Spicy Village
Description
For outer-borough food snobs who think there are no more mind-blowing meals to be had in the city’s first Chinatown, check out the 20-seat restaurant also known as Henan Flavor. An inspiration for food-world influencer Danny Bowien (Mission Chinese Food), the best dishes at this noodle-based operation pack the heat and deep, complex flavors of the central Chinese region. A bowl of pork- and vegetable-dumpling soup arrives with a cloudy, sour lamb broth that’s the essence of restorative. In the spicy beef brisket dish, a tangy sauce bathes a pile of noodles (choose from clear yam, rice flour, vermicelli and the hand-cut pasta ribbons called hui mei) topped with chopped cilantro; in the well-named Big Tray Chicken, a bright-orange, chili-spiked pool of oily broth is rich with star anise and cumin. Like most of the menu at Spicy Village, it’s best ordered with hui mei, whose ragged, rustic texture turns the dish into the Henanese version of an Italian ragù.