Guys, I met some food bloggers. Let me tell you something: Meetups are inevitably always a little weird, but I’ve been to plenty before and they’re always a lot of fun. The weird bits are always fantastic in one way or another because you either have a barrel of fun or at least have good stories to tell about afterward. I was at a photography meetup once and being in an Irish pub with about twenty other people all pointing giant lenses at each other is not only the epitome of weird, it’s just plain hilarious. I also couldn’t figure out if I felt more in place or out of place in such a crowd.
When I waltzed in fifteen minutes late into Alvin Garden on Saturday evening, a table of twelve greeted me. I definitely felt out of place at that point, awkwardly grabbing a chair and planting myself firmly in what was already a cozy table. However, it didn’t take long to settle in, and we were soon gabbing away.
Alvin Garden is a Hunan style Chinese restaurant, Hunan being one of the Eight Great Traditions (I had to look up what this was in English, but in Chinese it’s known as one of the 八大èœç³»). Geographically speaking Hunan is in the Southern portion of China, its name literally meaning south of the Lake (in this case, it’s Lake Dongting). It’s not only geographically quite close to the better know Sichuan, but also speaking cuisine-wise they are both really similar. Both cuisines are firey and full of hot, spicy flavors, although there is a small divide on what kinds of heat each cuisine packs. Apparently (I had to look this up) Hunan spice is more of a dry spice with liberal amounts of fresh chilis, shallots and garlic, while Sichuan heat is more often than not numbing from a variety of dried ingredients. Either way, I can’t handle my spice particularly well so you generally won’t find me stuffing chilis in my mouth like no tomorrow. But more on that later.
The dishes all look horrific, to me at least. The majority are crowded plates of deep reds: chili peppers are thrown in whole, sliced, diced, minced, any way you can have them. I mean, look at this beast:
