BEST Cheap Eats In New York's Chinatown Vol. 22

I think this is the best bun mee in Chinatown right now. So good! I love this place. Egg salad sandow. It's a good dog. That potato bun, super soft. Yo Steph, you gotta try your strawberry green tea though. What? What is this? I love noodle soups. What kind of deal is this? Seriously, $13 for an all-you-can-eat noodle? This lady is full blue! And Paris baguette is also blue. Okay, Chinatown Cheap Eats Part 22. And this series might just never end because Chinese people never end. I mean, they never stop working. That goes for me too. Anyways, if they open up shops, I'm going. So let's explore a viral Japanese pressed octopus cracker, the best wonton noodles, possibly the best bun mee in the city, and a whole new-looking Grand Street. Come join me and my intern Stephanie as we go eat through the city. Hit that like button and notification bell. Let's go. Welcome everybody to Cheap Chinatown Eats Part 22. As you know, we have eaten at pretty much every single spot in Chinatown and there's always new ones popping up. So our first spot is Senbei NYC. It's bringing a famous Tsukiji Market street food to New York City. Let's check it out. It's something that you haven't seen before. Alright everybody, I'm here with the owner, Jody, in the background. She's making our first senbei. And I'm here with my friend Taiwan Steph. Say hi. Hi. Alright, well you're going to be joining me on some of these food adventures so let's just see what's new in Chinatown. So Jody is about to pour the batter in. What is added? The seafood. So what is the press do? How does it make the seafood taste different? Well the press basically will cook the seafood really fast and then make the batter into really crispy cracker. The seafood at the end is still we're not able to change the nature so it will taste a bit chewy. Thank you. Break it. It's so fragile. So pretty. It looks like a piece of art. Or like fossils or something. It looks like too pretty to eat. You gotta get to the middle of the cake. I'm scared. I'm ruining art. Oh my gosh. Oh my god. That's delicious. Okay I gotta try the octopus. That tastes really good. I don't know if Stephanie can figure it out. It's so messy but let's get into it guys. This is a freshly pressed cracker. Oh that shrimp. I mean that's a whole shrimp that's pressed, fossilized, jerkyized. Getting the octopus. That has a lot of seafood flavor and I got it brushed with a lot of the tarty sauce. It's a little bit like a slightly spicy teriyaki. Listen this is jam packed with flavor. It is $25. So maybe it's not like quite a lunch but it's definitely a really cool snack and there is nothing like this in Chinatown. Mmm. Plus you know me, if you've seen my videos, I like to eat shrimp whole. Shell and everything. And they also actually have this jam packed seafood chowder for $10 which I actually think is a pretty good deal because this is all fresh seafood and then you can also eat it with your cracker. Ooh. Bye guys. Seafood like you've never had before. Right here in Chinatown. Senbei, New York. And of course I gotta try my senbei with my smala sauce. Just put a little bit here. Mmm. How's that kick? Just a little bit. Oh man. Potatoes, shrimp, octopus. All made in house. They also have these really good matcha lattes. This is a strawberry matcha latte. Strawberry jam is made in house with brown sugar. Everything's very high quality. This is the ube matcha latte. I'm gonna try both of them right now. Mmm. Wow. You can really taste that. This doesn't taste like anything else I've tried. Delicious. Next up on Cheap Chinatown Eats or should I say Chinatown Sleeps, it's important that I get a good night of sleep and the only way I'm getting it is because of Plank Mattress. If you like those firm mattresses in Asia, this is the brand for you. It's endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association and Plank offers an ultra firm, flippable mattress. So it's almost like you're getting a two-in-one deal. Plus I got a 30% off code for you at the end to make this a cheap sleep. When I search for a new mattress, I need something firm, supportive, and cool. I like it cold and firm, just like my handshakes and my tofu. Growing up, I used to like the soft stuff you'd stink into, but not anymore. And so based on my preferences, I got the Plank Luxe Firm in queen size with Glaciotex. I mean, I've had my Plank Mattress for about a week now and I love it. What I love most, it's supportive but also has a layer of cushion so I fall asleep right away. Also, the Glaciotex takes my excess heat away and so like you know, it's especially helpful, especially if you've got a partner in the bed as well, because I really just want my blankets to keep me warm and not my mattress. So with your Plank Mattress, you actually get a 120 night sleep trial along with a, get this, limited lifetime warranty. Come on, lifetime? That's longer than I've even lived. That might be too long. Plus, PlankMattress.com delivers your mattress straight to your door for free within the United States and, by the way, it is super easy to set up. As you saw, I set it up by myself without even breaking a sweat. So, I love my Plank Mattress and I think you would too. If you're looking for a new bed, check out PlankMattress.com and you can click on the link below and get a 30% off discount for