Little Szechuan, located at 228 West College Avenue in State College, serves up a taste of authentic Szechuan cuisine. The food from the Szechuan province in southwestern China offers customers bold and spicy flavors from the liberal use of garlic and chili peppers. Dishes are made with a balanced combination of seven basic flavors of sour, pungent, hot, sweet, bitter, aromatic, and salty.
Although commonly used cuts of pork and beef are a major source of protein in dishes from the Szechuan region, organ meats such as intestine, tongue, and liver also are popular to use as ingredients for specialty dishes such as the beef tongue and tripe salad.
Husband and wife Tao Xu and Sharon Ngan opened the restaurant in December 2013 and expanded it in the summer of 2015. Little Szechuan can now seat up to 90 guests.
“Tao is the head chef and runs the kitchen, and I run the front of the house,” says Sharon. “He is originally from Chengdu, China, and I am from Malaysia. We met through mutual friends, and after a few years working at other Chinese restaurants in State College, we decided to follow our dream of opening our own restaurant.”
Cooking since he was 14 years old, Tao is passionate about serving the best Szechuan food to his customers, and presentation is an important part of that experience.
“Tao says that Szechuan food isn’t just about spicy,” Sharon explains. “It’s about different kinds of peppers that create sweetness, a tingly, numbing sensation in the mouth from the Szechuan peppercorn, and different degrees of spiciness.”
Szechuan cuisine often contains food preserved through pickling, salting, and drying. Preserved dishes are generally served as spicy dishes with heavy application of chili oil. Other commonly used spices are garlic, chili peppers, ginger, and star anise.
For lunch at Little Szechuan, you can find your typical Chinese American dishes such as General Tso’s chicken and chicken and broccoli, but in order to have a truly authentic experience, the chef recommends trying the homemade pork dumpling in hot chili, the double-cooked pork, or the shredded pork in garlic sauce.
Similar to Chinese restaurants in metropolitan cities, customers can pick their live tilapia or lobster from a fish tank at Little Szechuan to be cooked into dishes such as fresh whole tilapia with green peppercorn, hot and spicy lobster, or golden corn lobster.
The restaurant also serves noodle soups and hot pots. Little Szechuan’s chili hot pot is a sweet and spicy stir-fried meat and vegetables, such as cauliflower, lotus root, celery, mushrooms, and tofu skin.
Roasted duck with bones and boneless Peking duck with crispy skin served with scallions, pancakes, and hoisin sauce also are available, but customers are told that there is a 15- to 20-minute wait because the duck is freshly prepared.
Feature dishes on the board change every three days and on weekends, and look forward to seasonal specials such as crawfish and crabs.
On special occasions such as Christmas and Chinese New Year’s Eve, there will be a separate menu with dishes such crispy whole fish, snails, and pork belly. Reservations are recommended for these dinners.
For more information on Little Szechuan or to order delivery online, visit littleszechuanstatecollege.com.
For a special offer for 15 percent off your order at Little Szechuan, visit townandgown.com.
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