KiKi: Szechuan in Taipei

Szechuan (Sichuan) knows how to bring the heat. One of my absolute favorite types of Chinese cuisine, it gets its bold flavors from no-holds-barred uses of chili, spices, and garlic on almost everything. The result is usually something that’s packed with flavor and also mouth-numbingly spicy.

But be warned as it’s not for the faint of heart. Sichuan spicy is usually for those who love everything as spicy as they can get, or just enjoy pain in their mouths.

I haven’t had Sichuan food in a while, so I was very excited when we pulled up to this restaurant and my relatives told me it would be spicy. (Side note: aside from dining with family, I never eat at Chinese restaurants. Except for two exceptions–Christmas Day and post-clubbing with Asians. I could count the times I’ve ordered Chinese food with my two hands probably. And I had never heard of Kung Pao Chicken until this year at Panda Express. An epiphany I just had while writing this. Now I’ve probably just lost all credibility when it comes to writing about Chinese food).

KiKi is a chain restaurant with a couple shops around Taipei, the easiest one to find on FuXing S. Road across from the Breeze Center Mall. My cousin tells me it was started by a celebrity, but I hadn’t heard of the name. I also have no idea if it has anything to do with Hayao Miyazaki’s classic film KiKi’s Delivery Service (1989), one of my childhood favorites, but the cat image looks too similar to believe otherwise. A Japanese animated film and Sichuan food doesn’t sound like it’d be related though.

Onto the food. This is stir fried minced pork with Chinese chives and fermented black beans. This is typically a very spicy dish that goes well on top of your bowl of rice. You just eat it all up together. I love this dish and probably could eat all of this if I didn’t have to share. We also went with “little spicy” on all our dishes so as to not cause pain for those that didn’t want it.

Dish #2 is crispy deep fried egg tofu. It’s actually not crispy like the menu states. It’s like most fried tofu you can find on the streets except for one key difference. The insides are super tender, almost like a poached egg. They make this dish very well.

Now this dish is why I get so excited about Sichuan cuisine. For many adolescent years I’ve eaten suan ni bai rou (thinly sliced boiled pork in a piquant garlic dressing) at a Sichuan restaurant in the bay with my family, so this takes me back. While looking very different from what I remember, trust me. There is nothing bad I can say about pork in spicy garlic sauce. I loved every bite of it.

And then we capped the dinner off with a whole pan roasted fish in chili and soy sauce. The seasoning was sweet, salty, and spicy all at the same time, and the meat just melted in your mouth.

Now I’m on a mission to find me a good Sichuan restaurant back in LA.

KiKi
Various locations in Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.kiki1991.com/