Herald on Sunday rating: * * * 1/2
Where: 29 Nuffield Street, Newmarket
Ph:(09) 524 8488
Open: 11.30am-2.30pm and 6.30pm-10.30pm daily
Watch out for: The slowly stewing tea
Sound check: Conversation friendly
Vegetarian: Catered for, not spoiled
Wine list: Fully licensed
Bottom line: Chinese challenge
KEY POINTS:
I asked a colleague of Chinese ancestry to suggest a good place for lunch - "somewhere that avoids the obvious" - and join me there. He checked with his parents, who keep up with all the gossip in the local Chinese-language newspapers. My heart sank slightly when the name of a place in Nuffield St emerged from the deliberations, since I have had unhappy dining experiences in this part of town. But inside knowledge is usually better than guesswork and this recommen-dation turned out to be a cracker.
I was not able to decode the name: 8 is a very lucky number to Chinese because the word sounds like the word for prosperity. But our waitress - who at first suggested that HP might be the boss' initials and then said they might mean "happy" - seemed more interested in our order.
Indeed, having brought our food, she vanished. The service here is not so much offhand as non-existent. I inverted the teapot lid to signal that I wanted a refill but the pot slowly stewed until I was able to flag down some passing help.
HP8 serves so-called Szechuan cuisine, the food from the province of the same name in the southwest of China, near Tibet. Chinese recognise four "schools" or traditions of food and at least eight regional variations.
What Westerners refer to as Chinese food is, typically, Cantonese. Szechuan food is much spicier - as I was about to discover.
The menu makes great reading: they don't go in for detailed explanations but when a dish is described as "spicy lung slices" or "pot-stewed duck necks" further explanation seems redundant. I like that about Chinese food - well, actually about many exotic cuisines: you don't call a pancreas a sweetbread; you call it a pancreas.
I could have dawdled for hours trying to decide between "pig ears in pepper oil" and "fragrant rib bridge" or (my favourite) "World No 1 bones", which looked (there are some photos in the menu) like a large part of a cattle-beast's leg standing meatily on end.
There are meat-free options here, but vegetarians should be warned that just sitting opposite the non-vegetarians will be a trial.
(People with peanut allergies should beware as well: in our meal peanuts were as much in evidence as body parts.)
My canny companion told the waitress that we wanted Szechuan specialties and she was happy to make selections for us, qualifying each suggestion with the slightly nervous observation that it was "quite spicy". In the case of the signature chongqing chicken, that seemed to me an understatement. The plate was a red avalanche of dry-fried chilli and peanuts from which we picked out the fiery hot morsels of chicken. I began to understand why Szechuan has the single word "mala" which means "so spicy it makes your mouth numb".
Another dish featured alternate thin slices of cold roast pork and cucumber which arrived draped over a bamboo frame like so much washing: you roll it up and dip it into (what else?) chilli oil.
By contrast, a fragrant baked eggplant dish - also a speciality of the house - was positively mild.
HP8 is the kind of place where you should go with a large group so you can try a dozen dishes. But brace yourself: your mouth may never be the same again.
