$2 LARGE CHOW MEIN!! (Chinatown Cheap Eats Part 6) | Fung Bros

Over the past five episodes of this Cheap Eats series, we've eaten at more than 70 different Chinatown establishments. And in this video, we visit another 27 more. So yeah, this is epic. It is informative, it is long, and it is indeed very deep cut. So sit back, relax, play it at twice the speed if you need to, because we're hitting the 100 mark on this one. And one last thing, if you want this series to continue, I need you to hit that like button right now. Part six, New York, let's go. Chinatown Cheap Eats part six, everybody is going down. And of course, you have to lead off with a banger, the mom and poppiest of mom and pops, Shu Jiao Dumpling. Guys, this spot was closed for a long time during the pandemic, but recently it reopened. You can get food here. It's one of the most well-known dollar dumpling spots in the Chinatown extended area here on Eldridge and Broom. Took the re, re, re grand opening of Shu Jiao Dumpling. Andrew, you're looking at pork and chive dumplings for 40 cents a pop. You get 10 of them for $4. Oh man, here we go. We got the sauce. It would not be Chinatown Cheap Eats if we were not eating outside in the chilly weather. By the way, guys, that's tax included. Andrew, individual hands made every single one of these. Pork and chive, look at that. You can see the chive coming in from the background, see through the skin, that's how thin it is. These are well-made. Shu Jiao. Boiled dumplings. There's nothing weird or funky about that for 40 cents. Let me tell you this, Shu Jiao, Andrew, has like 2,500 Yelp reviews for a reason. Still solid, Shu Jiao is back. Got the Fujianese Ban Mian. This is a sesame, almost like peanut butter wheat noodle. It looks like egg noodles, the Cantonese style visually, but it is not. This is made out of wheat. It's just pressed into the same form. Fujianese wontons. Now these Fujianese wontons are not like the traditional Cantonese or Hong Kong style. These are a lot smaller, but they are still packing a lot of flavor. These are both $2.75. Look how much Ban Mian you got. Look how many wontons you get. Look at this thin, silky skin right here. You guys, if you like peanut butter, you guys know it's sesame. It's also AC'd, ground up. It tastes like peanut butter. I think it's better. I think this is better than peanut butter. Guys, this is not bad at all. Listen, it might not pack quite the amount of meat or shrimp that the traditional Cantonese ones do, but let me tell you this, if you're into textures and just a little bit of meat and you want some hot soup, this is a good pick. They came through with the cleanliness. The Ban Mian, let's go. Must get. All right, guys, last dish at the grand opening of Fuzhou. These are the meat clumps. Yeah, I believe they're like beef balls, but in a different shape. Right, so these are beef balls, but they just didn't even have the time to put them into a ball. So they were like, guys, you want meat? Boom, hand-squeezed beef ball. Lot of vinegar. Andrew, you know, I've had Fujianese food in New York. I've had Fujianese food in LA. And let me tell you this, I can unequivocally say that it is absolutely better than you think and you need to try it. Guys, don't be afraid. Take it step-by-step. Shu Jiao, Fuzhou dumplings is now open. So come here, check it out. It's super cheap. It is a great entry point, Andrew. In Chinese, it says Fuzhou Xiao Chi. Guys, what better spot to start off Chinatown Cheap Eats part six with? Andrew, we are standing in front of Chinatown's perhaps biggest, hidden, best kept secret e-noodle group. And here's why it's hidden, because literally, it is hard to see from the street. There is a scaffolding, there's tents, it's on a small street here called Catherine over in Chinatown, so it is hard to find. So the reason that the food is really interesting here is because the owners only started this restaurant group five years ago, e-noodle group, you guys. They got bozai fans, they got all types of stuff. Come on, they attached the hands of the chicken to the duck. That's a duck. That's a duck with gigantic claws attached to it. Bro, I'm not gonna lie, that looks like the Kawhi Leonard logo. Yeah, look, it looks wild. That's a wild analogy. I know. All right, you guys, check it out. They got this stir-fried silver noodle right here. This is like the thin noodles. Definitely get that. Definitely getting this. This deep cut dish. Dad used to make this. My goodness. That's a must-have. Still getting that. Hello. I want four or five things. Okay. Okay, I had to get the raw egg in the middle. I saw that on one of them. Oh, sago, okay. Hot pot. Oh, it's a hot pot. Sounded really funny here, so I didn't come in. She's really trying to help us get the right order. That's what I appreciate. What makes it so good? Your recipe? It's Hong Kong style. That's why it's so good. Yo, this is, this looks crazy. Cause you know what? It's funny, David. These are, it's all Canto food, but these dishes are a little bit different than what we're used to having. Oh, cause they're very, very kind of elevated HK 2020 style. Like we said, the owners kind of just came from Hong Kong not too long ago. So they're, I guess they have their own image. This is the pin noodles with a raw egg on top. We got two different levels of cooked egg in here and the pin noodles. The pin noodles are also something you can see from Vietnamese people and then certain other Southeast Asian dishes. Stir fry pin noodles with raw egg. Dude, David, what do you think? Oh, it tastes like dad made it. Yeah, what do you think about the pin noodle texture? It's kind of like a gooey texture and they kind of look like worms, but they're really good. All right, Andrew, we are taking a look at two of the signature dishes here. By the way, guys, still pretty much around the $10 mark. You will not find a better deal. Bo Tai Fon in Au Lac Hall. Yo, I've got to say, Andrew, that the food here is pretty close to Hong Kong. When they said that was a special soy sauce, they weren't kidding. The soy sauce that you're supposed to put on Bo Tai Fon has had a lot more elements put into it. Therefore, it's a little bit sweeter, less salty. I would not be surprised if E-Noodle has the best Bo Tai Fon in New York. Andrew, onto two noodle dishes that I've never seen at the restaurant before. Andrew, we've got a spicy hand-torn noodle that I've really more had from