Voice-Tribune review by Robin Garr
It didn’t seem obvious at the time, but looking back on it now, it’s clear that Louisville’s affection for gourmet-style and ethnic food skyrocketed when the first wave of Baby Boomers grew up.It must have been the middle 1970s when we suddenly realized that it wasn’t necessary to keep all our food from touching on the plate, and that there were more exciting things to eat than Mom’s steak and potatoes and tunafish casserole.
Not least of all these happy discoveries was Chinese food. We had only about three Chinese-American eateries here then, so the arrival of the first real Szechwan restaurants in the late ‘70s was about as big a deal as the first pizzeria or the construction of the St. Matthews mall or the JFK bridge.
Americans usually think of Sichuanese food as hot-and-spicy, because that was the “wow!” character that made it stand out from Chinese-American. But authentic Sichuanese is much more complex, relying on a well-crafted blend of seven flavors: sour, pungent, hot, sweet, bitter, aromatic, and salty.
Even in a city now blessed with quite a few Chinese restaurants that welcome Westerners to order from an authentic Chinese menu, Jasmine stands out, thanks to the team of Chef Lan Lin, a skilled chef from Sichuan, and his wife, Lan Zhang.
Jasmine has been open since 2004 in English Villa, off English Station Road a short hop out Shelbyville Road from the Gene Snyder, but it moved three years ago into larger, more sophisticated quarters a door or two from its original spot.
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes.com:
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/szech ... ne-is-fine
and in the Voice-Tribune:
http://www.voice-tribune.com/life-style ... e-is-fine/
Jasmine
13825 English Villa Drive
244-8896
http://jasminelouisville.com