It’s midday on a Thursday. I’m at Ginkgo Sichuan Cuisine and I’m set to interview co-owner Yingying Yan over a handful of her restaurant’s dishes. And out they all come. I can see and I can certainly smell the dry red chilies before they hit the table. I go straight for the handmade dumplings and give it a stir do the spicy reddish orange oil and freshly diced garlic coats each little pork filled pocket. I pop one in my mouth, then immediately take a forkful of crispy edged cumin beef. I cough a few times and probably turned a few shades of red as I felt my temperature rise. This, by the way, isn’t a bad thing. Yan’s husband, and co-owner, Roger Yen, tells me to skip the water. He brings over an ice-cold bottle of Tsingtao, a light, refreshing rice lager that calmed the heat, the numbness in my tongue, and my slight cough that was a result of simply underestimating the heat level.