Your NYC suggestions 1 - Chinatown

Dear Readers,

Thank you. In New York, I relied almost entirely on your restaurant suggestions. They were great. Although this is a blog about food in Houston, the next several posts will be about the state of food in NYC.

Chinatown

NYC's Chinatown is bigger and more vibrant than I remembered.

Yes, there are Chinese funeral parlors, Chinese banks, and acupuncturists. But mostly Chinatown is about food. The array of exotic foods on every corner is remarkable.

Joe's Shanghai

Misha, Bob, and Jenny all suggested I tried the soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai. Joe's is known as the benchmark for soup dumplings. The crowd proves it. Even in mid-afternoon, the wait for a party of two at one of the large communal tables was 30 - 40 minutes. But since I was alone, I got a spot immediately.

Joe's dumplings are art. The skin is fresh, firm and chewy. The soup inside is thick, glutinous, and savory. And the filling had far more flavor than ordinary lump-of-meat filling.

Joe's provides a pre-mixed dumpling sauce. I didn't need it. The flavors inside the dumplings were so good that they did not need any tampering.

Joe's also makes a good plate of Singapore Noodles. The dish is appropriately dry and spice-drenched. As I ate, I kept reciting that line from Dune. "The spice must flow."

To Wah Fung with Love

Jenny sent me a guide to cheap Chinatown food that recommended Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Foods, formerly a street cart, but now a hole-in-the-wall takeaway stand. The line out the door was 20-minutes long, and the customers were exclusively Asian -- all good signs.

Wah Fung is famous for a roasted-pork box lunch. The mound of sweet-roasted pork sits atop some steamed vegetables and a giant pile of rice. This amazing lunch is $2.25.

I may have never had an Asian pork dish this good. The pork has a chewy texture, but a jelly-like substance on the outside. It is smoky and sweet with a tasty mix of spices, similar to five-spice powder.

The Chinese / U.S. basketball game in the Olympics had just ended. Dozens of teenagers had come out to a park with basketball courts to play. With my tin stuffed with rice and pork, I sat down to eat and watch the games. It began to rain a slow drizzle. As ate, I had an epiphany:

This moment -- this dreary New York afternoon, this remarkable plate of $2.25 food-stand pork, these Chinese-American kids playing basketball -- this is America.

Next: Prune, WD-50, Eleven Madison Park