Come on down to Congee Village

Congee Village
100 Allen Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 941-1818
www.congeevillagerestaurants.com

Congee Village is one of those places that we have been going to for a while for fast and yummy Cantonese food. During the dinner rush and weekends, it is crowded and noisy with families and big groups. It is open till fairly late (around 2 am), which is great after a night of carousing about town. The location, on the outskirts of Chinatown, means that it fairly easy to find parking.

The specialty is of course congee, or rice porridge. Congee is typical breakfast fare in China. Unlike the Philippine version (arroz caldo) which employs a lot of garlic, ginger and chicken, congee is not as seasoned and is thicker and starchier.

Small bowl of seafood congee. It is served bubbling in an open clay pot and is very hot-hot-hot! Try not to burn your tongue!

The menu is your typical Cantonese, with a lot of familiar dishes--- seafood (including frog legs), meats, chicken, veggies, rice and noodle dishes. There are also set meals for family-style dining, if you are so inclined to splurge (shark's fin soup, anyone?). We ordered the fried bread with milk dipping sauce and it was all gobbled up before I could take a picture.

Mixed mushrooms in oyster sauce. This was quite yummy, and so full of umami. There were button, enoki and shitake, if I remember correctly.


Young chow fried rice.

I was able to snap a picture of this last piece of scallion pancake before it disappeared. This was a light and delish appetizer.

Fried pork ribs. Yes, they are unapologeticaly fatty. Why else would you get them?

Fried squid. These are battered and fried, so they tend to be rather greasy. The best part is the fried little garlic bits that fall to the bottom.

As you can see, we kind went overboard on the fried stuff, no wonder were quite gassy the next day. Next time, we will order more veggie dishes.

Dimsum at Golden Unicorn

Under food:

Golden Unicorn
18 East Broadway
New York, NY10002

To be honest, we did not really know of any dimsum joints in Chinatown. We did know that we wanted to try some new places below the Mott Street/East Broadway section, which always seemed "more authentic" to us. After some online searching, we found Golden Unicorn. This restaurant was on the third floor. The setup looks a lot like that of a Chinese restaurant hall, with drapes all around the perimeter, big round tables that sit eight or more, and a center dance floor which also had some tables.

We managed to skip the wait by agreeing to split our table with another group. We ordered the following:

Shrimp and chive dumplings. This was pretty good, juicy and scrumptious. Too bad it did not make another appearance in the carts later on.

Chinese broccoli. My personal fave. Lightly cooked, it was sweet and crunchy.

Veggie dumplings. I think they had mushrooms in them. Also juicy, was gone in a flash.

Chicken feet in chili sauce and peanuts. This was pretty good for snacking and the flesh was tender.

Shrimp in noodles with sweet soy sauce, UFC's personal fave. The noodles are almost gelatinous and just slides down your throat.

Congee (they forgot to put the scallions). Very mild in flavor, great for this spring day.

This is the dimsum cart with the congee.

Clams in black bean sauce. This was excellent; the clams were briny and sweet, with just enough of the black bean sauce to bring out the flavor.

Scallops wrapped in bacon, served with mayonnaise and Pringles potato chips.

Pan-fried pork dumplings. DJKung said that this was ok.

Not pictured was the soft tofu, which we had for dessert. It was warm, silky and satisfying.

Golden Unicorn was a fun excursion. It was great trying the many dishes they have. The carts are helpfully labelled with pictures and names of the dishes they carry, and you can always ask the wait staff about them too. It was too bad that they did not carry some of the dishes that they advertised on the carts; we weren't sure if the kitchen ran out of certain items or if it just stopped carrying them altogether. Other crowd pleasers that we like (crystal shrimp dumplings, fried squid) were not served either.

And one word on the carts--- some of them meander about in no particular fashion, so if you are seated in one corner of the room, some carts may not get to you at all. It is a good strategy to have the most assertive person in your group seated closest to the traffic

Tea at Teariffic

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Teariffic
51 Mott Street
New York, NY


Teariffic is among the little teashops in Chinatown that is just oh-so-popular among the kiddies these days, what with the bubble tea craze that sprung up some years ago. We stopped by for a quick drink as we were about sightseeing with DJKung's cousin.

Cold matcha au lait. I can't really say that you could taste the matcha (green tea). It tasted strongly of jasmine tea, or some other floral-type tea. The little agar (gelatin) cubes were fun to slurp down.

DKung got black tea with milk. It is served without ceremony, which is great when all you want is a nice cuppa.

Teariffic has pretty satisfying teas and coffees. They also serve quick bites. The prices are very reasonable too!

As we were headed to a dimsum joint, we were lucky enough to catch a small parade by a Chinese Buddhist group. The dragon smiled at us, so this will certainly bring us lots of luck!

Everybody's still rushin' to Flushing!

Under fun:

Flushing Chinatown

Main Street, Flushing

We wanted to take out DJKung's poppa for some dimsum. He's been curious about our first sojourn to Flushing and we just had to go back there. We parked our car at the municipal lot (free on Sundays!) and walked towards Ocean Jewels Seafood (across from Flushing Mall).