Taiwanese instant noodle brands, A-Sha Noodle. But they give you a side of oxtail curry. Yeah, in case you want to put it on. I think for me, I'm going to just more dip it like a sukemen. You're going to dip it like some su... I don't even know if that's how you're supposed to eat it. But here I got the stir-fried rice rolls, a mixture of pork, fried onions. I think it's funny, because a lot of people do the beef chow fun, or like, you know, chow fun, where it's stir-fried rice noodles, but these are stir-fried rice noodles rolls. This dried hand-torn noodle, Andrew, with this oxtail curry is a 10 out of 10 banger. I got to give a shout out to the fried rice rolls. This is actually a really highly underrated dish. Last but not least, David, we got the Sam Ping Fon, aka the three choice rice. She said, you know, that these are some of the best roast meats you can get in Chinatown. But let's see. Guys, this is the char siu. It's dark and it's red. Look at that. I think the thing that stands out to me the most right now is this lap yuk, this shiu yuk, or fo yuk, this roasted pork. It's got all the layers. You can really see the whole gradient. Wow, actually, this one looks really good. And the skin is not too thick, which I do enjoy, but you can see how it's seasoned at the bottom and it gets lighter. That's really well done. The duck is solid. Duck was good. Honestly, guys, everything at E-Noodle was good. If I had to recommend something, I would say the bo tai fun, the pin noodles, and then this spicy noodle right here. I agree, guys. E-Noodle is one of those hidden gems. This is my first time here. I've barely ever seen it because it's covered by a whole bunch of stuff. This is a top five spot we've been to in Chinatown. Yeah, I don't know if I'd put it number one, but this is a must go to. All right, so you're saying easily top 10 percentile, 90th percentile and up. Easily top five spots we've filmed at of all these videos, guys. And it's really still affordable, so. Andrew, real quick. I gotta say that they are cooking dim sum inside of that makeup store right there. David, I gotta go up there. I gotta go explore. She's putting her hand, look, look, she's inviting us. Look, look, look, look. She's being very nice, very friendly. I'm falling for it. She's got me. So this used to be Amore makeup and now they are making fresh dim sum. So I'm gonna go inside, guys. It looks like a pop-up shop right now. And it's so funny that we're right next to it. Oh, this is the Golden Unicorn Restaurant that's upstairs. It is famous for dim sum. If you grew up in Chinatown, you definitely went there. And I haven't even been there, but they're bringing it downstairs so that they can sell it because of course, being on the second floor, they don't have outdoor dining. Yo, Mo, this lobster dumpling, one swan dumpling. Okay, see, so I'm getting some of the more fancier stuff. I know that it's a little bit more expensive, $7. I'm not gonna lie. That's not a cheap eat for dim sum. This is a minced seafood and handmade wheat wrapper. Yo, I like the banter. You know, they really brought that dim sum banter and cart lady attitude downstairs. So it's like, I'm just like, she throwing stuff at me. I'm like, nah, I don't want that. I want that, okay. All right, Golden Unicorn Dim Sum, man. It was a frenzy. No, no, no, no, Andrew. That's not Golden Unicorn. That's a Golden Unicorn pop-up. And that's the pop-up downstairs, yeah. Andrew, you said that this is $7? All right, this is not a cheap eat for dim sum, but I had to try the lobster roll because, you know, I mean, we never get the lobster dumpling. Open-faced lobster dumpling. Not bad, would I pay seven? I don't know. All right, this is the swan dumpling, David. This is a hand-rolled seafood in a dumpling, kind of looking like a hawk-ow. It's not a hawk-ow? It's not a hawk-ow. It's not a hawk-ow! Nah, this is a swan dumpling. This is also $7. Let's get it. Dim sum. Everything's been cool so far. Everything has been cool, but I hesitate to use fire. Andrew, in previous videos, we had a controversial battle between Gong Sik-Tong and Cha Chan-Tang for the battle of the best Cha Chan-Tang. So, hey, guys, I can only make my decision based off what happened in that round. We said CCT in that round for those dishes at that moment beat KST. Now, guys- Because we're trying to be technical. Guys, guys- We're trying to make- Anyway, guys, for everybody who's watching around the world- It's your preference, okay? that's confused right now, let's just say this, that people take their Hong Kong cafes very seriously in Chinatown. Andrew, there is actually a much cheaper tier of Hong Kong cafe that is also very good, and that's what S1 represents. Guys, there's a few of these spots, but S1 is one of the premier, very small, very cheap, and very traditional Hong Kong cafes. It's not necessarily high-end. It's not necessarily, you know, made to be the coolest, but it's made to give you what you need. S1. As you can see, everything on the menu is like $7 max. Everything's super cheap right now. This is just one of those places that no tourists come here. People from other parts of New York may or may not know. This is like locals only, you know what I mean? This is like Chinatown LA. All right, you guys, S1, super cheap, guys. Everything we ordered today, less than 20 bucks. I'll be trying it right here on this stoop. Here I have the egg sandwich, Hong Kong style. Oh, you got your wheat here too. Oh my gosh, my milky wheat. Andrew, you're looking at your favorite on the left here, but actually on the right, I have the most classic lunch you see older people eat in Chinatown for lunch. You just see people eat a chow mein. A chow mein with the douzai, which is bean sprouts. S1 Cafe. Guys, so cheap. Oh, that's really good. Sides cut off, super soft bread on the inside. Not much else going on, just butter, egg, and ham. Sort of like mom and pop. I give this chow mein, maybe a 4.5 out of five. I just kept eating it. And you know, that to me, Andrew, if I've learned anything after doing 1400 food videos, if I just keep eating it, I must bump the rating. Guys, egg sandwich, I give this a 4.5 out of five. This is a must get if you like the egg sandwich. Wow! All right, you guys, we are looking at things that literally cost like $5. It is so good. It's literally like if you made it at home, but even better than if you made it at home, because let's be