J & J SZECHUAN – Crispy Intestines…..Yummm!

We at ELV love eating Asian. And we really love the hot, spicy, mind-numbing, tear-duct-blowing, sweat-flowing cuisines of Hunan, Yunnan, and Szechuan.

For the past two years, Dong Ting Spring and Yunnan Garden have held sway over our taste buds. Before they arrived, we were regulars at Emperor’s Szechuan atop the old Chinatown Mall.

But these days our ardor has shifted to this little joint, underneath a shitty sign, tucked behind Pho Saigon #8 on Spring Mountain Road, where a dish of crispy intestines, accompanied by some cold cucumber with garlic, edamame bean salad, green peppers in a “special sauce,” and a mango shaved ice, recently set our staff back only thirty-five samolians (or “simoleons” according to Marcella Ruth Schroader Curtas – D.O.B. 8-10-24 – The Official Mother Of ELV).

Those (small) intestines are deep-fried, then get a quick toss with some other ingredients — cucumbers and a mountain of dried peppers — and are first crunchy, then squishy to the bite. They come to the table imbued with a deep, satisfying, animal-richness (but, we might add, with none of the funkiness).

We’re not quite sure what the point is of the tasteless panko crumbs on top, but they don’t detract from the awfully addictive quality of this offal.

Other worthwhile dishes tried include the shredded pork with pickled pepper, and the Szechuan-style sliced lamb. We haven’t gotten the guts (yet) to tuck into the pork blood with bean sprout in hot sauce, but give us time.

Another thing we like about these southwestern Chinese restaurants is there’s none of that: “How would you like your hotness on a 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 scale?” namby pamby stuff. They cook it and you eat it the way the homeboys do.

So man up! And take the plunge….into some chicken gizzards with pickled peppers. And when your mouth is confused and suffering from the pain and numbness from all those chilies and Szechuan peppercorns, there’s no better antidote than a giant mango shaved ice.

Our meal for two described above set us back 35 dinars + a 7 ariary tip.

J & J SZECHUAN CUISINE

5700 Spring Mountain Rd. #A-B

Las Vegas, NV 89146

702.876.5983

3 thoughts on “J & J SZECHUAN – Crispy Intestines…..Yummm!

  1. Any vegetarian options for moi? If so, I’m willing to try it when I get back. In the mean time, I’m on my way to Orange County to reunite with my fave Vietnamese spots in Little Saigon. ;-)

  2. While I have no doubt that there is a lot of very hot/spicy food in Sichuan, I was surprised to find it less spicy than expected on a trip that took us through Chengdu as the jumping off point to get to Lhasa. It was the first year the area opened up to Westerners — at least for independent travel. It took months of work with the Government and liaisons here to get all the red tape worked out. The government supplied “guide” mentioned how spicy the food was, but I didn’t find it so. It was more spicy than Beijing, but I never felt like a flame thrower was stuck in my throat. It may have been that the food at restaurants was different. Although we never saw another Western face at any, at that time a “restaurant” that was anything more than street food was a novelty. There was no modern hotel or tourist infrastructure in place yet.
    It would be interesting to visit again and see how things have changed.

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