Pepper Twins: A numbing experience

October 18, 2017
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Laura
Posted in FOODIE DIARIES
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By Jim Ayres

Youâ€™ve been to Pepper Twins. Iâ€™m fairly sure of it. Most everyone I know has eaten there. I hadnâ€™t, until recently.
For a weekday lunch, I psyched myself up. I was going to conquer this fear. With all the bravado I could muster, I walked into the storefront on West Gray. I was finally going to experience the Sichuan peppercorn.
I was shown to a table. I studied the menu, with its little one, two and three-pepper icons. This was my moment, my time to taste once and for all what these hallucinogenic peppercorns were all about. The waiter arrived. Adrenalin flowed.
And I ordered General Tsoâ€™s Chicken.
And it was terrible. It was overcooked, dry chicken breast. It was covered in a goo I can only describe as maple syrup mixed with soy sauce. It was appropriately spicy for its one-pepper rating. It was also my punishment, richly deserved, for chickening out at the last second.
As a final indignity, I bit into one of those dried red peppers on my last bite, setting my mouth on fire for a good ten minutes. â€œThatâ€™ll teach him,â€ the entire staff no doubt thought.
So, it was with a mixture of shame and a renewed sense of purpose that I revisited Pepper Twins days later, on Kirby Drive. This is where things get interesting!
Pepper Twinsâ€™ Mongolian Beef is splendid. Weâ€™re not at Sichuan peppercorn level yet, but this tender beef, stir fried with onions, has a pleasant kick. A lightly sweet and savory sauce brings the whole dish together, and the entrÃ©e was a joy from first bite to last.
Stewed Berkshire Pork Belly is similarly indulgent. Basically, itâ€™s very thick cut bacon, braised in traditional Sichuan manner, topped with finely chopped onions and other vegetables. Itâ€™s a more authentic Sichuan dish than what weâ€™re used to in westernized restaurants. Although itâ€™s listed as an
entrÃ©e under â€œChefâ€™s Specialties,â€ this is a dish for sharing. No one could, or should, eat all that glorious fat in one sitting.
Youâ€™ve got to play at the two and three-pepper levels to get the peppercorns, however. And as thatâ€™s what weâ€™re here for, we try the Pepper Twins Chicken. The breast meat is cut into small chunks and stir fried with many vegetables, including okra. Brokenâ€”not wholeâ€”red peppers dot the surface. Serious heat awaits.
Oh, and that little branch of round things on top? Jackpot! Let the experiment commence.
Surprisingly, the Sichuan peppercorns donâ€™t affect your skin as you pick them off and add them to the dish. Itâ€™s only in your mouth that their spell begins. Itâ€™s a strange numbing sensation, euphoric, certainly not like the dentist. It heightens flavors. Itâ€™s spicy, but only makes you want to dig in for more.
But you know that already. Because youâ€™ve been to Pepper Twins. I may be the last to discover it, but Iâ€™ll make up for it in return visits!