realistic, you don't got the hot ovens at your house. You don't got everything prepped. Andrew, you hate this dish. Traditionally not into the macaroni soup. It looks too simple to me, but of course at the end of the day, my mom did used to make this for me when I was sick growing up. So, you know, it's very nostalgic. Chicken steak and macaroni soup. Like we said, guys, all this food was like 18 bucks. It was so cheap. There's actually not too much flavor in a way, but that also makes it really easy to eat. So I do appreciate this right now. Do I still love macaroni soup? I don't know if I love it, but this one's solid and it really brings me back to those days. I truly believe that S1 Cafe is the most home-style breakfast you can get. It literally tastes like your mom just made this for you for breakfast and you live in Mayfoo Hong Kong. This is that new chicken sandwich here at S1. Yup, yup. You know what it is. Chicken, grilled chicken sandwich here at S1 Cafe. Very delicious. David, ending off our meal here at S1, we have the Baedon Salyeokjuk and then we have this milky wheat, which is essentially like oatmeal. Between this and the macaroni soup, a lot of people would look at it and be like, yo, that's not Chinese food. How is that even Asian food? Because it is heavily derived from British food. Honestly, I'm coming back to S1. S1, especially with that chicken steak sandwich and the chow mein, man. It gives me a sense of like certain parts of the food parts of Hong Kong that haven't touched those nerves in my brain for like 15 years. I mean, what more can you say, guys? Come to S1. The prices are cheap, the quality's high. Amazing quality, two per dollar ratio. Boom. And one last thing, it's actually not that greasy, guys. Tastes clean. And we got another competitor. Okay. For the cheapest yet still good quality Hong Kong cafe. Well, who could it be? It's M Star. So M Star is going to go up head to head with S1. And I know, you know, I noticed the one thing about S1 and M Star is they're located next to gigantic Cantonese communities. Like this is really like a Hong Kong cafe that you would eat at in Kowloon, in Hong Kong. Like if you were just like a regular working person. Yeah, like a bus driver. Yeah. Or yeah, you just get done. Yeah, bus driver, taxi driver, they could afford to eat here. You guys, we are at M Star. Andrew, this is actually my first time here. A lot of people have always talked to me about this spot, but you know, there's so many spots to go to. I'm glad we finally made it here. Andrew, this is their famous dried curl churn fun. Obviously this is a dried Hong Kong style. It's not a fresh style. Uh-uh. Yeah, these are the, what we would call the pre-rolls, but it has the thick peanut butter sauce, that kind of like milky, saucy, like hoisin soy sauce. Just like HK, bro. Yo, that tastes a lot. Specifically, like we said, like Kowloon side. Let me tell you, that peanut butter sauce is literally peanut butter. Beef sliced juk with a raw egg cracked into it. Let's mix it up. Yo, a lot of spots would be scared to sell you that, just for like liability reasons. No fear here at M Star. Here, I'm looking at a satay beef gong zai mien. Gong zai mien means instant noodle. And in Hong Kong cafes, they really love to eat instant noodles. By the way, guys, everything on the table was like $4 to $8. $3.75 to $8.75. The satay satay, like satay jang, satay jang flavor is strong right here. Very hot, not too fatty. The beef slices are actually, have a really good texture and they taste pretty decent quality. And of course the egg yolk does kind of add a little bit of smoothness. Andrew, this is a fried cheung fun. I've never had this before. This is really fascinating. You guys, like I said, I rarely ever come to a Hong Kong cafe and have something that I haven't had before. I think it's better. It's a rice roll that has a crispy exterior and it's kind of getting stuck into the crevices of my teeth right now. This is really tasty. Andrew, are you more about the ham and egg salmon zi or the spam and egg salmon zi? Spam and egg. Here in Eswan, it's neck and neck, bro. Because I felt like Eswan had the edge on the sandwiches, but they've got the edge on the noodle and chowk dishes. This is the imitation shark fin soup right here. Obviously not with real shark fin, but it kind of has this gelatin vermicelli kind of type vibe. Yeah, like a feng shui type thing. Yeah, that's right. So if you guys know shark fin soup, not only, I believe, has it started to become illegal and banned globally, but it also is actually, you can pretty much trick people with a certain type of vermicelli feng shui. All right, Andrew, I'm going in on the French toast here. Fried French toast, sai gao zi. Honestly, it tastes so much like Hong Kong. It's unbelievable. Did you try the fake shark fin soup, though? I did. What was your opinion? You didn't say anything. I don't think it's a must-have. Oh! I don't think it's a must-have. I mean, I'm just... Let's not even comment on it. Andrew, of course, there's also a corned beef and egg sandwich as well here. Dude, must. I would say the corned beef is better than the spam. This is the Portuguese chicken rice, guys, based off the Portuguese colonization of the island of Macau. Let's go. It's not bad. It kind of has like a cheesy texture to it. It's really not that spicy. The food here is really solid. The sandwiches were better at S1. All right, you guys, we're finishing our meal here at M Star. Andrew, these are my two favorites. It was the beef sliced congee chuk with the raw egg in it. And then this dish I've never had before, the fried XO cheong fun, dry style. Dang, I'm going to have to go with the original cheong fun with peanut sauce and the sweet XO sauce. And then I'm going to go with the satay instant noodles. I mean, look at the flavor on that. That is deep. Andrew, I got to say this. I think that both here and S1 are great choices, but I think M Star even beat out S1 in terms of not necessarily like quality, but in terms of like giving me the Hong Kong energy. But I think S1's sandwiches were better. Other than that, both were super solid. It's hard for me to pick one. Guys, so almost every street in Chinatown could be considered a food street, but Baxter is definitely a low-key one, especially for Vietnamese and Thai food guys. So what I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be hitting up the three main Viet