Year of the Takeout Day 59: Tasty King

Seaweed Bean Curd Soup from Tasty King (534 East 14th Street, 212-979-8333)

So unexpectedly delightful is the seaweed bean curd soup at Tasty King that we are very tempted to make any number of possible royalty/quality-themed puns, but we still have some self-respect — and this is not one of those taxicab movie minute things — so we’ll just be blunt.

The $3 pint boasts a hearty, bold broth — that’s somehow neither too bullion-heavy nor waterlogged, and not at all your run-of-the-mill miso (or even anything close!)

Meanwhile, endless-seeming strands of black-green seaweed swirl through the hot portion, swaddling chunks of steamed tofu.

Year of the Takeout hasn’t seen this on another Chinese-American menu. For soups, this might even beat China Star‘s hot and sour.

Damn.