Grand Sichuan Restaurant - Chinatown, NYC

Boy, this is a long overdue post. I've been meaning to blog about this restaurant for the longest time, but never got around to it. I was going through some photos that we took during Chinese New Year earlier today and that reminded me about this restaurant. After the Firecracker Ceremony at Roosevelt Park, we were freezing and super hungry. So, we decided to walk south, towards Manhattan Bridge, in search of some food.
As we turned onto Canal St (from Chrystie St), I immediately saw huge two words jump out at me. HOT POT! Mind you, we have been standing out in the sub zero temperature for hours, so this was indeed a welcoming sight. Nothing beats some yummy hot pot on a cold winters day. I remember reading some reviews about this restaurant online and it received quite a number of good reviews. Looks like this is one of the few places in Manhattan where one can get some hot pot (most of the hot pot joints are located in Queens). So, we decided to head in and give this place a try.
We were quite surprised that the restaurant was rather empty (only 3 other tables were occupied) when we walked in. I am guessing cos it was a weekday and it was way past lunch time. Since there were so few people in the restaurant, the service was superb! After sitting us down, they brought out some complimentary Chinese tea and asked if we are having the hot pot or if we will be ordering from the regular menu. After telling them that we would be trying their hot pot today, they promptly began setting up the table for it.
Unlike many of the hot pot restaurants in Queens, Grand Sichuan is not a eat-all- you-can restaurant. They offer a variety of ala carte ingredients, ranging from seafood, various types of meat to vegetables and noodles. Most of the items cost between $3.95 to $7.95 per plate. I believe the most expensive item on the menu are crabs, which is $13.95 per plate. The only thing that I do not really like is having to pay $1.95 for a dish of dipping sauce. There are nine different types of dipping sauces available but having to pay $1.95 for sauce is just too much. Oh well, I guess nothing is perfect in this world :P
There are two different types of soups/broths that you choose from for your hot pot. There is the traditional spicy Sichuan flower pepper broth (mala) and the mild non spicy chicken broth. For those of you who cannot make up your mind, you can actually have both. You can opt to have a separator in the middle of your hot pot, thus allowing you to try both soups. Both Kevin and I are not really big on spicy stuff, so we stuck to the chicken broth. I must say that the chicken broth was really flavorful and delicious. There were some slices of tomatoes, spring onions as well as some Chinese herbs in the broth. Very very good.
Here are all the items that we ordered for the hot pot. I knowwww, that's quite a lot for the both of us but we were really really hungry. For the record, we didn't manage to finish everything so, we must really remember to order less the next time we head out to Grand Sichuan. We ordered some pork and beef slices, fish slices, mushrooms, wontons, beancurd skin, spinach, wheat noodles and pig intestines. Yup, you got that right. Pig intestines. In my opinion, it was really good. The intestines were already pre cooked in some soy sauce and then fried, so you just had to cook it for a bit in the hot pot. Really really yummy. Overall, we had a good experience in Grand Sichuan. The hot pot broth was very flavorful, all of the ingredients were fresh and the staff were really friendly. We will most definitely return in the very near future. If only we didn't have to pay $1.95 for a dish of dipping sauce. Ah well, maybe we should just smuggle tiny bottles of soy sauce in our pockets the next time we head over there :P

Grand Sichuan Restaurant
125 Canal St (between Forsyth St & Chrystie St)
New York, NY 10002
Tel: (212) 625-9212

