Category Archives: Chinese

Han Dynasty

My wife and I stopped by “Handy Nasty” for a quick bite before a concert at Webster Hall. I’d heard good things about this place, so was eager to try it out.

20151201_180920

We started with an order of pork belly with chili oil. This was served cold. The texture of the fat on each slice was noodle-like, and the meat was likely boiled and then sliced thin. It had good flavor, and I suppose all that oil is meant to be mixed into the big bowl of rice that comes with it. Honestly we could have been full just from that alone. Portion sizes are massive here.

20151201_181927

We also tried the dry pepper chicken wings. These were a little greasy from the puffed up batter on the wings, but the addition of chili paste, fried ginger, fried garlic and dry peppers give it a great flavor. The meat itself was very juicy.

20151201_182519

My wife had the dan dan noodles. The mildly spicy peanut sauce is mixed into the noodles table-side for this massive portion of starch.

20151201_181645

I went with an old stand-by: chicken lo mein. I figured I would test the mettle of this joint by ordering something so insanely common just to see how they executed. It was great – probably close to my favorite of the night, right alongside the pork belly. Quality ingredients and correct proportions of each, along with a hit of spice and low grease content, all make this a winner:

20151201_181932

HAN DYNASTY
90 3rd Ave.
New York, NY 10003

Star Noodle

Star Noodle

Best meal of the trip goes to Star Noodle. This place has been on the radar for a while, and is well-known among haoles as the place to eat near Lahaina.

20150903_124813

20150903_113859

Great drinks at the bar, by the way…

20150903_113846

We had a lot of food, so get ready… We started with bacon and egg appetizer, which is very reminiscent of sizzling pork sisig dishes in Filipino cuisine. This shit was so fucking delicious. It had large, quality chunks of thick bacon, onions, tomatoes and a runny egg, served in a hot cast iron skillet.

20150903_114852

20150903_115044

We also shared an order of “Lahaina Fried Soup,” which essentially was a dry noodle dish made with super thick chow funn noodles (again, two n’s on the chow fun in Hawaii for some reason).

20150903_115524

The flavors were simple – ground pork and bean sprouts. But we started adding some of the bacon in with the noodles and it was fucking amazing. If I am ever back here, I will order the bacon and egg appetizer and ask them to mix it with the Fried Lahaina Soup.

Next was the Hapa Ramen. Hapa typically refers to a person who is partially asian, so this is meant to be a partially asian or partially Japanese ramen dish?

20150903_121454

20150903_121502

20150903_121629

Whatever the case, it was excellent. The pork broth was thick and robust, with some black garlic oil mayu on top for punch. It had sweetness from the fish cake slices and bamboo shoots, savoriness from the touch of miso, and fatness from the poached egg. The noodles were cooked just right.

20150903_123402

Golden Unicorn

My wife picked up a Living Social deal for an eight course Peking duck dinner at Golden Unicorn, which is otherwise famous for its dim sum service. I was pretty impressed overall. But let me babble about a few other things first…

First off, I absolutely love this part of town. East Broadway and the surrounding side streets encircling the Manhattan Bridge still feel like old NYC. Not much has changed, save for a few new buildings poking up here and there. Walking around, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time, possibly even into another country.

This area is the real deal Chinatown, unlike the tourist-laden, knock-off selling, shitty DVD purveying hustle on Canal street. Take a closer look in these parts, or allow a lingering eye to glance into some storefronts, and you’ll spy people working at a ground floor dumpling factory. You’ll see produce, dry goods and health products that most white people have no idea about, and you can’t even read the signs to get more info, because they’re all in Chinese. It has a busy, bustling vibe and I love it.

Okay on to the fucking food. First up was egg drop soup with chicken. This was pretty good, though I did have to add a little bit of hot sauce to punch it up slightly.

20150806_185102

Next were two types of dumplings: crystal shrimp and siu mai. Both were excellent. If you swing by this joint for dim sum, these are some of the delights you can enjoy from the carts. Both were packed with ingredients and nicely steamed.

