Spicy Girl: a sensational song of ice and fire on I-Drive
Michael Wang hails from Harbin, China, a city known far more for ice than fire (Harbin hosts the largest ice and snow festival in the world), but word of the Sichuan fare coming off the woks at Spicy Girl, the humble I-Drive venue where he runs point, drew me like a mala-seeking moth. (The phrase, sometimes written as málà, comes from two Chinese characters: spicy, numbing.)
Once there, I found tender, incendiary fish filets, face-numbing beef and tendon and a spicy shrimp and vegetable dish so beautiful I almost felt sad tucking into it. Until I sucked the juice from those head-on beauties, crunching the bodies whole — legs, tail, everything — and chasing it with tender cabbage, toothy cauliflower, crisp lotus root. I felt baptized.
I watched my lunch companion mop his brow. We swigged from a lightly sweetened tea we’d grabbed from the fridge and contemplated the table — that shrimp ($14.95), a gorgeous chili-laden broth in which delicate wonton purses floated like lily pads ($7.95), crisp-fried, bone-in chicken chunks beneath a crimson flurry of chopped pepper husks ($11.95).
We looked at one another, bedazzled.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this good,” he said.
Spicy Girl opened in January 2020. “Very, very bad luck,” says Wang, friendly and soft-spoken in his mask. “No tourists, total lockdown.” They
weren’t even doing much takeout. Until WeChat. Billed as “China’s app for everything,” it’s also used extensively in the States. And when word about Spicy Girl got out, Orlando’s Chinese community particularly folks in Metrowest, Dr. Phillips and Windermere came in droves to check them out.
“When we opened, it was a full house,” says Wang. “In the app, there’s 2,000-3,000 Chinese people. Then it dropped off and is now slowly building again.”
Most customers, still, are Chinese. “Probably 70 percent,” Wang estimates. The tourists are coming back, too, finding them on Google and other sites.
I saw only two non-Asian faces on my visits, both standing by for quick-turnaround takeout. One came just for egg rolls (I heard him order). Spicy Girl is a boon for adventurous eaters who lack willing companions. There are familiar offerings for those less enthused by the near-spiritual anesthetizing properties of Sichuan cuisine. Lo mein. General Tso’s. Pork egg rolls. Bring your kids. They’ll be fine.
But, so, too, are mild dishes more traditional. Sweet, tangy jewels among the spicy. Stuff you should try.
Like the Dongbei guo bao rou (sweet and sour pork; $11.95), a taste of Wang’s hometown I’d have blown right past without direction.
The pork is thin-sliced, marinated and twice-fried to the most exquisite crispy, then bathed in a beautifully balanced, gently thickened sauce of sugar and vinegar. It’s poetry. It’s art. It is most definitely best eaten fresh and hot. Do yourself that honor.
“It’s my hometown-style,” he says. “Not American. No ketchup-red.”
Indeed, this is not the food court atrocity you may conjure upon hearing “sweet and sour,” cafeteria nuggies of tasteless protein, fruit punch-colored goo that seems fashioned from Jell-O mix.
This dish is exquisite. And it’s not spicy at all.
That said, Spicy Girl’s Sichuan focus is fun for Wang, who spent two years in culinary school back home before traveling around China, racking up techniques from various restaurants.
“From north to south I went, through many cities and learning different styles,” he says, but he has no real favorite. Wang and his wife, Hong Zhan, moved here about 20 years ago. He learned American variations while working at Eastern Pearl in Altamonte Springs and sushi, too, during his time at Amura in Sand Lake.
Zhan, who works at Spicy Girl, too, is from the Sichuan city of Chongqing, so there was motivation to learn for love’s sake, too. Wang laughs. “I learn from everybody! And I learned Sichuan in China, too. I like spicy food, that’s why I love to cook it, but it’s not what I grew up with. China is such a big country with so many foods. You can find all the styles everywhere.”
You’ll find a range here, too, though Sichuan is the specialty. Try the beef with pickled pepper ($11.95; house-pickled peppers and radishes lend wonderful sour elements alongside tender stir-fried beef ) or the firm and spicy dry tofu cold appetizer ($9.95; a fortifying leftover for next-day breakfast). Try the spicy super combo ($29.95) — bring friends for that one — loaded down with shrimp, squid, meatball, spam, beef and… and… and.
It’s a broad menu. And despite the name, so much more than spicy. For bold adventurers, Spicy Girl’s traditional offerings are complex and fragrant, redolent of fennel and anise, clove and peppercorns, chilies, dried orange peels and more. There’s nuance, layered flavors amid the give and snap of the meat, seafood, vegetables, the crisp of its fried delights.
It is a modest place, one that holds marvelous finds.
If you go: 5748 International Drive in Orlando, 321-732-0996; spicygirlorlando.com/