——-29/10/2011——-
People think Canberra is a small world, within an hour of being in Melbourne we ran into some friends while I was staring into a cake store (what else would I be doing?). They kindly invited us to their gorgeous daughter’s 100th day birthday celebration which we excitedly accepted!
Welcome to the Dainty Sichuan where the dishes have a three chili rating scale! I was hoping for one or less chilies on our dishes that we order, for an Asian my chili
tolerance is very poor.
Some pre-emptive soya bean milk for all the spicy food that we just ordered.
Vegetarian delight- you could easily pick at the plate and finish it yourself without even noticing.
Sticky pork ribs- a crowd favourite with a slightly sweet sticky sauce covering pork ribs, how could you go wrong?
Ma po tofu (one rating) I usually can eat this so when it came to table I put spoonfuls into my bowl and mixed it into my rice. Alas it was a lot spicier than I’m used to, the sauce was so hot that I couldn’t eat any more rice.
Vegetables and tofu with chili
Roast duck- you didn’t get a second shot at this dish after everyone had their first serve
Bubbling hot pot it literally bubbled for another 10 minutes after it was placed on the table! I can’t remember exactly what was in it but it wasn’t too chili hot though.
Fried egg plant– this was so delicious and was highly recommended by my friend. It’s hard to describe the taste, it didn’t taste like eggplant instead it tasted sweet and crispy- you just have to order it!
While we were waiting for our food, I looked around to see what other tables had ordered. The tables are fitted with a hole in the middle so you could order a hot pot steam boat which looked pretty cool as they wheeled a cart with all the meats and vegetables to you. Another table had some Sichuan dish that looked very hot- fried meats surrounded by lots of fried chilies, obviously some people could handle it because when I turned around again there was nothing but the chilis left.
As we were leaving, the restaurant was completely packed and intermittently there was a cluster of people waiting for a table. Obviously a very popular restaurant! I would be very happy to come back and try more from the menu (and have more eggplant) as the food was delicious and it’s just a short train ride away from the CBD!
Venue: Dainty Sichuan
Address: 176 Toorak Road, South Yarra, Vic, 3141
TALES OF A CONFECTIONIST 