Lunch at Peter Chang's

There's a new rivalry in town for Sichuan cuisine. There's Gu's Bistro (gusbistro.com/, where I haven't been, but I've been hearing good things about. And then there is a Peter Chang's or Peter Cheng's or Tasty China II, depending on your source. The illusive Peter Chang opened this place a couple years ago to great fanfare and a very excited Atlanta foodie scene. However, recent reports are that he's pulled back from this Atlanta location and is now in Richmond only. Who knows.

We decided to head there for lunch and we were not disappointed. Though we ordered two apps and one of their free dumpling samplers along with one meat and one veg, everything arrived nearly at the same time in an odd sort of order. It all goes well together though, so that was just fine.

We started in with these dan dan noodles with pork, which I had actually never had before. When I explained it to Josh after we ordered, I explained it like ragu over noodles. And truly, this must have been a precursor to spaghetti with meat sauce.

Anyway, this was good. Light and delicate. Spicy.

We also got this cold app, Shanghainese tofu skin rolls, one of my favorites. I could probably eat this every day. It was a nice counter balance to the heat of the chiles.

Here are our free vegetable dumplings. They were mostly a Napa cabbage filling. I didn't find them to be too special, but they were also a nice contrast to the spice.

For our vegetable dish, I searched the menu for a light tofu dish, but most of the tofu dishes I hoped to find were Cantonese, so of course I didn't find them. We ended up choosing this pretty common eggplant with garlic sauce. It was well cooked though the sauce was a bit heavy and sweet. But it's still good.

For our meat, braised fish in chili oil with cabbage. Josh likes the cabbage. I like the fish. Delicious.

Here's my plate with a bit of everything. I filled it once, twice, and I think a third time. Then I drank a happy amount of tea. We have a lot of leftovers. Yum. If only I could move this lapcat, I would go eat some tofu skin rolls...