spots here. You got Thai Sun, Nha Trang, and Pasture. I'm going to order one of their top items from each spot. We're going to compare them. But also, of course, you know, they have Bo Ki, New York down there, which we've already filmed at, but man, there's so much food on Baxter. So let's see what happens. All right, guys, I have one of their premier dishes from each main Vietnamese spot on Baxter. Here, I got Thai Sun. Here, I got Nha Trang. And here, I got Pasture. Pasture came with the lemongrass shrimp. Nha Trang told me to get the barbecue pork vermicelli. And then Thai Sun told me to get the barbecue beef vermicelli with egg rolls. And all of these were $10 or less. Lemongrass shrimp from Pasture. Very sweet and fragrant. You can make a sense of handle out of how much lemongrass is on there. It's definitely a unique flavor. And if you guys like lemongrass, you have to try this dish because you barely ever get recommended a fully lemongrass-flavored dish. It's very sweet as well. So I would say, man, if you're in the mood for fragrance, this is it. All right, here we have the Nha Trang barbecue pork vermicelli. David, you're pouring on the nuoc cham. Yo, guys, there's a lot of pork here, okay, for $10. So she told me to get this. I like it. You have a little bit of that oil scallion right there. Ooh. Let me just make myself a little nice little bite. Nha Trang. Wow, that's pretty good. David, you went in for like two more bites. I mean, I'm assuming if David goes in for a third bite, it means it's good. It means you like it. Dish from Thai Sun. We have the barbecue beef with spring rolls, jazzo. Looks more meaty, doesn't have as much of the woodier mushrooms or the black coloring that I would like to see in a Vietnamese egg roll, but that's just me personally. I give the egg rolls like a 3.5 out of five. Hear ye, hear ye. David makes a statement. Now, let me tell you something, especially since we're by the courthouse right now. Listen, guys, you're looking at somebody who clearly has been to 90% of the Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown. And let me tell you this, pound for pound, Thai Sun does the best job with beef. The beef falls, they wrap beefs. Thai Sun has the beef game on lock. David, my pick for this round is Nha Trang. Yeah. This is overall the best. It tastes the most like the West Coast. And I know the West Coast Vietnamese food being kind of the standard in America, let's be honest, that and Houston. But I've been in Houston. Well, because the majority of Vietnamese people live on the West Coast. Yeah, you can't go wrong with either of them, guys. They're all very popular and they all both have their own different vibes. So check out, you know, the little Vietnamese street. Baxter. Come to Baxter. Try all three Vietnamese spots. Try the Malaysian spots, the Thai spots, Cambodian spots. Make your own decision. Andrew, we are in front of Cambo Bakery. This is one of the most comprehensive bakeries in all of Chinatown. I mean, they got bread bowls. They actually have a hot food section. You can get breakfast here. They actually have low-key, a lot of food. You can get foods that you do not think you could get at a bakery. Let's check it out. All right, you guys, I secured it. They were closing up the hot food section. So she gave it to me for just $3 a box, bro. That's deals on deals on deals. Andrew, we're in front of the most famous bakery in Chinatown, top three. I don't wanna say it's number one. Everybody's got their favorites. Cambo Bakery. Andrew, I went and hit their hot food section. End of day, $3. Wow, you got a deal. So guys, here's a little lesson. If you guys want super cheap food at the end of the day, you can come here before they close up. But don't do that. Don't do that on purpose. Don't do that, man. All right, guys, I have a steamed chicken and mushroom. This is one of our favorite dishes. Let's see how this gai fan is. I have a yuk bang, which is a salted meat patty. Very classic Cantonese, Toisan-based dish with some preserved veggies. I've never really seen the steamed chicken and mushroom dish, Andrew, with the preserved salted veggies. I'm not the biggest fan of the pork patty, but I know the older generation, Andrew, they love this dish. They give this a 10 out of 10. For me, it's more like, you know, a 2.5 out of five for me. But for $3, you can't beat the value. So some other bakeries that have hot food items, they'll serve a similar dish, but they won't have this pickled radish on it. I think this actually adds a nice little bit of saltiness and a little bit of crunch, which is even maybe more valuable than, you know, your stewed cabbage. Guys, let's try this. I think this spare rib's solid. Got a little pepper in there. You think that was the best one? It might be. I think it has the most flavor. Okay. Guys, rice bowls at New Camp Boat. Gotta get them. Of course, these are around $2 to $3 each. They've got some really unique items. A lot of bakeries don't have the millet congee, and a lot of them don't have the tsung yau pan. Guys, what I'm about to do is a very hearty Chinese breakfast here. You have the scallion pancake, you have pumpkin millet congee. Let's get it. Mm, this is like, I'm about to go work a whole 14-hour day. Scallion pancake's still crispy. This is actually really good. This is red bean wrapped with a little cake in the middle. Oh my goodness. Andrew, you are looking at a garlic-covered Beifengtang ham and egg sandwich. Bro, this is something I've actually never had before. Look how much fried garlic is packed on top of that croissant. Yo, look at this, Andrew. This is a breakfast sandwich with Jimmy Dean pork patties in it. Oh man, that's crazy. These are about $2 to $3 each. There's actually some tasty mayo that's holding all those fried pieces of garlic together. David, you gotta try this one. This, by all means, you guys, for $2.50, this is a very filling breakfast sandwich. Each piece was assembled. Yeah, are these Jimmy Dean beef patties or whatever the non-name brand version? Sure, but it tastes good. Blue gem. And we didn't even get to the don top battles yet. It tastes like the garlic from garlic crab that you like to put over rice. Exactly. It's fried, it's tasty, it's got a little bit of mayo on top. I mean, you know, I'm sure it's quite high in calories, but it's delicious. Last sandwich, a chicken filet sandwich. Man, this just reminds me of that sandwich