Note: No credit cards, cash only

Chinatown Walkabout - 1st Day of CNY

Is everybody having a good Chinese New Year so far? I know that we are! Of course, it's never the same when you have to spend Chinese New Year in a foreign country, away from all your family, friends and not to mention, yummy home cooked food! However, I'm really grateful that we live in a city that has a relatively large Asian population. That's right, celebrating Chinese New Year in Chinatown is kinda fun, actually. With loud Chinese New Year music playing in the background, red and gold decorations in almost every shop and the smell of Chinese New Year goodies whiffing thru the air....ahhh, for a moment, one would even forget that you are right in the heart of NYC.
Kevin took the day off (since he is now Chinese, he always takes the 1st day of CNY off :P) from work and we headed down to Chinatown for the Annual Firecracker Ceremony at Sara D Roosevelt Park. It was really cold that day, around 22F (-5C) degrees and the ground was all slippery and icy. That didn't stop us (and a whole bunch of other ppl) from heading out to enjoy the festivities. The firecracker ceremony was scheduled to start at 11am but I knew from experience that they NEVER start on time. So, I thought that I was being smart by showing up at around 11:45am. The timing should be just right (and we do not have to stand out the the cold for too long). Well, looks like I was wrong. At noon, they we STILL setting up! :P
After standing out in the cold for what seemed like forever, the firecracker ceremony finally began. There were a few lion dances followed by the singing of the Chinese as well as American national anthem. With that, the countdown began and the firecrackers were lit! We were standing really close to the firecrackers..so yeah, it was LOUD!! :P We even felt a few stray firecrackers being flung our way. A very good show, like always. By the time the ceremony ended, it was way past lunchtime. So, we join the rest of the crowd and headed out to the main part of Chinatown, in search of food and to do a little CNY shopping.
It was so cold out, we were literally frozen, from head to toe. Not only we were super cold, we were super hungry too. We needed something to warm ourselves up and we needed it quick! I remember reading some great reviews about a hot pot (steamboat) restaurant on Canal St, so I suggested that we head there for lunch. Best decision of the day! The hot pot at Grand Sichuan was really really yummy! The ingredients were fresh and the chicken soup was superb. It's so good, I'll have to write a whole separate post, just on that!
After lunch, we were feeling all recharged and warmed up, once again. So, it's time to bundle up and head out to do some CNY shopping. Our first stop was Malaysia Beef Jerky Inc on Elizabeth St. We wanted to buy some bak kwa (pork jerky) and the only place that sells Malaysian/Singaporean style bak kwa is Malaysia Beef Jerky. Kevin loves their bak kwa and I kinda like it too. Of course, it doesn't taste as good as the bak kwa that we can get back home in Malaysia, but in my honest opinion, I think it's as good as it can get. If it wasn't so expensive, I swear Kevin could even finish a 1lb packet in one sitting! :P We initially wanted to buy some CNY cookies from another shop but we saw that Malaysia Beef Jerky sells them too. So, we picked up a few boxes of bee pang siew (bee's nest), pineapple tarts as well as peanut cookies.
Since we have already bought our CNY cookies, we only have one more thing on our shopping list. Yee Sang! We wanted to eat some Yee Sang for dinner that night, so we figured we would buy some home. Since Yee Sang is a Malaysian/Singaporean dish, it's not widely available, even in Chinatown. As far as I know, you can only get it in Nyonya, Penang Restaurant, Jaya, Singapore Cafe and New Malaysia. We tried the Yee Sang from Penang Restaurant two years ago (since we were in Malaysia last CNY, we didnt get a chance to buy any) and it was rather good. We decided to try the Yee Sang from New Malaysia this year. The Yee Sang from New Malaysia is a little bit more expensive but it taste awesome! Will blog more about that later on.
After getting our Yee Sang, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the narrow streets of Chinatown. As usual, there were a whole lot of lion dance troupes making their rounds to various shops and businesses. Also, the kids were having a whale of time shooting out confetti cannons as well as throwing those tiny snap rocks. The whole atmosphere around Chinatown was certainly festive. After a long day out in Chinatown, we headed back home to Jersey, with lots of CNY goodies in tow and a big smile plastered on our faces. We returned to Chinatown a couple of days later, for the Annual Lunar New Year Parade...but I will save it for the next post. Stay tuned.

