FROM LEFT : Steamed Shanghai juicy pork buns ; the interior of Cheng Du Taste .
ends and the culinary tour begins . Chili peppers are the base flavor : toasted , chopped and tossed liberally into sautes , soups and sauces . Many of the dishes are doublecooked and dry , which accentuates the heat but also provides a surface that is always crunchy and often blistered . It ’ s the Chinese equivalent of a wood-burning oven — all smoke , char and bliss .
Hot and spicy crispy beef ($ 18.95 ) is a meandering study of heat , burning in some bites , mild and piquant in others . There ’ s no sauce to dissipate the texture and it ’ s dishes like these — dry string beans ($ 13.95 ), double-cooked fish ($ 18.95 ), hot pepper chicken ($ 16.95 ) — that feel entirely different than the sauce-soaked rice dishes that American kids grow up with . Even pork ribs ($ 8.95 ) — still old-school and vibrantly red — are dry roasted and pull away like meat from a Texas Roadhouse .
There are plenty of plates , however , that thrive on sauces and soups . Steamed Shanghai little juicy pork buns ($ 10.95 ) are a variation on soup dumplings , served in a bamboo steamer with dipping sauce on the side . They sit like delicate paper , barely holding their seasoned broth inside and one can hardly blame parents who insist small children use their hands instead of skewering them with an errant chopstick . Plenty of stir-fry dishes translate as familiar : in garlic , black bean , Kung Pao — all expectedly saucy and sharp . Chicken in garlic sauce ($ 13.95 ) tastes like everybody ’ s first favorite Chinese food and crunchy sesame prawns ($ 15.95 ) in a sweet thick sauce would sell anyone on shellfish .
But Cheng Du is defined more by its unusual ingredients and the sense of exploration that dictates the menu . Pig ’ s feet , intestine and tripe find their way into chili sauce and soup , though not every offering asks diners to be quite that daring .
The spotlight also shines on less celebrated vegetables — lotus root , cabbage , yams and even the humble potato , which — shredded and tangy — makes up an entire dish . Even the Cheng Du style green bean noodle ($ 8.95 ) is a novel undertaking for an American audience : thick , glassine noodles with a texture only vaguely similar to mochi , sit cold and slippery in a vinegar-spiked soy
sauce . If you long for something different , but lack the mettle to go all out , order the Sichuan cucumber ($ 8.95 ) — which is nothing more than a sesame-based salad , but it ’ ll make you wonder why every restaurant specializing in fried food doesn ’ t temper it with bright , acidic greens .
If there ’ s a dish with one foot in both continents , it ’ s the totally unexpected candied sweet potato and taro ($ 16.95 ) which will only arrive at the end of a meal . Cylindrical wedges of root vegetables come fried and stacked in a syrup intensely similar to a candied apple coating , molten at first and then cooling into a tacky , teeth-coating glaze . It tastes like carnival food — a full-throated celebration of sugar that must be eaten immediately , uncorrupted by takeout containers that will ruin its crystallized veneer .
That being said , there ’ s something unfair in the analogies to American staples — which are the derivatives here and not the predecessor . It ’ s human nature to categorize things into folders formed through experience and perception . But it ’ s more exhilarating to let life come to you on its own terms , free of comparison or expectation . Sometimes Cheng Du Taste approaches you like an old friend but , more often , it ’ s like an exuberant tour guide escorting you into the unknown . I ’ d argue that ’ s the very best kind of eating — one that reveals and broadens our view of the world . In this case , the revelation comes in unexpected packaging , but some of the most valued gifts often do . 🆁
120 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l JUNE 2023