DJKung's pops was really impressed at how crowded Main Street was. We passed by my fave cream puff joint, Happy Lemon (38-40 Main St) so I took a pix from across the street.

There were a lot of cars whizzing by, so it was hard to get a clean picture. If you look closely, Happy Lemon is the yellow stand to the left. Besides cream puffs, they also sell bubble tea and other pastries.

Unfortunately, Ocean Jewels was mobbed (one hour wait at 1pm on Sunday), so we walked back to Main Street. We passed by Corner 28, a slick buffet joint with mouthwatering posters. So we went in.

Corner 28. The crowd outside is just the sidewalk traffic.

The layout inside Corner 28 was a bit confusing. On the left side, they have dumplings and soups, and a cashier machine. The right side is where the buffet is; you fall in line and when it is your turn, you indicate which dishes you want. You then get a printed receipt which you go to the cashier to pay, and then give the stamped receipt back to the buffet side.

The prices were very reasonable. It was a bit harrowing making a snap decision when there were a lot to pick from, and a lot of the dishes looked pretty good (i.e., Chinatown-quality fare and not your typical por quilo joint in the city). My advice is to not fall on line and stand a bit apart, and do a thorough canvas of the ~40 dishes they have, before you fall in line and place your order.

We all opted for the four dishes with rice for $4.99. This also comes with your choice of soda or water, and a small bowl of seaweed soup.

DJKung's picks. Peking pork chops, sauteed bok choy, fried squid legs (buried). I have to ask him what his fourth dish was.

Superfatty's picks. Sauteed greens, stewed tofu, curry squid and sweet and sour fried fish (it is buried). DJKUng's pops was starving, and I was not able to get a shot of his dish.

So what we thought of the place? Not bad for $4.99, and the quantities they gave were massive. The food was pretty good by buffet standards; it was fresh and they had a big selection, from fish/shellfish, to meats, and veggies. We watched the other customers, and it seemed that the dumplings on the left side were part of the selection too. On the other hand, it was not too appetizing having your carefully selected dishes all lumped on each other in a styrofoam tray. The favors and sauces all got mixed up, so it felt like you were eating slop after a while.

Next, we went to Fay Da, the old Chinese bakery standby, for coffee and dessert. We were done after that.

Sweet bun and cheese roll from Fay Da.

Of course I had to swing by Happy Lemon to get my cream puffs. I got 6 for $5 (it is $1.25 each, but you get one free if you buy five). At home, Chibs and Babams split one, and you can tell by the way their eyes got reaalllly big that they liked the cream puffs as much as I do! Gotta get a dozen next time!

Everyone's rushin' to Flushing, Queens

Chinatown
Flushing, Queens

Yay, we finally made it across to Flushing! UFC has been planning this excursion for ages it seems. Last weekend, we finally did it! And we did a food crawl, to boot!

Using our GPS, we made it to the Korean section and had to ask around for directions. Basically, the epicenter of the Chinatown her is Main Street and Roosevelt Ave, by the No. 7 Main Street, Flushing subway stop. We were even able to find some parking at the municipal parking lot on 41st Ave, although there was a bit of a wait.

Once we hit the crowded streets, we see a sign for handmade noodles at the food court of Golden Mall (41-28 Main Street). The food court turned out to be a bunch of little eateries pretty much on top of each other, each apparently with its own specialty. It reminded us a lot of this okonomiaki emporium that we checked out in Hiroshima a while back, where the atmosphere is for serious noshin'.

DJ Kung was really overwhelmed by the menu at Lanzhou Handmade Noodles. Yup, there was a guy there stretching out the noodles to order.

Menu at Lanzhou Handmade Noodles

I ordered the seafood noodles. Came with about three pieces of shimp with shells, fake crab, and a surprising number of little clams. The broth was divine. And the noodles? They were wheat noodles, with a nice spring to them, and cooked perfectly.

DJKung got the beef bowl, which he thought was excellent. He put a lot of the chili oil, which went so well with the broth. Even though it was below freezing outside, we were sweating from all the spice we used. Yum!

The noodle soup really invigorated us. We went back up to Main Street for some browsing. DJKung stepped inside Fay Da Bakery to get a sweet bread. Fay Da must get quite a it of Filipino customers, because they also sell ensaymada now.

Sweet bread from Fay Da Bakery. DJKung said it tasted just like the ones from Mei Lai Wah on Bayard Street in the big Chinatown.

Street view. I wanted to catch a picture with a plane flying overhead, which was approximately every ninety seconds. La Guardia Airport is really close by.

A tiny cream puff joint on the other side of Main Street crossed my eye. Their big-ass cream puffs ($1.25 each, $6.25 for 6) were premade and already loosely wrapped in plastic. These babies were fresh and reaaally good. The crust was a darker golden brown, dsted with powdered sugar, and was crispy. The filling was not overly rich, not too sweet, and just the way I liked it. The place was called Lemon something...

Look at this beauty!

The Chinatown here is really nice just to walk around and people-watch. The food shopping here looks pretty good, although we did not see a lot of seafood displays hanging out in the open. I think it's because there are a lot of big gricery stores here, and the fish are all indoors.

