The restaurant is run by two brothers and their father, all from the Sichuan Province. Lunch specials will set customers back $7.99, but they sport none of the traditional plates that charge the rest of the menu. And skip the scallion pancakes: the cumbersome dough all but smothers the pale ringlets of scallion. For $17.99, we share a platter of tea-smoked duck, which arrives wreathed by sprigs of green onion and airy buns painted with sweet bean paste.Īs with many Chinese joints, however, the bowls of white rice have become something of a chef’s shrug. The size of a toddler’s fist, each ball is soaked in a delicate broth of shiitake mushrooms and bok choy. I find myself reaching again for the pi pa tofu: silken tofu beaten with shrimp then gently fried. To the chef’s credit, milder dishes don’t erode against the numbing ones. It’s not really lung, the menu coaches us, but the marriage of thinly sliced beef tendon and chili oil, constellated with peanuts, is nevertheless a breathless one. We first try a traditional dish, 夫妻肺片, which translates literally to husband-wife-lung-slices. Even our broad-shouldered Hispanic server has waited tables here for over a decade.
#Brick rigs age rating cracked
Chinese parents and kids are seated in cracked maroon booths, deftly breaking apart bamboo chopsticks and pouring steaming cups of tea. The restaurant has planted itself on the border of a nondescript strip mall for eighteen years - old indeed for an area where restaurants surface and sink in droves.īetween the inked horse paintings and specials handwritten in sloping green Expo, the restaurant wears its age plainly. Here is the piece in its entirety:Ĭhina Canteen, off Hungerford Drive in Rockville, Maryland, is known to its Chinese customers as 老四川: Old Sichuan.
As you read, notice the profusion of sensory details by underlining all of the sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes you come across. Tian’s piece shows the kind of vivid writing and word play that made us choose her review as a winner. Its heavy fragrance makes the whole room smell. What would the paragraph lose if, instead, it read like this? Its spice-bombed fragrance, lightened by bean sprouts, infuses the room our neighbors turn to ask us what we ordered.
Filleted tilapia simmers under a blistery rain of peppers. Next, read a winning student restaurant review from our 2018 contest, chosen here for its vivid descriptive language and inventive use of metaphors. Student Mentor Text: “ China Canteen: A Humble Shrine to the Sichuan Kitchen” by Emily Tian What are some of the best sensory words and phrases you both came up with?īetween you, how many different aspects of these meals did you mention? For example, did either of you talk about the ingredients, the appearance, the texture or the price? Were you able to guess each other’s foods? How, if so? Next, choose a partner and take turns reading your descriptions aloud. Don’t lean on clichés instead, try to pin down exactly how the food engaged your senses. Make your description fresh, even if you’re describing something everyone has eaten a thousand times.
It could be your breakfast or lunch from today, a recent restaurant order, something your grandmother makes for you every time you visit, or that chocolate cake you had on your 10th birthday.īe so specific that listeners who have not had the dish feel they can see, smell, taste and maybe even touch it. Think of a memorable dish you’ve had, whether delicious or awful. No matter what they are reviewing, however, these writers are trying to engage your senses.īelow, we’ve selected several mentor texts - one by a student and several from Times food critics - to show how honing your adjectives, metaphors and similes can make your readers feel as if they are there with you at the table, biting into something interesting. You’ll find not only distinctive and memorable takes on a wide variety of foods and cuisines, but also rich descriptions of the entire dining experience, including service, décor and ambience. Mishan describe the suadero and the sauces, the tacos and the tostadas.Įach week, The New York Times reviews a variety of dining experiences, from food carts to the most famous and expensive restaurants in the world. But if you read her piece, you may find yourself heading to Westchester Avenue to find it, so vividly does Ms.