your order using the code FUNGBROS. F-U-N-G-B-R-O-S and you get 30% off. Remember, Plank Mattress, it's flippable. There's two different sides. One is firm, one is extra firm and by using my code, you can get 30% off so it is a perfect opportunity to get a new mattress right now. I just want to fall asleep right now just doing this video. Back to the video. Alright, next up, we got Bun Mee Ko Oot, their second location. Now, this group has been making their name in Chinatown. They started on Elizabeth Street as a stall like this and then they started the sit-down restaurant over there called Kitchen Ko Oot and now on Eldridge and Grand Street, they have a brand new Bun Mee stall and I gotta check it out. Gotta see the quality. Is it the same? What are the prices? Let's go. Alright, so one thing that's really cool about this new location is that they're focusing on making the Vietnamese baguette. There is a slight difference between the Viet and the French baguette and at the original store, they're serving the French one but now with these new machines, you've seen this in the Vietnamese street food videos. You've seen this? This is where they make the Viet baguette so I'm excited to try the authentic Viet baguette. Crispy on the outside, airy on the inside. Crispy on the outside, airy on the inside. Bun Mee Ko Oot bringing the authenticity. I love that I'm getting a chicken Bun Mee with pate and mayo. That's so much pate. Look how yellow that mayo is. Look how yellow it is. That's not Hellman's. That's not Best Food. Oh! What was that? That's the special sauce. Special sauce. Oh my god. Wow. Oh my goodness. Is this just like how they make it in Vietnam? I got spring rolls and a Bun Mee for $14. Bun Mee's $8. Totally worth it. Alright everybody, here it is. The chicken Bun Mee with pate, mayo, and a Vietnamese baguette. Look at that. Mmm. That was so refreshing because I got a lot of the veggies in there. A lot of the daikon and carrots. Mmm. You see that little mayo piece now? Yo. This is hella good. I do like it better than the even original. The one that you had before. I like this. You see how it squeezes down? And once it got compressed, it stayed compressed. And I'm not really squeezing it. I'm just biting into it. I think no matter what flavor you order here, I think you should get pate in it. Pate with the chicken. Oh my god. I think this is the best Bun Mee in Chinatown right now. It's the best Bun Mee. $8. Bun Mee Kho Ut on Eldridge. They're all serving the Viet baguette now. It's so good. Alright, for $6 you can get these summer rolls. How do you say the summer roll in Vietnamese? Coi cun. For $6. Very herbaceous. Alright, for $6 you can get these summer rolls. Coi cun for $6. Smells so good. Wow, that's so good. Wait, I love this bread. It doesn't cut my mouth. It's soft but still crispy. It's not cutting my mouth. Usually like breads in Bun Mee cut my mouth and it's really hard to get all the ingredients in it. But you're right. The pickled vegetables are so refreshing. This is delicious. Oh my gosh guys, there's sugar cane on Grand Street. And then what? Do you know how to make juice out of it? I mean, let's just buy it. Whoa, it's so big. It's taller than me. Alright, we're at Max V's Noodle 3. It's widely known for the best wontons in New York City. Originally from Flushing, they just opened their first location in the city. Let's go. Yo, as you can see, Max V's 3 is packed right now. This is like the third day that it's been open. I had it a couple years ago in Flushing and it really is some of the best wontons I've ever had in my entire life. The way they make it, they have their own skin. They make it super big and it's actually based off of a family friend's recipe over in Toronto. So the story's really cool. It's like an ode to her mom and everything. And the dad's out here. He's super funny. So shout out to everybody in the whole team. It's just good vibes. I'm just gonna show you the snacks real quick. Here they have the curry fish ball, the Kale Udan. Mmm. Put a little bit of that Max V's signature La Chu Yao, like chili oil in it. That's really good. You have the fried wonton. Are fried wontons very traditional? Is it kind of like an American, kind of like guai lou thing that kind of got so popular that now even Chinese spots are serving it? I don't know the history. You let me know. Mmm. It's good already. Alright, here we have one of their most popular dishes. It's Alam Wonton Mien. This is beef brisket with some tendon. We have the wontons with the shrimp and a little bit of pork. And then the dumpling which has wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots and pork. And egg noodles. Let's try it. Mmm. So good. Mmm. Alright, so here we have the Hau Fun with the Dace Fish Ball. Now, as you can see, these fish balls are gigantic. And Dace is actually a very popular fish in China. Everybody's had the fried dish snack that comes out of that can that's probably not super healthy for you, but I ate that a lot growing up. And Dace is actually considered high in protein and low in fat. So it works. Good source of protein here. I got it with the rice noodles, like the Hau Fun, because I wanted to try it. Now, I know that Max has got their own chili oil. I gotta put a little bit of my own. Mmm. Oh, the Hau Fun is perfect. Mmm. A lot of flavor in that fish ball. I love the