Grand St. Chinatown Skewer Cart

I'm glad to see the Manhattan's Chinatown finally has a skewer cart worthy of comparison to its Flushing counterparts. It doesn't seem to have an official name, but its skewers are excellent, particularly the pork and chicken sticks.

The beef stick wasn't quite as great as the pork or chicken, and if it's lamb you want, get yours in Flushing - that's what all the northern Chinese carts out there do really well. Of course, if it sounds appealing, go ahead and order one and try it. At these prices, you can afford it!

They're open until 2 a.m. every day.

Grand St. Skewer Cart
NW corner of Grand & Forsyth, New York 10002
(D train to Grand St.)

Mei Li Wah (羙麗華)

Roast pork buns are truly beautiful things, and my favorite baked ones (焗叉燒包 - jú chā shāo bāo) in the city are available all day until 10:30 p.m. at Mei Li Wah (羙麗華茶餐廳).

The filling is rich with chunks of pork and pork fat, and - most importantly - not too sweet. The yeasty dough always makes me happy. Their product is utterly consistent, making it one of the few things in life I can really count on. And they're under a buck apiece.

Another great thing here is the large steamed bun containing chicken, pork and salted egg (三星大包 - sān xīng dà bāo). A small meal for $1.60. Although I haven't tried any of the others, I'm told that all of the dim-sum-like offerings here - and there are quite a few - are very good. The "crispy egg shatters" (鬆化蛋散 - sōng huà dàn sǎn) - essentially a twist of fried wonton-wrapper-like dough drizzled with honey - makes a nice post-prandial treat after a Chinatown feast.

And because I'm fascinated by these things, the normal character for the měi of their name (beautiful) is 美 (and all of the on-line listings for this place have it as 美麗華). But the sign and menu definitely have the more archaic "羙".

Mei Li Wah (羙麗華茶餐廳)
64 Bayard St., New York 10013
212-966-7866
(between Mott & Elizabeth)

Shanghai Café (上海喬家柵)

I had been curious to try Shanghai Café (上海喬家柵 - shàng hǎi qiáo jiā shān), in Manhattan's Chinatown, for quite some time now because of one dish I had read about on Lau's excellent blog.

I'm delighted to able to say the dish did not disappoint. "Stewed Pork and Tofu Skin in Brown Sauce" (百葉結烤肉 - bǎi yè jiē kǎo ròu) is, essentially knots of tofu skin added to braised pork belly. It's braised hóng shāo (紅燒) style - that is, in soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, ginger, and star anise. The result is rich and complex, and the tofu skin knots are the perfect foil for the tender chunks of delightfully fatty pork. I've had similar dishes in a couple of other Shanghai-style joints, and Shanghai Café's is by far the best. It's worth the trip here just for this dish, I think. (Photos courtesy of Jose - his turned out WAY better than mine did. Terrible lighting.)

The xiǎo lóng bāo (小龍包 - soup dumplings) here, as Lau rightly observes, are not particularly distinguished. If you must have them, do yourself a favor and just go out to Flushing and get some at Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao.

The "Braised Whole Fish with Ginger and Scallion" (蔥烤鰂魚 - cōng kǎo zéi yú), however, is distinguished. A whole tilapia is braised in a relatively rich - for fish - brown sauce (in fact, it's a lighter first cousin to the hóng shāo sauce of the previously mentioned pork dish) with a dozen or so whole scallions. One of the best new (to me) fish dishes I've had in quite a while.

Those "stripes" in the picture are whole scallions. I find the use of kǎo (烤) a bit puzzling here. Normally, it has the sense of "baked" or "barbecued". But as used in the names of both this and the pork dish, it seems to pretty clearly mean "braised". I have no idea - perhaps it's just Shanghai usage.

"Pork with Mustard Green and Salted Egg Soup" (鹹蛋芥菜肉片湯 - xián dàn jiè cài ròu piàn tāng) is a soup of pretty much what it says: sliced pork, mustard greens and egg, although we were expecting the egg to be salted preserved egg (it's just egg drop - perhaps the 鹹 in the name of the dish is merited simply because they salt the egg before pouring it into the soup). No matter - the flavors are clear and delicious.  (This photo was taken by Seth, who spotted this soup on the menu.)

