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| - If I had to pick one cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, Sichuan would probably be it. Unfortunately, many of the exceptional Sichuan places near me have bit the dust. Szechuan Cuisine on Ray and Kyrene, gone. Miu's Cuisine at Apache and 101, toast. Szechuan Palace has been my go-to for a while now, but yesterday I ventured a little further north on Alma School to try Chengdu Delight.
I had actually tried to make a take-out order there last weekend but when I called, they told me they were way too busy to do a to-go order. Thursdays are obviously much different. We pulled up right around 6pm and pretty much had a good chunk of the huge space to ourselves. Timing is everything.
We ordered the dumplings in chili oil, yu xiang eggplant, chunging chicken, and the spicy hot pot (I usually order water boiled fish to judge a new Sichuan place, but the hot pot looked great).
The waitress reminded me the the Chunquing chicken has bones and I asked her if they could make it boneless which, while not the traditional way, I have found many places will do. She said I could get it boneless but I guess we were having a communication problem because the dish came with bones, and upon asking another waitress, it turns out that bone-in is all they offer. So be it.
Short and sweet ... everything was exactly as I expected it to be and it was great ... and huge. The spicy hot pot ($15) could easily feed 3-4 on its own. Developed nice little beads of sweat above my brow and went a little numb from the sichuan peppercorns; just as it should be.
Will definitely be returning, especially to try the water boiled fish, and I definitely see a possibility of this becoming my new go-to.
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