Two Stars for Midtown's Cafe China

Pete Wells awards two stars to Cafe China this week in a review that is just as playful as the heat and tingle experienced from the bounty of sichuan peppercorns that are in Cafe China's food.

"The chile heat and the Sichuan pepper tingle intensify each other until your mouth vibrates the way Wile E. Coyote does when he is hit on the head by an iron beam."

There is a bit of Sichuan 101 throughout the review as we learn "Sichuan cooks call the heat of chile peppers la. Ma is the word for the mouth-numbing zing of their region’s prized peppercorns. Stir them together and you have ma la."  We are directed to Land of Plenty, a cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop that notes "ma la is one of 23 distinct flavor combinations in Sichuan cooking."

Wells finds the use of sichuan peppers to be controlled and well executed in the robin's-egg-blue room at 13 East 37th Street.  "Even his spiciest recipes hold back from obliterating your palate, so you can taste the other dishes."