"Seafood Pan Fried Noodles" (海鮮兩面黄 - hǎi xiān liǎng miàn huáng) is a solid take on this dish: a sauce of shrimp, scallop, fake crab, snow peas - and quite a bit of broccoli - poured over crispy thin egg noodles. Quite tasty.

The takeout menu calls the restaurant "Shanghai Café Déluxé" (sic), having little to do with its Chinese name 喬家柵 (qiáo jiā shān), which seems to be a well-known restaurant name in Shanghai. This is the best Shanghainese restaurant in Manhattan, and, since their menu is much larger and more varied than that of Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao, if you order carefully, perhaps the best in the city. Now if they would only add a pig intestine dish like the fabulous one up at Ala Shanghai near Albany.

Shanghai Café (上海喬家柵)
100 Mott St., New York 10013
212-966-3988
(just north of Canal St.)

Sheng Wang - Wall Menu (CLOSED)

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Sheng Wang had posted some hand-written menus on the wall. At least some of the items were definitely new, and when I recognized the characters for zhá jiang miàn (炸酱面), I got excited - I have rarely encountered a zhá jiang miàn I have not enjoyed, at least on some level. My expectations were, in fact, exceeded. This is probably now my favorite zhá jiang miàn in New York City (at least the Chinese version of the dish - the best Korean jja jang myun is another discussion entirely), followed closely by that of HeNan Flavor. Sheng Wang's wonderful hand-pulled noodles are topped with a generous dollop of a thick sauce sweet with stewed onions and bean paste, tiny chunks of hand-minced pork, and just enough hot-pepper kick to liven things a bit up and keep it from being cloying. Comfort on a (styrofoam) plate for 4 bucks.

Also on the wall menu is 元宵圆 (yuán xiāo yuán - Lantern Festival sweet dumpling), a dish I have also enjoyed at Happy Garden Palace. They look rather like their potato balls, but whiter - the dumplings are made with glutinous rice flour, filled with the same pork filling (that's MY kind of sweet dumpling!). Like everything else here, a bargain at 10 for $3.00.

The rest of the wall menu offerings are as follows (many, many thanks to Miss Audrey Lo for her help in deciphering the hand-written characters!):

1. lǔ wèi - stewed dishes

2. lǔ yā chì - stewed duck wing (2/$1.50)

3. lǔ dà cháng - stewed pork intestine ($3.50)

4. lǔ yā zhuǎ - stewed duck feet (4/$1.00)

5. lǔ niú ròu pīn pán - stewed beef combo cold platter ($5.00)

6. chǎo lā miàn - fried hand-pulled noodle

7. mǐ fěn - rice noodle

8. niú ròu chǎo lā miàn - beef fried noodle ($6.00) This dish is not new, and has been one of my favorites here for quite a while:

9. huā gé chǎo lā miàn - clam fried noodle ($6.50)

10. dà cháng chǎo lā miàn - pork intestine fried noodle ($6.00)

11. hǎi xiān chǎo lā miàn -seafood fried noodle ($6.50)

12. yáng dǔ chǎo lā miàn - lamb tripe fried noodle ($6.50)

13. zhá jiang miàn ($4.00)

14. yuán xiāo - Lantern Festival dumplings ($3.00)

15. běn lóu chǎo lā miàn - house fried noodle ($7.00)

16. yóu yú chǎo lā miàn - squid fried noodle ($6.50)

17. niú nǎn chǎo lā miàn - beef flank fried noodle ($6.00)

18. shāo yā chǎo lā miàn - roast duck fried noodle ($6.50)

19. niú zá chǎo lā miàn - beef offal fried noodle ($6.00)

There is also a sign that advertises hot or cold mung bean soup (lǜ dòu tāng) for $2.00.

