Eating in Chinatown
Chinese cooks combine foods so skillfully in sauces that they create a tremendous range of tastes. Chinese cuisine is an ancient art and ranks as one of the best in the world. Chinese cooking varies greatly from region to region, province to province. The Chinese food most familiar to Americans has its roots in Canton, Mandarin, Szechuan and Hunan provinces.
Chinatown has more than 200 restaurants, where you find authentic, traditional Chinese cuisine. The tastes cover all over China: Cantonese, Szechuan, Shanghai, Suzhou, etc., including Vietnamese and Malaysian cooking. Think about this: What would we we do without our local Chinese takeout shop? What would we do without the wonderful restaurants that can be found in our city’s Chinatowns in lower Manhattan, Flushing and Sunset Park?
Color, flavor and taste are the three elements to judge a Chinese dish. Try yourself at some of the best places as follows:
Breakfast
Nom Wah Tea Parlor ($4 average menu item)
13 Doyers St. (btw. Pell St. and Chatham Sq.), 962-6047
M-F 10am-8pm, Sa-Su 10am-6pm
Dim Sum tea parlor.
- New Silver Palace Restaurant ($20 average entree)
- 52 Bowery St. (@ Canal St.), 964-1204
- M-Su 8am-10pm
Cantonese Dim Sum heaven!
Lunch and Dinner
- Peking Duck House ($31 and under)
- 22 Mott St. (@ Pell St.), 227-1810
- M-Su 11:30am-10:30pm
- Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s favorite restaurant.
New Good Taste Restaurant
65 Bayard Street (btw. Mott St. & Elizabeth St.) 233-3233
Sun-Thu 9am-10pm, Fri-Sat 9am-11pm
Superb Roast Duck and BBQ ribs. Unbeatable prices & taste for seafood.
Jumbo Wonton Soup and all the usual favorites.
Dim Sum Go Go, 5 East Broadway, (212)732-0797
A smart-looking spot with clean white walls, glowing red panels and cloth-covered tables set with bud vases and four sauces (ginger-scallion, vinegar-ginger, vinegar-garlic and dried scallops and shrimp) to complement dishes like the superb roast chicken blanketed with fried garlic stems ($10.95) and exotic dim sum.
East Corner Wonton, 70 East Broadway, (212) 343-9896
If you come too late, they may have run out of roast duck, soy chicken and spare ribs, but you can always count on fresh supplies of egg or rice noodles, and shrimp- and pork-filled dumplings that fill $2.75-bowls of brothy soup – and your stomach.
Evergreen, 63 Matt St., (212) 571-3339
Shanghai-style rice dishes, curative hot and sour soup, chicken with peanuts or cashews, and spicy eggplant or broccoli with garlic sauce ($5.95) won’t break the bank at this often-crowded always-reliable place.
Joe’s Shanghai, 46 Bowery., (212) 233-8888
Strangers seated together share one goal – feasting on tasty steamed Soup dumplings (8 for $4.25), vibrant vegetables and crispy whole yellow fish (the Chinese believe fish, cooked whole, symbolizes abundance).
Sweet-n-Tart Cafe, 76 Mott St., (212) 334-8088
If you are not up to pork. intestine or duck tongue, try barbecue eel with Peking sauce ($6.75) and clay pots of rice and sausage at this subterranean, piace where the selection of tong shui (sweet and tart, hot or cold soups) is daunting.
(The above descriptions by Lsia Amand)
Hunan Garden, 1 Mott St. (across from Chatham Square), 732-7270: Has a New Year’s menu and dancing lions for your entertainment
Golden Unicorn, 18 E. Broadway (at Catherine St.), 941-0911: the New Year’s menu costs $25 per person
Shanghai Cuisine, 89 Bayard St., at Mulberry St., 732-8988: special New Year’s menu.
Sweet n’ Tart, 20 Mott St. (between Chatham Square and Pell St.), 964-0380: has a Chinese New Year menu with a multi-course dinner for $25 per person.
Chinese Recipe: buying real Chinese ingredients and cooking in a real Chinese way.