies and pepper that engulfs them. To eat a nugget is to be met with an initial pleasant fragrantness followed by a mouth who's only means of protest is to find another one and do it all over again.
The treasure hunt through the chillies is fun. Just when you think you've picked every last nugget, a little rustling around reveals another, and another, and another. By the time your mouth can take no more, it's numb and that means you can start on the chillies. It's a mission but it's worth it. Rather like a Dostoyevsky book, I'm not sure anyone's actually finished one of these but everyone declares their love for it nonethelessless. You might describe it as a statement dish, were your mouth able to make any statement at all.
Don't panic. The sensation dies down after about 20 minutes alongside two or three beers which the house are happy to bring you quickly. If that doesn't quench the flames, Shaftesbury Ave has a handily placed Fire station. After the madness you are then left with a very pleasant feeling. One that says you've been out, eaten something bold, interesting, mad. And you're ready for action. Step back out into the Soho night and go get some. there's plenty around and if you've dined at Barshu, you are well primed to crack on.