Sheng Wang
27 Eldridge St., New York 10002
212-925-0805

He Nan Flavor (Henan Feng Wei)

I've been meaning to blog about these places for months... only now do I seem to be emerging from my winter inertia. Much has already been written about these establishments in the meantime. Let me just add my small voice to say: go! They serve the freshest possible food at unbeatably low prices.

The original Flushing outpost is the more fun of the two, simply because if you hang around the counter after ordering, you can watch them make your food: the entire kitchen is there behind counter. You order noodles, and one of the women picks up an oval of dough and begins to stretch it, double it, and stretch it some more. Thirty seconds later she's cutting it into LONG, wide ribbons, which are dropped into a pot boiling on the stove. One evening I had the pleasure of watching the owner prepare the da pan ji (大盤鳮) I had just ordered. He obviously knew what he was doing, and the low-key mastery of his gestures was a thing of beauty. As was the final result (photos courtesy of Pete):


This dish is sensational: complex, spicy, bursting with interesting flavors. Bite-sized chunks of chicken are stir-fried, then braised briefly with some cubes of potato, a LOT of dried red peppers, ginger, garlic, scallion, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and god knows what else, topped with some cilantro. When you're halfway through with it, get a side order of noodle and add it to the pot--the perfect companion to soak up that great sauce. Interestingly, this dish isn't even from Henan--it's a Hui dish from Xinjiang. An opera singer I know originally from Henan, studying in the States, explained to me that, since Xinjiang is such a harsh, mountainous province, a lot of people leave it to go to Henan to work, buoying the dish's popularity there (although it appears to be popular all over China).

She also took one look at the menu I showed her and said the lamb noodle soup is an especially well-known Henan dish. It is lovely and soothing (with those great, wide, hand-pulled noodles), but perhaps a little too mellow for my taste (what can I say... I like robust flavors!). However, the zha jiang mian (炸酱面-noodles with pork and black bean sauce) is absolutely the greatest version of that dish I've ever had: those noodles, with a hearty sauce of minced pork and bean paste, topped with shredded cucumber and some baby bok choy leaves. Rather like the Chinese equivalent of pappardelle with ragù.


The small size ($4.00) easily satisfies one hungry person... get the large only if you're planning on sharing it. The noodle with tomato and egg (eggs scrambled, in case you were wondering) is also fantastic--quintessential comfort food.

There's a little something for everyone here: almost a dozen noodle preparations (the Manhattan restaurant, as I recall, lists all the noodle dishes as "lo mein" on the wall menu), soup dumplings, steamed dumplings, bing pancake, bing with pork filling. The Flushing location also has a selection of cold appetizers and small casserole dishes (meatballs in broth, a couple of pork preparations). The "crispy meat casserole" ("crispy" must refer to the meat being breaded and fried... after a minute in the broth, it ain't crispy no more!):


Unusual (in a good way), and quite tasty with a fair bit of ginger flavoring things. Pete liked the sour vegetable dumplings in soup a lot (I haven't tried it yet):


You'll really have to work to spend more than ten bucks here. But if, like me, you can eat an entire da pan ji in one sitting (exciting the curiosity--and commentary--of the guy in the kitchen once at the Manhattan location), you'll spend twelve.

He Nan Flavor
68 B Forsyth St., New York 10002
212-625-8299
(between Grand and Hester St.)

Henan Feng Wei
136-31 41st Avenue, Flushing 11355
718-762-1818
(7 train to Main St.-Flushing, 1 block south on Main, then left on 41st Ave.)

Old Sichuan

With the demise of the Grand Sichuan at Ninth Ave. and 51st St., and the inflation-commensurate-with-popularity of the prices at Szechuan Gourmet (making it now essentially an expensive restaurant), there has been a void in options for reasonably-priced, good Sichuan food in Manhattan. Thankfully, that void has now been filled by a relative new-comer, Old Sichuan in Chinatown.

