6 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 November 15–21, 2019
RETURNING TO CITI FIELD
THIS WINTER
theworldsfare.nyc
Savor Superb Sichuan
at Spy C in Forest Hills
BY JOE DISTEFANO
As the Culinary King of
Queens, I’m so very fortunate
to live in the most diverse
and delicious destination in
all of New York City. Really
I’m not royalty though, I’m
an ambassador, and a hungry
one at that. Today, we take
a trip to Sichuan, China,
via a most unlikely location,
Forest Hills.
The leafy streets of Forest Hills are worlds
away from the madding crowd of downtown
Flushing’s Chinatown where more than a
half dozen restaurants traffic in the fiery fare
of Sichuan. Nevertheless they’re home to one
of the best Sichuan restaurants in Queens,
Spy C.
Before I ate there I was skeptical of Spy C
for two reasons: the name and the location.
“What a goofy name, and how good can a
restaurant in a neighborhood with so few
Chinese people be?” I groused to myself.
Then I tasted the ma po tofu from Chef Zhen
“Tom” Lei. The creamy curds of soybean
bathed in a red chili sauce and shot through
with ground pork sang with ma la, a combination
of chili heat and Sichuan peppercorn
tingle that’s a hallmark of the cuisine. I also
thoroughly enjoyed the fu qi fei pian—listed
on the menu as beef tripe with chili oil—a
cool tangle of tendon, innards, and meat
slicked with chili oil—better known among
Chinese food cognoscenti as husband wife
offal slices. Chef Lei turns that old warhorse
spicy cucumber salad into a thoroughbred
thanks to homemade chili oil and a perfect
balance of sour, sweet, and spicy flavors.
The cool sweet and spicy cucumbers are a
great counterpoint to some of the more incendiary
fare like dry pepper chicken, golden
brown chunks of fried chicken riddled with
dried red peppers and flavored with Sichuan
peppercorn oil. A chicken wing version of
the dish is even better.
Other standouts include Hunan style
braised fish with pickled mustard greens—a
study in sour and spice flavored with pink
peppercorns and of all things sliced lime—
and crispy shredded beef. The latter, crunchy
tendrils of fried beef, is great with beer.
While the focus is squarely on the fiery
bold flavors of Sichuan, not every dish relies
on chili heat. One of the best things is the
house special braised pork belly, wobbly mahogany
colored chunks of meat resounding
the flavor of five spice and soy. The deeply
comforting dish, which Chef Lei says draws
on the flavors of Shanghai, is one I will return
to again and again this winter. The same
goes for the deceptively simple sounding
braised beef with tomato noodle soup.
All of the dishes at Spy C are remarkably
balanced and often as as good or even better
than their Flushing counterparts. That’s because
the 34-year-old Chef Lei, who learned
to cook at a top culinary school in Beijing,
developed the menu for several of that
neighborhood’s restaurants, including Szechuan
Mountain House.
Even though we do not speak the same
language I’ve gotten to know Chef Lei over
the course of several visits. We share a more
important common language, a passion
for Chinese cuisine. When a mutual friend
told me Chef Lei was pretty critical of most
restaurants in Flushing, I struggled with
whether to tell him about my favorite Sichuan
spot Chengdu Tian Fu, which closed
over the summer. Like a nervous schoolgirl
I showed him a photo of their infamous cold
noodles on my cellphone. “Oh, yeah that
place was great,” he said through a translator.
Even though I still really miss my favorite
Flushing haunt, I’m glad to have a new favorite
Sichuan spot in Forest Hills.
Address: 72-06 Austin St., Forest Hills
Phone: 718-263-0357
Website: www.spycny.com
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