Chef Liu's Authentic Chinese Cuisine promises an authentic Szechuan feast out in Aurora

You can get great Chinese food in this town, but you have to know where to look -- especially if you're on the hunt for real Szechuan food, not the dumbed-down American version of the cooking of Southern China that's a mainstay of dollar-a-scoop joints and many strip-mall spots...

By Laura Shunk

October 25, 2011

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You can get great Chinese food in this town, but you have to know where to look -- especially if you're on the hunt for real Szechuan food, not the dumbed-down American version of the cooking of Southern China that's a mainstay of dollar-a-scoop joints and many strip-mall spots.

The promise of the real deal lured me to Chef Liu's Authentic Chinese Cuisine, the restaurant that Liu Zeng Qun, former chef of Imperial Chinese, opened in Aurora last year.

True, Liu's board features a lot of those ubiquitous Americanize dishes, sided with a steamer of rice, crab-and-cheese wontons and egg drop soup. But there's also a Chinese menu devoted to true Szechuan food -- including several items not translated to English.

I ate my way through both rosters, trying dishes that you can easily find on menus around town as well as Szechuan specialties that are rare in the Rocky Mountains.

How was the food? Find out tomorrow when the review is posted here.

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Laura Shunk was Westword's restaurant critic from 2010 to 2012; she's also been food editor at the Village Voice and a dining columnist in Beijing. Her toughest assignment had her drinking ten martinis and eating ten Caesar salads over the course of 48 hours. She still drinks martinis, but remains lukewarm on Caesar salads.

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