Year of the Takeout Day 122: Ming’s Café

Fish Balls & Rice Noodle Roll with Curry Sauce from Ming’s Cafe (212-978-1888)

Ming’s reminds Year of the Takeout of Coluck, that Hong Kong café hidden in the Chinatown arcade.

Yes, there are eerily similar, weirdly Western offerings that include SPAM, spaghetti, butter toast breakfasts, and ever ubiquitous bubble tea.

Unlike Coluck, however, the menu boasts almost 400 items (counting beverages).

Some of them are traditional–such as ma po tofu and preserved egg congee. Others appear to come from Vietnamese, Japanese, Malaysian, and Thai influences–like udon noodles, Singapore-style mei fun, and satay.

This $3.50 stew is a great example. The noodles, though congealed and almost unidentifiable by the time we got to them, seemed to either be udon or their Chinese equivalent. The sauce was the same curry you would encounter at many Cantonese-American takeout eateries. And the fish balls could have been from any pho joint in the City.

A confusing combination? Sure. But it’s also a delightful one!