Hunan food

Hunan is a Provence in China where the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) Chairman Mao was from. Hunan food is well-known for its spiciness. It's a different kind of spiciness from Sichuan food. I heard from a friend that with Sichuan food, it's spice in the mouth, but with Hunan food, you feel the spice around the throat.

Last night, we went to a Hunan restaurant called, "The Noodle Shop". It's around El Camino Real, a few blocks north of Hillsdale Shopping Center. It advertised Mao's Family Dishes. It's not a big place, so it's very crowded.

I went there with my co-workers before, and I was impressed. So I decided to let Jack try it too. As always, he was quite ambivalent. Jack is a very loyal customer, he only goes to certain restaurants he likes, so we have our designated restaurants for different cuisines - Sichuan, Dim Sum, Thai, Sushi, Indian and American. It is hard for you to take him to other places, unless he feels adventurous. It makes sense because he didn't want to try different places and be disappointed at the end.

Usually, if you see it on the menu that the dish has a chili pepper icon next to it, you would think that it's a spicy dish, right? Granted, we didn't order the most authentic Hunan food with pork bellies, beef tribes, or pork blood, we did order some Hunan Specialties with a chili pepper, but the food was JUST NOT SPICY ENOUGH. It was very tasty, but not spicy.

At the end of the meal, I felt disappointed about what we ordered, and left wondering if we would come back for a second try.