Chinatown

SPEED RACER

Tour the city’s bridges in a hurry

The Meatball Shop Opens a New Spot in Chelsea

Michael Chernow and Daniel Holzman will now be slinging meatballs around Chelsea at the Meatball Shop's newest outpost. The spot on Ninth Avenue has 60 seats, a new cocktail list (including jello shots), and "Underballs," a first-come first-serve bar in the basement, which serves the full menu and i ... More >>

Sea Cucumber: What Is It and Can I Put It in a Salad?

Three kinds of sea cucumbers, ranging in price from $25 to $110 per pound There's nothing vegetarian about a sea cucumber, and, though you can cut it up and use it in a salad, it isn't green and doesn't crunch. Also known as sea slug (or less felicitously as sea rat), the creatures are shell-less ... More >>

Tomorrow: Our 10 Best Chinese Restaurants in NYC, 2013 Edition

The braised pork shoulder at Shanghai newcomer Full House is perfectly executed, but will it be enough to catapult that Chinatown establishment into our top 10? With wave upon wave of new immigrants arriving, the city's collection of Chinese restaurants is in a perpetual state of flux. Ten years a ... More >>

What's Happening: Questlove at Pork Slope and Let's Brisket!

Ed Lefkowitz/BAM Monday, December 17 Beagle and Governor Dinner: East Village's the Beagle will team up with Governor, the Dumbo restaurant that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, for a three-course sherry-paired dinner. Tickets are $85 or $125 depending on your drink selections. Half of the procee ... More >>

How to Lend a Helping Hand During Post-Sandy Recovery [Updated]

Here are some ways to help with Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts: The Bowery Mission is looking for help through their Twitter feed. You can donate Blood. In Red Hook, food is being distributed in three areas. If you have any spare goods, some of these spots are also taking donations.

Premium Rush

Year of the Takeout Day 202: How Do You Eat Lychee?

So, how do you eat a lychee, anyway?

Year of the Takeout Day 174: Shrimp Jerky!

Shrimp and Spicy Beef Jerky from Ling Kee Beef Jerky (42 Canal Street)

Year of the Takeout Day 171: ACID-Flavored Jellyfish Head

Acid Sweet Taste Jellyfish Head from Chinatown Supermarket

Year of the Takeout Day 167: STINKY Tofu in Boston

Stinky Tofu with Pickle from Dumpling Cafe (695-697 Washington Street, Boston, 617-338-8858).

Year of the Takeout Day 163: Quickly

Green Tea With Pudding from Quickly

Under the Toque: Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Tom Colicchio

Jean-Georges Vongerichten is expanding his empire and his set to open ABC Cocina this fall. "We will have paella, croquettas, a lot of small plates,'' Vongerichten told Grub Street. [Grub Street] Tom Colicchio will be the anchor tenant of a new outdoor market that will open under the High Line in ... More >>

Year of the Takeout Day 139: Dumpling Cafe

Pan Fried Tiny Buns from Dumpling Cafe (861 Grand Street, Brooklyn, 718-302-8886)

Year of The Takeout Day 101: Coconut Drink Cluster

Coconut "drink" from Chinese Grocery

Brooklyn Wok Shop: 5 Best Things To Eat There [Updated With the 5 Worst]

Roast pork over rice with bok choy and a fried egg This week Counter Culture slides into Brooklyn Wok Shop, where a mainly Cantonese menu is offered at an elevated price in a room decorated with soup bowls. The review isn't too kind to the spot, but nevertheless several good dishes are identified. ... More >>

Blue Crabs Live in Chinatown Markets

Female crab broken open to display orange roe -- that's some good eatin'! This morning Fork in the Road wrote about the spiny softshell turtles currently being displayed live in Chinatown fish markets. But those aren't the only things crawling around in wooden crates and cardboard boxes on display ... More >>

Coluck: Strange, Cheap, and Hidden

An odd Hong Kong café lurks down an alleyway

My 5 Favorite NYC Breakfast Spots

The doubly buttered almond croissant at Tartine This is an admittedly quirky and idiosyncratic list of the places I wish I were eating breakfast right now, and the things I'd be eating.

