A note on the words: gachi-chuka is Japanese slang for Chinese restaurants in Japan that cook for Chinese tastes rather than adapting to Japanese ones. Hunan is a province in south-central China. Ebi-chili is shrimp in a sweet-spicy chili sauce, laziji is fried chicken buried in dried chilies, and doufu ganxi is pressed tofu cut into noodle-like strands. Otoshi is the small appetizer you are charged for at a Japanese pub (not a scam, it is the cover charge). Sansho is a citrusy Japanese pepper that leaves a tingle, and shaoxing is a Chinese fermented rice wine.
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Lianxiangge Hunan Cuisine on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
So, Hangover Meshi here. I went straight back! “Lianxiangge Hunan Cuisine,” the gachi-chuka place in Akasaka-mitsuke I visited last time. A return visit, this time in the evening. The plan is to order whatever I want to eat and drink properly along with it! The mood shifts a little at night.
I did book ahead, and the place was quite lively inside, with a delicious smell filling the room!
The approach: order away from the Four Signatures I could not get to last time, plus whatever caught my eye among the Eight Standards.
Drinking that first beer, I was reminded all over again that Chinese food does not feel right without a drink!
The first thing I ordered was the ebi-chili.
It is indeed a little different from the Japanese version — properly hot, and the spice is fully there.
So this is what ebi-chili tastes like done the real way. It goes perfectly with a drink. Delicious.
At a place with a Sichuan feel to it, laziji is one you cannot skip as a drinking snack.
The chilies have lost some of their heat, so you can munch on them safely (they are still fairly hot, ha). The faint heat clinging to the chicken and the oil from the peanuts make it milder than it looks, and that is exactly what suits beer.
It looks like the noodles you often get served as an otoshi, but this is tofu. Doufu ganxi.
It is so firm you would not believe it is tofu. The dressing around it is seriously good, and the fresh aroma of the cilantro whets your appetite! It might be a bit much for people who dislike cilantro, but it is delicious.
And then, this one.
Top of the list for visual impact! The picture it makes is something else, and it was the one I really wanted. The pork belly falls apart, and the seasoning goes beautifully with rice. The heat is part of it, but this oil is what makes it — it is better if you ladle plenty over. Just for today I think it is fine to forget about my health!
Liver and Chinese chives with a serious amount of chili in it.
If you like heat, you will prefer this to the usual version! Garlic that lands hard, and chili. The aroma of the chives meets that distinctive liver flavor for a deliciousness that is hard to describe. Around this point I moved on to shaoxing wine, and the match with shaoxing is pretty dangerous! You could get hooked on this liver and chives. Delicious.
Last was the beef and celery stir-fry that sits at the top of the Four Signatures.
Celery has a strong aroma of its own, and combined with the spices and the chili it seems to widen out the savor of the meat. There is plenty of sansho pepper in there too, and the balance of tingle and heat is just right! That was good!!!
Coming in the evening was absolutely the right call. With beer, shaoxing wine and the food here, I could drink forever. It is so good a repeat visit is guaranteed! There are still plenty of dishes I have not eaten, so for now I think I will aim to work through the whole menu. I get the feeling I had better hurry, because there is every chance this becomes a popular spot and reservations get hard to come by! It is delicious, so I recommend it!
Lianxiangge Hunan Cuisine (Chinese / Akasaka-mitsuke Station, Nagatacho Station, Akasaka Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
