地下美食：Flushing的小胡椒热锅的四星星
小胡椒火锅拥有一切你可以问for in a restaurant whose raison d’être is a communal repast that originated among the nomads of Mongolia, spread south from Beijing, and eventually ended up on the menus of some of New York’s finest Sichuan restaurants. The mood is laid-back but festive; the service is of the friendly, crackerjack variety; and the portions are beyond super-size. True, a Mongolian nomad of the old school might raise an eyebrow over the idea of firing up the pot on a Mr. Induction tabletop burner rather than an open flame, but that does little to diminish the primordial thrill of cooking meat (and just about anything else) in a bubbling cauldron.
与其他诱人的地方不同的地方不同，您可以使用全罐热点狂欢，但有一个时间限制，这种四川通才小胡椒的专业分支在大学点，提供了一种悠闲的选择。您可以从两个汤底座中进行选择 - “ Szechuan Spicy”或“ House Original（非辣）”，或者您可以订购一个组合锅，该组合锅在一个碗中，一个碗中的两个汤，由分隔器分隔的方式，您可能会订购半平局-Pepperoni披萨在您的附近切片关节。（我们认可最后选择。）$ 24.95的热锅配有纳帕卷心菜，豆瓣菜，豆芽，豆芽，木耳蘑菇，玉米和玉米的凸起，包含包含的价格的盘子和玉米棒。可盆栽的碎片，以及一盘薄薄的脂肪味牛肉。这个smorgasbord放在桌子旁边，看起来像折叠电视托盘。您可以将杂物塞入热汤中，用像金鱼网的小金属滤网一起将它们挖出，将它们浸入各种调味料和调味品中，吞噬它们，然后用额头，额外的腰带循环循环，重复，重复一遍ad infinitum。这是很多食物。实际上，这足以喂养一支四川军队。但是热点狂热者并不止步于此。这样做似乎会令人尴尬地审慎，就像一个三人组成的聚会在彼得·卢格（Peter Luger）订购牛排。 The whole point of the endeavor, you see, is unbridled excess, which is why Little Pepper Hot Pot’s menu boasts 56 dunkable add-ons including everything from duck tongues to pork kidneys.
To help you navigate this possibly unfamiliar terrain, we submit these observations: Although the beef is included in the price of the broth and is pretty good, the fatty lamb is $6.95 and better. Especially when dipped into a viscous, fermented-tofu condiment the color of Heinz 57. Fish fillets (flounder of late) cook quickly; monitor them closely and dress them in that classic combo of soy and vinegar, with chopped scallions strewn on top. Spam does not benefit from hot-pot cooking whether it be Szechuan spicy or house non-spicy. Fish balls are spongier than the porky parsley meatballs. You can’t go wrong with tofu in any of its many iterations, be it fried, fresh, or frozen. As for the condiments, which are arranged in a dedicated station, along with bowls and utensils, we recommend the bright-green chive sauce with just about everything. Slices of raw meat, pappardelle-size noodles, and bean-curd skin (or, as the menu has it, “bean crud stick”) have a tendency to furl in the broth and, when fished out with the strainer, can conceal a few lethal chiles, the way socks tend to vanish in the folds of a fitted sheet when you do your laundry. Better to dip them briefly with your chopsticks, etiquette be damned.
Broth is the essence of hot pot, and Little Pepper Hot Pot’s are delicious on their own—the milky-white house style as smooth and rich as tonkotsu ramen broth, and its spicy companion roiling with red oil, chile peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and slices of ginger. Hard as it may be to envision draining the pot, that time will come, and when it does, no matter how much you’ve devoured thus far, it’s worth ladling the now-super-seasoned remnants into a fresh bowl and sipping it like soup.
And that’s hot pot: fondue for the chowhound set, shabu-shabu for trenchermen, and for a certain type of hard-core foodie, about as much fun as you can have in public without getting arrested.
Little Pepper Hot Pot
133-43 Roosevelt Ave.，Nr。王子街，法拉盛；718-690-2206
小时：七天，中午到午夜。
价格：包括蔬菜和牛肉在内的火锅为24.95美元；附加组件，$ 1.95至$ 7.95。
理想餐：结合锅，配以补充切成薄片的脂肪羊肉，鱼片，欧芹肉丸，“豆土棒”，红香肠和生面条。
笔记：Dress in layers: At full capacity, the room with its steamed-over storefront window has the intimate feel of a Russian bathhouse.
便笺：One star for the broth, one for the add-ons, another for the condiments, and one more for the profound sense of satiety.
*本文最初发表于2012年12月17日的第四期New York Magazine.