amount of scallions that they got in there. Look. It almost just looks like it's a scallion fish ball. Mmm. I have the Kale Udon right here. I'll pour some of that delicious sauce on this. Yo, Maxi, I'm telling you, I created a new dish here. Quality is so good here at Maxi's. They measure everything out to the ounce to the smallest number possible to make sure everything is consistent between all three stores. Mmm. Alright, I'm gonna try the fish skins here. This is another snack they have. Usually, I wouldn't really just buy fish skins, but hey, they hooked it up. We'll dip it in sauce and the broth. Mmm. I just might crack that up into my noodles. Mmm. Mmm. Maxi's noodle. Every bowl of noodle with three toppings is only about $13. $13, like $40 if you use your credit card. Obviously, there's a credit card fee, which I think is hilarious that they put it on the menu. There's two numbers on the menu. The regular number with cash and then the CC listing price. At least they keep it clear and transparent with you. My favorite part is how thin the skin is. It's really translucent, very high quality. If you can't see what's in it, I don't want to eat it. Mmm. Honestly, the shrimp wonton was really good, but after I had that bite, I think this one wins. Alright, so when it comes to the debate between the wontons here or the dumpling here at Maxi's, I'm going to roll with the dumpling. Only because it has more flavor and stuff like that. I think when you eat into this big shrimp wonton, it does taste really good, but it also reminds you a lot of a Hakka dim sum, which is good in one of the top dim sum dishes, but it's very familiar. I think the dumpling offers just a more depth of flavor being that it has a little bit more onion, it has bamboo, it has woodier mushrooms, and it has like a little bit more of a pork and shrimp mixture. Maybe it's more like, I don't know, 50-50 in that sense, while this shrimp wonton is primarily shrimp, so I think it's just that the dumpling is just, I guess offers something a little bit more different, but anyways guys, Maxi's, it's going to be a stable here in Chinatown. It's going to do well. I'm going to be back here again. It is definitely a cheap Chinatown eat. Guys, I just came out of Maxi's and I realized something. You know, a lot of these chains from Flushing that are proven in Flushing are coming to Manhattan's Chinatown. This has been happening for probably the past several years now, and I think it's going to happen more and more because the chains in Flushing, when you open up something in Flushing, it doesn't have to directly cater to as much of a Western crowd, so then it's kind of like, I feel like it fits the Chinese taste buds almost like 10 out of 10 versus sometimes, if you open up in Manhattan's Chinatown, at first you kind of have to immediately cater to kind of the Western gaze or the Western taste buds, you know, because there's a lot of tourism here, so anyways, I do think that there's, that's one observation I had about Flushing stuff coming to Chinatown, but either way, Maxi's adds something, but I'll tell you this, there's brand new spots popping up. Noodle Village, there's all these different chains right here. There's Teso Mini, there's that Hong Kong drink chain that just opened up, there's Le Momo, there's all these new spots in Chinatown. Chinatown is not going away, okay? It's just changing. Our next stop is located on the outskirts of Chinatown on Grandin, Essex. It's a new snack shop called Chinatown Snacks and it's founded by Eddie Chan of Chinatown Social, the clothing company. Let's go! Hi! How you doing? Good, how are you? What's good, Steph? How you doing, bro? Great! Tell me about your store, what you got? Hey, welcome to Chinatown Snacks. We're Chinatown Lower East Side's newest bubble tea shop and we do serve a lot of snack foods. A lot of snack foods that we do have is the stuff that we grew up loving and liking. This is Chinatown rice noodles with fish balls. We have a Mama Chan's favorite special sauce. Mama Chan! Hi! How you doing? Thank you for coming! Also, the next one we have is our hot dogs. We serve 100% beef hot dogs with my best friend's next door Pickle Guy's condiments on it. The fresh, homemade sauerkraut, hot dog relish, and some of our bread and butter pickles. My next thing is the egg salad that we homemade for me. Inspired by my trip from Japan. This is really good. I also use Pickle Guy's condiments on all my stuff. The pickled red onions and the pickled bread and butter pickles. Yeah, for sure. And we do have musubis, our rice balls. We're very famous for that. We have our spicy tuna. We also have our spam and egg musubi, and our kimchi fried rice. This is what we're trying to do. We're trying to do something for the hood. I'm born and raised here, and we're trying to do something for our community. I'm from Hawaii, so I grew up eating spam musubi. You're from Hawaii? Really? I didn't even know that. This is making me so happy right now! Try that right now. Let me know how it is. So what we do is we actually use sushi rice, and we use for the raki in our rice where a lot of people in Chinatown don't do that, right? So we're trying to do something cool. Oh, thank you so much! We'll try to take a bite of that. Okay, here we go! Is it good? It tastes like home! Oh my god, you miss home, right? I miss home! I love that