95Ba Shu Ren Jia

As a white person, I sometimes feel a stranger in a strange land when venturing to Richmond Hill or Markham for Chinese. How can I convince you of the delectable return on investment for tolerating a little of that discomfort? We’re the only white folks at Ba Shu Ren Jia, and the staff speak little English, but the Szechuan cooking is better than anything we had downtown even in its heyday. Never before have I been seduced by tea shrimp: Oolong tea leaves have been deep fried into slightly smoky crunch, to be a fabulous fragrant foil for sweet shrimps left in the shell for flavour. They blacken chiles and toast peanuts for spice, and sauté red and green peppers and onions for sweet, to produce dreamlike kung pao chicken. We are also in thrall to spicy pork in chile oil with the textural excitement of bamboo shoots and al dente cabbage shreds. If you can’t make it to Szechuan province, Steeles Avenue might just do.