Big. Tray. Chicken. Sometimes, for no reason at all, I’ll start to think about it. And once I start to think about it—the wok full of fried meat on the bone, the chewy noodles, the hot, face-tingling sauce bound with cumin and fennel seeds, thrashing with chilis and Sichuan peppercorns—well then that’s it. I have to get down to Spicy Village and get it.
Rare, spectacular restaurant dishes can burrow deep and get stuck in your head like a perfect pop song. Chef Angela Dimayuga’s word for those dishes is “crave-able,” which sounds a bit like the trademarked copy you’d see on a bag of chips while being precisely correct: Sometimes, for no reason at all, you’ll start to think about them.
