Little Pepper (or Xiao La Jiao) is a misnomer. They might be small tiny particles of crushed peppers and spices, but they don’t just put a little on their Szechuan dishes. They load them with lots and lots of pepper. I speak of one dishe in particular, but this cuisine as a whole is not for the little of stomach.
I had been to this basement restaurant in Flushing a few years ago and I remember that it was the first time I had a crazy sensation from spicy food. What happened was this: The spice (I think particularly the Szechuan peppers) was so overwhelming that when I drank tap water, it felt like it was carbonated. My taste buds had actually gone numb. I felt like I was on some sort of drug. It was both a very neat and alarming sensation. I had the same experience when I returned to Flushing a few years later and ate at the Golden Mall. I think I had a chili rabbit dish both times.
As tempted as I was to try a little sparkling tap water again, there was another dish we had to try. It was the Lamb with Hot and Spicy Sauce (with Cumin) or Cumin Lamb as Time Out called it. When this finally came to the table, wrapped in aluminum foil, the overwhelming aroma of cumin filled my nose, my mouth, my eyes. It was really intense. I generally like cumin but it felt like I had fallen into a vat of cumin quick sand.
I could also see the meat was covered with tons of crushed red peppers and a garnish of cilantro. I took maybe two bites and didn’t get much lamb flavor. I only got heat. Lots of heat. And I found myself crunching on what felt like seeds but I knew were those pepper flakes. They were attacking my mouth like an army of fire ants. And the charming non-English speaking staff were too busy to refill my water.
I wanted to like this, but truth be told, I couldn’t finish it. I could barely get a quarter of the dish ingested. And the lack of balance to me really turned me off. I was surprised that this dish is so well-received all over the internet. I guess some people have bionic taste buds.
We got a few other dishes (which we had to order by pointing to because of the language barrier) and they fared a little better. The pork dumplings in soup were sort of the opposite of the cumin lamb. They had no flavor at all (or had my tastebuds all been destroyed?) and tasted like bland wontons. The Chinese broccoli helped cool the heat a bit – even though I could see some Szechuan peppers hiding among the green. But the Spicy Sichuan Cold Noodles were the winner. They definitely had quite a bit of heat, but were balanced well with a touch of cold savory sweetness.
I am pleased to inform you all that my tastebuds have since recovered and I think I will be able to continue my job tasting all of Time Out’s 100 Dishes. It was a close one there.
Would Little Pepper’s Cumin Lamb make my Top 100 of the year? Maybe if I was able to taste some of the actual lamb I could have judged it higher. Maybe my tastebuds are too sensitive, but due to the overwhelming spice with no relief, it earns only a 5 out of 10.
