Little Pepper aka Xiao La Jiao - fish dish recs (or other dish recs)

[Lau]

Brian S (or anyone else) - hey im going xiao la jiao (little pepper) on weds night with a couple friends...im pretty excited about it (ive only been once a long time ago), so ive been thinking about what to order. I'm def ordering one fish dish. I was thinking either the shui zhu yu pian (water-cooked fish) or the whole fish dish....which one is better? I'm inclined to get the shui zhu yu pian, but def willing to be convinced otherwise

i re-read this post on the fish dishes:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/4675...

also, im planning on getting the cumin lamb, pork w/ crispy rice and maybe a noodle dish (maybe dan dan mian)...happy to hear any other recs to change my mind

[moymoy]

You can't go wrong with the water cooked fish, my friends & I always order that (recently had the same dish at Wu Liang Ye and Lil Pepper's is superior imo) and love it. I was not impressed at all with the pork with crispy rice, I would not recommend it, the gravy was abundant and too watery.

As a side dish, you might want to try the corn & pine nuts. toasty & perfectly spiced. It's a simple dish but rates high on taste.

Enjoy!

[el jefe]

I'd say you couldn't do much better than those 4 dishes (incl the braised fish and the dan dan noodles) and those should be enough to feed 4 people. You could also add the Diced Rabbit Meat in Red Chili Sauce from the appetizers although they've been out of it the last 4 or 5 times I've been there, or the Tea Smoked Duck from the apps. There's a variation of both dishes among the entrees but I've found the app to be much better.

[Lau]

have u happened to try to whole fish dish? i was thinking about it, but the braised fish (water-cooked) is one of my favorite sichuan dishes, so i was going to stick with it unless someone tells me that the whole fish is better

[el jefe]

I've never tried the whole fish. I've seen it on other tables and it doesn't look as good as I know the braised fish is.