Kung Fu Szechuan Cuisine - more great Sichuan food!

Just a quick note to tell all that we have another great and authentic Sichuan restaurant in town! Kung Fu Szechuan Cuisine is tucked away in the corner of a little strip mall right near Frandor - just north on Clippert, in the island between Saginaw and Grand River, a few doors north of Medawar Jewelers.

They have many dishes in common with Hong Kong Sichuan - but also a nice selection of their own dishes. If you are not used to Sichuan food, be warned that it is often spicy, and the menu does not have little stars or peppers to warn you which dishes are the hottest. However they often say right in the name of the dish, and you can ask before ordering something you don't recognize.

I recommend their Dumplings in Spicy Sauce, myself. (It's so good I save the left over sauce in the freezer to put on noodles on cold winter nights. But it's intense and you only need a spoonful.) A friend recently had their Korean Style Noodles with Ground Pork - which consisted of noodles in a ragu of chopped meat and mushrooms and seasonings. Very tasty!

One great thing about Kung Fu - they have a good lunch buffet. Unlike Hong Kong, they have a good selection of Sichuan dishes as well as a few of the usual westernized fare. It's a good way to try their menu.

Among their authentic dishes on the day we were there: Ma Po Tofu, and Sichuan Green Beans - both dishes properly seasoned with the complex Sichuan seasonings, but without the ground pork so that vegetarians can enjoy them; La Zi Chicken (often called Jalapeno Chicken - fried, but not battered, chicken, tossed hot with peppers); Twice-Cooked Pork (with regular pork, not side-pork, but seasoned with Sichuan peppercorns); Gong Bo Chicken; Garlic Eggplant; and Sichuan Flavor Shrimp (which seemed to be the famous and lovely "Strange Flavor" sauce, which is lightly aromatic, sweet, sour, and salty at once - and these shrimp are not in their shells).

Western dishes include a really nice version of General Tsao's Chicken - not too heavily drenched in sauce, and the sauce not too sweet (though if you really like a lot of sauce, you can scoop more from the bottom). Also mixed seafood, lo mein, sweet and sour chicken, and pepper beef, plus crab rangoon, springrolls and soups.

Kung Fu Szechuan Cuisine, 730 North Clippert (north of Frandor, in the same strip with Medawar Jewelers), (517) 333-9993.

Lamai Anniversary TODAY!

A quick note: Lamai decided that her anniversary date was too close to her birthday, so she moved it. She's celebrating it today, June 1, 2010. (The birthday will be in September.)

She has her usual Thai Sukiyaki feast. This "cook it yourself" dish is tasty and spicy (although not for everyone's tastes, so go easy on the pink sauce at first.) I just had a little shrimp and scallops version for take out lunch. She also has her lovely garlic and caromelized ribs. Here's a post on Lamai's other dishes, which are also available today.

Drive-by Karahi King

Just a quick note; hidden in the Brookfield Plaza shopping center on Trowbridge is a new Pakistani and Indian restaurant called Karahi King. They are around the corner from Woody's Oasis, and behind Korean House - where there used to be a calzone place.

A friend stopped by tonight and reports that they have really great Naan (the flat, buttery Indian bread that goes so well with curries and things) and their Dal (lentils) is thick with greens and garlic and very very filling. The meats were apparently also good, but she spent so much time raving over the naan and dal that I didn't get a detailed report.

They are open from 11am to 11pm. More info coming as soon as I get it.

(NOTE: as the comments have pointed out - this place is still going through an uneven opening period. Sometimes great, sometimes not so much. They have, however, simplified their menu, and that should help them find their stride.)