that you're gonna get at McDonald's overseas in China. You know why it reminds you of that, Andrew? Because it's chicken thigh. That's good? For those people out there who don't like mayo, I don't understand you. I really do not. Overall, I would go with the garlic ham. Last but not least, I have the don top battle here. There's four different types of don top. Yes, there are that many. Okay, there's an egg white one. There's a Portuguese don top. There is kind of your regular standard Hong Kong one. Regular. That one takes me back. That filling was good. Crust is crunchy, almost like a cheesecake. Portuguese. Coconut one. It's actually not egg tart. Egg white one, I find it hard to believe that I'm gonna like this one the most. My top two is the Portuguese one and the egg white one. Andrew, that potat, aka Portuguese egg tart, is one of the best, if not the best one I've had in Chinatown so far. Prove me wrong, guys. The potat here at Cambo Bakery, D-E, Thai yut. Yo, I got the green village. So one of the things that a lot of people don't know about Chinatown Cheap Eats, Andrew, is that you can actually go to these larger seafood restaurants, like a Green Garden or a Congee Village, and get the lunch special for under $10. Now, these spots are normally famous for serving you king crabs, snow crabs, all types of different abalones for up to $100, $150 per person. However, they need to keep busy, so during the lunch, they have the crazy lunch specials. Guys, everything here was $8 or less. Wow, look at that crispy skin right there. Wow, that's really nice. Clearly, they've done a lot of exfoliating. Like we said, we are here at Green Garden. Andrew, going to the more expensive seafood restaurants and getting lunch special for under $10 is one of the low-key secrets. You've also got another low-key secret here. Bro, the takeout box is the plate. But honestly, if you guys like a seafood restaurant, but it's kind of expensive for dinner because you wanna get the seafood and everything like that, just get the lunch special. Because listen, the reason why I got these four dishes right here, these are cuts of meat that would actually be a lot more expensive, but they're all $8. I'm gonna start with the lots of egg and shrimp. Look how, look at this. Look at how, man. The amount of shrimp they give you is incredible. Okay, I would give that dish overall a three and a half or four out of five. Pretty solid shrimp and egg. $8? Guys, shrimp is good quality. The egg is real. That's all you can ask for. This next dish here, David, I got eggplant and short rib. You guys all know short rib from Korean barbecue. It can be very expensive. Obviously, these are maybe not the same cuts of meat, but these are absolutely short ribs. Beef short rib eggplant. A little bit of that tenderized beef flavor, but still decent. David, this next dish, it caught my eye because it has luffa. Luffa is one of those dishes, kind of like cucumber slash zucchini put together. They're very popular at Chinese restaurants, but particularly high-end spots. Yeah, I haven't been eating it that often in my life, really. Look at this fish filet. This is fried sea bass. Sea bass with luffa. $8? For $8, you got sea bass with luffa. All right, last and final dish here at Green Garden Village, dried scallop with ginger scallion. This is a popular dish also at Great NY Noodle Town. You know, some people give you that for $8 without the dried scallops. Yes. Okay, so they also give you a little bit of soup on the side. I'm gonna add just a little bit to break up the noodles. Uh-huh, okay. Dried scallops and ginger scallion lo mein. Ginger scallion lo mein. Okay, okay. You need the right bite. But it might be a cleaner taste, but there's a lot, like, conventionally less flavor. My overall take on Green Garden Village, man, it's one of those spots that you gotta try, especially the lunch specials. I mean, you don't have to get the snow crab because Alaskan king crab, because they have that, but it's totally worth getting these. You'll get a good taste of the quality that they have here. It's a very clean spot. The flavors are clean. It's not too greasy. It is actually one of the newer spots in Chinatown. I believe it's only been open for, like, two years. I'm coming back and getting the snow crab. Andrew, it looks about midnight right now. It's only 4.45 p.m. But, actually, a lot of people do come to this next spot when it's dark, so it makes sense. Andrew, we are in front of North Dumpling. In Chinese, it says Beifang Guo Tie. So, basically, that just means Northern Potsticker. It's another one of your dollar dumpling spots, but it's not in the heart of Chinatown. It's definitely on the outside. We're here on Essex, which, pretty much, once you get on the other side of Essex, it's not technically Chinatown anymore. We are inside of North Dumpling. They are from Shenyang, which is actually Dongbei, which is actually also my favorite type of Chinese people. 20 bucks. All right, you guys, a hipster loved North China, North Dumpling, so much, they drew them a sick T-shirt, actually. The T-shirt is fire. It's a surfing dumpling. Yo, Andrew, we are at China North. This is $3 for 10, 33 cents a dumpling. Wow. Not bad, bro. You know why that's straight Beifang style? Straight meat. Yeah. Straight roll. Not that much veggies. You eat it with vinegar. Girls, the Dongbei lady knows what she's doing. Come on. You eat 10 of these, you'll be full. This is a shirbing. Beijing meat pie. Shirbing. Yo, this one, this one. That was actually a really nice surprise. Might be the best thing I had. I have a pork sesame zi ma da bing zhu rou. Okay, here I have the zha jiang mian. Not bad. Not bad at all. Wow, this zha jiang mian, I gotta say, is pretty different. This is non-traditional, David. This is using the kind of Yunnan rice noodles. They're a little bit more chewy and bouncy. I would recommend it, guys, if you want a noodle dish, this is probably the one to get here. And we got a tub full of kimchi in Dongbei. They do actually eat kimchi because there's so many, like, I guess like ethnic Koreans, in that part of China. Exactly, at a lot of Dongbei restaurants, even in New York or LA that you go to, they will serve you kimchi. All right, guys, here I have the most expensive item of the meal, which is $8 for this nirou mian. Let's take a look at it. Let's take a look at the beef pieces right here. And I've got a $1.50 hot and sour