Occupying the space directly across the street from New Green Bo, vacated by Yeah Shanghai Deluxe when it moved to the corner, they serve some of the most pleasing Sichuan food west of Little Pepper, including some relative rarities. I'm crazy about flaky turnip cakes with ham but almost never encounter them--Old Sichuan's are excellent. Cold dishes sampled so far--spicy beef tendon and sliced pork belly with garlic sauce--are stellar, with bold, complex, fresh flavors. The same goes for the Sichuan wonton in red hot oil... I wanted to drink the remaining sauce when the delicate wontons were gone. The dry bean curd with spicy black bean is my favorite dry bean curd dish I've tried anywhere, and the sour string bean with minced pork is just what it should be: sour, spicy, delicious. Ask about the special chicken dish on the wall (and not on the regular) menu. It's a dish of which the proprietress seems especially proud: chunks of chicken dry-sauteed with three kinds of pepper flavor... a lovely dish.

Old Sichuan
65 Bayard St., New York, NY 10013
212-227-9888
website

Sheng Wang (CLOSED)

(UPDATE 5/15:  Sheng Wang is as reliably excellent as ever, and the prices are unchanged. It's nice to know there are some things in this world one can count on.  Still my favorite Manhattan Chinatown spot.)

I have Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice to thank for putting me onto this little gem: Sheng Wang is now my favorite joint in Manhattan's Chinatown.

This Fujianese place specializes in noodles, but they make the best dumplings I've tried in Chinatown. On the menu they're called steamed dumplings (水餃 - shuǐ jiǎo - these characters mean "boiled dumplings" in Northern Chinese places, but if you actually boiled these, they would surely disintegrate).  Wrapped in skins much more delicate than their northern-style counterparts, the pork and chive filling is so tasty it seems like there must be some trick involved. (Really - I sit there eating them wondering the whole time, "how do they do it?") And at $3.00 for 10 huge dumplings... that's a trick worth experiencing.

Their Potato Ball in Soup (馬鈴薯丸 - mǎ ling shǔ wán) is equally wonderful: ten handmade balls of potato dough filled with seasoned ground pork in a light chicken broth. If you happen to go there late in the afternoon, you can often watch the staff sitting around forming them by hand.

Wonton Soup Fuzhou Style (福州扁肉湯 - fú zhōu biǎn ròu tāng) is a medium-sized bowl of at least 30 ultra-delicate "wontons" - 扁肉 (biǎn ròu) actually refers to a stuffed thin dumpling of Southern China - in Sheng Wang's equally delicate chicken broth. A minor miracle at $2.00.

But the bulk of the menu is noodles, and there are two types here: the hand-pulled, Lanzhou style, and "peel noodle". These are fun to watch being made--I have not yet been able to see them do it at Sheng Wang, but I happened to catch the episode of "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" where he visited a restaurant in China that served every imaginable kind of noodle, and Mr. Zimmern tried his hand at making these, holding a block of dough in one hand, shaving a knife along the top and flipping the noodle into a pot of boiling water. (Come to think of it, that episode the food wasn't so bizarre... there was only one thing he ate that I hadn't already tried--and he was in CHINA!). Anyway, both kinds are great, although I might give peel noodle the edge (boom-CHING!). I'm particularly partial to the soups with bones in them--the pork bone soup has five or six big hunks of pork bones with bits of meat still clinging to them, and the added bonus of often-intact marrow. The broth of the beef bone soup is richer and tastier, but the bones aren't quite as much fun. And all the meat soups come with greens, some minced sour cabbage, and a meat-filled potato ball. All for 5 bucks or less.

Sheng Wang
27 Eldridge St., New York 10002
212-925-0805

South China Garden, formerly Cantoon Garden (CLOSED)

As near as I can tell, Oriental Garden is the finest Cantonese restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown. It is also ungodly expensive. If you want affordable Cantonese food in Manhattan and are willing to settle for the barest notch below the very best, go to South China Garden.