New Malaysia - Chinatown, NYC

We were out shopping at the 33rd St Macys in Midtown til pretty late a few weekends ago. By the time we actually left Macys, it was already 9pm or so. We still haven't had our dinner, so our choices were to either settle for some bad greasy pizza in some random shop nearby, head over to Koreatown, walk uptown to Times Square (decided that it's a bad idea, too many tourist on a Saturday night) or take the train downtown to Chinatown. No prize for guessing where we ended up :P

Of course we ended up in Chinatown! Both Kevin and I totally loveeeee going to Chinatown. The good combo of cheap and yummy food always works for us :D By the time we got to Chinatown, it was way past 9:30pm. Most of the shops on Canal St were already closing for the day but we knew that if we walked along the smaller winding streets, we could find many all nighters still open. It was pretty cool actually (maybe a tad bit foolish too) and kinda exciting to walk along the dark, quiet and narrow streets of Chinatown in the middle of the night. It was a way different feeling than walking amidst the hustle and bustle during the day. It felt as if we might run into some Chinatown triad gang around the corner :P While walking down Elizabeth St, we saw a sign that caught my attention immediately. New Malaysia Restaurant. Hmmm, I wonder if it's even open.

We looked down the long dodgy looking alley way and saw some lights at the end. I guess it must be open. Wonder if it's safe? The alley way looks kinda errr scary :P We decided that it should be safe, putting into consideration the that 5th Precinct Police Department was just located directly opposite this Chinatown Arcade place. Oh and for those of you wondering where exactly this is, it's actually on the same road, just a few shops down from the super famous Jing Fung (some say it has the best dimsum in the whole of Chinatown) restaurant.

Ahhh, the restaurant at last. Looks pretty decent. In fact, it looks more than decent. There were all kinds of awards/articles/write ups pasted on the window, raving about how good this restaurant was. Hmmm, looks like we might have stumbled upon a hidden gem! You could actually also enter the alley that leads to the restaurant from the other end, via the 46-48 Bowery St entrance. I later found out that there is a little bit of history behind this particular address. It was actually the site of the 18th century Bulls Head Tavern. It is said that it was George Washington's regular watering hole, back when he was living at 3 Cherry St. In 1826, the Bowery Theater (America's first gas lit theater) opened at this site and in 1827, the first ballet performance ever to be held in America was performed here. Cool, eh?

When we walked in, we were surprised to find it packed! Let me remind you that it was already almost 10pm and the place was still packed! We were pretty lucky to get a small table by the side, cos the people that walked in a few minutes after us had to wait for a table for quite some time. About 90% of the customers were Malaysians (well, maybe Singaporeans too, I don't know...but definitely from South East Asia). The other 10% were either friends or spouses of the Malaysian customers :P The decor also reminded me of a typical Malaysian eating place. No frills, nothing. Just tables and chairs packed close to each other and a counter at the front of the shop. You can also see them making drinks there, just like a regular Malaysian coffee shop.

When we got the menu, I took a quick glance at it and was pretty impressed to find all types of Malaysian dishes that we usually cannot find in other Malaysian restaurants. The price were pretty reasonable too. I saw things like Grilled Stingray in Banana Leaf, Curry Noodles with Duck Blood, Sabah Mee, Yam Ring...just to name a few. I also checked out the Claypot Curry Fish Head that the guys from the next table ordered. It looked sooooo good. I must try to gather a bigger group of people and return the next time around to order rice and dishes. Since it was just the two of us, we shared a Pataya Fried Chicken (6.95) and had a noodle dish each. The Pataya Fried Chicken is actually mamak style fried chicken. Chicken pieces marinated with turmeric and deep fried. It was so so so goooooood. It really tasted like it was served fresh out from a Malay stall or mamak. Very very nice.

