.:My Pharmacophore:.: It Ain't Dainty

Being so sick of all the common restaurants my friends and I usually visit, we planned to try something new the other night. Walking back and forth in Chinatown made us arrived at Dainty Sichuan Restaurant located at Corrs Lane. The word Sichuan has already suggested what I would be facing for our dinner. The first step that we took into the restaurant and the looks pictured on the customers gave us a preview of the food we were about to consume. I could sum it up with two words: HOT AND SPICY. Oh... is that consider three? In my thoughts, "What did I get myself into? Why didn't I just pick one of the 'normal' restaurants?"

I took a flip on the menu. Chillies were all I could see. We took our first bravery step by choosing Slice Pork with Chilli as appetizer. Followed by three main dishes, fried beans with minced pork, Kung Pou Prawns and the famous Chongqing Chicken. We could all foresee what was ahead of us. We prepared ourselves with bottles and bottles of Lipton Ice Tea. On top of that we ordered extra bottle of water and LOADS of serviettes.

Our appetizer arrived in less than 10 minutes. And all our four jaws dropped to the ground.

Slices of pork covered with PURE CHILLI OIL. When we ordered from the menu, I ONLY saw slice pork in the bowl and a bowl of chilli sauce at the side. No no I ever imagined this dish would be flooded by chilli oil! And mind you... this is only rated as 2 chillies. I actually enjoyed this dish. If you are someone who is a pork-lover and is okay with spicy food, I would say order this! It is not as spicy as it seems.

We have not even got our tongues back to senses the second dish arrived. Gosh... I wondered what kind of people were working in the kitchen! Work so fast one???!!! Work slower won't die one you know!

This dish is also rated as 2 chillies. When two dishes with the rating of 2 chillies, the sensation they gave were equivalent to the rating of 4 chillies! Generally, the prawns were not overcooked and I could still taste the sweetness. Thumbs up for this dish too!

By this time, I could see my friends having sweat running down their forehead and downing glasses of water to put out the 'fire' in their mouth. We could not stop scooping the hot steam rice hoping that it could mask the spiciness! I was so stress that every time a waiter walked out from the kitchen, I took a peep hoping that no one would carry the Chongqing Chicken rated 3 chillies (highest rating) to our table!

I was glad we had some mercy to ourselves when we ordered the dishes because one of it was not spicy. Yummy fried beans with minced pork!

Friend: We ordered the Chongqing Chicken. Can you help us to check?

Crap! What was he doing??? Oh no... the dish did not even take more than five minutes to arrive! I swear I saw a grin on the waiter's face when he was carrying the plate to our table!

My gosh... I did not even dare to touch my lips when I was eating the chicken. My lips were red! Grew bigger by an inch! And as though I had anesthesia! My friend kept mumbling, "Think of happy thoughts! Think of happy thoughts!!"

Look at the amount of dried chillies without the chicken! I heard from my friend they actually use SCOOP to take the dried chillies. SCOOP!!! Do you know how big a scoop is???!! Despite the spiciness, this dish was amazingly delicious. This dish did not taste any less than Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The dinner came to about $80.00 for four of us. I would say the pricing is comparable to any other Chinese restaurants. Melbourne eating is never cheap anyway! Well... an unforgettable experience is priceless!