Jasmine Orange (CLOSED)
Just before entering via Paolo Sarpi, at the beginning of via Farini, there is a small and quite spartan Chinese tavern that bears the name of Jasmine Orange. It is a restaurant that offers true Sichuan Chinese cuisine and some Wenzhou dishes in a totally honest and straightforward way. I was impressed, both for the goodness and freshness of the dishes, and for the price so low as to be unreal.
Here you will not find frills, from the furniture not at all refined to the veracity of the dishes. In this place, no jokes, not even on spicy. In fact, we are immediately struck by the exclusive presence of Chinese customers, as well as by the menu proposals certainly considered extreme by the Italians. Also for this reason, I strongly advise against dining at Jasmine Orange if you are too accustomed to the classic Chinese restaurant, as they have always been seen in Italy. Here you come to dare and be pleasantly impressed with every risky choice.
The menu is very varied, so take some time to choose carefully. Each dish described reports the degree of spiciness, so if you cannot tolerate too strong flavors you will be able to orient yourself in the best way.
It starts immediately with the house specialties (including salt and pepper lamb, fish head with chili pepper, tai bai duck), Sichuan appetizers (chicken legs, salt and pepper duck head, spicy duck neck ) and Wenzhou ones (jujube in Chinese grappa, raw crab, legs in pickled duck, duck tongues).
We then enter the heart of Sichuan cuisine with an amount of dishes impossible to list, they are really too many. I strongly suggest the preparations in the pot, one more inviting than the other (broccoli with chillies or duck with chillies, just to name a couple). There are also grilled preparations (aubergines, seafood, meat or shrimp) and many fish dishes (braised crab, stewed fish head, shrimp with tea leaves), sautéed dishes (intestine in Chinese wine and ginger, cashews with salt and pepper, sautéed tomatoes with eggs) and soups (pork ribs with corn or lamb in the pot). And even homemade noodles, rice served with meat and vegetables, rice cakes and many vegetables: ask the dining room staff for more information on the type of vegetable and preparations.
Even the desserts reserve some pleasant surprises. In fact, there are proposals that are rarely found in Chinese restaurants, such as pumpkin or green tea flat bread, meatballs with sesame filling with water or jujube filled with glutinous rice. However, to make matters worse, at the end of the meal you will still be honored with a saucer of fresh cut fruit.
To drink there are wine, beer, soy milk, soft drinks, sake and Chinese schnapps.
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