No prize for guessing what Kevin ordered. Yup, of course the Char Koay Teow inspector must order his Char Koay Teow ($6.50). Depending on how good the Char Koay Teow is, that will be his benchmark in rating how good a particular Malaysian restaurant is :P The CKT here didn't look all that yummy, so I initially didn't even bother to try it. Kevin asked me to try a mouthful and wow! It was good! It doesn't look that great but it tasted so good. Really really authentic.
If Kevin is known as the CKT inspector, then I would be known as the Fish Head Noodles ($6.95) inspector. First off, I must say that the portion was huge! Not only that, there were lots of fish and salted vegetables in the soup. Yummmmy yummy stuff! The noodles didn't really stand out as extraordinary but it was good. Nice creamy soup with the the right amount of saltiness from the salted vegetables. Definitely on par with the Fish Head Noodles from Penang Restaurant (currently my fav place to go for fishhead noodles). I am really glad that we found this hidden gem, deep in the heart of Chinatown. Authentic Malaysian food, at a reasonable price. Will definitely return to try their rice and dishes. The only downside was that the service was really slow. Oh well, maybe they were having a bad day. Who knows. I guess we would have to return to find out.

New Malaysia - Chinatown, NYC
46-48 Bowery Street
Chinatown Arcade #28
New York, Ny 10013
Tel: (212) 964 0284/2257

The 'new' Nyonya - Chinatown, NYC

It's been a while since we went to Nyonya in Chinatown. There are always so many other new restaurants to check out whenever we are in Chinatown (which is pretty often :P), we just never gotten around to going back to Nyonya. Since Kheng was visiting us last weekend, we decided to take her there. After all, Nyonya (in my opinion) serves the most authentic Malaysia food and is the most affordable Malaysian restaurant around. After a long walk in the blazing sun, we arrived at Nyonya only to find the shutters down. Oh nooo, is it closed??? In fact, it looked like it's been closed for quite a while, with graffiti on it's shutters and stuff. Feeling really disappointed, we decided to go to Jaya instead. We were just about to make our way to Jaya when we looked across the street and saw....NYONYA!! Yay!! So, Nyonya is not closed...they just moved across the street! Wooohoooo!

The new Nyonya looked great! Way cleaner than the old one. Simply love the new decor. It now has a more hip, trendy and updated look. It looks as though they hired quite a number of new staff as well. Way more friendly and pleasant than the old ones. The only thing that remained the same was the trademark uniform, black shirt and pants, with a short sarong around the waist. Oh, I must also add that the prices have also gone up. Not by much though, but it is definitely more expensive than what it used to be.

So, with the new address, updated decor and price hike, does the food still taste the same? Well, we'll soon find out. After taking our order, it look the waitress only less than 5 minutes to bring out our drinks. Kheng ordered the Malaysian Ice Coffee ($3.25) and Kevin has a soda ($1.50). As usual, Chinese Tea and Ice Water is on the house. We order the Pasembur ($7.95) to share as our appetizer. Shredded cucumber, jicama, bean sprouts, tofu, shrimp pancake, jelly fish, hard boiled eggs with ground peanuts, fried onions and their special sauce. Truthfully, I wasn't really expecting much but boy, was I pleasantly surprised! This Pasembur was really really good! Just like what you can get in Penang (the island, not the restaurant)! Yeah, I dare say that it's almost as good as the Pasembur (also known as 'cheh hoo') from my favorite stall in Island Glades, Penang. So so gooood.

For my main, I ordered the Fish Head Noodle Soup ($7.50), of course :P As usual, the Fish Head Noodle Soup here never fails to hit a spot for me. I have said it before but I will say it again. The Fish Head Noodle Soup here is the bomb! The fish is so yummy and the carnation milk and salted vegetable broth is totally out of this world. You know, the Fish Head Noodles here is even better than some of the ones you can find in certain hawker stalls back in Malaysia.

