#95 – DRY CHICKEN WITH THREE KINDS OF PEPPER at METRO CAFE

SADLY, METRO CAFE IS NOW CLOSED.

When I first saw Time Out’s list and read that one of the dishes was from Metro Cafe, I almost ripped up the issue right then and there. How could they possibly claim that one of those cheap, generic lunch chains in midtown had one of the best dishes of the year? Just like PAX and Europa Cafe, Metro serves generic over-priced sandwiches, pre-packaged salads, and….

Oh, wait a minute. Sorry. The midtown atrocity is called Cafe Metro. Upon closer inspection, I realize that Metro Cafe is actually a Chinese restaurant out in Sunset Park. No relation to the former, thank goodness.

I was definitely relieved and my faith in Time Out was restored, but I still think that Metro Cafe is a terrible name for a Chinese restaurant serving traditional Szechuan food in a far neighborhood in Brooklyn.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I like the adventure and intensity of Szechuan cuisine. Basically, take everything you know about Chinese food and quadruple the spice quotient.

This stuff is spicy. The menu had warnings next to each dish with either a small pepper or a big pepper. I don’t think I saw any dishes without any pepper icon at all. The three things we chose (including the list item) all had big peppers next to them so we were in for a mouth-watering heat-fueled dinner.

One of their specialties is called Chong Qing Chicken, which was revealed (thanks to parentheses) to be the proper name for our list item: Dry Chicken with Three Kinds of Pepper. We also ordered the Double Cooked Pork, the Mapo Tofu, some white rice (just to temper the heat), and as much water as possible.

The Pork arrived first. It was sliced very thin with big layers of fat on top and bottom. The meat itself was flavorful and the sweet-spicy brown sauce didn’t hurt. The big complaint was that it was a little too salty and the vegetables were hard to distinguish. I think there were leeks and definitely peppers, but I also got a big bite of ginger.

The Mapo Tofu was served in a big bowl of red oily sauce. We had to fish the chunks of tofu out with a spoon and it was hard to keep them in one piece. Of course, tofu doesn’t have much flavor on its own, but takes on the sauce it’s in. And this stuff just soaked up the heat. The color of the chili sauce was a warning to those who dared and sure enough, my mouth was numb with tingling heat.

It was a little frustrating that the list item arrived last because our tastebuds had been abused by then and I was worried I wouldn’t get the full experience. I tried to reset my palate by eating some rice, drinking some water, and letting the heat slowly dissipate before I ventured into the final tasting of the night.

The dark chicken pieces camouflaged in with the seeds and pepper pods. I’d say more than half this dish were peppers, so much of it went uneaten. I learned the hard way that the dried red chiles are not edible – not because they are explosively hot (which they are) – but because you can’t actually break them down. Then the other two types of pepper that I was able to discern were green peppers and szechuan peppercorns. I’m sure there was also a healthy dose of black peppercorns as well.

And whether or not I consumed the actual peppers, I slowly got the heat. It was inescapable. The dried chicken was fried to a crisp perfection and it was incredibly moist and crunchy. It was also covered with tiny pecks of peppercorns that gave it a smoky, strong bite.

My mouth eventually caught on fire again (this time the heat snuck up on me), and while my eyes and nose were crying, I couldn’t stop eating this. The crisp bites of spicy, alarmingly delicious meat was maddeningly addicting.

All the food was bold, fresh, and tasty. Metro Cafe is the only restaurant in Sunset Park serving Szechuan food and they don’t cut corners with the quality of their ingredients. I wish the same could be said for all restaurants with that name.

Would Metro Cafe’s Dry Chicken with Three Kinds of Pepper make my Top 100 of the year? It really says something when I can’t stop eating food that is burning my mouth – it says it’s delicious and that’s why this gets an 8 out of 10.