I’ve recently learned there’s no more appropriate viewing when gnawing on a cold duck neck than the Syfy vampire gorefest Van Helsing, which can be a colorful primer on how to eat your way around cervical vertebrae.
Illustrator Qin Ma also designed the menu with an eye to its clarity for non-Chinese speakers; its hand-drawn and -labeled cartoon diagrams of eight iconic “Chengdu Famous Plates” will let you know that, e.g., the soft spicy bean curd is topped with minced green onion, pickled cabbage, and soybeans as well as house-made chile oil. What it doesn’t show is what a luxurious pleasure this dish is: diaphanous clouds of tofu slip down the throat on a warm, red tide, the crunchy soybeans adding a reversal of texture, the cabbage’s pungent punch and the onion’s grassy bite adding another. I’d purchase screen prints of these illustrations if they were for sale.
A trio of barbecued meats fills out this focused menu. Shredded caramelized rabbit bits are the Sichuanese answer to classic Chicago-style ribs tips. I’ll never understand cigars, but I imagine their appeal is similar to that of the lingering smokiness these meaty scraps provide as you deliberately work through the shattered skeletal structure. Equally smoky roasted pig feet are easier to deal with, the warm, jellylike collagen being the draw here, with bigger and fewer bones to get in the way. Tiny pork riblets may be the gateway meat: dry-rubbed, with a hint of sweetness, the flesh separates from the bones with little effort or interference.
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