Kevin and I are creatures of habit. Guess what he ordered? Yup, you got that right. Char Koay Teow ($6.75)! It's alwaysss Char Koay Teow...hahaha. I stole some of his Char Koay Teow (with the excuse that I need to do a taste test :P) and I must say that it's pretty good. They must have fried it over really high heat, cause I can taste the 'wok hey' smell in the noodles. Really good. If you were to serve me this plate of Char Koay Teow back in KL, I would have believed it if you told me that you bought it from one of the local hawker stalls. Yeah, it's that good. However, please note, I said KL and not Penang. Nothing beats or even can compare to Penang Char Koay Teow. There's just something about it that puts it in a class above the rest ;)

Kheng ordered the Nasi Lemak ($6.50). It is served with curry chicken, sambal ikan bilis (chilli anchovies), half a hard boil egg and some achat (pickled vegetables). I didn't try the Nasi Lemak, so I don't know what it tasted like. Kheng finished everything on her plate, so I would assume that it was pretty good. It looked authentic and smelled good though, so I think it's pretty decent.

Overall, we had a great and authentic tasting Malaysian meal. What's the damage? Our total bill came up to $36.43 (excluding tips) for three people. Not too bad at all. For less than $13 a person, I feel that it's fairly decent. Out of all the Malaysian restaurants that I have been too, I must say that Nyonya still holds the record for being the most authentic and affordable. However, I need to add that despite the new look and new location, Nyonya still doesn't accept credit cards. Everything is cash only. Oh well, that's a small inconvenience that I am willing to put up with for yummy and authentic tasting Malaysian food.

Nyonya Restaurant II - Chinatown, NYC
199 Grand Street,
New York, NY 10013
Tel: (212) 334 3669/6701
Fax: (212) 343 343 7422
Web: http://www.penangusa.com/location_nyonya_grand.html

Durians in New York City!

Our friend Kheng was visiting us from Vermont over the weekend and she wanted to get her dose of Malaysian food as well as shop for some Malaysian groceries. She said that Burlington doesn't have any Malaysian restaurants and they only have a few Asian groceries stores (mostly small and pathetic Vietnamese stores). Sooooo, we figured the best place to take her would be Chinatown :D There are at least 5 good Malaysian restaurants there as well as a whole lot of Asian grocery stores. In fact, there is also a Malaysian grocery store that carries everything Malaysian, from Milo to Maggi Mee! After buying some groceries, we were on our way back to the PATH station to catch the train back to Jersey. We then saw something familiar among all the other exotic fruits at the roadside fruit stall on the corner of Mulberry and Bayard St.

Yup, they were selling durians! I initially didn't want to buy any (cos I knew they were Thai durians and have been frozen before) but Kevin kept on saying that we should try one. So we did. We asked the old uncle how much were the durians going for and he said $1.50/lbs. Not too bad I guess, I was expecting it to be more expensive. We picked out one and he weighed it. 7 and half, close to 8 lbs! The fruit stall uncle was kind enough to give us a discount, he said that he will sell it to us for $10! Sounds good to me =)

This is the first time I bought a durian that comes with a tag. Check this out. "Superior Quality". I do not know what the Chinese characters say but I am guessing it's the brand? The other side of the tag has a picture of a pig. Hmmm, I wonder why. Weird :P Anyways, we can't wait to open it up to see if it's really "Superior Quality"! LOL!

Now, usually back in Malaysia, we would get the guys at the durian fruit stall to open up the durians and put them in plastic containers for us. Since the fruit stall that we bought this durian wasn't a stall dedicated solely to durians, we had to take the durian back whole. No big deal I guess. While he was living in Malaysia, Kevin has seen how those guys open up a durian many times. He can do it :D I told him that all he needs to do is to cut open the bottom of the durian and I will pry it open. The whole process turned was relatively easy. Just chop chop chop and then pry open (just for the records, Kevin did it all by himself). I really expected it to be a whole lot harder.