you're from Hawaii. So that's the ultimate ultimate love right there. If you're from Hawaii, say it's good as a rap. So I'm super excited because this spam musubi has furikake in it too. They do it right here. That's how I like it anyway. So I'm used to just the basic spam musubi, but this one in Chinatown Snacks, they have the sushi rice with their Chinatown Snacks secret sauce, furikake, spam, and egg, and then of course the nori or seaweed on top wrapped around. So good! It brings me home. Alright, they got their udon chanpon. So good, looks so saucy with their Mama Chan sauce. Looks delicious, let's try it. I'm gonna try this first. Ooh, lots of sesame seeds! Mmm, wow, so flavorful! That's delicious, it's so soft. Steph, you spend time in Hong Kong, does it taste like Hong Kong? I've only had jjajang udon in Hong Kong, but this is delicious with the sesame seeds and the sauce, the hoisin sauce. Let me try this chanpon. Mmm, I love this texture. It's so chewy but like soft at the same time. So good! I love this place. Alright everybody, I had to try the chanpon here with a little smalla to spice it up. But I love that they're serving this snack because this is really like a Chinatown, Hong Kong Cantonese snack right here. Mmm! Bouncy, sweet. That sauce mixture, I just want to dip other stuff in that. The thing about Chinatown snacks is that it's not just serving Asian snacks, it also serves hot dogs and luckily they're getting the pickle and the sauerkraut straight from next door and all the relish from the pickle guys who's super famous. So check that out. See the little dog right there sticking out? Mmm! Nice little snap to that. It's a good dog. That potato bun, super soft. Get a hot dog, get chanpon. I think this is the only place that does it. For $8 you have a Japanese style egg sando. Now this is their version, so they use kewpie mayo, they use a blend of spices, they put it on the potato bun, and they put some of these purple pickled onions on top with some of the sweet pickles. Egg salad sando. Mmm! Yeah, get your protein in. It's like between the spam musubi, the egg salad sandwich, it really is a lot of the snacks from your childhood that you love, but just done a little bit differently. Mmm! Mmm! I love eggs. Plus, eggs are expensive right now, so this for $8 is actually really worth it. Alright, here we have the Korean fried rice onigiri, guys. Look at their onigiris, look at how they're wrapped. This one's gonna run you almost $4. A little bit more premium for an onigiri, but let's see the flavor, because it's all about the flavor. Tasty, nice little rice ball. I taste the kimchi. Just a little bit of small on top. Mmm! It's staying together. There's a lot of flavor. Here we have the spicy tuna onigiri. A lot of flavor. I see some of those pickled peppers in there, and I like how the tuna is all throughout the onigiri. It's not just in the middle. Alright, so for this large passion fruit green tea, this is $7, and I actually really like how it looks. I thought there's a lot of different layers to this. A lot of different colors of orange here. I'm gonna sip that first. Mmm! I love fruit tea. I actually prefer fruit tea over milk tea. Controversial opinion! That's just me. I'm not saying you have to live your life that way. Ow! Yo, Steph, you gotta try your strawberry green tea, though. Egg salad sandwich. It's like Japan. I feel like I'm traveling the world right now. This is like tamago sando. It's so good! The bread is really fluffy. The egg salad isn't very salty, which I like. Alright, this is the 100% beef dog with pickles and sauerkraut from the pickle guys. Wow, that's really good. Why is everything so good here? Like you said, it has a snap, but then it's still juicy, and there's the pickles on top. Chinatown special dog. So good. So the next item I have is something that a lot of people are not gonna focus on. It's a tuna salad sandwich. I know what you're thinking. Maybe you're not a big fan of tuna salad, but let me tell you this. I am. I always get it at Subway. And this has pickled hot peppers and sweet peppers in it. So look at that color. This is unlike any other tuna sandwich you've seen before, and it's in Chinatown. Chinatown snacks. Chicken of the sea. Oh, wow. I don't know what it is about tuna sandwiches that I love, and I don't know what about it is so polarizing to people. Maybe it's canned fish? Especially with these sweet peppers and hot peppers. Oh, my gosh. Look at that. Made with Kewpie mayo, too? Yes, it is. Don't tell people my secret. Never, never, never. This is a good tuna sandwich. Very good snack. I like it. Little bit of American snacks. Little bit of Pan-Asian snacks. Chinatown snacks. Also, come here and get these cool shirts. Look at these. Chinatown social, baby. Chinatown social. Look at this. I wear these shirts. I wear some of these shirts. High quality. Grand Street in Essex. Okay, this is a strawberry green tea with fruit cocktail and strawberry popping boba. Let's go. This is good. There's not as much... What kind of green tea is this? This one's not jasmine. That one is, right? They're both jasmine. This one doesn't taste as jasmine-y. This one doesn't taste as jasmine-y as the passion fruit one, so it's good for people who don't like that jasmine taste, but I like jasmine in that one. Passion fruit one was really good. What's the jasmine