dresese

Spicy & Tasty

Last weekend I went up to Flushing to check out Flushing Meadows Park, and while I was there I stopped by Flushing Main St., and went to Chowhound favorite, Spicy & Tasty.

I was by myself, so I only ordered two dishes. The dishes were cheap, though; together they cost around $11 and I took some home with me. Not a bad deal at all.

I perhaps should have chosen slightly more carefully. Both dishes I got were cold dishes. But, actually, after my long, warm, walk through Flushing Meadows cold food was just what I needed. The dish pictured above is a cold jelly with hot oil (spicy hot, not hot hot). Although you can't tell it from the picture, there was more than enough hot oil to go around the noodles, and it was a delicious, spicy dish, with plenty of those numbing sichuan peppercorns.

This was a cold, spicy, diced rabbit. The sauce was spicy and very numbing with all the Sichuan peppercorns. Somehow that numbing taste goes very well with cold food. The rabbit had a lot of bones, but this is something I really appreciate with this kind of dish. The more bones it has, the longer it takes to eat it. And the longer it takes to eat it, the longer that delicious sauce stays on your tongue. If it was boneless, you would just pop it in your mouth, chew and quickly swallow. It would be merely tasty. But with the bones, you have to put it in your mouth and work it around, or hold it in your hand and gently nibble all around. In either case, you really are tasting it much more than you would otherwise. So remember, the bones are your friend. Just like living without a car and having to walk everywhere, a little bit of inconvenience is good for you.

My meal at Spicy & Tasty was wonderful. They had many interesting things on the menu, and because I only tried two things I can't really compare it to other Sichuan places like Wu Liang Ye or Grand Sichuan (two Manhattan-based Sichuan restaurants). I personally like Wu Liang Ye a little more than Grand Sichuan (although both are great), and so far Spicy & Tasty seems like it could be as good as Wu Liang Ye, or perhaps even better. But I would have to eat there again to find out.