There you go. That's what it looks like inside. It doesn't look and smell as great as Malaysian durians, but hey, it's pretty good for something that has been frozen before. The flesh looks firm and thick, mmmmm, can't wait to eat them!

Sooo, what does it taste like? As good as the fresh durians back home in Malaysia? Kevin, our professional durian taster took the first bite. Please excuse the way he eats the durian (with a spoon :P). That's how we eat durians in my family, so he is just following our lead. Hey, eating durians with a spoon is a great idea, you don't have to put up with stinky fingers later on! The first thing we noticed about the durian is that it doesn't smell. It does give out a little bit of smell but it wasn't overpowering, like how fresh Malaysian durians are. That kinda sucks a little, but I guess that's what you can expect from frozen Thai durians. Even though the flesh was quite firm and sweet, it was a bit watery. I am guessing it's also because the durian was frozen during shipping. Overall, I would say that it wasn't really half as bad as I expected it to be. Nothing close to the fresh durians that you can get back home in Malaysia though. However, if you are miles away from home and miss this yummy 'king of fruits', trust me, this is as good as it gets!

The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

After our heavy lunch in Katz's, we decided to walk it off and head over to Chinatown to walk around. It was a pretty long walk and by the time we arrived in Chinatown, we were all tired out. Since it was a relatively hot day, we decided to go look for some Hong Kong style desserts. We were not too sure where to find a good dessert house, then Kevin remembered watching something on the Travel Channel about this place called the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. It is said to have the best ice cream in the whole of Chinatown, in fact, some people even say the whole of Manhattan :P So, with the help of Poynt on Kevin's BB, we headed off to look for this place.

It was a good half an hour's walk (yes, we took our time and made a few stops along the way :P) before we ended up at this tiny shop on Bayard St. If there wasn't such a huge crowd standing in front of the shop as well as our GPS guiding us, we might just miss it altogether. So, here we are...at the ever so popular Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

As you can see from the picture, it is actually really really tiny. From what I hear, it's constantly filled with this many people and everybody doesn't mind waiting in line, just to get a taste of their ice cream. Wow! It must be really good. So, we joined in the line and waited for our turn.

While waiting for our turn, I noticed many photos of famous people/celebrities who have visited this shop. Also, there were all kinds of awards lining the walls. Looks like they were winners of City Search's "Best Ice Cream in NYC" for three consecutive years, a recipient of Zagat's Award of Distinction and they were also nominated for "Best Ice Cream" by TimeOut NY. Boy, they must have really good ice cream.

Here is part of the menu as well as some of the flavors available that day. You can get your ice cream in a cup, cone or pack them in tubs to take home (available in three sizes: pint, quart and 2 and a half gallons). If you want something different, they also have milkshakes, freezes, ice cream soda floats as well as egg creme. They are also famous for their ice cream cakes. You can order the ice cream cake in your favorite flavor or even a combination of flavors!

As you can see, they are not your regular "American" ice cream parlour. They carry a lot of Asian flavors that you cannot find in other ice cream parlours around these parts. Yes, they do have your regular Rocky Road, Mocha Chip and Oreo but they also have more exotic flavors like Pandan, Durian, Yam, Red Bean, Taro, Black Sesame and Lychee. You can check out their full list of flavors here. Not only do they have a whole lot of flavors, there are also quite a number of toppings and home made sauces to choose from. Nice!

So, what did we order? Since it was such a hot day, I decided to go with the Factory Freeze ($7.25). I got to choose a flavor (or a combination) from the whole selection of sorbets that they have and also my favorite soda (soda water, coke, root beer, sierra mist...etc) to go into the blend. I initially couldn't decide between Lychee, Longan, Tangerine or Mango-Papaya, but I went with Lychee Sorbet & Sierra Mist in the end. What a good choice! It was soooo yummy, I cannot even begin to tell you how yummy it was!! There were big chunks of lychee still in the blend (yes, even after blending!). Good stuff :D Kevin ordered a Papaya Milkshake (Reg - $6.25, Lg - $7.25). He loved it too! I took a sip of his milkshake and wow! It was so creamy and thick, really really good. Now I understand why there are always so many people in line and why some people swear that Chinatown Ice Cream Factory has the best ice cream in the whole of Manhattan! I totally agree, their ice cream is way better and different than the rest. Oh well, looks like we will have to make this our regular 'snack stop' whenever we are in Chinatown! :P