soup. Woo! Hot and sour soup is $1.50. You know, the hot and sour soup, it's Chinese buffet vibe, but it's good Chinese buffet vibes. Beef pieces have a lot of flavor. They're kind of firm. Overall, not bad. It kind of tastes like tasty hand-pulled noodles over on Doyer Street. The dumplings are solid here, because, you know, for the namesake, China North Dumpling. But get the two bings, the sheer bing and the zhe ma da bing. Get the two bings here. David, you look pretty cold. You look like you might need a hot drink. And it's funny enough, even though we ate our China North Dumpling food here, right next to us is actually a cafe that recently opened. Right next door to China North Dumpling, there is actually a new coffee shop called Krem, and they got a big menu. And let me tell you this, for a coffee shop, it's definitely cheap. It's definitely affordable, given the type of products and the tier of quality they're providing. It's affordable. It's well-priced. Serving La Colombe coffee. That is one of the top coffee companies in the United States. And not to mention this guy's last name is Feng. Not related. But let's go. Yeah, yeah. So we serve La Colombe coffee here. We also do soft serve as well. He's doing everything. You know, we do matcha. Yeah. You love coffee. I mean, clearly you love coffee. Definitely. You saying, as a Chinese person, you prefer coffee over boba? Definitely. Good coffee. You guys, we're at Krem here, and I'm looking at a cold brew soft serve. Of course, a matcha soft serve. A lot of people do it, but can you execute it? Guys, I have a very tasty and nice smelling matcha latte for $5.50. Here, I have this black and tan, which was even more foamy earlier, a minute ago, but that's also $5.50. Oatmeal matcha latte. Not a bad deal. You guys gotta check it out. All right, guys. Black and tan. That cold brew is nice. It's like, it's got like a smooth layer at the end, because it's real foamy. Mm. Yo, Ben. These products are quality. Like I said, the price is cheaper than a comparable product elsewhere. That's a Chinatown cheap eat. Krem. Let's go. Next up, guys, we're in front of Xi'an Famous Foods, which is probably a new entrant to Chinatown, but it's probably the most famous cheap Chinese chain in New York City, period. Oh yeah, and especially for a chain that started in Flushing, Queens. You know, it's gone crazy. They just came out with the book. There's many, many locations. They got their system down pat, and I would say it was definitely a pioneer as far as spreading the Xi'an flavor to everybody. All right, Andrew, what are we looking at? You got the top items from Xi'an Famous Foods. Like we said, it started from a very small stall in Flushing, very, very successful with non-Asian people. I think because of the Western Chinese influence, you start to see some more like Middle Eastern flavors, but they really fuse together. You can't, you'll see elements of a lot of different regions of the world, but you can't put your finger on it. All right, Andrew, this is a liangpi, a cold noodle, no meat, $7. Right, that is a very, very good snack to share. No meat if you wanna go that route. This one obviously has tons of meat. This is the spicy lamb cumin noodles. This is gonna be regular spicy, and it's $11. Ooh, look at those hand-ripped. Guys, if you know me, I like seeing the amount of pepper, the amount of red and green peppers. You see the nice pieces of lamb here. This is a good dish. All right, Andrew, for $10, you're looking at a sour lamb dumpling. For $9, I'm looking at a pure vegetarian spinach dumpling. That's a brolic dumpling, bro. That's a lot of meat, and that's a lot of spice. The road job more. Very stewy. As you can see, the felt is sort of congealing just with the meat, almost creating a new third substance. It's not the style that I'm used to, but totally enjoyable, totally valid, especially in the winter. I think Xi'an food is particularly good in the winter. Very bready, very carby, very warm. Those are all the things you need to fit the geography, fit the climate, fit the times. All right, you guys, one of the heavily requested additions to Chinatown Cheap Eats we've been receiving, Andrew, is a bakery crawl. Okay, guys. But you guys gotta understand, there's about maybe like 45 bakeries in Chinatown. There's a ton of bakeries, so we're not gonna be able to spend that much time in them. We're gonna run in a bunch of them, show you what we got, and let you know how they are. It's a montage. Let's do it. I think that was the best thing we had. That was underrated. I'm surprised. It's a very low-key bakery. You know, it doesn't have all the little decor and vibe, but it's got this one, the green tea roll. Yo, you guys, after trying all the flavors at Kam Hing, I give the butterscotch and the green tea both a five out of five. I'm gonna go ahead and stick with the original. Fernando, you got yourself a great product, man. Wish you the best. Are we at Boiling Crab right now? That is super sweet, garlicky, buttery. I would say it's a little too sweet for me personally, but still very good. If you want a brand new experience to shock yourself, get the Thousand-Year-Old Egg Pastry, though. One of my favorite things about doing this Chinatown Cheap Eats series, Andrew, is sort of having a reason to go to new spots. Like, for example, this is Sugartown, NYC. It's brand new. I think it opened during the pandemic, maybe like one or two months ago. Sugar, I'm slightly out of the age range to be getting super excited over candy spots. Yeah, especially a spot called Sugartown. I'm not gonna lie. We did ride past this spot, but there was no inkling to be like, yo, we should go to Sugartown, unless we're filming. Yeah, yeah. And we have to show you what it is. We have to show you guys what it is, and we have to show you what they have. Under $10, Chinatown Cheap Eats, we do the work, so you don't have to. Sugartown! Yam slices. Oh, these are addicting. Tastes crazy. These are addicting. All right, guys, this is Salted Lychee. No, I'm not gonna lie. This tastes like an azuki bao. I'm messing with this one. Yeah? I taste the red bean in this, but I definitely like the Salted Lychee one better. The Salted Lychee is a banger. Salted yolk. Egg yolk. What? Yo, they got the snacks here at Flavortown, bro. I don't know, guys. This one's pretty solid. I think this is the winner, guys. You know, I don't even love Salted Egg Yolk that