20150806_185839

Then the spring rolls came out. They didn’t look like much, but they had great flavor. I was actually surprised, although they were a little bit too greasy on the shell.

20150806_185937

Our waitress then brought out the Peking duck. YES!

20150806_190350

20150806_190444

20150806_190513

She cut off a good deal of the crispy skin and more generous portions of meat, and, with that, assembled six steamed buns for us, accompanied by hoisin sauce, scallion and cucumber. They were awesome. Crispy, fatty, juicy… all around excellent.

20150806_190613

The rest of the duck was chopped up for us and served on a plate:

20150806_191443

The meal kept on trucking along with this ginger beef and broccoli dish. The ginger was fresh and sliced thin. The beef was tender and flavorful. I think it was a mix of flank and rib eye. And the broccoli was steamed in the sauce, so it tasted awesome.

20150806_190704

There was also some fried rice with shrimp, roast pork, ham, peas, onion and egg. We were really too full to dig into this too far.

20150806_190656

At the end of the meal, some honeydew and orange arrived at the table. A nice, refreshing, smiley-face looking end to the meal.

20150806_193625

Excellent deal. Jump on it if you see another Living Social or Groupon offering for this place. And definitely check out their dim sum on the weekend for lunch.

GOLDEN UNICORN
18 E. Broadway
New York, NY 10002

Tuome

I had the pleasure of being invited to another awesome food party event hosted by Tabelog. Here’s a fun shot of some of the people who run the shit here in NYC:

DSC03951

This time, the location was Alphabet City Asian fusion restaurant Tuome, which is run by fellow Long Island boy-made-good, Chef Thomas Chen. It’s gotten a great deal of good press lately in the food world, and now I understand why.

DSC03949

When I asked him about what inspired him to craft this sort of menu, he said, “It’s all based on things I grew up eating.” Long island is a mixed bag, at least in some parts that are closer to the five boroughs. Lots of cultural fusion happens naturally there, so it makes sense. But the execution of these concepts was spot on. I was impressed with this young dude’s skills.

Well hang on a sec… I’m getting ahead of myself. First we had some cocktails that were specially made for the night:

Fire in the Sky – sake, thai chili, yuzu.

DSC03941

Tuome City Limits – sherry, kina, Chinese five spice

DSC03944

East Village Blossom – brut rose, hibiscus, blood orange

DSC03943

All three were fantastic, but since I have a pair of ball between my legs, I’d have to say that the Tuome City Limits was my favorite of the three. The other two were incredibly tasty as well though.

Okay now back to the food. Here’s a composed plate of all the items we sampled. Everything here is on the menu with the exception of the oxtail roll.

DSC03966

First was the beet with quinoa, five spice yogurt and pumpkin seed. This was a really fresh bite of food, with a crunch texture and complex flavors to mix things up.

DSC03939

Next was the chicken liver mousse spread onto milk bread and topped with NY maple. Fucking delicious. So smooth and decadent, yet light.

DSC03942

Then I had the oxtail egg roll with cumin mint dipping sauce. This was one of my favorites of the night.

DSC03946

There was a really delicious blue crab mac and cheese too, with karee and mascarpone. I could eat this shit all day long. In fact, I wish more steakhouses would swap king crab and lobster mac and cheese dishes out for blue claw. Them shits be better, yo.

DSC03957

Next favorite of the night was the crispy fucking pork belly. Hoooolyyyyyyy shiiiiiiit was this good. Before the water pulled away I tried three. One with no sauce, and one with each of the two sauces they were serving it with. One was a mignonette style, and the other was tomato based, I think.

DSC03964

The last savory item was a soon-to-be wildly famous crispy fried deviled egg with chili. This was by far the ultimate winning dish of the night. Unbelievable. So tasty. Creamy, crunchy, with a little spicy kick to it. Perfect. I apologize for the blurry photo. I was so excited that I started furiously jerking while trying to shoot the photo. Needless to say I was shaking a little.

DSC03953

And finally, there was an ice cream filled beignet. It was more like a cream puff to my taste buds, but filled with ice cream and sweet red bean instead of cream filling. It definitely reminded me of some classic Asian desserts, but with a cream puff twist to it. Nicely done.

