Si Chuan / Sze Chuan Cuisine @ Jin Shan Cheng, Sunway

Having a huge appetite for Si Chuan food, wifey and I search for this Chinese cuisine in Malaysia. This cuisine is originated from the Sichuan province of China, has an unmistakable pungent and bold flavour, particularly a numbing spiciness that is a result of liberal use of garlic, chili and peppercorn. Incidentally, the people in Sichuan eat a lot of hot peppercorn to counter the effect of continuous humidity experienced in the province. One evening, we managed to find it - Jin Shan Cheng from Uncle Google.

Above: Appetizers (RM1/each) – I recommend you to refuse taking this to save yourself few dollars. Doesn’t worth it to me.

Above: Happily waiting for my food

I guess the most popular dish of Si Chuan is ‘Shui Zhu Yu’ or literally Water-Boiled Fish in translation. Even though the name refers to water, this dish was not cooked entirely in water alone. The fresh fish slices were first quickly poached with boiling water for a half a minute. They were then placed in a dish, together with lots of chili, peppercorn, garlic, vegetables and other ingredients. Then, a large amount of vegetable oil was heated  before being poured over the fish fillet. This way, the fish gets to maintain its tenderness while being coated with pungent flavoring from the spicy and hot oil.

Above: “Shui Zhu Yu” or Water-boiled Fish (RM20)

Above: Superbly fresh fish fillet (Be warned that this most of the Si Chuan dish has the effect of numbing your lips !! )

The second signature Sichuan dish that we ordered was the Chongqing Chicken or ‘La Zi Qi’ in Mandarin. This is my favourite Sichuan dish and many restaurants do it in different ways – some cook this with big pieces of meaty chicken, while some with small, chicken dices. This restaurant do it with the latter method, although I prefer the former. Even though this was very well-flavoured and bold, I had a difficulty just searching for the chicken cubes! They were so tiny and insignificant on the plate filled with dried chillies and peppercorn!

Above: Chong Qing Chicken (RM1

Honestly, the chicken pieces is small and not many, kinda expensive for me. Probably it costs you more for the chilies than chicken, lol.

Not to forget something green to balance our meal – Stir Fried Chinese Baby Cabbage (Siew Bak Choy) with garlic. This was a refreshing twist to the hot and spicy dinner we had. The vegetables were young and still retained their original sweetness.

Above: Stir Fried Chinese Baby Cabbage (RM15)

Above: Jin Shan Cheng Sichuan Village Restaurant at Dataran Mentari

I returned again to this restaurant with my family to let me try out Si Chuan cuisine. My nephew and niece seems able to take the spiciness. How about you? Try it yourself if you haven’t !

Address:

Jin Shan Cheng Sichuan Village Restaurant (1st Floor above Mazda Showroom)
No. 42A-2, Jalan PJS 8/2,
Dataran Mentari,
Bandar Sunway,
46150 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel no: +603-5631-8220
Fax no: +603-5631-8221
Email: pj@jscmsb.com
Website: www.jscmsb.com
GPS Coordinates: 3.075100,101.612550