Famous Sichuan

12. August 2009 Chinatown, Chinese 0

10 Pell Street between Bowery and Doyers
212/233.3888
$30 for two, without drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

My craving for spicy Sichuan food still hasn’t abated. In less than a week, I’ve traveled to Flushing, Queens for Spicy & Tasty and met another friend in midtown to eat at Szechuan Gourmet. It’s so hot in New York City right now, I can only crave spicy food to cool me down. With Sichuan peppercorns, the spice is not in the front of your mouth but at the end of each bite. The roof of your mouth numbs a little bit and you break into a small sweat. You ever wonder why countries with hot weather eat a lot of spicy food? It’s all about that sweat. Sichuan kind of spicy is deliriously satisfying.

I wouldn’t have noticed Famous Sichuan if the line wasn’t so long to get in Joe’s Shanghai. Unlike Joe’s, there’s no queue outside milling around the black garbage bags on the sidewalk. We walked in across the street because it was a sure bet that we would start to eat in five minutes and pay our bill by the time our number at Joe’s Shanghai got called.

I ordered my usual set: Dan Dan noodles, smoked tofu with celery and string beans with minced pork. While the two vegetable dishes are not traditionally spicy at all, the Dan Dan noodles is my go-to Sichuan dish. All of them together make a good meal for less than $30 without the crowd and the wait time.