Munch DC: Otherworldy Ma Po Tofu at Great Wall. The Rest? Not so much.

The owner of Great Wall Szechuan Restaurant “says that his goal and mission is to present the best Szechuan cuisine to the world,” as quoted in an article printed on the menu. I don’t know about the ‘world’ part. The 14th street storefront, just north of P is the type of place you’d pass by hundreds of time without a second thought. My friends who live blocks away don’t know it's there. But I had noticed a City Paper review in the window and a glowing review on Chowhound, though there’s limited Internet traffic about the place. So after a couple of years of meaning to, I stopped by for takeout one night on my way home.

The Ma Po Tofu ($7.95), is life changing! I became obsessed with the dish after trying it there and after trying multiple renditions up and down the East Coast, it is my favorite by far. The dish is simple yet the taste is one of the most complex I’ve experienced. Dozens of cubes of soft, silky tofu. Green onion. Numbing red chili oil and black bean sauce. For those unfamiliar with the Szechuan peppercorn: it’s also known as the numbing peppercorn. It offers a fiery heat that tickles your tongue. Have a bite then have a sip of water to cool it off and your tongue will tingle like you’ve got a mouth full of lime seltzer. What distinguishes Great Wall’s Ma Po from the others I have is the oil’s harmony with the black bean sauce. Black beans are standard in the preparation, but where I’ve only come across a few beans, the sauce mixes with the peppery sauce here to create a nuanced, muddy red that I’ve not encountered anywhere else. The dish can be ordered with meat or no meat. With no meat, the dish is still a revelation for vegans and could win over the most ardent opponent of bean curd. The meat version reaches another level altogether, both from the specks of pork dotting the tofu, but moreso from a third element, pork fat, creating one of the richer sauces you’ll ever taste.

I usually can't ever get past ordering it the Ma Po Tofu, so I’m glad when a dining companion I’ve brought wants some shrimp. Don't let the name Shrimp Szechuan ($9.95) fool you. As it says on the menu, the shrimp is served in a preparation of Tomato Sauce with Onions. Do they even eat tomatoes in China? If they do it’s news to me. The sweet sauce has the consistency of ketchup and is only slightly thinner. It’s unsophisticated, un-Chinese, though edible and still enjoyable. And it’s right at home on the menu of mostly Americanized Chinese food.

While the Shrimp Szechuan is upfront about its American heritage, I expect more from the Crispy Chicken Szechuan Style ($9.95) on the House Specialties section. It's a dish common to the cuisine, and the last rendition I had, at Tasty China in Marietta, was full on flavor and spice. This version should have been sent back to the kitchen. Crispy? Slightly. Heat? Non-existent. It was deep fried chicken chunks with standard cloying Chinese sweet sauce. Nothing Szechuan about it. It's marked with a chili pepper on the menu, so I ask the waitress if I had ordered right. Was it the Szechuan chicken? Indeed it was she said. But it's served without a semblance of spice. There's nothing to it. I've heard of restaurants scaling things back for perceived American tastes. But this dish didn't even come close. Not a single pepper. C'mon!

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($3.50 for 4) are standard fare but do the trick. Opt for them over the Vegetable version that contain only a wrinkly peas and cubed carrot blend, the same that came with my shrimp dish.

There’s the failure to serve acceptable rice, which is hard to understand. The bowls are far from fresh, clumpy and seemingly cooked long ago and kept warm or reheated. It’s not a one time occurrence and is a problem encountered by several other web reviews I’ve found, and the

indifference this staple is off-putting.

In my last trip there I head back to the Ma La menu. To me, that's not just the safe bet, but really the only bet. But instead of sticking with the tofu, I give the Ma La cold noodles a try. Another mistake. Al dente Asian noodles? No, just old and stale.

This rice, ketchupy sauces, frozen peas, and stale noodles seem at odds with the goal and mission to present the best to the world. But the Ma Po Tofu? Otherwoldly.