In the holding-tank of Portland restaurants, more Asian eateries continue to fill our culinary narrative in bold, declarative ways.  Consider the arrival of Sichuan Kitchen, which opened two weeks ago, in a prime Congress Street location.  I went with a friend shortly after its debut, and we had a few dishes from the concise menu.  The Zhong dumplings, for instance, filled with pork were amazing: the dumpling dough was rich and the concentrated soy sauce with Szechuan peppercorns and chili in which to roll around the dumplings, conspired to make these some of the tastiest in town. Our second dish, the twice cooked pork, however, was bland—barely any heat, and the tender pieces of meat could have benefited by  an assertive marinade before cooking. A third dish, this time white fish with pickled greens, which our waitress raved about, was disappointing: the swai fish–an Asian farmed catfish, which can be a problematic fish if it doesn’t have exemplary farming practices—was the blandest  white fish, helped a bit from the pickled vegetables.

Zhong pork dumplings

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