DSC03972

It was a really fun night. As always, the folks at Tabelog always make us bloggers feel like kings and queens, putting us at the center of attention. They’re a great crew, and the website is truly a great resource for your dining research needs. Here’s a shot of all the bloggers with some of the Tabelog peeps:

tabelog NYC

UPDATE: Photos from the “Pig Out” meal.

DSC03300

DSC03303

DSC03308

DSC03314

DSC03315

DSC03321

DSC03328

DSC03335

DSC03339

DSC03340

DSC03349

DSC03350

TUOME
536 E. 5th St.
New York, NY 10009

Puff Cha Ramen

In the annals of not-quite-ramen joints that use the word “ramen” in their name to draw in Ippudo and Totto overflow business in the midtown west area, Puff Cha has to be one of the best.

DSC03092

The place is small inside, with seating for a maximum of 18 guests, but it is very nicely and basically decorated. Colorful.

DSC03064

Like Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns “Ramen,” Puff Cha serves up a bunch of dry and soup noodle dishes, among other things like Thai curry puffs and bubble teas. These are essentially empanada-like puff pastry dough turnovers filled with all sorts of goodies. We tried the Korean BBQ varietal, which was okay but I imagine their signature Thai offerings are much better.

DSC03067

DSC03069

We also dabbled into their chicken wings, which, despite not being as crispy as I like, were definitely nice and flavorful, with a soy-based sticky sauce coating them.

DSC03077

We tried some lunch specials since we were both off from work and wandered in for the deal. I tried the roast pork noodle soup, which was really awesome.

DSC03079

DSC03083

The broth was packed with flavor, yet thin and clear. It was served with thinly sliced roast pork, fresh baby bok choy, scallions, cilantro, and a fried egg roll wrapper of some sort. The noodles were ramen style, and cooked just right.

My soup came with a spring roll too, which was decent. Not greasy, and very light.

DSC03074

My wife tried a “mock duck” in Thai peanut curry sauce, which was surprisingly delicious and very reminiscent of actual fatty duck skin. Nicely done! It was served with rice, baby bok choy, and a bowl of clear fish broth.

DSC03085

My wife’s dish came with a steamed dumpling, which was definitely more Thai or Vietnamese flavored as opposed to Chinese.

DSC03071

The greatest part of this meal was discovering that they have fresh, lightly pickled spicy jalapeño peppers and red onions in a dish for adding to your soups or rice/noodle dishes. Awesome!

DSC03088

In the back, they have a counter-top display case with some homemade desserts that looked simple and nice as well.

DSC03093

Very affordable – especially during the lunch deal times (until 4pm).

DSC03094_2

PUFF CHA
457 W 50th St
New York, NY 10019

Radiance Tea House & Books

Me, my wife and her cousin came in here for a quick lunch that ended up being a pretty big, delicious meal. Check out all the shit we ate. I pretty much liked every bit of it, but the least favorites were the chicken rolls, egg custard had the BBQ pork bun.

The ladies had lemongrass mint tea. I smelled the lemongrass, but in the sip I took it was only mint that I tasted, and very light in terms of flavor as well.

20141102_113226_LLS

This is silky tofu in chili oil. A very nice dish indeed, and good spice to it.

20141102_114523_LLS

These little fuckers are the pork soup dumplings. These were my favorite of all the dim sum, but you have to get on them quickly otherwise the liquids may leak out. But be careful: have it too soon and you will burn your mouth.

20141102_114632_LLS

These packets of yum are the chicken with wood ear mushroom dumplings. These were my least favorite of the dim sum, but they were my wife’s favorite.

20141102_114641_LLS

This was egg custard. The texture was nice, similar to a soft creme brûlée, but it needed just a bit more of the sauce on top to make it perfect.

20141102_114852_LLS

Crystal shrimp dumplings. These are always good when they’re done the right way. I liked them. Good snap texture, soft, flavorful and briny.

20141102_114901_LLS

The BBQ pork bun was a little lacking for me. Too much dough, and the meat was more like sloppy Joe mix to me.