This place was, until quite recently, called Cantoon Garden, but the kitchen, the management, and the menu are all still the same (and a recent banquet for 15 people confirmed that the quality has not slipped in the least with the name change). I've been here many times, and now can't even remember what dishes I've had (what I get for not blogging about a place right away, I suppose), but I do know I've never had a dud. This is a place to go with a lot of people if you can, as the portions are most definitely on the large side. One tip: grab a take-out menu before you sit down. For some reason, the rice and noodle dish sections are not on the menu they hand you in the restaurant (and, conversely, soups are not on the take-out menu). And you definitely want a fried rice dish... they're done right here.

Beef and Chinese parsley soup is soothing and tasty, and the "small" generously feeds two, even three. For the real family-style Cantonese experience, get a casserole dish--there are almost three dozen to choose from. I have been fairly un-adventurous in this department so far, but the beef stew with curry sauce casserole was great. I have got to get together a large group of people here sometime (not a single casserole was ordered as part of the recent banquet, alas)...

Seafood dishes comprise the most extensive part of the menu, and seems to be what the Chinese clientele order the most. I tend to go in more for meat, but I can tell you the clams with black bean sauce were everything they should be, and the conch and scallops with fried stuffed tofu was marvelous.

The most memorable dish on recent visits, though, was the crispy fried chicken (ask for it with garlic sauce). It's sold by the whole or half chicken, and I'm still not quite sure how they do it. My best guess is that the whole chicken is steamed, then dunked in the deep-fryer at the end to crisp up the skin. It is then chopped up in the usual more-or-less-rectangular bite-sized pieces. It is spectacular... prefectly done, incredibly moist, with nice crackly skin.

The attentive reader will probably already that my favorite rice dish from the southern part of China is salted fish and minced chicken fried rice. Cantoon/South China Garden makes the best version I've tasted in NYC (Happy Garden Palace--at about half the price--is a fairly close second). So good that I may never get to try "Fook Ken" or "Love Bird" fried rice, both of which have certainly piqued my curiosity.

If you absolutely must pay twice as much for a meal, by all means go to Oriental Garden a few doors down. But for great Cantonese food in Manhattan at a more reasonable price, this is the place.

Cantoon Garden
22 Elizabeth St., New York 10013
212-964-2229
on-line menu--click the link below restaurant name, and add about a dollar to all the prices
(one block south of Canal St.)

Happy Garden Palace, Redux

A few more dishes to touch upon after subsequent visits to Happy Garden Palace...

After reading a bit more about Fujianese cuising and learning that meals often count more than one soup among its dishes, I decided I needed to try some of them. Spicy and Sweet and Sour Fish Soup was definitely a winner. Not so sweet, really--it was very much like a clear-broth hot-and-sour soup with pieces of fish.

The Fish Head with Sour Cabbage Soup was also very good, and, perhaps oddly, quite soothing. The fish-head chunks are chock full of oddly-shaped bones, however--if such things annoy you (and I know many people that it does), skip this one entirely.

"Stew Duck over Rice" had a wonderful flavor (wine lees working its magic again), but also has the bone issue... all those duck bone shards were starting to annoy even me. At under four dollars for a big plate of it, though, it's a steal, shards and all. "Chinese Broccoli Sprouts with Red Wine" (wine lees again!) were actually leafy tops of mature plants. I thought they could have benefitted from a slightly longer cooking time... my friend Pan (of the Chowhound and eGullet boards) liked them "crisp" like that. "Chewy" is the word I would have chosen, but the flavor was great. And they make one of the best versions I've tried of my absolute favorite variety of fried rice--Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice. Once again, practically a steal at under five bucks for a small platter. It's usually twice that elsewhere.

Because the "Lamb with Bean Stick (Happy-Garden-Palace-speak for tofu skin) in Casserole" had looked so good at a neighboring table, I ordered it the next visit, and it's the only dish I've had here that I found somewhat less than enthralling. It's a Cantonese dish, so... no red wine lees. I know that ingredient technically doesn't belong there, but I couldn't help but think that it would have improved its relative blandness. The Beef Stew with Curry in Casserole remains unchallenged so far as my favorite dish here.

