Hon Cafe: Always Here When You Need a Late Night Pastry

I love Chinese pastries (and it's not JUST because I'm Chinese). They are fun, silly and delicious. However, I hate the times pastry stores close. Most are closed before dinner, which is very inconvenient since I love a good pastry after a greasy Chinatown meal. Well lucky Hon Cafe is there to save the day! My friends and I stumbled upon this half pastry, half restaurant one night looking for dessert.

Yellow Bean Steam Bun

Hot and fresh straight from the steam oven. I love steam buns for their super soft and fluffy texture. The yellow bean is a bit more mild and less sweet than the red bean. Creamy thick texture,mmm..mmm, it hits the spot, and comes piping hot too. However, the ratio of bun to bean is horrible, so you will have a lot of left over naked bun after you have gobbled up the center. Unless, of course.. you LIKE naked buns!? (wink wink)

Price: $.95

Mexican Bun

Ohhh man, how come I have never been introduced to this before?? Seriously, where has this treat been all my life? Chewy, dense and utterly irresistible with its thick custard center. This is the perfect Chinese pastry. If nothing else, get this.

Price: $.95

Verdict: Skip all those cute looking pastries, for they trick you into buying them. They almost always end up being tasteless and bland. Go for the dense looking cream filled ones. Winner every single time!

Hon Cafe

70 Mott Street

 New York NY 10013

Apothéke: Pretentious but Delicious

So what do you do when you save money on dinner ? Spend it on drinks of course! Deep in the roots of chinatown, there is a speck easy just across the way from Joe's Shanghai. The entrance looks like a run down restaurant, and there were 2 shady looking bouncers at the front. I was scared!

ooOOoo, this is a real shitty picture spooky walk to the bar

The inside was rustic and romantically themed with themed with dime lights and plush seating. I wanted to smoke a cigarette from one of those quellazaires. Alas, I hate cigarettes, so that wasn't going to happen.

Light up Marble counter tops!

Lavender Fields

This was made with fresh lavender, tequila, pressed limes, and kalamanci fruit. The main taste was tequila, I am not a huge tequila fan so this was not my favorite. I couldn't taste much lavender, but there were definite notes of lime.

Pepper Infusion

This was made with fresh green peppers, peppercorns, vodka, fresh dill, and fennel oil essence. This was pretty tasty,  nice hint of fennel with a light salty finish. It was like drinking a meal. Alcoholics rejoice! Who needs dinner, when you can drink it?

Jasmine Sour

This was made with house brewed jasmine tea, vodka, ginger juice, candied ginger essence, and and egg white. This was kind of spicy, the foam of egg white was a nice touch, I never drank egg white before. It was super light and fluffy, like a kittens belly ( I am running out of analogies here..) anyway, the herbal hint from the tea, mixed with the ginger made my mouth smelling fresh for the rest of the night.

Price: All drinks are $15.00

Verdict: Pro's : Carefully made drinks, extensive menu, and attentive bartenders. Con's: Utterly pretentious bouncers in fedoras and zoot suits (come one... really?)and atmosphere. Breaks the bank after 1 drink. Call it what you want, but this place is worth giving a shot at least once. It was a fun experience, and while my drinks were double the price of my dinner, it brought on good conversation with friends.

Apothéke

9 Doyers St
New York, NY 10079

www.apothekenyc.com/

Joe's Shanghai: "Ir'll Be Aout 5-10 Minrutes"

Oh Joes Shanghai...I have eaten here many times, so much so that I almost got sick of soup dumplings (gasp!) But it had been about 5 months since I last came here and I was ready! I went with Buddy's sister Dana, her fiance Nick, Emily, and Meg to feast on some super cheap delicious Chinese foooooooood.

By the time all of got there, it was about 8:30-9:00pm. The wait? A hour. I don't know about everyone else out there, but I have never waited that long to eat here, ever. We took our number (39) and stood outside in the putrid summer street smell of chinatown. 20 minutes later, the girls comes around yelling numbers,

" 30?! 31?! 32?!" No one answers. "33?!....34?!....35?!?!" Still, no one speaks up.  

" 36?!...37?!...38?!?" I am literally about to pee my pants...."39!?" 

"US!!!" We all scream. We follow her to the entrance. She tells us to wait there. She then lets 3 other groups in front of us!!?? But we were there first! I felt like I was on an episode of Seinfeld when they all went to the Chinese restaurant. Finally, another 25 minutes later, we were seated....

Xiao Long bao (soup dumplings) 

We got 2 orders of the pork and 2 orders of the pork and crab.. The key to eating these (and not burning the shit out of you mouth) is to bit a tiny bity part of the top to let the steam out. Don't bite too much or the juice will go everywhere!

