Mentai Ika Shishito from Izakaya MEW

Mentai Ika Shishito from Izakaya MEW

Spicy Level: 🌶🌶

Mentai Ika Shishito is made of squid and shishito peppers sauteed with mentai, butter, soy sause and black pepper. Japanese food normally won't be spicy. Even though this dish with shishito peppers tastes just a little bit spicy, the flavor is extremely good! Sometimes, the peppers are not spicy, but sometimes they are so spicy, so it's kinda like an "adventure" to eat this.

Tucked into a basement on 35th Street in bustling K-Town, Izakaya MEW attracts young professionals, businesspeople and students looking for a real izakaya experience. This place always needs to wait to be seated. I went there four times and I always waited at least an hour.

Take the narrow steps down to the basement, and you will find yourself in a huge, brick-walled dining space designed with both the essences of a traditional izakaya in Tokyo and a chic bar in Brooklyn. The rustic yet modern décor is one of the charms of the restaurant/bar, but their reasonably priced, small dishes are also a great appeal to their clientele.

Instagram References:

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Location: 53 W 35th St (Basement), New York, NY, 10016

Yelp Link: https://www.yelp.com/biz/izakaya-mew-new-york-3

Menu: http://mewnyc.com/dinner-menu/

Spicy Chicken Feet Stew from Yupdduk

Spicy Chicken Feet Stew from Yupdduk

Spicy Level: 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 

Yupdduk should be the Korean restaurant in New York's K-Town that is most good at making spicy food! This spicy chicken feet stew is my favorite in Yupdduk. I also tried the stir fried spicy chicken feet there, but this stew is much more spicy and better.

Yupdduk in K-Town

Yupdduk doesn't have high rate on Yelp, but spicy food lovers should not agree with this rate. This is a small restaurant with simple logo of 🌶 on the top. I believe many people would just pass by. Don't ever miss this great restaurant if you love spicy food!

Instagram References:

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Location: 2 W 32nd St, New York, NY 10001

Yelp Link: https://www.yelp.com/biz/yupdduk-new-york

Menu: http://yupdduknyc.com/menu/

Spicy Dry Pot from Mala Project

Spicy Dry Pot from Mala Project

Spicy Level: 🌶🌶🌶 for "Spicy"

                     🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 for "Super Spicy" 

Spicy dry pot is a kind of traditional spicy food from Sichuan.Such is the enduring power of mala that it has, of late, been transubstantiated from its renowned liquid form—hot pot, a bubbly soup—to its newer, hipper cousin, the dry pot. Mala Project is doing great on this! 

From a menu of sixty or so meats and vegetables, you choose ingredients (three to six are suggested per person) and, more important, the preferred level of spiciness. (Of the four levels, the lowest is non-spicy, and the highest, super-spicy, might require a fire extinguisher.) Traditional Chinese favorites like beef tendon, tongue, intestine, and artery (a must-try for the uninitiated) merrily jostle with more conventional choices, like wakame, tofu skin, lotus root, and king oyster mushrooms. When an adventurous first-timer pointed to the unfamiliar item rooster’s XXX, the handsome Uighur waiter deadpanned, “Chicken testicles, ma’am. One order?”

Instagram References:

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Location: 122 1st Ave. New York, NY 10009

Yelp Link: https://www.yelp.com/biz/m%C3%A1l%C3%A0-project-new-york

Menu: http://malaproject.nyc/MalaProject_Menu_Dinner.pdf

Wok Basil Dish from Pure Thai Cookhouse

Wok Basil Dish from Pure Thai Cookhouse

Spicy Level: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

The first time I went to this restaurant, I asked for something spicy and they recommended this Wok Basil Dish to me. There are different spicy levels, mild, medium, and spicy. I insisted to choose the spicy level the first time, even though the waiter strongly suggested me not to do that. Then, it turned out my mouth and my throat were on FIRE!! But it was still good. The second time I went there, I asked for medium level of spicy. The level is just right. Yummy and spicy!

Instagram References:

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I strongly recommend some Thai food and spicy food lovers to try this Wok Basil Dish with medium spicy level in Pure Thai Cookhouse.

Location: 766 9th Ave (between 51 & 52 St)

Yelp Link: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pure-thai-cookhouse-new-york

Menu: http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/pure-thai-cookhouse/menu 

Spicy Chick Pea Noodle Soup from Hao Noodle and Tea By Madam Zhu's Kitchen

Spicy Chick Pea Noodle Soup from Hao Noodle and Tea By Madam Zhu's Kitchen

Spicy Level: 🌶🌶
Hao Noodle and Tea By Madam Zhu's Kitchen is owned by an energetic entrepreneur called Zhu Rong. Hao Noodle and Tea invaded New York along with along a pair of chefs whose skillful manipulation of bubbling oil, steam and smoking-hot woks is evident in almost everything they cook. They also know a thing or two about dough and hot peppers.

As a spicy food lover grown up in Chengdu, Sichuan, a place famous for spicy food in China, I personally believe that this Spicy Chick Pea Noodle Soup tastes 90% similar to the one I had in my hometown.

Spicy Chick Pea Noodle Soup from Chengdu

I strongly recommend New York spicy foodies to try this noodle soup in Hao Noodle and Tea By Madam Zhu's Kitchen.

Location: 401 6th Ave, New York, NY 10014

Yelp Link: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hao-noodle-and-tea-by-madam-zhus-kitchen-new-york

Menu: http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/2016/06/madam-zhu-menu.pdf