BEST CHINATOWN Cheap Eats Deals Pt.16 (New York City)

Cantonese food is still very much around and there are new spots popping up and they are busy. Oh My gosh, that is deeply freshly fried Good This episode of Chinatown cheap eats 16 is a little different than the rest All of these spots are new and open within the past year. Now. Are they still cheap? Are they still good? Can they compete with the og spots? Maybe they offer something different hit that like button and find out All right, you guys leading off this episode of Chinatown cheap eats. We are in front of Hakka cuisine Now I'm telling you this might very well be one of the best new southern Chinese restaurants in all of America guys The chef is Hakka. They are serving up some of the best Hakka dishes I know a lot of people out there probably haven't had a lot of Hakka food or maybe you haven't even heard of Hakka people But if you have it, hopefully you're gonna learn about the food and culture right now. It is delicious It is affordable and it's brand new and it's right in the heart of Chinatown All right, everybody starting off round one here at Hakka cuisine We have some very uniquely Hakka dishes here And I know that real quick the restaurant looks very fancy But I think you can get some really good lunch special deals right here. You can eat for lunch for $11 This is a lunch portion right here. That's the cheap Chinatown cheap eats part We got our first dish here, which is actually the stuffed tofu Hakka style Lydia is off the camera She's going to say the name in Cantonese Mandarin and Hakka Yo, the Hakka sounds different man, aren't you guys this is the Hakka stuffed tofu Like we said this dish I never ate this growing up Andrew because we are not Hakka a lot of times I actually am NOT that big of a fan of meat stuffed tofu But I'm telling you it absolutely works in the Hakka stuffed tofu man. I'm moving on to the mucho. I call yo This is a actually braised pork belly And if you know guys about Hakka cuisine there are very nomadic people and they braise and they stew a lot of stuff and they use a lot of preserved veggies and a Lot of salty things. I would say that this is a Cantonese classic, but I guess man, maybe Hakka people started it Yeah, no a Lot of things that we eat as Cantonese people and we don't even know the original origin You know, they could be chilled out or they could be Hakka just like the mucho. I call yo This is a the yim shui gai, which is a salt water chicken Hmm, honestly, it does remind you obviously and over the years It's been blended a lot with Cantonese food, but I'm telling you Hakka food has its own unique flavor profile Moving on. All right, Lydia. We got the fried eggplant, but how do you say it in Cantonese Mandarin and Hakka? Jiao yang ketsu And guys as an appetizer, this is only $9.95. That's a super good deal Yo, I've never actually had zhiyun ketsu before this is my very first time having salt and pepper fried Eggplant like it was squid. Oh, you know what? One of my favorite dim sum dishes is of all time though it's the fried eggplant with the Shrimp paste inside. So I don't know if the fried eggplant influence came from Hakka people I'm ready to put my house in a circle sesame chicken See, I'm not even good at identifying American Chinese dishes. Obviously, you've got the mapo tofu, too. Mm-hmm That's sesame chicken. It's delicious But I would say this mapo tofu based on what I know about Hakka food how they use so much preserved vegetables I would say the mapo definitely has more preserved veggies in this so maybe it's got the little Hakka twist on it and Just a reminder for $10.95 for a lunch special you can get the mucho a cow yoke You can get rice and a soup all together for like 11 bucks. That's a Chinatown cheapie, dude. This is pork Sweet and sour pork balls on ice with fruit. This is like something I never imagined I would eat before this might be the root dish Andrew of sweet and sour pork and all the takeout spots Oh my gosh, and how come people they do like fruity meats like because in Taiwan Andrew one time I went to a Hakka restaurant. There was all like fruit and meats together. Oh my god, I Totally forgot about that Ten years ago. We ate a bunch of meat and fruit. That was crazy in time Yeah, because there's a lot of Hakka people in Taiwan Hakka people are one of those groups of people from like Guangdong that really went everywhere. Their diaspora is crazy They went to Jamaica. They went to South America India. They went to India, right? Hakka Chinese food is really trendy right now. Man moving on Andrew. Um to the fried pork belly Lydia. What is this called? All right, not too long, um Andrew I believe the Taiwanese Hakkas would make this version a little bit more red So there is even variation like we said Hakka cuisine in Chinatown Andrew more of a Kanto Hakka vibe Deep fried pork belly haven't had this one before Bro, I'm getting them like some