$1 vs $15 DIM SUM in NYC // LoMidHi Ep. 2 | Fung Bros

Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome to a special episode of Low Mid High. Today, we are going to be eating at three different price points, three different levels of the most beloved Asian brunch style that there is out there. I swear by now, most people have had it. I am talking about dim sum and joining me today, I got a couple of friends on my right. I got Chinatown native Chris Banks. What up, what up? Chris Banks, true Chinatown native, and I've been eating dim sum my whole f***ing life. And on my left, I got reppin' T.Toi San, Cindy. Hey guys. Grew up in New York City, so I've had level one, level two, sit down, and take out, but I'm excited today to try level three, gonna be so exciting. So just to go over it real quick, we got three different levels, the take out style dim sum, the sit down style of dim sum that most people have had, and then there's the third price point, this new fusion style of dim sum, and it's all in Manhattan's Chinatown. All right, Chris, what's the first level of dim sum? We're at Lucky King Bakery right now on Grand Street. Grab and go. I mean, it's cheap. Everyone's in a hurry. You got s*** to do. This is where you go. This is like everyday dim sum. Let's go check it out. When do you usually get the to-go style dim sum? If you just want to go home, feed your family, bring some home for your friends, you know, it's the easiest thing to do. I feel like especially in Chinatown, or like if you're just driving by, you can't find parking. Send someone in, grab all the food, it's quick. I wouldn't say that the quality would be amazing, just because they sell other things here, like bread, cake. That's what's good about the level one. Get that s*** in 30 seconds. We're at a to-go spot, but they actually have the whole spread of dim sum right here. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Oh, yeah, get it up for $1. My guy. Yo. Thank you. Shout out to Lucky King Bakery. Alright, man, we're here at Lucky King. We got the spread, we got feng cao chicken feet, we got long mai gai, we got the sticky rice, we got the ha churn, which is the shrimp rice roll, we got shumai, we got pai kwet, which is pork ribs, we got pai kwet with churn fun. This is one of my favorite dishes, actually. Cindy, you were talking about the menu and how they change it all the time because they put the little stickies on it. Yeah, so if you actually look at the menu, they just put a sticker over it. Anytime you walk into a takeout place in Chinatown and you see that, you know that. They have to raise their prices. Rent's going up, everything's going up. Totally agree with Cindy, man. As a business owner, it's rough. The rent goes up, inventory goes up. It's just changing so fast in Chinatown, where they need to survive, too. Everyone's got to eat, you know? So I grew up in the Seattle area, a little bit outside of the city, but I always went to Chinatown. But I would only eat dim sum on the weekends, like, at the dim sum spots, you know, off the cart. But I never had these to-go spots because Seattle doesn't have that much foot traffic. It's not that big of a city. SF, New York, Chinatowns might be dense enough to really sustain spots like this. A lot of people already have trouble eating chicken feet, but I'm going to try it. It's dripping. This actually looks pretty good. I thought it was good. This is the dan ji gai. Long mai gai and dan ji gai, the same thing? The difference is the filling. Look at that saucy. Everything is just packaged, and usually what they do is they just pack it up real quick. They just throw in a couple of these forks. A lot of people just eat this on the go, or they just bring it home. Alright, rating on the shumai real quick. This is the $2 shumai. I mean, I would give it a 9, because I haven't been here in 5 years, and this sh** is still the same. It's hard to keep, you know, quality of food the same. Alright, I'll give it a 5. It was like a 5. I feel like I've definitely had better shumai. It's still the same. I always thought this spot had very decent quality. I'm giving it like a 7. But you're saying this spot's been able to keep its quality, and just had to raise its price a little bit. Yeah, I mean, it's consistent. I mean, it's not the best, because, you know, look where we're sitting. You need to eat dim sum every day, Lucky King. This place is solid. Be in and out in 2 minutes. Alright, so we're going from Lucky King, which is the to-go bakery dim sum spot, that's about the $2 range, and then we're going to go up to the mid-level right now, to one of