The pork dumpling (insert Homer Simpson drool here)

Fatty, succulent broth with mixed pork and ultra thin dumpling skin.... sigh, it's the ultimate comfort food.

The Crab and Pork Dumpling

Nice chunks of crab in this one, and a little more spice. Call me old fashioned, but the pork was the winner out of the two kinds.

Price: $6.65

Bok Choy

We also decided to get something somewhat healthy to make ourselves feel less guilty about being huge pigs to add a different textural crunch. The bok choy was fresh and after a nice dollop of hot oil, it was perfection. 

Price: $6.00

Scallion Pancakes

And of course, how can you leave a Chinese restaurant without an order of scallion pancakes? These were sinfully greasy, with a crunchy shell and a fluffy, chewy interior. The french fries of Chinese food (but way way better than french fries).

Price: $ 2.35

Me, Meg, Emily, Dana, and Nick

Full, and satisfied....

Verdict: If you don''t want to wait for food, come here early or during the weekday lunch. Also I noticed that all of the soup leaked out on the second set of crab dumplings... fluke or is this happening a lot more to other people now? hmm....

Joe's Shanghai

9 Pell Street

New York, NY 10013

joeshanghairestaurants.com‎

Shanghai Cafe: Disco Party and Dinner For Less Then 5 Bucks?! Your'e On!

It seems that I have been avoiding the rancid summer street smell neglecting Chinatown recently, so the other day Melissa and I took a trip down to have some cheap and tasty food.

When we arrived, there was a huge wait. It was PACKED. It don't know if I am loving the neon lights, or absolutely hating. I guess it depends on if I want to get my groove on or not. After about 10 minutes we got seated, it was ridiculously loud since there was a 30 person party of drunken Asian guys throwing back beers like water.

Shanghai Over Rice

Melissa got this, it was made with shrimp, beef, pork, and chicken stir fried in a thick sauce. The plate was huge. 

Price: $4.95

Squid with Pickled Cabbage Over Rice

YUM.... chewy squid, and a generous portion at that! The cabbage was tart and sour but mixed well with the rice especially adding a little hot oil on top! Filling, and with just enough room for dessert 

Price: $4.50

Hand Making their dumplings!

Verdict: Cheap, filling, and of great quality. What more could you ask for in a Chinese restaurant?

Shanghai Cafe

100 Mott Street
New York, NY 10013-4626

Sakura: The Owners Favorite Color Must be Green....

Over this past weekend my stepdad Bruce, was nice enough to take me to Philly to get some errands done. Since we were in the Chinatown area, we decided to grab lunch there. He had been wanting to try a new restaurant that had opened (and was really excited since he saw pink sushi wrappers there) it was Chinese/ Japanese fusion. Though there were a lot of great dim sum places around, I couldn't say no, especially since he was treating! ^_^

Green walls, green chopsticks, green sign, green menu.... geez louis this owner likes the color green!

Soup Dumplings (Xiaolongbao)

Well lookey here, they serve soup dumplings! I opted for the pork and crab mix. The skin was ultra thin ( just the way it's supposed to be) and the flavors in the soup were fantastic, but with an almost sour after taste. The pork and crab mixture had the consistency of ground beef, and not as filled as say Joe's Shanghai in New York. Still, it was satisfying none the less.

Price: $5.95

Angry Dragon

Bruce and I both wanted to get something light (since we both knew we were going to be stuffing our faces with other goodies while walking around) so we decided to get some sushi as our main course. This was a shrimp tempura roll with papaya, spicy tuna in soynori, topped with spicy crab and a honey miso sauce. This was very satisfying, sweet, crunchy, salty, and most of all... FILLING! I was surprised at how nice the presentation looked, I guess whenever I think of Chinatown I think " dirt cheap ugly delicious food"

Price: $ 11.95

Amazing Tuna

We ordered one more house special sushi roll afterwards. This one was made out of white tuna tempura, spicy tuna, cucumber topped with peppered tuna and spicy mayo. More salty, and definitely spicy, the fish was fresh and again, the presentation was lovely.

Price: $11.95

Verdict: I guess the only thing I didn't like about this place was the price; how can a person justify spending 12+ dollars for 1 sushi roll when they are in the heart of Chinatown and could get 4 meals for the same price? Especially since you can find sushi just as good at a suburban "fusion" restaurant located in a strip mall. Other then that, the food was satisfying and pretty tasty...oh, and by the way, it is a BYOB, so maybe this would entice some of you out there?

Sakura Mandarin

1038 Race Street

Philadelhpia PA 19107

Brunch: Jing Fong Dim Sum!

