Skip to main contentThe hot-pepper-bath chicken ($10) is a rite of passage for newbies at this shoebox-sized Szechuan joint: A shallow bowl is filled to the brim with dried red peppers and tender chicken bits, wildly spiced with mouth-numbing Szechuan pepper, that bloom in the belly like firecrackers. Don't stop there, though; Lucky Strike has other intense flavors for you to worship, from gelatinous thin-sliced pig ears in a slick of citrusy hot pepper oil that pop and crunch when you eat them, to jellyfish salad, meltingly tender pork belly and salty cornstarch-dusted tofu cubes served molten hot from the deep fat fryer. And then there's that dirty-wrong bowl of potato noodles and intestines that smells like butthole and tastes like slippery heaven. A tip: There are only five or six tables, so come early or you may end up knocking back shots at the dive bar next door for an hour while you wait for a table.
WWeek 2015