taste? Jasmine taste is very floral, similar to how chrysanthemum green tea has that flower taste, but each flower tastes different. There's so many textures in here. We got the chewy jelly and then the popping boba, kind of like ikura, like salmon roe, but sweet. So yummy. We have peach black milk tea. Try this. Wow, that's so good. What? What is this? There's lychee or lychee jellies and mango jelly. It pops in your mouth like a burst of sweet liquid. And then this milk tea is so good. What kind of milk is this? It's a regular black tea milk. Really? Yeah, that's what we try to do. We do special. Is this Earl Grey? Yes, it is. It's Earl Grey black tea. Wow, I know my teas. I didn't know that. Yeah, putting fruit in the black tea, it is a little different. It's cool. This is the most unique drink I've had here. This is the most unique one. Earl Grey peach tea with fruit at the bottom. Not the usual boba pearls, not the cassava root, dark ones. We're talking about this is like fruity but milky. So I kind of like it. It's kind of interesting. This is actually more my speed because I like fruit teas more than like honey boba and brown sugar boba. I'm actually not really into it. This is the drink. My other favorite thing here I had was the egg salad sandwich. I think the tuna salad sandwich is solid and the charm fun rice rolls are impeccable. So come to Chinatown Snacks, Grandin, Essex. Alright everybody, our next spot on Cheap Chinatown Eats is Falk Noodle Express. It's the express version of Falk Noodle that's on Catherine Street that took over E-Noodle. But anyways guys, they got $5 salmon dumplings. I gotta try it because this is a cheap eat on Mont Street. Let's go. Alright everybody, we're here at Falk Noodle. I got Steph here. Yeah, I know I'm Chinese but Falk Noodle Con. That's kind of a funny name. Anyways, I think it's just a name. It doesn't necessarily mean anything in particular. But here, everything we got was less than $25. Here you got these sauced up galay udon, a.k.a. curry fish balls, which I like because they're not perfectly round so it kind of gives me that more handmade vibe. I don't know if it is. And then here we have these fried chicken curry baos. Galay gai bao, I believe. And ooh, they're like little mini bites. That's kind of cool. So they just threw those in the fryer. And then you have these salmon dumplings, which I've never had before. Salmon dumplings for $5. Ooh. What? You're getting salmon in Chinatown for $5? Where else? And then of course, we got Taiwanese beef noodle soup. And Steph, you're a Taiwanese seller. You're typecasting me. Okay. Well, I mean, you should, in theory, have the best radar for this type of thing. Yeah, it's in my blood. Okay, so let's take a look at this beef. What do we got here? It looks good, though. No, it looks very... You got the beef shank right here. A lot of nice little tendon in between. So go ahead, pour it on. Taiwan. Ooh, okay. A little spillage. Sorry, messy. Okay. Ooh. Yeah. All right, so this was $10.50. Fuck. Noodle, that's good. That's so good. This salmon dumpling, because I'm interested. So... That was a little bit better than I thought. Not gonna lie, I didn't know what to expect from salmon dumplings for $5, but... Mmm. I've seen Steph eat noodle a couple times, and she tries to create a smaller, tiny bowl out of her spoon from the bigger bowl. See? Perfect bite right here. That's pretty good. All right, here's the curry bao. Mmm. Wow, very fragrant curry. I got the little curry sauce I might dip a little. A little extra, baby. Mmm. Mmm. Curry's flavorful. Honestly, listen, they're taking the recipes from their other bigger store and still incorporating them here at the Express Concept. That curry's good. That's good curry, man. Yeah. Fish balls taste good, too. You ready for meat test? Meat test. That's tender. That's tender. Guys, **** noodle. It might be a new Chinatown gem because, like, they're serving some stuff that you just haven't had before. I mean, I think the seating arrangement, obviously there's not a lot of seating space, so it might be more of a to-go spot for you guys, but I say check it out, man, on Monk Street. That broth was impressive. Editor's note, this is B-roll, close-up B-roll. Guys, I'm not saying that this has the space of a pho shop, but if you are looking for a beef noodle soup, $10.50 is not bad. They give you a decent amount of beef, man. You know I love my pho. I can eat pho all the time, but this one, I gotta say, I gotta give it my stamp of approval for $10.50. Very impressive. Hey, there's still new cheap eats in Chinatown, and they are cheap. Indeed. Listen, like I said, I like this beef noodle soup, but where'd the leafy part of the bok choy go? Maybe that's why it's $10.50, because they took the leafy part and used it for something else, but anyways, at least they give you the stem. Alright, so newly arrived to Mott Street, but not newly arrived to Chinatown, we got the Malaysian beef jerky spot. If you guys have not tried this, it is unlike any other beef jerky you're gonna get. They're grillin' it fresh. You know, they're like smokin' it. Right here. So, they were on Elizabeth Street, but now they're located on 59 Mott. Right here, in the mix of things. Look at it. You got Auntie just flippin' those burgers. They're not burgers, but you know what I mean, Which one are you looking