I can't believe I haven't been to dim sum since I move to New York! So finally on Saturday I dragged my friends out of bed to meet me for dim sum at 10:30 am, because god forbid me eat all the delicious treats without sharing! Its earlier than I would have liked to meet up, but considering this place gets extremely crowded with long waits on weekends, I didn't want to take the chance. Me + Hunger+ Morning+ Waiting= Crazy Asian Monster

Outside...We were lucky enough to get there before it got crowded!

The buffet area, the food is a little more expensive here, but they offer mussels, escargot, and fresh sauteed veggies!

Large Dining Area...seriously, this place was HUGE!

Sticky Rice in Banana Leaf

Casey and I ended up waiting 40 minutes for Melissa and Nikoma to arrive, we could take no more,  and had to order before we ate each other. The rice was mixed with pork sausage, chicken,and peanuts. YUM! Fatty, "sticky", and the flavors of the meats marinated into the rice and was perfectly satisfying. 

Price: $3.95 (large) 2 per order

Vegetable Stuffed Rice Roll

The table next to us got seated and started ordering 8 million different things, Casey and I were still waiting for the other 2 in our party to arrive and we couldn't stop drooling at what they had ordered. We HAD to order one more dish! This was stuffed with different chinese veggies and pieces of pork. It was wrapped by a very slippery broad glass noodle. This was packed to capacity with veggies, just a dab of hot sauce and it was perfection. One of my favorites of the day.

Price: $3.95 (large) 2 per order

Egg Custard Bun

Finally after Melissa and Nikoma arrived, the dessert cart did as well! Whipped egg yolk, cream and sugar made up this very creamy custard inside the gelatinous ball. It was a nice and quick sugar fix before digging into more savory treats.

Price: $1.95 (small) 3 per order

Spinach and Shrimp Stuffed Pockets

These little pockets were filled with spinach, carrots, and pieces of shrimp, it reminded me almost like a vietnamese summer roll. The carrots were crunchy and the shrimp nicely cooked. Good, but not the star of the dim sum show.

Price: $2.95 (medium) 3 per order

Bean Curd Wrapped Pork

The pork in this had a lot of flavor. The rolls were pretty big, and the bean curd's smooth texture balanced out the porks natural gristliness. This one I most definitely will be hunting down next time I go here!

Price: $3.95 (large) 3 per order

Spinach Bun

These small gelatinous balls are stuffed with spinach and pieces of pork. I liked how the tops and bottoms of these had a nice sear, giving it a good crunchy texture. The filling was actually quite juicy and the ratio of dough to spinach was 1:3 which is a winner in my book! 

Price: $2.95 (medium) 3 per order

Shrimp Rice Noodle

These had 2 whole small shrimp in each noodle roll and were drizzled with a soy sauce/vinegar mix. They were pretty bland and I ended up picking out the shrimp and leaving the noodle behind. I am a noodle lover, but these had absolutely no taste to them.

Price: $3.95 (large) 3 per order

Chestnut Pancake

We ended up getting these by accident, mistaking them for turnip pancakes. Chestnuts are my favorite nuts, but these squares were a horrible representation of them. It tasted dry and quite bitter. The outside was crispy, and the inside had a mushy firm texture. They topped it with a soy sauce paste, which made them extra salty. DO NOT GET THESE. Unless of course...you like bitter, salty things in shapes of squares.

Price: $2.95 (medium) 4 per order

Pork and Shrimp Shumai

Melissa ordered these, though Casey and I didn't try any (my belly was about to EXPLODE by that point) but she seemed to love them

Price: $3.95 (large) 4 per order

Sesame Ball

 Don't these look like cute little pac-man? Anyway, so I lied....the dessert cart came again and of course I HAD to get a few more things before I went into my food coma. One of my favorite Chinese desserts, traditionally filled with red bean paste, these were filled with yellow bean. I like yellow bean better because it has a creamier and more consistent texture. Deep fried and rolled in sesame seeds, this was the perfect wholesome treat

Price: $1.95 (small) 3 per order

Carrot Dessert

We were all very intrigued by the carrot shaped desserts. Cautious and with turtle like speed, Nikoma decided to try the one and only thing he ate here. We were all on the edge of our seats waiting for his response..."good, I feel good". Maybe not a typical response, but one nonetheless. These tasted like fried carrots with a brown sugar and sesame center. Fun, quirky, and whimsical? Yes. Would I get it again? No.

Price: $1.95 (small) 3 per order

Nikoma, Casey, Melissa and I

Verdict: I can not wait to go back here for dim sum! It was authentic, there was a crazy amount of variety, and the seating was spacious. I suggest getting there before 11, by the time we left (around 11:30-12 pm), there was a 40 minute wait to get in. As the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm (or should I say dumpling)

Jing Fong
20 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10013
www.JingFongNY.com