Takeout Your Valentine's Day Meal

Go balls-to-the-wall with your lovers favorite takout on V-Day.​There's something to be said for shelling out $100 plus per person for luxury ingredients and romance, but sometimes it's better to just eat at home, for a number of reasons. A) It's cost-effective and the economy sucks. B) You can co ... More >>

5 Fun and Tasty Ways to Get Drunk at Pulqueria

For this week's review, I headed down to Chinatown -- Doyers Street, specifically -- to check out Pulqueria, Christopher and Heather Tierney's new Mexican cocktail lounge and restaurant. The food pleasantly surprised me; standouts included the hibiscus flower enchiladas, a great mushroom quesadilla, ... More >>

19th Century NYC Dining: 10 Fascinating Facts from William Grimes' Appetite City

To go with your tureen of turtle soup, a glass of Madeira was the near-universal choice. In 2009 former Times restaurant critic William Grimes published Appetite City, a book so crammed with details about the history of New York dining that you'll find yourself returning to extract delicious littl ... More >>

Shanghai Asian Cuisine: Nip and Suck

A new food twist appears in Chinatown

Brooklyn's Banana Leaf: Five Don't-Miss Dishes

​These ain't no Buffalo wings! This week, Counter Culture saunters into Banana Leaf, an exemplary new Malaysian restaurant in Brooklyn's foremost Chinatown. Here are the five dishes my friends and I liked the most.

Fork in the Road's Favorite Diners

Jayjay P / Flickr​It's time for Tuesday Toasts, our weekly feature highlighting the Fork in the Road team's favorite versions of popular dishes and favorite spots in the city for a given activity. They might not be the best or the coolest or the newest, but instead represent the things and pla ... More >>

Fall Arts: New York City's Five Chinatowns

Our 10 Best Restaurant Wedding Venues in NYC

basykes/flickrHere come the brides and grooms!​ Summertime is wedding season. In FitR's first-ever Wedding Week, we're celebrating the best wedding season ever because it's the first during which anyone can marry, regardless of color, creed, or sexual preference. Yay! Two people joining in hol ... More >>

Illegal Rice Wine Is a Hot Commodity in Fujianese Neighborhoods

FootosVanRobin / FlickrDrink up!​Everyone loves a good glass of moonshine. Why? Because it's illegal for one, and anyone who has ever consumed anything illegal -- be it a glass of hooch or a pot brownie -- knows that it tastes damn well better than something made morally. While most people ... More >>

Sad Sack Uncle Sam Stumbles Around Chinatown in New Beast Installation

​Last month, the street artist Beast made the New York City subway map, usually a "limp dick," into an erect penis thrilled over the death of Osama Bin Laden. Yesterday he was back at work with a new installation he calls "Sam & Fred & Mike & Tom & Jerry go to China," which depicts a dilapidat ... More >>

Del Posto Cook and Travel Writer Claire Handleman On The Joys of Eating In Thailand (Part 1)

​ Everyone loves to travel; not everyone, however, lives to travel. During most of the year, Claire Handleman pays the rent working at Del Posto, the Bastianich-Batali Italian juggernaut that won four stars from the New York Times last year. Every winter, she packs up her bags and spends at le ... More >>

Mexicue to Bring Its Chili Sliders to Forsyth Street

Rebecca MarxMexicue's beets will travel to Forsyth Street.​Earlier this year, the Mexicue truck announced its intentions to open a two-story storefront in the Garment District. Now it's on track to multiply further with another brick and mortar location on the Lower East Side.

Xi'an Famous Foods Will Go Big With a Second Chinatown Location

Robert SietsemaPlentiful and pungent savory lamb noodles.​A few months after sending out a Facebook message asking its fans for information on available storefronts in Manhattan and Williamsburg, Xi'an Famous Foods has officially announced the imminent opening of its fifth location.