the oldest and most classic dim sum parlors in the city, Nam Wah. Let's go. Okay, we have made it outside of our level 2 Nam Wah tea parlor, Chinatown's first dim sum parlor since 1920. My grandpa used to always take me here. They kind of kept the same decor, and now it's kind of like a whole, like, cool style that they've kept. Oh yeah, this is definitely a really, really classic spot. It's super popular with tourists. Alright, let's go get some Nam Wah, and we'll see who's in there that we can talk to. I'm here with Vincent from Nam Wah. Vincent, can you give me the lowdown on Nam Wah? I mean, this is like a classic spot. This is basically a family-owned restaurant since the 20s, haven't really actually changed that much. We've kept everything kind of vintage-looking. Being in this kind of, like, environment, it already doesn't look like other dim sum restaurants, and then you guys were able to keep that, and then I feel like now it's almost become, I mean, a super diverse crowd. Alright, so we're here at Nam Wah. They've been able to deliver and expose a lot of people to dim sum that would never eat dim sum. As you can see, there's a lot of, like, Caucasian people here, all types of people. It's not to say that locals don't come here. This does kind of have that cool factor. We have some of the same dishes that we got at Lucky King, but some different ones, too. I really wanted to get this one. This one is probably not a dish that you're going to find at the to-go spots. This is a shrimp and snow pea vine dumpling. And then you have the OG egg roll. This is like a Nam Wah, I would say fusion, like, westernized dish. This is the Xin Jiakun. One of your favorite, right? Yeah, it's basically bean curd, tofu skin. That's what the wrapper is made with pork. One of my favorite is the eggplant and stuffed shrimp. And then you got the classics, the feng jiao, you got the xiu mai, you got the ha gao, you got the ha cheng, and then you have the char siu bao right here. I didn't try this at the last spot, so I'm going to throw this. Did you not want to try it at the last spot? I think I was too focused on the sticky rice. When you finish eating, you just spit out your bones. Yeah. It's like, hmm, how do I eat this properly? No, there's ways to eat it properly, I just don't think you can eat it, like, sexy. Unless you can. If you want to try, go for it. Definitely going to try that snow peas shrimp. Shout out to Wilson. Yo, I love this dish. Nam Wah's price point is around the $4.50 to $5.00 scale, which does put it at the mid-point. Obviously, there's sit-down spots that are a little bit cheaper, like a $3.50, $4.00. I mean, this is a cool experience, to be honest. I think anybody who really likes dim sum should try to come to Nam Wah. Now this is the thing, guys. This is my thing about sriracha. I love sriracha, but it's not a traditional thing. It's not a traditional hot sauce, so to be eating this with dim sum, I feel like it's a little bit, this is more new school. I agree with you, but I mean, I could put it on anything, honestly. True. How's the shumai? Moist, it's good. What are the traits of a good shumai, Cindy? Like I said, this one's just juicier because the more fat there is in there, when they steam it and you bite into it, the fat kind of pops. If I could break it in half with my chopstick, I think that's a go. I think this is influenced by Chew Chow people, actually. It's almost like a hot dog, but like an open hot dog. As you guys got older, and obviously there's more foods, how do we balance going to dim sum, but also still getting all those American meals in, you know? And nowadays, when we have our own choices, as you know, second generation, are we still going to dim sum? I mean, like our parents took us, I think we should take our parents, you know, at the moment. I feel like I used to be forced to eat dim sum with my family, but now I actually want to go. It's so good. It's like a communal thing, you know? Sharing little plates of deliciousness. Egg roll. Alright, let me try this chashu bao real quick. I'm a big fan of the baked one. And then, you know, nowadays, even at like Tim Ho Wan, they got the crystal on top. It's the custard that's baked on top. People, a lot of people grew up getting dim sum off the cart, but now a lot of spots, it's like by the order. So, what do you miss about the carts? I love the carts. There's still some spots that do it though. I like being able to. I'm very indecisive. Oh, I want that, that, that, that, that. I always love like asking, like, what do you got? What do you got? Show me what you got. And then she's like lifting it