at? Spicy chicken or beef? Alright, because you know what it is, I feel like in Chinese cultures, like, beef is not always, like, the main meat. You know, usually it's pork, but, you know, it is a Malaysian beef jerky spot, so we gotta get the cafe, by the way. Great cafe. You still have the leftover. Alright, here, say it in Cantonese manner. Try it. Okay, and then here I got the chicken. Good. Wanna try it? You can handle it then. In a way, the chicken, still there's less meat, but it's a little bit like more wetter, like juicier. But, this is the OG one, so Malaysian beef jerky spot on Mott Street, just moved here. The ladies are funny. Shaming me and my family for my Chinese level. All good. It's the new year. Alright, we are outside of the ever-changing, ever-evolving Mott Street eatery. You know, they got some new stalls, they got a Xi'an spot, they got a Japanese spot, and some other spots, so let's check it out. Guys, right now, I'm ordering a hot oil noodle here at Authentic Xi'an Flavors. The laoban, the boss, I think. He's from Xi'an, so it's authentic. Alright, so we got our piang piang noodles. This does not have meat, but it was only $11. For a couple dollars more, we could've got meat, but we got meat at the other spot. It's all good. Mmm, a lot of flavor. Anyways, guys, we're here on the stage here at Mott Street eatery. I've never eaten here. Obviously, this place is a work in progress, but I will tell you this, it has its crowd, and it's packed. Piang piang noodles, I would say, usually have some meat in it. I think this has a little bit of egg, but no actual pieces of meat. But they got all the flavor. Look at that. Do you like noodles this wide? Yes, I love wide noodles. Piang piang noodles, $11 at Authentic Xi'an at Mott Street eatery. It actually tastes super Italian. So I think it's really interesting. I have this theory. Obviously, not only do Chinese foods and Italian foods visually look very similar, although they taste very differently, the Western Chinese, like from Xi'an, that has a little bit more of the Middle Eastern influence, does taste closer to something that you would get, obviously, from the Middle East, or possibly some parts of, I don't know, Greece, Italy, you know, things like that, or like, you know, North Africa. Some of those flavors are all tied into there, so that's why it kind of reminds me. Anyways, if you guys have not seen my videos comparing Chinese and Italian food, check them on my Instagram. I'll pop some of them up here. Well, I can eat really spicy, so this is not hot, but it's very flavorful. I don't like when things are spicy and there's no flavor. This is, like, honestly, really balanced. A lot of good pepper here. Let's be honest, a man who is trained took his time and hand-stretched and hand-pulled these noodles for us, for $11. Alright, guys, here we have a very elusive and rare-to-find beggar's chicken. Let me, real quick, tell you the story about beggar's chicken. The story goes, there's this beggar, this very poor guy in the Jiangsu region, and he steals a chicken. And then, he, like, doesn't know how else to cook it, so he wraps it in a lotus leaf, packs it with mud and clay, and then bakes it, and then it turns out to be super moist, juicy, and flavorful. And so, that's the story behind the beggar's chicken. Yo. Oh, Chinese tamale. Yeah, they look a lot like enchiladas. This is not a traditional Chinese beef roll, like the niru jianbing, which is, like, usually in, like, the scallion pancake. This is some fusion stuff. Definitely an Americanized dish. Got so much garlic here, if you can zoom in on that. Look at that garlic oil dripping. Alright, you go in on that, and I'm gonna go in on the beggar's chicken. Oh yeah, they give us this soup on the side, which I believe is a chicken soup with plenty of white pepper. Well, you say it's hao chi, but I know you can actually speak Chinese. Like, you speak way more Chinese. Just host in Chinese. Just let them know. Let them know you're Chinese. You are. You can speak it. You're, like, fluent. You're Taiwanese. You have to be fluent. No, you're not shy in English. You're shy in Chinese. See, this is the thing. This is the thing about a lot of ABCs. See, my Chinese is bad, and I'm not shy with it, and I'll go for it. But then a lot of people who can speak it better than me are shy with it. We could have this discussion. Maybe this is a podcast topic. We don't have to talk about it now in Chinatown Cheap Eats, but it's an unfortunate dynamic that happens. Beggar's chicken. I mean, so overall, it's really hot. It's moist, but, I mean, like, if I could have a little bit more flavor, like, I would like maybe a sauce. If they have, like, some jiang, you know, or some something like that. Some tzat. You know, in Cantonese. So just something a little bit more saucy on this thing. But, the pieces of chicken are big, and I think for $11 for this beggar's chicken, or $12, you get quite a bit of protein. Whoa, tons of garlic. I don't usually think there's that much garlic. I feel like there's more garlic than there is red oil. More than, like, the lard. Freshly made beef rolls. Kind of has, like, a chipotle mayo or sriracha mayo on the inside. I'm so curious. This tastes exactly like something you would get at, like, KFC in China. They have, like, these snack wraps. Yeah, they have these, like, kind of like