20141102_114910_LLS

This was one of the stars. Pork belly steamed buns with cilantro, onion and tomato. Great flavorful bites, and the pork was nice without too much chew fat. Loved it.

20141102_114920_LLS

These are the curry chicken rolls. I liked them. The chicken is pounded flat and used as a wrapper to house the veggies inside. Maybe could have used a bit of salt. Otherwise I liked them. My wife wasn’t a fan, however.

20141102_115200_LLS

Ice cream with green tea drink. Simply and delicious.

20141102_122053_LLS

Assorted mochi: sesame, peanut, red bean, green tea, mango, and taro. My favorites were the peanut and red bean.

20141102_122109_LLS 20141102_122550_LLS

Some of the decor: the place is a cross between a coffee shop, a restaurant and a book store. Neat little place. Glad we came.

20141102_124734_LLS

20141102_124750_LLS

RADIANCE TEA HOUSE & BOOKS
158 W. 55th St.
New York, NY 10019

Mee Noodle

This little joint looked promising as a spot to grab some Chinese style noodle soup. As we sat down, though, both my wife and I decided that we wanted dry noodles rather than a soup. I went with the same bet and picked roast pork noodles, and my wife went with roast duck. The duck was a bit greasy, and was an efforted meal, as you had to chew around small bones due to how the meat was chopped after cooking. The roast pork, however, was very nice. I went with chow fun noodles (wide ribbons) and my wife went with regular soup noodles.

10582827_854583231219910_8023179644340548373_o

10658540_854583227886577_3704518057130603711_o

While my wife wasn’t as happy with her meal as I was, I think we’d both go back at some point to try a few other dishes.

MEE NOODLE
795 9th Ave.
New York, NY 10019

Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen

My wife and I have seen this place in passing for many months now, and we were always curious about it. Tonight I gave it a try. I knew right away it probably wasn’t a real-deal Japanese ramen place (Kung Fu is Chinese, not Japanese), so I was sort of expecting the worst. It turned out to be pretty freaking tasty though. It’s definitely NOT ramen. The flavor of the broth/soup I had was more like a mix between Vietnamese pho and standard Chinese noodle soup.

I ordered the house special “ramen,” which was a clear-ish broth with sliced beef, shrimp, a hard boiled egg, baby bok choy, cilantro and hazelnuts. I ordered it spicy, which meant it came with a blob of the house spicy sauce (the red stuff in the middle of the pic below), which was really tasty. A little bit of that shit goes a long way. I pulled more than half out just because I didn’t want my nose running and my upper lip sweating into my bowl. It’s also more like a hybrid between standard Chinese hot pepper (like the dry chili pepper flakes you get with oil when you order noodles) and Japanese spicy paste for ramen.

20140921_212733_LLS

20140921_212906_LLS

20140921_213350_LLS

I am definitely going back here to try the other items. This soup was really fantastic. The beef was packed with flavor and very tender; even those ripples of fatty tendon stuff were like butter. I’m actually curious as to what cut of beef it is. The shrimp were not boiled to shit either, like I expected. They were cooked relatively nicely. And the egg was the best tasting hard boiled egg I’ve ever eaten. Not even kidding. The seasonings penetrated deep into the center. Maybe they boil them in broth or soak them in broth after they’re cooked? Whatever they’re doing, it’s fucking working!

One thing to beware of: the not-so-sneaky service charge. They added 15% to my bill without asking.

20140921_214611_LLS

I thought that was shitty, and, in fact, I was prepared to leave them a bigger tip! I had it in my head that I was going to just leave $15. Oh well. Their loss. I handed the waiter a $20, and when he retuned my change to me I just left the $0.92 remainder. Still a pretty good tip!

UPDATE!!! I tried the fried ramen, which is essentially just like a lo mien dish with all the same components from the soup. It was tasty and not too greasy, but I like the soup version better.

20141010_182229_LLS

The soup dumplings were excellent – I could eat these all fuckin’ day. Give them a few minutes to cool down so you don’t burn the fuck out of your mouth. I like to plop one into a soy sauce bath before eating. It helps cool them down, and gives it some earthy flavor.