sweet apple fritter vibes guys I do like the red yeast versions that are Hokkien mixed with Hakka But being Kanto, I gotta say I might prefer the Kanto Hakka versions. Oh, man All right, you guys we've got the minced beef with a fried Maifun cake salted egg yolk pumpkin slice bits have been fried I would say Andrew every time I've been to Hakka cuisine. I gotta get this. I don't care where I am I'm getting this on the menu. All right, you eat that and in the spirit of New York City, I'm gonna take these slices That's a crispy pie I'm telling you You have no idea how many egg yolks you have to make to take make pumpkin taste that eggy Like how many you have to break down into it is crazy scale of 1 to 5. How eggy is that fine? Yo, man, I think this dish is really interesting because I've had minced beef soup before but being able to put it on kind of a Crispy noodle slice is actually totally different. It changes the texture. I love grilled noodles I love how it's a little bit burnt too. This is a really cool dish. I recommend you try this out Are you saying this is a different type of Hakka New York slice? You're saying a traditional, New York slice We know a little Italy boat. Oh, yeah, let's take a look. It's not a cheese stretch. It's a noodle stretch Good. All right, it's a grilled noodles more Here we have an award-winning dish from their chef roasted chicken skin with taro shrimp paste in the middle So they replace the chicken meat bro guys. Listen from here. You can't tell you think it's gonna be chicken meat You lift it up and there's just shrimp and taro. So let's go for it guys. Bye. Fuck. I Mmm never in my life That's good. And our last dish is gonna be the sticky rice Stuffed chicken wings Lydia in Chinese though. What do we call this? law, my Guy They Nodded their heads. I gotta you know What's really interesting is that most people probably associate stuffed chicken wings with something from Thailand or Laos? But here we are getting it at a Hakka cuisine. Who knows what if they'd all came from the same root influence Wow, that is like a mini Chinese American Thanksgiving turkey dinner because oftentimes they'll stuff the turkey in a Chinese American family with law my guy And this was like a law. My guy stuffed wing. Mmm Delicious. There's like a mini ABC Thanksgiving in one bite Bang all right everybody and then we got to end off with some Cantonese classics, but done in their own Hakka cuisine style What do we have here? Boys seen tell me this is a seafood tell me and of course you guys know This is a crispy style roasted on the bottom and then we have fried rice here This is the golden fried rice. Now. What makes it unique? Is it these like golden pieces of egg? Going in for a bite Mmm Just just take a look at a spoonful guys When you got that many layers and little details in it, that's when you know the fire I like omakase as much as the next person but take some of your oka omakase money and come on down to Hakka cuisine Whoa? Guys shout out to Hakka cuisine. I mean they are serving up some exclusively uniquely Hakka dishes But along with that, they're they're pumping up the classics guys. And honestly, it's super affordable. The lunch menu looks great I'm gonna come here for lunch only $11. You can't beat it Chinatown cheap eats shout out to Hakka cuisine All right. Our next spot on Chinatown cheap eats is guy kitchen in the Mott Street eatery. It's a new stall They are bringing authentic Thai style cow moon guy, you know, Hainan chicken rice or chicken rice, whatever you want to call it They're bringing the authentic version to Mott Street eatery to Chinatown. They got fried Thai eggs, that's very popular and then they have different types of wings and stuff So it's all really cheap guys nine bucks can get you a large. Let's check it out guys Here we have the authentic Thai steamed chicken rice now Obviously a lot of different countries from Vietnam to Singapore to China They all do their own version, but everybody does a little bit differently Obviously the steam one the classic is called cow moon guy The roasted one is called guy up and then the chicken wings are called guy Todd and then they have the deep fried eggs Right here. I'm gonna show you. Oh my gosh, that is deeply freshly fried at nine bucks for a large Protein and carb this has got to be one of the best deals in Chinatown right now I'm afraid I don't know if they have to raise their prices eventually That's pretty juicy and the rice is even a little sticky I know a lot of people have had the steam version But this is the roasted Thai chicken that guy up and I know that this is very very popular in Malaysia Man, I just like the brown skin. It's roasted nicely. This is a nice piece of dark meat right here The sauce is a little bit different. It's not the ginger sauce. It's a little bit more of the pungent fish sauce dip Here we have the wings $10 for five of them. I got them with a little