Saturday, May 15, 2010

[Irvine] [Chinese] Spicy City

Spicy City
雲川園

14310 Culver Dr #F
Irvine, CA 92604
(949) 733-9200

We came to the same location for dim sum before.  This place used to be Royal Kitchen Seafood Restaurant.  Now it became a Szechuwan restaurant called Spicy City.  We came here to try some spicy Chinese food for lunch.



They just opened last week.  We went for a late lunch.  The staffs were having lunch when we got there.  We felt bad to bother them while they were eating, but they greeted us with big smile.  The cooks and waitstaff were all very nice and friendly.



風味涼菜 Cold Table Appetizers ($5.50)

Just like all Szechwan restaurant, they also have one of those cold appetizer counter with lots of cold dishes to choose from.  We picked seaweed, green vegetable with edamame, and smoked chicken.  Everything was great.  I especially like their seaweed.


水煮兩樣 (牛、魚) Boiled 2 Kinds w/ Hot Sauce (Beef & Fish) ($9.99)

Dr. P just has to order Boiled 2 Kinds with Hot Sauce in every Szechwan restaurant.  haha....  His favorite 2 items are beef and fish.  This dish was spicy!  Very spicy!  I like the garlic taste in the sauce.  The peppercorn seriously had a numbing effect on the tongue and lips.  Beef was tender, and they gave us a lot of fish.  The cabbage underneath the meat and fish tasted crisp and fresh.  This was a great dish.


火爆肥腸 Stir Fried Pork Intestine ($9.99)

I gotta order my favorite intestine.  I didn't want anything fried, so I ordered the stir fried intestine.  I was happy when I saw the plate because it has bamboo shoots and black ear mushroom in the dish.  The intestine was tender, but it had a slight aftertaste.  It wasn't bad to the point to make it inedible, but I think they need to clean the intestine a little better.  This dish was marked with a chili pepper sign on the menu, but it wasn't spicy at all.


小炒羊肉 Local Flavor Lamb ($10.99)

Local Flavor Lamb was recommended by our waiter.  He said this dish is really spicy and he likes it a lot.  Yup, it definitely was spicy.  There were red chili pepper, green chili pepper (or jalapeno?), yellow chili pepper, and those dried red chili pepper sauteed with the lamb.  Dr. P loved the cilantro in the dish.  I think they should put a lot more cilantro in the dish though.  I don't know why but I thought this dish was missing something.  It was spicy, but not flavorful, if you know what I mean.  All I could taste was spiciness.  But that was just me.  Dr. P thought this dish was great.


紫米粥 Purple Rice Sweet Porridge

Free dessert after lunch.  The waitress brought us some purple rice sweet porridge.  She was really surprised to see Dr. P eating the intestine and the porridge.  Yup, I trained him well.  Now he can eat everything!  Well, maybe not everything.  He still refuses to eat stinky tofu.



Portion is huge here.  We had enough leftover for the next 3 days.  Dr. P likes Spicy City a lot.  I still like Chong Qing Mei Wei, too.  The food at those two Szechwan restaurants tastes different, and both are great in their own way.  I am happy that we have a different choice in Irvine for spicy Chinese.  Next time we are going back to try their specialty Yunnan Rice Noodle.

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8 comments:

  1. I was just there today for lunch!

    Did you like the food?

    ReplyDelete
  2. well, keep training, you got time! Let us know when he eats stinky tofu! LOL

    haha yup, I'm still working on that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha, I love the name!

    Dr. P was saying, "do you think there's mild city or medium city for people who want mild or medium instead of spicy food?"
    And of course, I called him a dork for saying that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder how the sweet porridge tasted like. I've never seen a dessert soup that looked like that before! I guess I am like Dr.P since he would eat the sweet porridge and intestines. But I don't think I will ever eat stinky tofu! :)

    It wasn't too sweet, just very slightly.
    You don't eat stinky tofu? Have you ever tried?

    ReplyDelete
  5. We ordered the cumin lamb. Although the flavor was good, the meat itself was another story: it was pretty fat and chewy which didn't taste like lamb(maybe they put the meat in baking soda mixture for too long? I don't know)... But overall, I'm still glad to have this joint in our neighborhood...
    BTW, I think you might like this song by 雷光夏. Listening to it is like taking a marvelous long stroll down the memory lane filled with the distinct aroma of Taipei city... I'm totally in awe of its meaningful lyrics and splendid music arrangement!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3GTwK01hI&playnext_from=TL&videos=x4VqFVCo9aY

    I know exactly what you mean about the lamb.
    I had the same thought when I ate the lamb. They probably soaked in baking soda for too long.
    Thank you for sharing the song with me. Beautiful lyrics and music.
    The movie looks great, too! I like 張瀚. ^^

    ReplyDelete
  6. “do you think there’s mild city or medium city for people who want mild or medium instead of spicy food?”
    I must be a dork, too, because I found Dr. P joke funny, haha...

    hahahaha yes, you're a dork, but a cute one! ^^

    ReplyDelete
  7. had that yunna rice noodles, wasnt that great.

    Thanks for letting me know.
    I think we'll try their other noodle then. Maybe spicy beef noodle?

    ReplyDelete
  8. 這間是台灣人開的還是大陸人開的?
    感覺帳單上的點菜方式很像台灣餐廳的點菜方式 XD

    我也不知道耶
    不過這裡的餐廳大部分的服務生都是大陸人
    可能他們工資比較低又比較願意吃苦吧

    ReplyDelete