Little Pepper

The servers understand little English, but you get the idea.

Pork dumplings in hot sauce ($4.50), my favorite appetizer at this very welcoming Sichuan restaurant, were flat, slippery, and hard to corral but well worth the effort. Diced rabbit meat in red chili sauce ($4.95) offered plenty of tender tidbits on nearly as many little bones; it was a chore that no one at our table saw through till the end.

Order the enhanced pork with salt and pepper (not shown; $9.95) or the smoked pork with leeks ($9.95), and you may find that the waitstaff know the English word "fatty"; we smiled away this warning and had them bring on the bacon. Also shown below: Lamb with hot and spicy sauce and cumin ($11.95), hiding under all that cilantro, might have been crispier, braised lamb in spicy soup ($13.95), spicier, and tea-smoked duck ($9.95), moister. (Nonetheless, no leftovers in the bunch.)

Sautéed dried string beans ($6.95), pinch-hitting for 86'ed snow pea leaves, were an exceptionally pleasant surprise; next time they'll be in my starting lineup. Adventuresome dishes like pickled black-eyed beans with minced pork, fish filet in Chinese ketchup, crust of cooked rice with pork, fried potato in hot sauce — perhaps even the bullfrog with Sichuan pickled hot pepper — also await return visits.

Little Pepper (a.k.a. Xiao La Jiao)
133-43 Roosevelt Ave. (Prince St.-College Point Blvd.), Flushing, Queens
718-939-7788