bit of spice on it These are called guy Todd not gonna lie It's probably my favorite stall here at Mott Street eatery ending off. I got the drinks Usually they have mango sticky rice as a dessert, but they ran out today. I'm gonna try the chicken broth real quick I have a pink drink and I have a fresh Thai iced tea Dude, honestly guy chicken is the perfect lunch food when you're talking about chicken. You have your protein you have your rice It's fairly light fairly healthy and fairly cheap guys It's really hard to beat and I just love to see these concepts come more into Chinatown I know that there's other spots in Chinatown that serve chicken rice, but as a spot that just specializes in it I like to see it Guys, I mean the truth is I think a lot of Chinatowns are turning a little bit more pan-asian But it doesn't mean that even the people are not Chinese to be honest because there is so many Thai Chinese people And I believe the people back here, even though they're from Bangkok. They're probably you know, have a lot of Chinese lineage So I think it's just really cool to be opening up new concepts in Chinatown They are very cheap. And at the end of the day it is all part of the Chinese diaspora in a way Dude, this is the most busy stall here. I'm telling you come to guy kitchen Inside a noodle the new location here on Jefferson Street. We're here with Kenny Who are running this spot? Yo Kenny? What what do you guys how would you describe the food at e-noodle because it's a little bit different than other canto spot You're generalizing, you know, Hong Kong cuisine is what we specialize in soup dumplings dumplings this is just not just a Business, it's culture, you know It's a family business all and you know, just trying to make a good home cook style food generalize generally for the communities Yeah, trying to make like kind of this high-end expensive seafood accessible to more people Especially abalone because we all know abalone is like a little abalone can cost a lot in three days for the Buddha jumps over the wall Dish I'm not waiting three days for it all right, but you need three days and Also the fish more so now we try to make this a more popular dish that you can order right now So I like the concept. I like it. You make it something that was premium more accessible. All right here We have some of e-noodle signature dishes. What are we looking at? Right, this is called boats. I found right and you said specifically a lot made boats. I found What is this? Yeah, it's a fat ma rice roll in Chinese to be famous. How turn one and then this is course a classical one Tell me right one time noodle soup. I mean it is called e-noodle. So I'm sure the noodles gotta be good. Yes In Hong Kong, there was a lot of Shanghainese food because a lot of people from Shanghai went to Hong Kong too. So oh That's a good one, this one looks super high-quality this looks a lot like a didn't I phone the shallow Wow versus a Joe shall on bow Good All right, so starting off with the boats I found it has like three or four different types of preserved meats I'm gonna put on the sweet soy sauce. This is only $14 for a boats. I found look at how big this is Mmm, I might get this little piece. I came with a dark soy sauce Wow All right, next up we've got the outline right here, of course this tendon piece is the old gun and Yeah, it's just really really important man. Because if you get a bad piece of our mom, you're gonna be chewing on it like two weeks That's good So this right? Oh my goodness Andrew. That is a big piece of cotton Cotton low-key a lot of people don't know this radish this small pop This adds a lot like it's kind of a sleeper root, you know Because a lot of people would not put this root very high on the hierarchy, right? But it's up there because a lot of people think it doesn't have that much flavor, but think of like no Baco Which is that dim sum dish? It's made out of the same thing radish cake mmm One of my favorite dishes here is the FEMA churn fun. This is not just any other churn fun It's like fatty beef stir-fried in with rice rolls No, this is almost like the chopped cheese of rice rolls What you guys do that's different because a lot of people don't have this dish, right? As you can see the rice rolls are kind of fried on one side right there. It's a little crispy Mmm, what I love about this one ton is like the ends of the skin is still very silky And then the inside is gonna be still a little bit firm though. It all holds together Mmm It's one time mean It's comfort food right here. We got a noodle uncle here. All right, you don't even know what we're about to look Tell us what we're looking at. Whoa That is a very traditional Chinese food that is a Sea cucumber the dry sea cucumber and the fish ball. Wow So it is a fish ball. Yeah, this is probably something that mostly only Chinese people will order, right? Yeah, specifically Cantonese people may all right now. I