The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
65 Bayard Street
New York, NY 10013
Tel: (212) 608-4170
Web: http://www.chinatownicecreamfactory.com/

Yong Gee - Chinatown, NYC

After buying our bak kwa from Malaysia Beef Jerky, it was already almost noon. So, we figured we should start looking for a place to have lunch. As usual, there were just so many eating places in Chinatown, we couldn't really decide where to go.

While walking down Mott St, we saw Yong Gee. What really caught my attention were the giant words PEKING DUCK and CANTONS NO. 1 CHICKEN on the signboard. Also, they had really yummy looking pictures of various types of Cantonese food as their storefront wallpaper. That made us cross the street to have a closer look at their menu! :P

Once we crossed that street, we were hooked. Look at the yummy looking roast duck, chicken and pork hanging in the window. We also noticed a lot of traffic going in and out of the restaurant, mostly older Chinese couples and families. Now, that's a very good sign. Soooo, we decided to give it a try.

The restaurant was packed to the brim when we walked in. Boy, it felt like walking into a restaurant in Hong Kong! Loud chattering, servers in colored vest and bowties walking around really fast with steaming hot plates/bowls of food and not a single gwailo is sight! I think Kevin was the only non Chinese in there. Everybody was speaking Cantonese, even the waiters and waitresses. I'm not very sure if they are able to converse in English or not but since they started talking to me in Cantonese, I just replied in Cantonese (my Cantonese is not that great, but I guess it's good enough for basic conversation). My guess is that they can speak English if the need so arise but they were more comfortable in speaking Cantonese. Anyways, they managed to get us a small table at the corner...that's fine with me. It's better than waiting for a table or having to share a table with strangers!

They had a pretty extensive menu and everything looked good. I didn't really know what they are famous for, so we just ordered whatever we felt like eating. They were also having a dim sum combination dish promotion. So, we decided to order that as our appetizer. For $7.99, you get 2 pieces of mini egg rolls, 2 pieces of har kow (shrimp dumplings), 3 pieces of siu mai (pork dumplings) and 1 char siew bao (steamed roast pork bun). It also comes with free coffee, tea or soda. The mini egg rolls were a tiny bit too oily but it was alright overall. Both the char siew bao and siu mai was alright, nothing to really shout about. However, the har kow was terrible! The skin was sticking to the surface of the container and everything ripped open when we tried to remove it. Also, the shrimp didn't taste all that fresh and I think it was sitting in the steamer was way too long. Mental note: if you want good dim sum, go to a dim sum house, not just any random Chinese restaurant :P

For our mains, we both shared a noodle dish and their famous Peking duck. There were a lot of noodle dishes to choose from and we ended up ordering the Cantonese Style Pan Fried Noodles with Fish Fillet ($10.99). That was a very good choice! I love it! They were really generous with the fish fillets and it tasted really good and fresh. The portion was really big too. Even after sharing, we still could not finish and had to take about 1/3 of the dish home. Very very nice.

