We Can't Help It. It's Our Nature.

Typically northern Chinese combo of lamb chunks doused in copious amounts of cumin powder and cayenne pepper.

The $8 side dish labeled on a voluminous menu simply as Fried Spicy Potatoes turns out to be a heap of hand-cut French Fries coated in  ubiquitous cumin seasoning, along with lethal amounts of multiple chili varieties. Addictive. Truly.

Cold appetizers offer no shelter from the insane heat quotient of authentic Sichuan cuisine. Nonetheless, Cafe Drake and Jen and Ben all adored tree mushrooms dressed with pickled red chilies and salty rice vinegar. Far right: a salad of roughly chopped Taiwanese cucumbers (the skinny, ultra thin-skinned breed) tossed with crushed mustard seeds, a surfeit of raw garlic and coarse salt.

Little Pepper's signature dish, Sichuan Chicken. Ratio of whole red chilies to diced squares of chicken: 15-1.

Hell to Some, Heaven to Others. 

A motto/mantra we've lived with for many years as Absolute Truth to Cafe Drake. 

Hence our excursion to the farthest reaches of the five boroughs, Queens' College Point neighborhood, scenically located across the harbor from Riker's Island, to sample the hellish hot fare of NYC's notoriously spiciest restaurant, Little Pepper. Thai aficiandos, those of you who order your massaman curries extra spicy, will wilt before the fury of a regional Chinese cuisine stockpiled with a veritable arsenal of flamethrowers - fresh and pickled green and red chilies, mounds of dried red chili peppers and that tongue-numbing grenade, the addictive and alluring whole Sichuan peppercorn.

Needless to say, highly recommended.