Cozily tucked away on a street corner of East Cambridge is SUMIAO Hunan Kitchen—a restaurant specializing in its blend of unique contemporary tastes and authentic Chinese cuisine. Drawing its inspiration from the Hunan province, home to the country’s most fragrant style of spice (“香辣”), SUMIAO’s menu demonstrates the restaurant’s masterful creativity and dedication to preserving authenticity.
As multicolored plates piled up in front of us, we grew aware of the blend of familiar fragrances that waft into the open air: the faintly sweet smell of osmanthus, the salty crisp of fried egg-yolk corn kernels, tingling scent of cabbage doused in rich lard, and more. But this dining experience was more than just a nostalgia-fest. The restaurant uses a magnificent blend of traditional and contemporary tastes to find the perfect intersection between two otherwise contrasting culinary spheres—all while maintaining a reasonable medium high ($11-30 per dish) price range.
The first dish served was the restaurant’s signature Sumiao Hot Dry Noodles. It arrived lying in a wide blue porcelain bowl, layers of flat noodles neatly stacked atop one another, smothered in a thick sesame sauce glistening with a splash of Chinese chili oil. To finish it off, bursts of chopped chili peppers, spring onions, and minced garlic brighten up the decadent dish. Rich and nutty yet tingling with spice, the classic, fiery dish skillfully manipulates its varying ingredients to conjure multiple sensations within one sauce.
Another notable dish was Sumiao’s osmanthus rice cake. On a pristine, oval bowl lay six round cakes, coated in a shimmering glaze of brown sugar sauce topped with specks of osmanthus. Soft and sticky, the mellow sweetness of the sauce melts alongside the glutinous rice in your mouth. This plate shines in its comfort, providing a sense of nostalgic warmth that one and all can resonate with.
The dish that took us most by surprise were Suimiao’s scallion pancakes. On the surface, they were simple: sliced, crispy sheets of dough encased with the fragrance of scallion oil. Hot to the touch and flaky to a fault, each piece was a unique mosaic of golden charred skin and soft ridges. All of this constitutes a delicious, but nonetheless standard pancake. What drew our attention was a secret ingredient—the dish’s complementary sauce. Scallion pancakes are typically enjoyed plain, and are even more rarely eaten with sriracha mayonnaise. While the combination may seem unusual, the mayo really did wonders for the mayo the flavors of the pancake: the refreshing tangy and bready blend of sauce and dough paved the way for the cascading aftertastes of the scallion oil, allowing each bite to finish with the taste of a satisfying finale.
Each dish is a reminder of home in a subtly different way; they taste similar to the spoonfuls of rice cakes and stir-fry vegetables that we grew up with, but they also, importantly, know to bring the highlight of dining to the present. As a restaurant re-interpreting traditional Chinese food with modern twists, SUMIAO brilliantly demonstrates how to make their dishes memorable as their own experience—this restaurant undoubtedly scores a 4.5/5.
About Michelle Yao
Michelle Yao is a member of the class of '23 at Phillips Academy.