much. It's not my favorite flavor, but this one's good. You guys, for $3.80, this is the winner. Taking price into consideration, it's a 10 out of 10. Come to Flavortown. Come get some. Watch this. Legal. Whole heck. Whole, whole heck. Yeah, I got no choice on. Chinatown Cheap Eats, Andrew, is not only about storefronts, brick and mortar restaurants, it's also about supermarkets. This is probably the least well-known Asian supermarket in Manhattan. Exactly. Especially in Chinatown, people think of Chinese markets, but this one's actually a Thai market. So, I mean, shout out to the, I think this is the only non-Chinese market in Chinatown. Yeah, and maybe the owner is probably a Chinese Thai person, and that's the connection to Chinatown. Like we said, Chinatowns are sort of this meeting place for many people from the Chinese diaspora, whether they're from Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Singapore, or Thailand, or Cambodia. Guys, Bangkok Center Grocery Store. Let's go. Okay, so they have a lot of dried fish snacks. Choose from, guys. Crispy gourami fish. Yo, a lot of people know Manu Ginobili for the Eurostep, but what about Eurocake? Oh! Pandan. Yeah? 40 years. Yo, you guys, the Bangkok market in Chinatown has been open for over 40 years. You guys gotta check it out. I know it's not Chinese. You know, we're all related in the Asian world. All right, we're here on Elizabeth Street in front of Deluxe Food Market. This spot is a really deep cut and very local spot, even though it's kind of in the touristy zone, right below Grand Street. This food market is like, I wanna say it's also like a half grocery store, but half food market. You're selling boar's head. You can get your cold cuts by the pound. You can also get your sume, your roast meats, your chicken, and then you can also get like straight up meals there, lunch meals for like under $7. So everything can range. Like you can buy it for your business, your little shop, you can buy it for a party, and then you can also just buy individual amounts. So this is the Deluxe Food Market, 79 Elizabeth. Man, let's just go in real quick. I just wanna show you. Okay, so this is one of the only spots you can buy the ginger scallion in the tub. This is about $2.50 worth. Obviously, you can buy that for your home, use it for your party. They got all different types of roast meats here. A lot of this roast pork here is really fair price. Now, is it the best roast pork you can get in Chinatown? Maybe not, but if you're buying a lot or you're on a budget, this is the spot. And then all the way down behind me, you have the rest of the market. That's literally like a grocery store. So when you said Deluxe Food Market, you know what the word deluxe means. It means everything. Andrew, it's 2020. A lot of people are accustomed to Taiwanese or Asian just fried food spots in general, but we had to take it into the modern times by making it air fried. Bro, I'm telling you, everything is air. Everything is wireless. There's Bluetooth and there's air frying. The fry all behind us, which is a air frying specialist, only opened up in the past month or so. So we gotta check it out. You've seen these spots at the mall for a long time, right? Like the air frying potato chips and fries and the little shaking of the can and the seasoning, but to see it in Chinatown, that's different. When I walked by, I thought it was a regular fried spot. I wasn't as excited. Now that I know that it's air fried, let's give it a shot. You're saying everything's air fried, right? No, it's actually deep fried. Oh, it's not air fried. Is it pressure fried? Would you say that? No, it's a deep fryer. It's just a deep fryer. But you guys, we're here at the main event, which is fry all. This is a cheddar waffle fry right here. Guys, here. Sour cream curly fry. Try some of this. Try it again. Parmesan. Garlic parm is good. Their frying technology is completely different. I believe it's almost like a mixture, Andrew, between a deep fat fryer and a pressure fryer. Last but not least, Andrew, I've got, you know, chicken tenders, chicken poppers. You've got chicken nuggets, chicken wings. I've got to say, I did not know what to expect. The fried goods here at Fry All are very good. All right, I'm outside of Gong Cha, of course, one of the main brands of boba shops in Chinatown. Guys, they got some new drinks here. Let's check them out. They have a creme brulee strawberry latte. They got a oat milk tea. I'm definitely gonna get that. And I'll probably get one more. Let's go. All right, we secured the Gong Cha across the street. Taiwanese brand, bought it by Koreans, I believe, in 2020. Really interesting. I got oatmeal inside of a regular boba, right? Yep, milk tea, oatmeal. And then this is a lemon winter melon with star jelly in here. It's peach flavored, but cut into star shape. I like it with the oatmeal. I like bobas with oatmeal. And then winter melon is good. Oh my gosh. It kind of tricks you. Andrew, think about it. You put sweet milk with your oatmeal anyway. You know what? Let me say this. I was about to get oatmeal this morning. I wasn't able to secure it at the cafe near our apartment. I would say that this oatmeal boba is one of the coolest inventions I've seen in bobas in like five years. I like the oatmeal. It gives you that texture like you're eating some jelly or something else, but it's good for you. We have the strawberry matcha latte. This is a popular drink overall to have at your boba spot. Gong Cha got it. It's not bad. Aren't you guys, directly behind me is the Wang Lao Ji boba shop. Now this is not a pop-up. This is a permanent thing. Yes, Wang Lao Ji, that red cup you drink during a hot pot at like mainland Chinese spots, they actually opened up a fusion hybrid boba project. We gotta check it out. Aren't you guys, we're looking at our two drinks here at the Wang Lao Ji boba shop. Okay, that one, you taste the herbalness, but I feel like the tea kind of overpowers it. Feels like a little bit of a toned down version of the Pea Pod Gao boba I had in Singapore. That one was really good though. This is the chrysanthemum monk fruit. Monk fruit, if you guys know, this is the new sweetener. Bygone days, saccharin, all that other stuff, sweet and low, that's out. We are on a monk fruit, different ways to flavor things without sugar. Very healthy tasting. Not bad at all. I give it a 3.5 out of five. I give this about a three out of