Begin the meal with cool hand-shredded chicken in a sesame vinaigrette, or beef tendon, sliced as thin as lace, in a sauce made of roasted chilies.

Then we have beef tendon, sliced into lacy paper-thin sheets, in a Sichuan peppercorn sauce.

And even when a menu description is accurate, as with a superb cold appetizer called beef tendon, the dish may sound strange.

Fans of spicy foods should try the cold beef tendon or conch; both are chewy, really hot and make great palate teasers.

You can taste some unusual dishes, like beef tendon with hot and special pepper sauce.

There are paper-thin slices of beef, beef tendon, chunks of soft bean curd and Chinese cabbage to dip into the broth.

When beef surimi is mixed with chopped beef tendons and formed into balls, "beef tendon balls" (牛筋丸) are produced.

If you are unfamiliar with the combination of ma and la, but intrigued by it, there may be no better dish to sample than sliced beef tendon in hot sauce ($4.95).

There was no recipe for spicy beef tendon, one of my favorite Sichuan dishes, but that did not diminish the value of this volume.

It offers an opportunity to taste some unusual dishes, like beef tendon with hot and special pepper sauce.