Tag: chinatown

Categories
asian

Six Soup Dumplings in Chinatown Manhattan with “Shanghai” in it’s Name

I went on a two-day splurge of Soup Dumplings (aka Steamed Juicy Buns, aka Steamed Tiny Buns, aka Xiaolong bao). These are the dumplings that have broth built-in and squirt all over if you don’t know how to eat it correctly. I was performing in my friend, Shonali’s play nearby Chinatown. So I figured I’d go for some. Then some turned into six orders at six different restaurants. All coincidentally had “Shanghai” in their names.

Shanghai Cuisine (89 Bayard St. New York, NY 10013). This place is nice on a nice day, because they have outdoor seating and a full bar with Chinese-American style tiki cocktails. The soup dumplings had thicker tougher skin, which I don’t think is ideal, but good anyway.

 

Shanghai Cafe Deluxe (100 Mott St. New York, NY 10013). These might have been my favorite dumplings. The skin was light and just right. Everyone there ordered these Steamed Tiny Buns. Only thing though is the lighting in the restaurant is all neon pink. Makes the food look weird and kind of gives me a headache, just like I used to get every time I went to EPCOT center.

 

Shanghai Asian Manor (21 Mott St. New York, NY 10013). The menu asked me to Challenge My Senses with Black Truffle Soup Dumplings. $12 for an order. That’s pricey compared to the $5 order of regular pork soup dumplings I’ve been getting. I figure it was YOLO, so got them. They were good, but not sure if they were worth $12 compared to $5 non-truffled. They seemed pretty similar to the other pork soup dumplings I was eating earlier, but maybe a little more rich.


Shanghai Asian Cuisine (14A Elizabeth St. New York, NY 10013). Day 2 of Soup Dumplings. Came here and then realized this was the newer sister restaurant of Shanghai Asian Manor I got the Black Truffle Soup Dumplings at. They also asked me to Challenge My Senses with Black Truffle Soup Dumplings on the menu. For some reason, this place is about a dollar more on many of their menu items than their sister restaurant. Maybe because it’s newer. I wasn’t sure if the Black Truffle Soup Dumplings were worth it at $12, so I got the $6.70 regular pork dumplings. The dumpling overall was good, but the filling was a little chalky. Not quite as rich tasting as the Black Truffle ones. So maybe they are worth if you are rich. They must love truffle. They have Ice Cream Truffles. Probably a different type of truffle.


Shanghai Gourmet (23 Pell St. New York, NY 10013). I’ve been here before to get the eel dish. The skin on these dumplings are more thick and tough, but still good. Dude, Soup Dumplings are good no matter how you make ’em.


Shanghai Heping Restaurant (104 Mott St. New York, NY 10013). Okay, at this point I wanted to start throwing up soup dumplings, but I know I had to keep moving forward and commit to the bit. So I found Shanghai Heping Restaurant. The whole time I thought it was called “Shanghai Helping” and I did need the help. Got the soup dumplings here $5. Pretty good overall. Now it was time to find my way home and puke soup dumplings.


Now there are a lot more restaurants in Chinatown that have “Shanghai” in their names and they all have these Shanghai Soup Dumplings. I just had to quit while I’m ahead. I would say at least one dumpling per order squirted all over me.

Categories
chinese

Hop Lee’s Crab Cantonese

I really wanted to eat blue crabs and went to Fish in the West Village where they have All You Can Eat Crabs for lunch. This time I had studied on YouTube, watching many videos on how to properly eat/pick a blue crab. The funny thing is they all say they are showing the proper way to do it …yet they all do it differently. Anyway, I showed up to Fish, sat down, ordered a beer, then asked for the All You Can Eat Crab deal. The waiter said they don’t have it. I told him that I was going to eat somewhere else then (I don’t think it a dickish way, but maybe it sounded like it). Then I asked if it was just today they don’t have it? He said they didn’t get the crabs this week, but …they might not have it again. When he said the last part, it felt like he was just saying that out of spite because he was mad I was leaving. It’s just weird, because I thought the main reason to go to this place was for the All You Can Eat Crabs. It’s painted on their window.

So I walked around and tried to figure out where I could get crabs. Oh yeah, Chinatown! So I went there, sat down at Hop Lee’s, ordered the Crab Cantonese, then realized, “Oh shit. Didn’t I get really sick the last time I had crabs in Chinatown?” Oh well.

The Crab Cantonese came out on a huge platter all sauced up. It was delicious. I could even just eat the sauce with white rice and be satisfied. The crabs were all cut cup, so I didn’t get to try any of those YouTube tips. But I do now know that if you really want to eat crabs, you have to use both your hands and get messy. I ate it all. And it’s been a couple of days since and I don’t feel sick.

The fortune cookie I got at the end of the meal said, “The thing one fears most is fear.” I guess that was relevant. Time to use the lottery numbers on the other side I guess.

Hop Lee – 16 Mott St (btwn Mosco St & Park Row) New York, NY 10013

Categories
asian

New Tu Do Vietnamese Restaurant

We wanted something new to do, so we went to New Tu Do Restaurant for some Vietnamese food.

Todd accidentally ordered the Shrimp and Crab Spring Rolls from the picture underneath the glass table top. Pretty good stuff though.

