In my continuing quest to sample all that the Flushing Mall Food Court has to offer, I went to Chengdu Snacks today. As with all the other stalls at the Flushing Mall Food Court, it is not a place with 5-star service. You place your order, and then you wait for them to make you the food. The good thing as always is that they are very quick.
Chengdu Snacks specialises in Sichuan (or Szechuan) cuisine, and Sichuan food is known for being spicy. They have pictures of the dishes that they have to offer posted in the front, and all the dishes have English names. I ordered the Dan Dan Noodles and the Ma La Shredded Beef.
Dan Dan Noodles is a popular dish in Sichuan cuisine. It uses thick noodles served dry, meaning, not in a broth, and some might say it is a standard by which you can measure a place that serves Sichuan cuisine. The Dan Dan Noodles that Chengdu Snacks served were smooth, spicy, and oily, with a bit of ground beef. Overall it was good, but the ground beef was a bit overcooked and kind of hard. I probably wouldn't order it again if I went there.
The English name for the Ma La Shredded Beef is probably a misnomer - because there's no beef in it. That's not an uncommon problem when they translate names of Chinese dishes to make them more English-friendly. The Chinese name is Ma La San Si. A "Ma La" dish is supposed to be very spicy. And a "San Si" dish just means the ingredients are all in shredded form. There is a number of dishes that can be named "San Si" as long as the ingredients are shredded. This dish as served by Chengdu Snacks consisted mostly of a kind of pepper, but I couldn't tell what kind of pepper it was, and a mixture of other vegetables, that were all shredded. It was served cold and spicy. The combination of it being both cold and spicy actually made it very refreshing. My only complaint was that it wasn't spicy enough. As I've mentioned, "Ma La" dishes are supposed to be very spicy. If they are specialising in Sichuan dishes and making "Ma La" dishes, it ought to be very spicy, and most Chinese people would expect it to be so.
Overall, I give it three stars. read more