Sunday, February 27, 2011

NYC Chinatown Eats...the quickie tour

A couple of weeks ago, my brother-in-law extraordinaire took my friends and I on a quick tour of his favorite Chinatown eats. We started our tour walking from City Hall to his favorite dumpling spot in Chinatown, creatively called the Fried Dumpling at 106 Mosco Street. We ordered 5 dumplings for $1. It's literally a hole in the wall. The dumplings are so fresh and light, unlike the big bulky dumplings/wontons you get at those crappy take-outs.
Walking up Mosco Street reminded me of the little Chinese lady who used to make her famous Hong Kong cakes back in the day. Her little red gated shack is still there. It's on the corner of Mott and Mosco Streets.
We used to wait on line for up to half an hour for 2 bags of her famous, hot, toasty and yummy cakes. Boy, do I miss her!

Next stop was getting some authentic Chinese style beef jerky at New Beef King 89 Bayard Street. At first, I was hesitant to try this spot out. I've never really had beef jerky. The only beef jerky I've ever seen were those nasty looking beef sticks at the bodega/grocery stores. My brother-in-law ordered us the fruit flavored beef jerky, pork strip jerky and regular beef strips.
I have to say that I fell in love. I have gone back 2x since then. My favorite has to be the fruit flavored beef jerky and pork strip jerky. I haven't tried the other ones, but I will the next time I go back. This is another must on your Chinatown tour!

Since we were pretty much full from the dumplings and jerky, we roamed the streets of Chinatown to walk it off. We stopped at this little old school Chinese owned stationary store that sells everything from hand fans to snaps. Who knew snaps could be so much fun at our age?
We stocked up on snaps and tossed them at people walking by. Yes I know, we are supposed to be mature adults, but it was so much fun. In the end we just tossed them at one another. The snap game ended when my sister tossed one towards my head as I was putting my Yankee cap on and it busted on my hand. It hurt lol. After laughing and creating havoc with the snaps, champagne poppers and faux Chinese New Year "fireworks", we were hungry for some dinner.





Our final stop was Joe's Shanghai. My BFF Dee has made me boycott Joe's Shanghai for years, but I broke down and cheated. It was amazing! I've been dreaming of these dumplings ever since. I even went to their original Queens location, but the Chinatown location is better. Joe's Shanghai is famous for their soup dumplings The minute you sit at a table, the waiter already wants to know which dumplings you want to order.  You have a choice of pork or seafood/crabmeat dumpling. Both are equally delicious. They come in a bamboo steamer basket.
There is way to eat these dumpling since they are filled with soup. You pick up the dumpling from the top with the tongs. You place the dumpling on your soup spoon. You then break a little hole with your teeth on the side of the dumpling. This enables you to drink or slurp the soup from inside the dumpling. Now remember, these are piping hot! The soup inside the dumpling is also VERY hot. So be careful that you don't burn your lips. I've warned you! The rest of the food there is pretty good. Make sure you hit this spot. These dumplings are amazing. Whenever I post a mobile upload of these dumplings on my FB page, I get tons of comments saying how much people love these dumplings or asking where did I get them.

In the future, I'll add the rest of my favorite Chinatown eats. For now, this is a great quickie jump off for those of you who want to start exploring Chinatown in NYC. So forget about going to Chinatown to get your bootleg Gucci bag or bootleg Prada sunglasses.  Go to Chinatown and get some authentic & original culinary fare!


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1 comment:

  1. Being half Chinese I never even knew about the beef jerky! A must to try out..as for those dumplings..smh but I know they are so famous its hard not to love them for their deliciousness. great review of my peeps! :D

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