Tasty China had me at “hot and numbing rabbit cubes.”
Look! There! The fourth item on the menu.
I don’t know why these words warm my soul every time I visit this Sichuan standby in Marietta. Maybe because they sounds like a line of syllabic verse. Something from Dylan Thomas:
Hot and numbing rabbit cubes
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
I’ve never actually eaten this dish because it figures too highly in my imagination. Plus, there are too many other favorites I have to have every time I go.
The restaurant has definitely changed since the days in late 2006 (has it really been that long?) since I first tried the fiery cooking of former chef Peter Chang. This chef is long gone, as is bossy former manager Phuong Nguyen. But it is still one of my favorites, serving dragon-breath delectables in the familiar comfort of a tatty Chinese restaurant.
I can never resist the hot and numbing beef rolls (left) — a julienne of beef made nearly …