Food & Drink: Finally, great Chinese comes to the Couv
By Rachel Pinsky
Published: March 29, 2019, 6:02am
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Szechuan Brothers, the new Chinese restaurant in Vancouver near Chuck’s Produce on Mill Plain Boulevard. Rachel Pinsky Photo Gallery
Is there some rule that we can only have one type of Asian cuisine in Vancouver at a time, and pho won? This is what I’ve been thinking since I moved here five years ago. I’ve longed for a Chinese restaurant as good as Shandong in Northeast Portland, so I can have my Jewish Christmas Chinese meal on this side of the river (especially if it snows).
My hope was renewed when I heard that the team behind Portland’s highly praised Duck House opened a restaurant called Szechuan Brothers in the strip mall with Chuck’s Produce, in the space formerly occupied by Mar’s Inn. The three owners — Harvey Liu, Sam Woo and former Duck House Chef, Yuchow Yao — aren’t blood brothers, but rather a group of “brothers” from other mothers.
Chef Yao was revered for his culinary mastery at Duck House. Thrillist.com listed Duck House as one of “The 25 Best Chinese Restaurants in America” and Eater.com included it in its list of “38 Essential Portland Restaurants for Winter 2019.” Chef Yao was trained in Northern China. He uses traditional Chinese methods but, like all good chefs, he has his own special touch.
“Yuchow trained in Northern China. He worked at several places in China. He’s done a good job of making it his own. It’s kind of like how contestants on ‘American Idol’ make a song their own,” co-owner Harvey Liu explained.
The group is interested in expanding their appetizer menu by adding more dim sum items. Liu explained, “Dumplings are kind of hot right now.” But don’t expect Duck House’s obsessed-over xiao long bao to grace this menu. There isn’t space in the kitchen at Szechuan Brothers for the large steamers necessary to make this sublime soup dumpling. Yes, it’s heartbreaking that you can’t get xiao long bao, but Szechuan Brothers offers many other culinary treasures.
On a recent visit, I met one of my regular eating partners, food blogger and photographer Sue O’Bryan. We ordered as much food as we could possibly eat and not pass out in a noodle-and-dumpling-induced coma. Szechuan Brothers has a long, fairly priced lunch menu, but we couldn’t ignore the tempting appetizers of Szechuan wontons with chili oil and dan dan noodles.
The Szechuan wontons are a knob of flavored pork tucked into a light, billowing blanket of noodles that float in a deep red chili sauce like a fanned mermaid’s tail. The sauce had enough spice to make your tongue tingle but not so much that it burned like a house fire.
The dan dan noodles were thick, tender noodles in a tangy sauce of chili oil, Sichuan pepper, minced pork and scallions. We both liked the lightness of the dish. Dan dan noodles are often weighed down in a sauce thickened with sesame paste or peanut butter. The simplicity and lightness of this sauce, combined with the supple, slippery noodles, was refreshing. We quickly devoured most of the order then politely offered the last one to each other, but we each greedily wanted it in our own belly.
Then we moved on to a couple of entrees. The dry-cooked green beans retained a bit of crispness and were wilted and blistered on the outside from the intense heat of the wok. Long crimson Szechuan chilis poked out from beneath the long, meaty green beans. The fried tofu Szechuan-style was a plate of flat fried triangles of tofu mixed with red and green peppers, bamboo and wood ear mushrooms in a subtle sauce with a spark of fire.
A large family behind us shared a steaming hot pot. Watching them move food around a large, steaming platter with chopsticks made me curse my physical limitations. Why can’t I have four stomachs like a cow? As their veggies and proteins sizzled, I promised myself that I would return to continue my mission to eat everything on the menu.
Rachel Pinsky can be reached at couveeats@gmail.com. You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram @couveeats.