Chinese fusion snack wraps in, like, a lot of the fast food chains in China. And I think this is what they base it off. Yeah, it overall tastes very, like, westernized. Mont Street Eatery. Stumble in here. Get a feel for a lot of the, uh, I would say elderly crowd. They like to chill here. But that also means that some of the food is really good. So go around. Check out the stalls. It's very cheap. Mont Street Eatery always switching things up. I see new stalls popping up right now, so I'm excited for those, but come check out Mont Street Eatery. Alright, I'm going to try dipping this chicken into this soup here. I know that's not usually how you eat, like, you know, Hainan chicken or, like, but maybe the beggar's chicken. Maybe it needs a little bit of this. Alright, so correction, because I want to get the facts straight. I thought at first I ordered You Po Mian, which is the oil noodles, which are vegetarian. They have no meat. But then he asked if we wanted Biang Biang noodles. Or the skinny noodles. But I got confused because I thought when he said Biang Biang noodles that he was referring to the dish Biang Biang noodles, which I'm usually it usually does have meat. It has, like, tomato egg. It has, like, either pork and chicken and then something else that you mix together. That's what I, in my mind, is Biang Biang. But he's just referring to the noodle itself. So, you can get You Po Mian with Biang Biang noodles. And Biang is referring to what? It's like the sound the noodles make when they pull it and smack it. It's like rubber. Like a rubber band. That's a good analogy. Alright, another spot that just opened up on Grand Street that actually took the place of my friend's spot, Nori. Nori used to be here. But now it is a new Yun Chang Mee Xian, aka a rice noodle spot. It is Yunnan rice noodle with unlimited noodle refills, guys. $13. The deal here is crazy. But I do think it's the same people who did Yun Chang rice noodle over in Chinatown on Bayard Street. It's the same team. So, let's go in. They're opening up late. Alright guys, so this is a new location and they're trying to get it popping. So they got a lot of crazy deals here. Look, if you repost or tag on Xiaohongshu, WeChat, TikTok, Google or Yelp or all these things, you will get something for free. So that's cool. But I will tell you this, guys. $13 for Guo Chao Mian, crossing the bridge noodle, that is a crazy deal. That is a Chinatown cheapie. Right here, on Grand Street. Grand Street, enforce it. How do I even do this? Okay. Just putting in all the ingredients one by one. This is like pickled cabbage. Put some wood ear mushrooms. I feel like I'm cooking right now. This is fun. I'm like building my own noodle soup bowl. In a cute cauldron pot. Here goes the shrimp. This looks like fried tofu or fish tofu. Put it in. I don't know how to say it in Chinese. I forgot. Egg. This looks like green onion sauce. Green onion. Green onion slash scallion. Okay, after I put in the noodles, I'm going to take out some steam to my bowl. Let's get some soup. I love noodle soups. This smells so good. Especially on a cold day, this is like comfort food. Okay, I got my first bite here. It has a little bit of everything. The noodles, the soup, the pork, and vegetables. Here we go. That hits the spot. It's hot, it's flavorful, it's spicy. It warms my heart. Alright guys, Steph's a little shy on camera. She's working on it. Guys, I cannot believe this spot is open 24 hours right now. It is open 24 hours on Grand Street. That is unheard of. There are not a lot of spots open 24 hours, especially in Chinatown. I think this might be the only one. I don't really know who's at the 6am crowd, but I can tell you who should be here at the 11pm and 1am crowd. Clean interiors, nice music, brand new spot. $13. That is a cheap eat. You can't even get a cocktail around here for under $16, and you can get a big bowl of hot noodles with meat and veggies for $13. Think about it. Do the math. And, last thing not to mention, what kind of deal is this? Seriously, $13 for an all-you-can-eat noodle? Very cheap. Very cheap. Very cool. Alright everybody, I gotta say, this block on Grand Street is changing a lot, and one of the reasons why you know that is is because of this juggernaut right here, guys. I know there's a two Légures over on Division Street, but this is a Paris Baguette in prime Grand Street area, and you have Haiti. Shoutout to Burger By Day and iMilky, still here doing their thing. Paris Baguette, you guys know the name. It kind of comes out of nowhere, and obviously is it competing with these old school Chinatown bakeries? The Da Rong Hua Bakery, and the Extra Crispies down there, and the Believe Bakery, and just so many bakeries here. Is it going to take away from those bakeries, or is it just growing the pie? I don't know, but it is new in Chinatown, and it is cheap, so I gotta check it out. Paris Baguette, let's go. Alright, so as you can see right now, it's not super busy in here. I don't know why that is, because I usually would think everybody loves Paris Baguette, but let's go check out some buns. Actually, Steph, why don't you pick out some buns? I keep coming back every day for the same thing. This is your favorite bun? Yeah. How many times have you had it? Five. Five times? This blueberry one? Yeah. Oh, and she's got the blue jacket on too. When they first