Ahhhh the famous Peking duck. We ordered half a Peking duck ($15.99) and it came with 6 pieces of buns, Peking duck sauce, some cucumbers and spring onions. You can see from the above photos, the waitress showing us the correct way to assemble it all together as well as the finish product :P The skin of the Peking duck was nice and crispy and overall, it was nice. I wouldn't rave about it and say that it was the best I have ever eaten, but it was alright. I wouldn't order it in the future though, I guess I'll just stick to the $1 per piece Peking duck from that corner store in Flushing. I later found out that Yong Gee is famous for their Congee (which explains the steady line of steaming big bowls coming out from the kitchen) and their Hot Claypot Rice. Also, their Guang Dong Style Chicken and Fish Soup Noodles is said to be really good too. I guess we will have to try those out the next time we are in Chinatown :P

Yong Gee Chinese Restaurant
104 Mott Street,
New York, NY 10013
Tel: (212) 925-1118/6661
Fax: (212) 925-2886

Malaysian Bak Kwa in Chinatown, NYC

One of the things that I really miss since moving to the States is Malaysian style Bak Kwa (pork jerky). Yes, you can find some sort of pork or beef jerky in Asian grocery stores but it's not the Malaysian type. It's usually the ones imported from Taiwan or China, vacuum packed and not really that fresh (since it came all the way from Taiwan/China). Also, Malaysian bak kwa is usually soft and tender, where else, the ones you that you can find in Asian grocery stores are usually very hard and chewy.

I found out online that there is a Malaysian Bak Kwa shop in Chinatown and boy was I excited! After watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, we headed downtown to Chinatown, in search of this shop. With the help of the Chinatown Information center, we managed to locate this bak kwa shop. If you don't look hard enough, you might just miss it. It's just a tiny little shop, well, it's not even a full shop, it's just half a shop :P It looks kinda old and run down but the familiar smell of freshly BBQed bak kwa coming out from the shop was just intoxicating!

We checked out the old menu board outside the shop and saw that they had most of the stuff that bak kwa shops in Malaysia would have. They sold the bak kwa by weight, ranging from $17 to $18 per lbs. We can see from the board (old sticker marks) that it used to be between $15-$16 per lbs, but hey, I guess inflation happens everywhere :P

We walked in the shop and it looks like any of the bak kwa shops in SS2 or Petaling Street. Rows of different types of bak kwa in see through display cabinets. They had pork, beef and chicken jerky, available in spicy and regular. You can also choose between the sliced or minced version. They were also promoting their recently launched new flavor, shrimp flavored pork jerky. Too bad they didn't have the gold coins bak kwa or the gourmet bacon bak kwa, both my favorites (not to worry, two more months before we go back to Malaysia for CNY. That's when we can eat as much bacon bak kwa as we like!! :P).

Look at the guy behind the grill. He was BBQing the bak kwas non stop while we were there....smells so gooooood. We bought a lbs of regular pork jerky ($17), since I prefer the minced type to the sliced type. The lady was trying to push the shrimp flavored pork jerky to us but errr I think we'll give it a skip :P She also proudly told us that we can now buy the bak kwa online and they ship them all over America. How cool is that? :D

Check out our loot! They even have those yellow plastic bags with red letterings, just like all the bak kwa shops in Malaysia :D She also slipped in their menu as well as their business card, with their website url.

Here's how they pack the bak kwas. They would of course seal it air tight if they were shipping it cross country but for walk in customers, they would place it in a wax paper bag and then in a resealable plastic bag. This way, it keeps the bak kwa nice and fresh.

Mmm mmm mmmmm, doesn't that look good? One lbs of freshly BBQed pork jerky. It's so tender and nice, unlike the ones we can get from the Asian grocery store. Also, I just love the charcoal burnt sides, it just makes it even more authentic tasting. Of course we cannot compare the taste to the big time bak kwa companies like Kew Bros or Bee Cheng Hiang in Malaysia, but compared to the pork jerky that we can get here, it tasted like heaven. I think that it's as good as it can get. So, the next time you are in Chinatown and need a little dose of 'Malaysia', head over to Malaysia Beef Jerky Inc and get yourself a lbs of yummy jerky!!! :D

Malaysia Beef Jerky Inc
95A Elizabeth Street,
New York, NY 10013
Tel: (212) 965-0796
Web: http://www.malaysiabeefjerky.com/