I'm afraid I enjoyed my meal this evening somewhat more than Pan did. A couple of the employees have a nasty habit of smoking right by the propped-open front door of the restaurant, whereupon the smoke wafts directly in, and Pan is quite sensitive to it. Four years of living in Portugal got me over that, but be forewarned of the possibility of cigarettes in somewhat closer-than-ideal proximity.

New Tự Do

My friend Phương says there are no authentic Vietnamese restaurants in New York... that all of them are run by Chinese, and New Tự Do appears to be no exception. Having never been to Viet Nam, I'm no expert on authentic Vietnamese food, but I do know that most Vietnamese joints in New York do indeed suck, and this one is just about the only one I find myself wanting to return to regularly.

Occasionally, in winter, I will get the decliously rich chicken curry noodle soup (Phở Carry Gà, complete with a chunk of potato or two), but generally I never get anything but phở, and that's why you should go here. My usual is the No. 1 Đặc Biệt Xe Lửa, with all the beef cuts, and it's more than a meal. Sometimes, nothing but a big bowl of that renowned beef soup with rice noodles will do... Tự Do's has fresh ingredients, clear textures, clean flavors, and the broth tastes more or less right. Doctor it up to your taste with the condiments on the table and... what more could you ask for? Especially at six bucks, or less, a bowl!

New Tự Do
102 Bowery, New York 10013
212-966-2666
view menu (old location)
(D train to Grand St., one block south on Bowery)

Happy Garden Palace

The name of this restaurant almost inevitably makes me think of my friend Pace. An enthusiastic and knowledgeable dining companion--on the rare occasions I can actually convince him to pry his ass out of his apartment and join me, that is--he is convinced that Sripraphai, which he simply refers to as "Unpronounceable", is actually Thai for "Lucky Dragon Bamboo Hut". I'd be curious to know if Happy Garden Palace really is the English translation of its Chinese name.

This place seems pretty obviously to be geared towards Fujianese immigrants in New York that want a hearty, inexpensive meal like they might get back home (and boy, is it inexpensive!). It's open until 2:00 a.m., and, based on a couple of visits, appears to be a small gathering place for folks who want a late-night beer or snack after work. As you might expect, there is zero "atmosphere" here.

No matter, though--the food is fantastic. Generous dishes that fairly scream "home cooking"--MY kind of food! "Red wine lees"--Fuzhou red wine fermented with glutinous rice--figures in lots of the dishes here, and it adds several flavor dimensions difficult to describe: wine-y, yes, but also slightly vinegary, slightly sweet, and fairly earthy. Case in point: tonight's Spare Rib Fuzhou Style (Fuzhou is the capital city of Fujian). Spare ribs dusted in with corn starch and fried, and if I'm not mistaken, there was some orange along with wine lees in the complex sauce. Salt chicken was a) a bargain, at 6 bucks for a half a chicken, and b) apparently really the result of having been preserved in salt. Perhaps a bit drier than what other places offer under similar names, it had a real "preserved" taste and texture--I thought it was great. Pork fried rice was delicious and everything it should be... first and foremost, it was white, not the brownish travesty one gets at Americanized Chinese restaurants. On a whim, I also ordered a taro cake (cost: 60 whole cents), which turned out to very similar to turnip cake dim sum. I have no idea how this is traditionally eaten, but I confess I kept wishing for a little dish of oyster sauce to dip it in like one gets in the Cantonese dim sum houses.

Earlier in the week I had what is my favorite dish here so far, the Beef Stew with Curry in Casserole. Interestingly, curry was the least obvious element of the dish. Wine lees, once again, yes... something like cinnamon or star anise, ginger, garlic and sesame oil. But curry was only in the background. Utterly delicious. And their "Golden Silver Egg Fried Rice" was somehow much more than the sum of its parts: egg, a bit of scallion, and rice. It was perfectly cooked--light, moist... ambrosia.

There is a huge list of "over rice" dishes that includes a generous selection of their entrees, and they are all around 4 dollars for a quite sizable plate of food. Fujian is especially famous for its soups, and I'm looking forward to cooler weather so I can work my way through their list of two dozen or so.

Happy Garden Palace
54 East Broadway, New York 10002
212-925-9888