tried to make it more popular. Hey, you know right here Wow, I'm going in on the power you That's the cheapest Ceremonial banquet dish you can get that's still good. All right last but not least Kenny We have another one of your guys's signature dishes. What do you call it? Three meats with pearl noodles in Chinese would be salty until fun Yeah, and what I like about this these pin noodles is very unique. Um, I think they're also called what they're called pearl and pin noodles Yes, I'm very well infant noodles to stir fried. It's delicious Mmm, I know dad is a fan of cooking the unsung fun. I remember every Sunday morning I like this because it has some bell peppers in there and it has a lot of Green onions and there's this kind of a freshness that also comes along with it So definitely guys look at the color of this dish. You gotta try it Overall, I love you noodles new Jefferson location, man It is the definition of a Chinatown cheap eat every dish here ranges from like a 10 to 16 dollars Minus the seafood one, of course, but honestly everything is super affordable It's great for sharing lots of good flavor and you will have some dishes that uh, you probably haven't seen others Oh, I do know what I love about it is bringing the accessibility to dishes that you would really need to be at like a higher End spot down to you know, they get it accessible for everybody and affordable for it. It doesn't matter who you are All right, our next spot on cheap Chinatown eats is the brand new bow tea house This is their second location in the city. It is something the neighborhood has never seen and yes They designed this place to almost maybe feel like Japan All right, what's cool is they have a whole lot of unique bowels and actually warm them up for you Okay, you have everything from the savory to the sweet the guava house the rice bowels and then also upstairs They have a whole area where you and your friends can go sit down on the short stools hang out and just it looks cool Alright, we're about to try all the bowels here about tea house They're about 425 each if you get to you can save a little bit of money there Oh, man, this really just feels like a kino kuniya, you know, which is like a Japanese bookstore or like, you know A momofuku. This is the chocolate bow Wow matcha bow Oh That's the veggie one. Actually. It looked like much on the outside. Oh Beautiful bowels All right. This is the Valentine's one Rose custard in the middle. Oh my gosh. Oh Rose flavor to the max You know when it comes to formats that are universal to people it's kind of like the dumpling the sandwich the bow These are just things that people just like to eat So it's really cool that bow tea house was able to do so well with their first location that they've really expanded All right. Oh, that was the egg one. I was looking for this one Whoa? See what this one is. Oh That's the chicken bow. Oh Spicy These meat ones are really cool because they remind me of empanadas except they're a lot softer and they have that little sugar topping This is a egg custard bow All right, finishing off for two onigiris. You can get it for $8 and then for two pork belly bows that are freshly made They're about 850. Let me test these out Mmm, these are small but they taste really good. All right here. We got the chicken curry on a Geary. Oh Very soft. Oh my gosh. It's almost falling apart What's cool about bow tea house is that you can just get a snack and only spend maybe four or five $8 or you can go all out get a drink a couple snacks share it amongst friends and then just have a good time Of course starry night with the pea flower Refreshing and fun. Hey, it is Instagram worthy next up on cheap Chinatown eats This is not the cheapest though, but we are here at Michael matcha, which is connected to the new cura ramen Which is on Bowery? Okay So it looks really cool in that cura ramen guys the the seating and like stacks on top of each other in these hexagonal shapes Anyways, we're talking about matcha. So this matcha with the gold flake was $14 after-tax you can get it with a swirl. So it's half hojicha half matcha But anyways, it's premium. Okay Mmm, this is part of the wave of Japanese companies Getting bought out or for whatever reason being franchised and now opening up in Manhattan. This is actually really good It's pure matcha. Very soft and It's really interesting on this corner of Bowery. It's kind of becoming this little mini Miniature like Japanese concept town, but basically a lot of these Japanese concepts whether it's Prince tea house Which is based off of like Japanese French or British tea houses and then cura ramen, which I believe it started from the chain Taiwan But is a Japanese restaurant and then you have That's owned by Chinese over here So it's like all Chinese owned Japanese concepts here on Bowery Street and they're kind of big kind of nice kind of new Check them out Who would have known that