up. Hey, I got this. I got this. There's kind of like this fun, like, back and forth. And I do think it's kind of like a show, because like she's going to try to convince you, like, hey, no, this is really French. I just said, um, it's fresh. It just came out. You gotta get it. Nice. So, you know what it is with the carts? People tend to over-order because they just eat with their eyes. Half the time, you're already starving, and then the first thing you do, you just order, and then you sit down, you realize you have all this food. It's like Thanksgiving. Cindy, is that you up there? Back from the future. Definitely one of those gypsies that like drinks a potion. And you're actually like 200 years old. All right, everybody, we're wrapping up Nam Wah. This was the middle level. What was your overall takeaway from this spot? I love it. I mean, no complaints at all. I mean, I tried out some new, and I had some original. It was great. At the last place, it definitely was more mass-produced, whereas here, you can tell that it's a little bit more well-made, a little more fresh. So, I mean, you go to the everyday spot if you need it quick and cheap. Here, this is the mid-level. And then now, this is like new dim sum. It's fancy. There's definitely some stuff there that you guys have never had before. So, let's go to Rice & Gold at 50 Bowery. All right, yo, I'm here at Rice & Gold with Executive Chef Jay. Jay, give us the scoop on what Rice & Gold is doing in Chinatown. So, Rice & Gold, we're an Asian eatery. Not limited to one type of Asian cuisine. We love flavor. We love creating flavor. And we don't want to bound ourselves just to one type. I've actually had these two before. And I will tell you guys, that really does taste like food. It really tastes like food. It tastes like food. It has a really strong, like, beefy flavor. If you pick it up by the side, you might puncture it. Look at that juice. You see that? All right, who eats xiaolongbao biting the top? I break the top. You break the top? You smell it? It smells like food. That's good. So, it has like the skin of a xiaolongbao. And the flavoring, not just of a regular bowl of food, I wouldn't say. I'd say that was like extra punchy. She had that really spicy kick because it has a little chili on top. Oh, it's that chili. I was a little scared for a second. Because actually, that was the first thing I bit into. And I was like, oh no, I'm either going to choke or cry. Like, I got the spice first. And then I got the beef and the juice. And then the skin. And it all came together. That broth. So, this is a corn juice skin. The skin is really good. Good to hold everything in, right? It has just enough of that crunch, too, on the inside. We have a bacon shumai with Benton's ham on top. And I like they put the little mustard garnish. Because a lot of dim sum spots, they give you the hot mustard. With either the chashu or the shumai. Chashu was amazing. I feel like it was very New York in the way that it had the pork and mustard flavor. Because it kind of reminded me of some element. It was like a pastrami shumai. Close. That's kind of what the sense I'm getting. This is like the next level of dim sum. This is coming out of an innovative kitchen where they're trying to take authentic flavors of a lot of different cultures. And they're creating familiar dishes, but with a whole new twist. Alright, everybody. That wraps up our low-mid-high episode of Dim Sum Today. Cindy, what was your favorite stage? Definitely stage two. Just because everything was just made a little bit more fresh. It was made to order. I'm going to start with level one. I mean, it's a good grab-and-go. You would still eat at Lucky King? Of course, all the time. But number three is probably my favorite because that soup dumpling actually blew my mind. I'm just so glad that Cindy, Chris, you guys were here to talk about Chinatown. To talk about dim sum. And to show everybody out there all the different levels. I just thought it was so special that we could just do all three levels within a few blocks from each other. Alright, everybody. Thank you so much for watching that video. In the comments below, let me know which level you guys like to eat at. And which spot you would like to try. Let me know if there's any other ideas that you guys want for us to do of low, mid, high. And until next time, everybody. I'm in New York City. And we out. Peace! There's a lot of dim sum in Chinatown, man. Actually, a lot of dim sum spots scattered around, even in East Village. Pretty much. Yeah. We're in Chinatown, New York, where dim sum lives. Until next time, we out. Peace!