five. But as far as the actual Wang Lao Ji goes, they gave me a little gift basket right here. I gotta give that a 4.5 out of five. I love to see people experimenting, doing new things, trying to bring their product from 100 years ago into 2020. Like I said, you know what? I would say if you are a boba fanatic, you owe it to yourself to come to the Wang Lao Ji boba shop. Do I think you'll come here every day and maybe pass up your favorite spot? I don't know. Probably not. But it deserves a shot. We're in a very local part of Chinatown where there's very, very, very, very few tourists. Vivi Bubble Tea, Andrew, is sort of like a classic of Chinatown. Almost like the epitome of like, I don't even know how to describe it. It's just like, big shout outs to them for making it beyond the borders of the enclave. Vivi. All right guys, I have this pepper salt popcorn chicken. Of course, you know Taiwan is famous for it. Now Vivi has some new flavors. So I gotta try this one. This is the most popular, pepper salt. Shout out to the dark meat here at the Popcorn Chicken Man. Pepper salt, pretty good overall. I like these parts right here that have no crust. And then there's half crust here. So this is my favorite bite at here. Flaming brown sugar milk. She torches the sugar on top. Let's try it. I like that. Milk they use is very high quality. I feel like it was whole milk. It's not too sweet. That's why I appreciate. All right guys, here I have the fresh matcha milk tea with egg pudding. I do not get boba in this one. I personally don't think boba and matcha go together. So I never do it. But egg pudding goes really well with matcha. Complements it. I like this one the most. This is a really good matcha. You taste a little bit of that bitterness, a little bit of the graininess from the matcha, but that's how you know it's real. Mixed in with the good milk tea, man. All right, this is my favorite drink. I would say this is a must cop at Vivi Bubble Tea. If you were talking about a Chinatown cheap eat, this is about as cheap as it gets while still maintaining the quality. Look at these greens, not overly oily. And I think a good sign is that Carol was there. I'm just gonna use a fork right now. Crispy chicken? Oh. Oh, the pork chop. It's the pork chop. Pork chop is the truth? All right. Pork chop here at Carol's Buns. Whoa. Super juiced. Do you like Carol's Buns? Do you come here a lot? Okay, can you say bye? Bye. Me is actually the reason why we are here at Carol's Buns. We saw her the other day and she was like, yo, you guys gotta throw that in your video. And we're here. All right. Thank you, Tiffany. It's legit. Of course, if it's salmon, I have to try it. Soft-shell crab, guys. $7. No, David, that soft-shell crab could have been in a spider roll. That is the most affordable soft-shell crab in New York City. More than likely. You made me bet my money. All right, last thing we have to try. David, you gotta try the tomato egg and I gotta try this crispy chicken. You have to get the Thai sweet chili crispy chicken. That's a must get. And the soft-shell crab and the pork chop. David, tomato egg is valid? It's valid, but I would say the chicken here is incredible. The chicken and I heard the curry brisket. You guys, the cheapest of cheap Chinatown eats and the most hidden of hidden gems, Carol's Buns. He's Broadway. All right, oftentimes, I think a lot of people talk about Chinatown expanding or taking parts over Little Italy, but Chipillo is an Italian sandwich spot that's right in Chinatown. So it can work the reverse way too. I'm pretty excited. They got half sandwiches for $8, full sandwiches for like 11, $12. I'm gonna be getting some halves because we gotta keep it under $10, but I'm excited to check it out. This spot is pretty new. All right, you guys, we are looking at the sandwich here from Chipillo's. Like I said, you know, a little bit pricey, a half a sandwich, this was about $10. Like we said, still underneath and I gotta show love to any spot in Chinatown. You know, it doesn't have to be a Chinese business. We got Little Italy right here. I really like it. Even the cheap Italian food in Chinatown is good. It's good. Aren't you guys, that does it for episode six of our Cheap Chinatown Eats series. Oh my goodness. I think collectively over six episodes, we might've been to a hundred spots. Wow, and I'm not gonna lie. We learned a lot about Chinatown. David, aside from trying so many restaurants and we actually didn't even cover all the restaurants in Chinatown. There's so many more, but David, what was like a major takeaway that you had? My major takeaway was that there is stories behind everything. You just gotta look and you could really take something away from just going into that store that you pass by all the time and you have that little urge to go into, but you never do. Just go ahead, go spend a little bit of money. Listen guys, we're not saying you gotta be like us and drop like 20, 30, $40 a spot. You know, $5 is definitely enough to get that experience. I think there's such a big difference between walking past a spot and just being like, oh, this is where I get my cheap, you know, rice bowl, versus you talking to them and understanding where they come from and them reminding you of somebody that you might've known in your family or your relatives or somebody from your childhood. And you're just like, wow, like now I connect with this spot so much more and I appreciate it a lot more. Listen, I'm not saying like every spot we went to was the most delicious food I've ever had, guys. That's a little bit unrealistic, to be honest, at the price that we're getting it. But every spot had a story and every spot brought the value and I stand by that. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching. A car's coming down the street. Please let us know in the comment section below if we left anything out. Man, this has been such a rewarding series. This has been a very rewarding series to film. I don't know if this is the last episode we're gonna do, but if you guys wanna see more, let us know in the comments down below and hit that like button and let us know with your appreciation and we might pull off an episode seven. And let us know what other spots we need to go to because we get into the deep, deep, deep cuts. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching. Again, that was Cheap China T1D Eats part six. Until next time, we out. Peace.