It was just 15 months ago that Yunan Yang and her sister Lily Luo opened Cooking Girl on Fairview in deep dark Montrose, down the street from Cuchara and Max’s Wine Dive. Lovers of authentic tongue-numbing Sichuan food immediately made it a regular stop, despite the tiny dining room and often long waits – especially for those remarkable dumplings.
In September, Yang opened Pepper Twins, in the West Gray strip-center location where Nam Noodles used to reside. Like Cooking Girl, Pepper Twins serves country-style Chinese food made with mostly organic ingredients.
We stopped in recently for lunch. The staff is just as friendly as at Cooking Girl, and you will never run out of ice water or steamed rice. The welcome treat is a small bowl of spice-sprinkled fried wonton wrappers.
Because the new kitchen is larger and there are more woks in operation, the staff is able to accommodate a larger menu. But don’t worry, your favorites from Cooking Girl are mostly here, including “super cubic jerky,” the salty-spicy mapo tofu and “soft square bacon.” Plus, there are many new dishes that you will have fun exploring.
The menu can be somewhat inscrutable. Dan dan noodles and General Tso’s chicken are what you expect, although significantly tastier and made with better ingredients than you are accustomed. But some things stumped us, including Mr. Radish, Mr. and Mrs. Smith beef tendon, fish loves tofu, sour cabbage fish and various Berkshire pork dishes with fanciful names. We’ll be back soon to figure these out.
Pepper Twins chicken ($14.99, photo above) is a house specialty and has a medium heat level that’s enjoyable; the menu gives it two out of three chiles on its heat scale. You’ll note a delicate floral flavor throughout the dish from the fresh green peppercorns. Sweet and sour eggplant ($9.99, photo below) is made with small medium-purple eggplants, each glossy wedge tenderly cooked and tossed in, yes, sweet and sour sauce.
You’ve probably had orange beef dozens of times. Here, it’s just better. Beef cut thin, cooked crispy, tossed in a spicy-citrusy-sweet sauce ($13.99), it maybe be the best orange beef I’ve eaten. We also enjoyed dry-fried green beans ($8.99, photo below). They were not so blackened as some versions around town, and they were not doused with soy sauce. They provided a good basic foil for the saucy dishes.
The dishes we ordered were generously portioned, which meant that we had a second meal at home of Pepper Twins leftovers.
Note that there is a BYOB policy here with a modest corking fee for both wine and beer.
PEPPER TWINS, 1915 West Gray at Dunlavy, 346-204-5644, txpeppertwins.com