Then I got this huge ass bowl of Pho for $6.95. I barely ate it and still got stuffed.

Also on the table were some grilled pork skewers and extra spring rolls. They give you bean sprouts, mint leaves, lettuce and the fish sauce with each dish. There was a lot of it on the table.

Then ended the meal with some Vietnamese Coffee. I didn’t realize it was a whole process.

Somehow our meal was $50 between the two of us. I thought this place was supposed to be cheap. But I guess we drank a lot of beer.

New Tu Do Restaurant – 102 Bowery St (btw Grand St & Hester) New York, NY 10013

Categories
chinese

Food World Restaurant

I feel like there’s more restaurants on Eldridge Street, but they look like hole in the wall places that have been there for years. I walked into this one where everything was written in Chinese. I didn’t know it had a name, but it says “Food World Restaurant” on the menus. This is right next door to Young City Fish Balls.

06 Chrysanthemum Fish with Assorted Sauces - Food World Restaurant

I got the Chrysanthemum Fish with Assorted Sauces, which is basically a fried whole fish with sweet and sour sauce. It looks rather impressive. The fish was a little off tasting until I made sure each bite was covered in sauce, then all was well. Pretty good.

I’ve had Chrysanthemum Fish at another Chinese restaurant a long time ago. I remember that one was much more crispier to the point where it was hard to eat. This one was much more edible.

Food World Restaurant – 19 Eldridge Street #b. New York, NY 10002

Categories
asian

Sanur Indonesian & Malaysian Food

We hit up Sanur for some Indonesian and Malaysian food in Chinatown. I’ve only previously gone to the upper floor for take-out and always loved it. This time we went down into the basement for table service.

Oh man, it was so good. We got Roti Canai, Satay Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce, Curry Beef Stew, Pork with Ginger, and sauteed Bitter Melon.

The Curry Beef Stew was my favorite. The Roti Canai was good, but I’ve had better.

Sanur Restaurant – 18 Doyers St (@ Chatham Square) New York 10013

Categories
chinese

Young City Fish Balls

I went to the Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival in Chinatown this weekend. It was such a beautiful day, I had to get out of the house. It was a good crowd of people. Kids painting Yamakas. Old people playing Mahjong. Teens selling Egg Rolls and Egg Creams for $5 (combo).

01 Young City Fish Balls

I passed by a place on the block called “Young City Fish Balls”. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but turned out to be a restaurant that sells Chinese soups, rice and noodles (Fuzhou cuisine). I had to go in since the name was so cool.

I ordered the Fish Balls for only $3. They offered it with pork inside or without. It was a good size bowl of about twelve balls. The soup had a bit of a vinegar taste. I thought the balls were pretty decent, especially for how cheap they were.

They had some interesting items on the menu, like Beef Paste and Cattle’s Visceral’s soup. It’s like funny Engrish translations. But my waiter spoke perfect English. I almost wonder if this restaurant’s name and menu was made to trick ironic foodie hipsters to come. It worked!

They also serve beer. I really like this place.

Young City Fish Balls (aka Yung City Corp.) – 21 Eldridge St. New York, NY 10002

Back at the festival, I witnessed one of the most amazing performances I’ve ever seen. A Chinese mask changing dance (called Bian Lian) performed by Cao Zhen Jian of the Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company. The guy would flash his fan in front of his face and his mask would instantly change …also later his clothes too. It was awesome. He showed his face at the end and looked like Martin Yan from Yan Can Cook. But I probably think every Chinese guy looks like Yan Can Cook.

A video about one of the masters of Chinese mask changing.

Categories
chinese

Chinese New Year NYC 2013

Gung Hay Fat Choy! We went out to watch the Chinese New Year Firecracker Ceremony. But because it wasn’t in the place where I thought it was, we ended up on the wrong side of Chinatown. So we just went to Dim Sum instead. Like always, the popular places are packed. So we went to East Market Restaurant like always. Always out of the way and somewhat hidden.

I thought it was funny that Josh, who used to be Vegan, loved the Chicken Feet. Sam also liked it too. I think they are more Chinese than I am.

A nice surprise was the Custard Steamed Buns. Sweet dessert-like in the middle of our meal. The filling almost tasted like cookie dough.

East Market Restaurant – 75 E Broadway Ste 85 (2nd floor under the Manhattan Bridge) New York, NY 10002

Categories
chinese sandwich

Happy Star Bakery’s Chicken Sandwich and Almond Cookies

Uncle Marce wanted to pick up some of his favorite Almond Cookies. I just wanted to pick up a beer. We went to Happy Star Bakery in Chinatown/LES, formerly named Sun Light Bakery, where I once got a Chinese Sausage Bun.

I saw a Chicken Cutlet Sandwich and really wanted it. So Uncle Marce bought it for me. It had the baked style bun that they use for a lot of stuff –slightly sweet bread. I think it was around $1.75. Pretty good for sitting around in the little heating cabinet.

The Almond Cookies were pretty good too. Crumbly and chalk, like how I think Chinese people like it. I think Uncle Marce likes to treat himself sometimes.

We also picked up some Steamed Pork Buns. They were soggy and wet. Not good.

Happy Star Bakery - 160 E Broadway (@ Pike St) New York, NY 10002