the meal that the railroad workers in Taipei were eaten 70 years ago would still hold up to this day Here I got some chilled doujiang aka soy milk Wow, it's on the hot hood. You think about the tres leches cake? All right, our next spot on cheap Chinatown eats is actually in little Italy But we're here at cappy cappy and don't cap here. No capping. No capping This is the best tres leches because it is a Mexican chain from Mexico guys. Oh Tell us about it. We have ice cream here. We have the strawberry passion fruit. Okay, pistachio cookies and coffee vanilla Chocolate and butter pecan. All right. So what about the tres leches? What is so good about the Mexican tres leches? I can't it's down all the other Spanish. It's different because the male is Concentrating the bread and the Dominican is the male is in the bottle. Oh So the Mexican style of tres leches cake the milk goes into the cake Yes, trying Mexican tres leches in Chinatown in this might be the best tres leches I ever have in my life This is the mixed fruit one. Oh my gosh, it's super juicy and moist Whoa, that is the perfect blend It tastes like one of those Cantonese fruit wedding cakes with the light cream and the fruit in the middle except fused with the tres leches That's a beautiful fusion here in Chinatown Here I have the cappuccino one Let's see if I feel the caffeine kick $7 a slice It's not the cheapest thing you can buy in Chinatown, but share this between two people and you're good to go man Hey, you weren't capping. This is the best very good boy be in Aren't you guys next up on Chinatown cheap eats? We got a stall from Mott Street eatery by way of Taiwan A lot of people consider these the best dumplings in New York City. Let's see if it's true Tell us about Semi Wago, man. Are these the best dumplings in New York City? What is so good about this jowls a machine I seen it before All right, you guys so they got a few dishes that they do not have at the other Sammy Wago This is a Soup, this is they said this is a traditional lamb bone soup. Very popular in mainland China over. Here is the neutral man and Yeah, this is supposed to be Taiwanese style. But if you know about Taiwanese style even in Taiwan They got a bunch of different versions of it But I think the thing that typifies it is definitely this noodle thickness and the presence of the preserved green veggies Upon trying this neuro man. I got to tell you it is Herbaceous AF and that is very authentic. Listen, I'm telling you this is for like Chinese people, okay, it's very herby, but it's very good. The shank is good. The broth is good But yes, very herby. Honestly, you really feel the sheen and quite love vibes in here. This is a shrimp court Yeah, this is a chicken court. Yeah chicken is more a little bit more modern You know, a lot of people cannot eat pork. And of course you got pork and shrimp. This is the number one This is the signature here at Sammy Wago. This is actually a pidan tofu. Pidan is this century egg This tofu is you know right here All right, you guys Sammy Wago was rated the number one dumpling spot in New York City So we got to see cuz sometimes the media tells lies, but sometimes it tells the truth All right, you guys let me know in the comment section below What do you guys think of chicken meat inside of the court? Yes, traditionally, it's always been pork for centuries. But sometimes you got to get get get on with the more modern proteins guys Know the chicken one The chicken one is a five out of five Listen guys, all of these were eight bucks except the shrimp in the pork, which is ten bucks This is the one I'm about to try right now Guys, I don't know if it's the absolute best but it might be come to Sammy Wagos. Check it out They don't just have four tears and dumplings here guys They've got the sweet potato Joe or choke or congee whatever you want to call it in whatever language Of course, you've got the peanuts with the sardines or anchovies with this cucumber with the new rope in which is just like a beef Shank is very like tendinny It's a hard-working Chinese man Next up on our newest addition to Chinatown cheap eats. We've got tipsy Shanghai They got other locations around Manhattan. This is probably one of the most authentic Shanghainese restaurants. You can get the whole city We're gonna get chow mein baos shun jian baos and spring rolls you guys we are looking at shun jian bao for $8 Shaolin bowels for $7 and spring rolls for $7, man I think first of all, this is something a lot of people in New York City don't really know about the shun jian bao Here we go. Oh My goodness, that's like a gigantic Shaolin bow. You know, there's a lot of different styles of this bow around China Some people do the crispy skin that's like tough and then some people do the Mantou skin listen guys. There are a lot of good Shaolin bowels around the city This happens to be the one that reminds me the most of the street side stalls in