On one of the side streets, we came across a "taho," aka soft tofu stand. Interestingly, it a florist's shop shared its space with it. The store, fittingly, is called Soy Bean Chen Flower Shop (Roosevelt Avenue). We had to bring the soft tofu home because we were getting full at this point. It was sooo silky and satisfying when warmed up.

Superfatty's so happy she found the Soy Bean Chen Flower Shop. Brings back a lot of happy childhood memories. You can eat the tofu inside. We got a quart of it for $2.

The soft tofu tasted just like how I remembered it, except the Filipino version comes with a dark sugar syrup and tiny tapioca balls.

We next ducked into a joint on Roosevelt Avenue that had dumplings. Northern Chinese Dumplings was tucked into a corner of a mixed-use space that included a dry grains store, a video store, and a sushi joint.

We ordered the leek and aquatic food dumpling. The wrappers were rather heavy and the filling was ok. We figure that the food is heartier in the colder north regions of China.

Not bad for $3.25! Even comes with some pickles.

We resumed our walking and stumbled into Flushing Mall. This was great because we had to go pee at this point. The shops in this mall looked pretty quiet. All the action was in the food court, where an awards program for kiddies was being held.

The people watching the program were six and seven deep. A lot of proud mamas and papas were in the audience.

The food court had various offerings. We're definitely going back here. We had a tiny bit of space for the takoyaki.

Takoyaki. The lady turning these octupus balls was not as fast as the others we've seen. However, I think this was the best I've had. She really took her time to make sure it was perfecly cooked and crunchy all over, and each piece had a real bit of octupus in it!

Takoyaki. Look how generous the garnishes (nori, bonito flakes, sauce) are. You're the best, Takoyaki Lady!

On the way back to the car, I just had to have a few more cream puffs for the road. We also stopped by the dumpling place next to the parking lot for some fresh soy milk (unpictured). We gotta try their dumplings next time.

Chibby enjoyed his cream puff a lot. This was a great food crawl!

Always hoppin' at Hop Kee!

Under food:

Hop Kee Restaurant
21 Mott Street
New York, New York 10013
(212) 964-8365


I can't believe that we have not yet posted Hop Kee, the original denizen of our SUPERROTATION---DJKung's parents used to bring him here all the time since he was an itty bitty thing. I blame DJKung for the oversight; he tends to go here after work with his buddies. And he never brings home leftovers. Well, after getting our groove on at 718 Sessions, now was my chance.


The following are our top four picks whenever we go. The waiters know this by heart, because apparently, all their FIlipino customers order the same thing.


1. Salty squid with hot peppers. I love how they cooked it today and gave it a slight char. The squid is, yup, salty and chewy-crunchy. No flash-frozen precleaned squid here. You can taste the brine in 'em. Make sure you mind the peppers; sometimes they are benign, but once it a while they are hot-hot.



2. Young chow fried rice. DJKung absolutely digs the fried rice, wheareas I like mine plain white. I think this is what they call Hong Kong style cooking. You can really taste the wok sear in the rice.

3. Peking pork chops. Their sauce is a bit stickier than others'. Sometimes, they do go overboard with the vinegar, which Chibby does not like. I like to dribble a little bit of the sauce on my fried squid.

4. Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce. Hop Kee always cooks it just right. These babies retain their crunch and are just lovelt. In the summer, you can get their sauteed water spinach, which is equally good.

Alas, no oranges today. But plenty of Fresh Naps to clean your sticky paws after some serious eatin's.

Pho Bang for your Buck!

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Pho Bang
157 Mott St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 966-3797

I was of two minds whether to write about Pho Bang. It is not that we did not like it, but we were just so ravenous that everybody started picking at the food before I could take pictures. So by no means are the following images representative of what you would get there.

Pho Bang's menu is not too extensive, focusing mostly on pho and rice dishes. Alas, there was not a lot of seafood, which what I was looking forward to. We started off with some goi cuon (fresh spring rolls with rice noodles, mint, shrimp, served with a peanut sauce; no pictures taken). The sauce was a bit starchy; I think it was from a mix.

DJKung ordered the house special pho. Universally, it is the first thing (no. 1) you see on the list of pho (rice noodles in beef broth). I took a picture of the small bowl DJKung used to share the pho with his pops. I got the pho without meat (no pictures taken; looked the same as the regular pho).

DJKung found the broth a bit gamy. I thought that the kitchen was very light on the traditional spices used (star anise, lemongrass, cinnamon *i think*), so the beefy goodness was prominent. They also provided the herbs on the side (bean sprouts, Thai basil, lemon).

Pho # 1. The actual portion is featured on the top right of the image. I think we got the large size.

We also ordered the baked squid. I think it is a typo, because this is the deep fried battered squid that you find in most Vietnamese restaurants. The sauce was pretty good.

"Baked" squid. As you can see, it has been demolished before I was able to take the picture. Needless to say, it was good.

It should be noted that this place is pretty cheap and the dishes we got were pretty solid.