Ride the Wild Wasabi Surf Clams at Yi Lan Halal Restaurant in Flushing

​The dark red clams and rough-cut cukes make a very pretty picture on the plate. The surf clams, meaty and briny, look like those southern Italian chile pepper necklaces, and the cukes are jagged, with a profound crunch provided by the thick kirby skins. But the biggest surprise is the invis ... More >>

13 Killed in Bronx Bus Accident

via ABCA tour bus traveling from Connecticut to Chinatown this morning was hit by a truck on a Bronx highway and overturned, killing 13 passengers and critically injuring six others. There were 31 people on board in all. The bus was apparently clipped by a tractor trailer from behind, causing it to ... More >>

Little Italy is Dead, Long Live Chinatown

​"Little Italy is becoming Littler Italy," the New York Times declares in today's paper, noting that census results released in December count not one person living in the New York City neighborhood as a native of Italy. This time around, only 5 percent of residents in the 24-square-blocks ide ... More >>

No. 15: Bun Bo Hue at Thanh Da

​The bun bo Hue at Thanh Da presents a dark tempest of a beef broth. Let's enumerate the ways bun bo Hue -- named after the city of Hue (pronounced "Way") in Central Vietnam -- differs from the signature noodle soup of Saigon, pho (pronounced "FFFah"). First off, the noodles are wheat instead ... More >>

Our 10 Best Things to Eat in Manhattan's Chinatown

​In A-Wah's Hong Kong-style wonton lo mein, the noodles are cooked al dente, and the broth is served on the side. The amazing thing about Manhattan's Chinatown, no matter how it ebbs and flows, no matter how many restaurants come and go: It's always been a bastion of excellent cheap eats. Th ... More >>

Tomorrow: Our 10 Best Things to Eat in Manhattan's Chinatown

​Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food, Inc. always has a line waiting outside for its excellent charcuterie at jaw-droppingly low prices, but will it make our top 10 treats? As other Chinatowns have grown and prospered, Mahattan's -- the city's first and most ancient, dating at least to the 1860s -- has ... More >>

Papa John's Big Super Bowl Pizza Giveaway; Taco Bell Counter Sues Over Fake Meat Claim

​Papa John's is offering a free pizza to everyone in America if the Super Bowl goes into overtime. But there's a catch: You have to register for the chain's customer loyalty program, "Papa Points," before 11:59 p.m. ET on February 5. [USA Today] The Flying Pig food truck in L.A. is now suing ... More >>

Robert Sietsema at Lievito; Lauren Shockey at Junoon

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema discovers a new and delicious breed of pizza bones at Lievito; Lauren Shockey likes the food, but not the boring beige room, at Junoon.​ Sam Sifton finds hits and misses at Lyon: "Some of the food is excellent. ... Best of all are the restaurant's offer ... More >>

Hedgehog Killed in Chinatown Fire; Woman's Body Found in Suitcase in Harlem; Senate Passes $160B Defense Bill

Adorable animals in trouble.​• Yesterday it was reported that a wolverine (illegal to be kept in New York as housepets) was killed in a fire in Chinatown on Tuesday night. It was not a wolverine, but instead a two-year-old hedgehog (also illegal) named Lillith and three-year-old rabbit named ... More >>

Xiao Ye's Post-Sifton Menu

visualpanic/Flickr​After Sam Sifton delivered a no-star review of Xiao Ye, Eddie Huang told us that he was planning to make some changes in the kitchen. And according to his blog, he has: Look for bigger portion sizes and individual portions for dishes like pot stickers, head-on prawns, and be ... More >>

Annals of Dim Sum Innovation: Jin Fong and Very Tong Vie for Supremacy

​Ever seen this one before? Shrimp paste and vegetables packaged like sushi at Very Tong. Three years ago, the city was in the dim sum doldrums, a condition that had persisted for a decade or more. What you got when you traipsed into one of the football-field size dining rooms was a processio ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​New York's got some weird addresses. Heard about the Chinatown tenement at 81 Bowery where residents live in cubicles? It stinks of piss and fish paste, yet when it was closed briefly for fire violations, tenant fought to get back in. Maybe they just want to be near the Bowery Ballroom? Eliza ... More >>

The Whole Kadang

Sunset Park Sino-Malaysian skates to culinary victory

Rice That's Enticing

BYOB, they'll provide the starch at Carmine Street Asian

Beef Unbound

Vietnamese on Grand revels in colonial Gallic underpinnings

Boiling the Bird

Where the buffalo carp roam in Manhattan's Chinatown

Dumpling Magic