Austin360 blogs > Dale's Table > Archives > 2008 > April > 19 > Entry
Table full of tastes
BEIJING - At Source, a sophisticated restaurant located a few yards inside one of the city’s traditional hutongs (old-style neighborhoods of narrow alleys and grey brick walls), the tasting menu brought a feast for the palate in a lovely setting with high-quality service.
Dishes on our set menu (other options with less seafood were available) included peanuts, pickled vegetables, shrimp with coriander, noodles in chile oil, cold fish, Szechuan sausage, broccoli with green tea (a fantastic melding of flavors), mushrooms and chicken in bamboo, shrimp balls, fish soup with soft tofu, kung pao shrimp (made with shrimp, peanuts, onions and hard, dried chiles), fried rice, noodles, fruit and a honey pastry.
When asked about spice levels when we ordered, I suggested “little,” as opposed to medium or hot. Many of the dishes (we were repeatedly assured they were the little-spice versions) turned out to have a medium-high heat on my scale (the wonderful fish and tofu soup produced a sweat within moments, for example). I’m glad we didn’t decide to be adventurous and opt for hot.
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