Manhattan Chinatown Bites -- 2024 & beyond

lol, my daughter and her friend were making latkes the size of my head, we all made the mistake of eating a couple before moving on to the roast meat.

I had some language difficulties ordering at deluxe, I wanted them to cut up two chickens and a duck, they cut one chicken up and gave me precut packages for the other chicken and duck. Turned out to be fine…actually much better than fine, but it was a little stressful not understanding when they’d been cooked/cut.

I’m interested to try their roast pork and pig, I saw the pig in a lot of baskets.

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Deluxe was my standard place when New York mart ran out of what they had made. I’ve had the Char Siu and it’s good. I haven’t bought the crispy skin pig but lots of people are always buying it.

Did I already suggest a roast meat taste off at some point.

not learning from your example I just bought a roast duck and scallion chicken from The
Roast in the sunset park chinatown (8th ave and 52nd st) on the excuse we have to take food to a NYE function tonight. Jim took one look at this mass of delicious looking food and told me I need to leave half of it at home! I just ate a couple of pieces of the duck and it is just wonderful. .

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Did I already suggest a roast meat taste off at some point.

I think you did! we could gather samples, grab a table at Mott st eatery, and rank them best to worst.

Do we need to work on a scoring rubric? :rofl:

ps are you implying NY mart > deluxe?

Hadn’t been to may wah since the pandemic, my chicken leg was perfectly fried, great comfort food on a cold night. my son had their pork chop, I like the one at Taiwan pork chop house a little more but this was a good rendition.

$7.50 for a mess of food, the egg is an extra 75 cents. It’s $3-$4 for an extra chicken leg or pork chop, probably do that next time and split a bowl with my dining partner, leaving stomach space for other destinations.

Best,

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I wish these restaurants would revert to real dishes from plastic - but the food looks great!

  • Maxi’s Noodles on Mott was mobbed. Not just busy, but the kind of busy where you start wondering if there’s been a food shortage and nobody told you.

  • Banh Mi Saigon’s #1 is now $9.50, which means inflation has finally come for my sandwich. It’s now pricier than some lunch specials in the area, but what price happiness? Apparently, $9.50.

  • Green Garden Village was a disaster. The duck was cold, the pork was tough, and neither had discernible flavor. When the manager saw my untouched duck, she inquired why. I explained, as kindly as possible, that if it had been freshly cut from the birds in the window, it should at least be room temperature but it was cold. She nodded and walked away. I don’t think I’ll be back.

  • Tai Pan had a line out the door.

  • Tasty Dumpling had tasty dumplings. It also had a cleanliness level that pushed the limits of my personal tolerance, and it’s well known that I’m flexible in that regard.

  • But the true highlight of the day was Deluxe Mart’s prepared food section. It was chaos. A glorious, operatic mess of humanity, elbows flying, people desperately waving at the counter staff, entire trays of food vanishing in minutes. And in the middle of it all, some absolute genius decided to blast Aaron Copland’s Hoe-Down over the loudspeakers. A piece of music that screams wild, headless-chicken panic played in the background of a scene that could only be described as wild, headless-chicken panic. I laughed out loud. So did a few others. It was a beautiful, New York moment.

Best,

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You should write this up for the NYT Metropolitan Diary! I’m sure it would get published.

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thanks, that’s kind of you to say but I’m pretty sure a lot of NYers (and others) will take umbrage at my characterization of the beloved Hoe Down as a piece that “screams wild, headless-chicken panic” :rofl: In fact, I didn’t feel entirely comfortable with it and tried a couple of other things before putting it out on HO.

But again, thanks for the compliment!

best,

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I meant to add that I noticed a display case at Deluxe Mart with beautiful, fresh, uncooked dumplings, I think they were 38 cents each, will give them a try next time through.

best,

I forgot they opened in Manhattan, thanks for the reminder.

I’ve thought about the frozen ones many a time. WiIl look for the fresh next time.

What time were you there? It’s usually mayhem bordering on dinnertime and the point at which they discount the hot case.

I was there around 330, they were completely sold out of roast meat save for a couple of chickens in paper. I wonder how they differ from soy sauce chicken?

Maxis on Mott st is quickly becoming one of my fav restaurants, the broth, wantons, dumplings and egg noodles were perfectly cooked and delicious, next time I’ll pass on the beef.

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Had a chance to visit King’ s Kitchen on East Broadway yesterday under slightly unusual circumstances. In the morning Jim came home and told me he couldnt go on our trip to Italy because he needed an additional small surgery on his eye - a stitch had popped and the surgeon had ordered him to stay home. I immediately sat down to cancel all of our reservations. Then, an exterminator arrived to treat most of our house - we would have to leave for 2 hours after the treatment. We were locked in our kitchen which was not being treated. Jim announced why not walk over to Chinatown for lunch for the 2 hours? Stunned by the cancellation, I relaxed into this new situation where all of the pressures had suddenly lifted. and we enjoyed a very pleasant meal together.

Kings is sparkling new and s others here know, is a member of the JinHuang Group. https://www.instagram.com/jinhuanggroup/?hl=en

The roast meats are very good and the plates of meats with rice a true deal. We had the plate with a big heap of rice and the roast duck and roast pork both delicious- I think it was $10.50 for the plate. The pork was slightly cold in the center, i guess these meats are being made at a central commissary, but very fresh.Jim had already grabbed some duck I had had to make him hold off to take this picture.

we probably would not have needed anything more, but we also ordered one of the specialties, claypot braised goose with beacurd skin in a savory brown gravy with 5spice evident and large hunks of ginger, and water spinach with beancurd sauce.

These were both huge servings, enough to serve 4 and cost I think $23 and 20 respectively. Both were good, but i think there are better uses for goose than braising it in casserole, the skin is its great glory, and I would like to see roast goose hanging in their display. They have a 3 hotpot for $58 deal going on right now. We loved the cheerful, friendy young servers and the nice clean shop. They have two other locations in NY right now, both in Sunset Park https://kingskitchenusa.com/locations

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They also have the one in Flushing, the new location on Mott, and a third one in Bk.

Sorry about the trip cancellation!

  1. Sorry about your travel setback
  2. Love King’s Kitchen on E B’way

I’m glad the two of you had a pleasant meal. I’m sorry about the cancellation — which, I trust, will ultimately just be a postponement.

Yes, I’m sure that that’s the case, but when it’ll be postpone to is a question since it’s a trip that will require good weather, spring or fall! Jim will be fine. on the bright side, I’m going to be around through Christmas most likely, so I’ll be available to eat out with folks I hope!

do they all have the same menu?

You’d have to check Yelp menus for that, but I’d guess they’re very similar if not the same, with some variations by neighborhood likely in specialties.

I’ve been to E bway and Flushing, and the roast meats, and rice rolls were similar.