20151008_175809

20151008_180130

20151008_180409

20141010_182237_LLS

On another visit I tried the roast duck “ramen.” It was the same tasty broth but floated with some hacked up pieces of roast duck. For the most part, the duck was not really edible. Too much bone and rubbery fat, and not enough edible meat.

20141116_182919_LLS

Stick with the beef “ramen” at this joint and you will be as happy as a pig in shit. This other item we tried was the cold ramen. Essentially this is lo mein style noodles that are cooked really nice to al dente (and probably hand made), then dressed with a peanut-flavored sauce and topped with cucumbers, tomato and shrimp. I’ve had better, but this was pretty tasty.

20151008_175349

KUNG FU LITTLE STEAMED BUNS
811 8th Ave
New York, NY 10019

The General

My wife purchased a steak for two deal at this Latino steakhouse down on 14th street, but soon after the joint closed down. WTF! Anyway, the restaurant group honored the deal at one of their other joints called The General. We had heard some good things about it, so we were happy to take the deal to that location. Instead of steak, though, we went with their Peking duck. It was fucking amazing.

20140724_175441_LLS

So the deal went like this: any two apps, then the Peking duck, a side, and any dessert to share.

Drinks were not included but we had some good ones. I had a blueberry compote and vodka drink called “The General’s Elixir.” Garnished with a sprig of rosemary for aroma. it was nice. My wife had a traditional sake box.

20140724_181521_LLS

20140724_181547_LLS

We started with the seared toro – normally a $30 menu item. It was really nice, delicate, and packed with flavor and just a little bit of heat from the jalapenos.

20140724_182807_LLS

Then there was the Kate roll, which involved Alaskan king crab, salmon, and a cucumber wrap. Really fresh and delicious. We were sort of wishing that we tried the artichoke and hamachi app instead, but this roll was really good. If the Peking duck wasn’t to filling, we would have tried that as a third app.

20140724_182758_LLS

Then the shit hit the fucking fan, and this bitch came out to the party:

20140724_184204_LLS

Here’s the actual presentation after slicing, with the steamed buns and everything. This was one of the best Peking ducks we’ve ever had. The skin was crispy, yet juicy. The meat was tender and moist, packed with deliciousness. It came with sliced scallions, cucumbers, and pineapple. And that’s a little sauce pan of watery hoisin sauce to drizzle on your buns. Fuck yeah!

20140724_185258_LLS

20140724_185318_LLS

20140724_185409_LLS

20140724_190240_LLS

The only down side: those beautiful red chili peppers were NOT sliced and presented with the duck. Sad.

The rice we ordered as a side was a bit greasy for our liking, but it was really tasty, with shrimp, Chinese sausage, a whole bunch of other yummy tid-bits, and topped with a fried egg. My wife makes a much better fried rice, but this was fine for me as a side.

20140724_185424_LLS

For dessert we shared an assortment of frozen treats and pops called “The General’s Freezer.” It was like they took inspiration from a little bit of everything you’d find on an ice cream truck (toasted almond, strawberry shortcake, ice cream sandwich, etc), elevated them to gourmet, miniaturized them, and served them in pairs so we could each try one. This was fun!

20140724_194456_LLS

Some decor:

20140724_180033_LLS

20140724_200247_LLS

THE GENERAL IS CLOSED

Fancy Lee

Fancy Lee is currently my top choice for local, nearby sushi to my home on Long Island. It’s in Babylon village in what looks like it used to be an old 50’s diner.

This place uses high quality ingredients and they are masters when it comes to plating and presentation. Favorite dishes? Zombie wrap, sushi pizza, white geisha roll, chirashi bowl, St. Patrick’s roll.

Skip the overpriced and overcrowded Kotobuki, and skip the faux-trendy Monsoon in town. Go here for a good meal.

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-32-04

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-32-13

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-32-22

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-32-31

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-32-40

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-32-48

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-32-59

Screenshot_2014-06-13-15-33-08

FANCY LEE
101 W. Main St.
Babylon, NY 11702