Huzzah! A Food Article!

Tonight I ate at Grand Sichuan. I've eaten there before and had a great time, so why not try again? Me, my mom, and my dad drove out to the city for a Sichuan treat.

We ate the soup dumplings last time and loved them, so we ordered eight. They're very tender dumplings that you must put in large spoons. There's hot soup inside, so you have to poke holes in them to drain it. They also have pork in the middle, so it's kind of like a very small subgum wonton soup with a darker and heartier stock. It was delicious, and I had fourths as usual. We got to the main course; Aui Zhou Spicy Beef and Chicken with Mixed Vegetables and Lotus Root. My parents ordered the medium spicy kind much to my dismay. I wanted to test my pain threshold. I chopsticked the white and brown rice onto my plate and was spooned some Beef with some vegetables. I tried the beef and was amazed at its full, well seasoned, and, for lack of better words, beefy taste. The vegetables also complemented it well, having the same sauce on it, but nice and crisp. Wait, wasn't this supposed to be spicy? It didn't seem so, until I eyed the spicy peppers on the serving plate, slightly scorched, foreshadowing my near future. I grabbed the biggest one with my chopsticks, said, "Here I go." I put the whole pepper in my mouth. My thoughts are as follows. "Hmm... This isn't too spicy. Kinda bland, but OH GOD! MY MOUTH! IT'S ON FIRE! QUICK, SWALLOW IT BEFORE ANY PERMANENT DAMAGE! NO! THE PAIN WON'T GO AWAY! The water... IT ONLY HELPS FOR A SECOND! The chicken... IT ONLY MAKES IT MORE PAINFUL! I HAD NO IDEA THAT SOMETHING SPICY CAN MAKE YOUR TONGUE SO TENDER!" I went on like this for another ten or so minutes, tears in my eyes, trying to soothe my tongue with an ice cube. Once the pain was over, I retried the chicken. Pretty bland. The lotus root... Kind of starchy. Next time we won't get this dish. We finished our meal and got fortune cookies with strange fortunes coupled with oranges. A good way to wind down the most painful experience I've had for months. This was mostly delicious and memorable, but for two different reasons. I pause before passing through the door to think what would happen if we got the full spicy beef.