At China Canteen in Rockville, MD, We Like Our Crispy Intestines Extra Crispy | Bon Appétit
"Tucked into a small Rockville strip mall with a tiny parking lot, this unpretentious, one-room Sichuan spot — a mirrored wall at one end and a whiteboard of weekly specials at the other — is reliably packed on weekends and feels distinctly familial, often filled with Chinese families celebrating birthdays or grabbing a post-grocery meal. Run by the Yu family (a father and two sons) who have kept the same staff for about 17 years, the kitchen leans on bold, traditional Sichuan flavors: start with the cold beef tendon in the chef’s hot sauce (thinly sliced, topped with cilantro and crushed peanuts) and the conch in spicy sauce (tender pieces with scallion), both drenched in pale red oil that carries the fragrance of Sichuan spice; the conch reads sweeter and cleaner while the beef is more savory and complex. Wok-fried mains such as extra-crispy intestine with green peppers and diced chicken with hot red chiles are blistered to charred, addictive textures (the intestines are crisp and fatty like pork rinds, the chicken small and intensely chile-forward). For larger groups, the stewed fish options — a near-volcanic Sichuan boiled fish swimming in red chiles and numbing peppercorns, or fish with pickled vegetables in a clear broth with cellophane noodles and mustard greens — arrive in large tureens meant for sharing. A show-stopping specialty is a braised intestine with scallion sauce: a thick maroon stew of intestine and duck blood served bubbling in a metal pot over a flame, with duck-blood cubes that are silky and tofu-like in texture and taste more porky, rich, and tangy than metallic. If you want dessert, walk next door to the neighborhood Chinese grocery for green tea ice cream to cool down after a fiery feast." - ByLillian Li
