24 Flavors of Sichuan at The Peacock Room

The Peacock Room is a contemporary Sichuanese restaurant by the FCC restaurant group, the very group behind Cantonese restaurant Sense 8.

What you need to try here is the "Sichuan 24" set menu. It is a 19-course meal that takes you through the 24 flavors of Sichuan. It is only ¥350 per person.

Private room at The Peacock Room

Before that

Some background on Sichuan cuisine

Sichuan cuisine is on fire at the moment, blazing a fresh trail of international fame with its tingly peppercorns. The initial popularization of Sichuan food only started in the last 20-30 years—it’s one of the newer cuisines from China’s diverse repertoire of culinary delights to break out globally.

For the uninitiated, defining Sichuan cuisine would prove easy by the naming of the Sichuan peppercorn. The numbing spice or mala 麻辣 profile of this pepper is an unforgettable characteristic and stereotypical of Sichuan cuisine, but it is hardly the entirety of the complex cuisine.

There are in fact 24 compound flavors of Sichuan cuisine, and not all of them are have sweat-inducing levels of spice.

If you want to read more about Sichuan cuisine, I suggest reading Chengdu native Jenny Gao’s Sichuan Food Primer, one she wrote for Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown.

Eat This

Sichuan 24 at The Peacock Room

The Sichuan 24 set menu (¥350) at The Peacock Room takes you through the 24 compound flavors of Sichuan cuisine. These flavors are presented in 19 courses, the names of the compound flavors listed in the captions below.

The set also includes house special Chinese rice wine and Sichuan flower green tea. (The restaurant also has an a la carte menu.)

Here's what to expect:

Welcome drink (served at the bar)

Wu Xiang – Five Spice

Pork puff

Appetizers

Ma La – Numbing Spice

Chicken with green fermented chili laced with numbing Sichuan peppercorn

Pao Jiao – Pickled Chili
Assorted pickled vegetables

Shao Jiao – Smoked Chili

Smoked chili with thin slices of beef shank.

Suan Ni – Garlic & Chili

Thinly sliced pork and bean sprouts drenched in a sauce of chili and garlic.

A favorite

Jie Mo – Mustard

Cabbage with a sauce made with fresh mustard, vinegar and sugar.

Suan La – Sour & Spicy
Sour and spicy soup with pigeon egg, diced tomato, bamboo shoots, and thinly sliced tofu.

Yan Xiang – Smoky Aroma

Tea Smoked Duck, torched table side

Yu Xiang / Xian Tian / Jiang Xiang – Sweet Savory / Salty Sweet / Soy Sauce

Stuffed bun, purple potato, sticky rice

Bun stuffed with pork and mushroom, and the crisp purple potato sweet and savory.

Sticky rice with caramelized pistachio

Fu He / Jiao Yan – Complex / Salt & Pepper

Garlic steamed cod with crispy salt-and-pepper fish skin. An excellent dish.

Hu Lu – Scorched Chili

Confit Wagyu with chili oil, a film of konjac at the bottom.

Li Zhi / Guai Wei – Lychee (sweet sour) and “Strange” flavor

Kong Po Prawns with broad bean.

Zi Jiang – Chili and Ginger

Ginger and chili bull frog soup dumpling. Lovely, and such a contrast to the other dishes.

Xian Xian – Savory and umami

Steamed morel mushroom with braised winter melon, wolfberry foam, reduced chicken stock.

Hong You / Ma Jiang – Chili Oil / Sesame

Tian Shui Mian – A single knot of chewy noodle in sweet soy sauce, chili oil, sesame paste, and crushed peanuts.

Hong You / Ma Jiang – Chili Oil / Sesame

Dan Dan Mian – noodles with minced pork, chili oil, crushed peanuts, scallions.

Jiang Zhi – Ginger

Ginger ice cream

Tian Xiang – Sweet Aromatic

Milky avocado pastry

Chen Pi – Dried Tangerine Peel

Sponge Cake with dried tangerine zest

House special Chinese rice wine

Kungfu tea – Sichuan flower green tea

In Summary

Highly Recommended

I can't recommend this enough. It's a great experience and such a steal for ¥350. Ambience is great, service is top-notch. Excellent for entertaining guests.

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The Peacock Room
Address: HKRI Taikoo Hui, 3/F, 180 Shimen Yi Lu, near Weihai Lu 石门一路180号3楼, 近威海路
Tel: [phone]
Hours: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-1am

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