Shanghai. Oh my goodness. Look at that drip Next up. You've got the chun jian. This is $6 here This spot is brand new to Chinatown. It's very authentic They're playing the Shanghai Jiangsu Zhejiang region Watertown music in the background check it out compare it versus the New York style You still might like Joe's you still might like four nine eight or whatever, but it's worth a shot Guys welcome to East season Basically, it's a brand new build out. It's owned by Cantonese now It took over food station that was on Canal Street guys food station is a super like hole in the wall You probably didn't go there. But anyways, here's what they're serving now. They got a lot of nice roast meat su may This is a samping fond aka three treasure rice only $11 very hefty got veggies. I like the veggies here, man It's not that chopped cabbage. It's the it's the real guy line and then you have your meats. Let's take a look at it I like how it's a this darker reddish maroon color and not just the bright red Color seasoning, you know that chashu often has mmm Just as I expected that chashu was delicious here. I have the Siu ah duck. It looks a little bit trim a little bit lean. We'll see Mmm, okay Ducks not bad. Not the best that I've had though. Let's try the four yoke aka the su yoke. Oh Okay, a lot of meat a little bit of skin Mmm you this I think covering Chinatown and all the new spots that always popped up I think there was a sense that people were getting that Cantonese food was going away. It's actually not This is a fully Cantonese seafood restaurant. They have all the crab fried rice is everything that you want So what I'm guessing is that it's just new people I think a lot of people from maybe Guangzhou or wherever they're coming here They're opening up shops Cantonese food is still very much around and there are new spots popping up and they are busy because guess what? Actually the type of Chinese food that a lot of people in America first had is still Cantonese food So, I mean, that's why there's hence all the non-asians here. The best highlight here was definitely the chashu. It looks different than other spots Let's take a look at it here. Of course. We got our accoutrements Throwing in a little bit of basil nice little plate. I like how the jalapenos are cut very thinly, you know, not too thick I'm gonna put that in there. This oxtail pho was $15 as you can see it comes with about one two three four Five bones of oxtail. This is actually a pretty good deal. All right, I'm trying the $15 oxtail pho here at the pastor over on Baxter Street, I didn't even know that they had oxtail pho to be honest because It's it's not something that's well advertised, but let's take a look at it They give you a lot of pieces maybe like five bones for 15 Alright, what is my honest review of the $15 oxtail pho here at pho pasture the only oxtail pho in Chinatown? I would say it's definitely worth getting but it's not gonna blow you away because the oxtail is not super super tender It obviously doesn't match up with a lot of the other oxtail pho spots But shout out to them for even serving this to be honest a lot of pho spots. Don't even go for it They don't even try to attempt so I got to give pho pasture credit for trying so $15 You'll get a lot of oxtail though All right, everybody next up on Chinatown cheap eats We got one of my favorite pho spots in all of Chinatown Nam Sun here This is one of the biggest features here is that you can order brown rice noodles in your pho They actually have a different taste a different texture. They're kind of stretchy. I love them I personally pay the extra 250 for them So it does kind of boost the price of this pho, but honestly Nam Sun by the way has the best meat Okay, maybe I think the broth is one thing, but the meat is really good here And then here I have the pho bowl call You know the beef stew and with egg noodles right here take a look at this oh And then I also got the roll and this is really nice guys the bread at these spots is delicious look how soft We just dip that real quick for you guys. I'm not gonna lie I have a lot of Vietnamese friends in New York or that visit New York And they always shade Chinatown pho because they think it doesn't taste fully authentic, but I will tell you this guys It's still really good, and when we're talking about prices. We're talking about Manhattan prices here, okay? It costs $700 a month to just park your car so pho for $15 $16 even with the brown rice noodles That's still a deal Next up on cheap Chinatown eats we got Tria bakery This is a spot that I've never been to it's over here at the corner of the Confucius Plaza Chantham Square Let's check it out All right here at Tria diner we have the Tria burger this was about $10 It's on a brioche bun you can pick how you want your patty done. It's got bacon mozzarella Mushrooms onions Tria diner could be a jam over at Chantham Square Do not sleep on Tria diner