started, I tried this, and I was addicted to the pineapple for a couple of days, and then I decided enough of that already, I'll try something that's become my favorite now. So you're saying you're all about blue, because you have the blue IKEA bag, the blue jacket, and the blueberry buns. This lady is full blue. And Paris Baguette is also blue. Okay, due to her recommendation, we gotta get the blueberry one. Blueberry cream, cream brioche. Why that one? What was about the positioning of that one? I don't know, it just looked really balanced, and I don't know, look at it! It's perfect! So I probably won't get these cold sandwiches for $10, because it's kind of giving airport vibes, and I'm not about that right now. Here you go! Okey-dokey! Let's try the Paris Baguette hot dog pastry. Just looking at it, the hot dog doesn't look as good as the Chinese one. And there's like a bunch of other stuff on it. First bite! Okay, right off the bat, the bread is not as soft as the Chinese one. It's kind of dry. But the sausage is smoked, which is nice, I guess. There's like too much going on, I think. There's like cheese, is that ketchup? Alright guys, these two buns together came out to almost $10. It was $9.88 after tax. So, yeah, still a cheapy, but yeah, you could also get one of those sandwiches there for $10 as well. So one thing I would say about this sausage bun, is that the bun really isn't that soft. It almost feels like a hot dog bun, regularly. Mmm! How does that compare to the, you know, the Cantonese cheung jai bao, I must say? I think the hot dog, at most, Chinese bakeries, is better. But yeah, this has more toppings. Anyways, let's check out this blueberry one, this highly touted blueberry puff. Oh my gosh, this one might be crazy. Honestly, I think this is what you come to Paris Baguette for. The savory ones are okay, but the sweet ones? Oh my gosh. I like this. Fluffy, not too sweet. She recommended it. Wow. Oh, I just got something in my eye. The cream here, it's not too heavy either, but there is a lot of cream. That's good. That's the winner here. Between these two, I mean, like I said, I think some of the sausage ones are cool, but come here for the sweet ones. Wow. Alright, next up on Chinatown Cheap Eats, we're also still on Grand Street, and I don't know, I think there's a Grand Street revitalization because we have Go Sushi right here, which is brand new, and then also this Bam Mart. Now, this brand of mart is from Japan. I believe it's called Takino Mono Tagame. Something like that. This is a Japanese convenience store. It just opened up on Grand Street. I mean, Grand Street is going through a lot of changes. It's not all Chinese businesses, but I think a lot of them are Chinese-ran. So anyways, let's go in this convenience store. I know Steph behind the camera. She's a big otaku, and she actually speaks some Japanese, so she might have to, you know, really help us dig into this spot, but let's go. So like Andrew said, I do speak a little bit of Japanese. I grew up in Hawaii, which is Japanese-adjacent. I took some Japanese classes in college, and I watched a lot of anime. I've been to Japan many times, and in Hawaii, we have so many stores like this, like Nijiya Market, Don Quixote, but this is Japanese ice cream. There's so many Japanese snacks everywhere, their figures, and of course, the cute stuff. My favorite! And over here, we have the popular blind boxes. The Smiskees and the Sunny Angels. These are so cute! I'm so excited! Alright, these are some things that stood out to me. This is the Calbee Chinese-style spicy hotpot, or Mala Huoguo flavored chips. I'm super excited to try this. We got the steak-flavored chips, and then this is the Hokkaido scallop ramen-flavored Baby Star noodles, noodle snacks. I grew up eating these. Can you read any of this? Yamitsuki BBQ. We're in the natto section! I love natto! Some of the ones that stood out to me are the Tamago Shoyu Tare flavored natto, and then this Ume flavored one. That sounds really interesting. It's giving me sweet, maybe some sour flavor in that. Which one are you going to buy? Choose one! Hey, we're just looking at the chili oil section here. Of course, they have the S&B. This is a popular one you can get. This is Momoya. I haven't seen this one, and I haven't seen Chef Troy's. Apparently, this brand is from Torrance, California, so it's probably a Japanese-American guy. Is that guy Japanese? Whatever. Maybe he's mixed. I'm curious about this dry one, though. This Garlic and Sesame Bites of Furikake. I might get this one. Just to see, because I like to see different products out there. It's very inspiring, but who knows? Maybe one day. Anyways. Okay, guys. This is the cute section. Oh, my gosh. My favorite section. I just like being around all these cute little fluffy things. Oh, my gosh. The best. Okay. Best, because I'm Steph. All right. So, my favorite. That's my impression of Steph, by the way. Oh, my gosh. Eat your mao in Chinese. That's how you say cat. Is this a thing? Mofusan. This is Kirby. This is like the Japanese version of Chill Guy. That dog. This is like the Japanese Chill Guy right here. BamMart. Grandstreet, man. Grandstreet's cool, because there's actually not a lot of Japanese stuff on Grandstreet. So, between Go Sushi and BamMart, these are the first, in my opinion, from what I understand, the first real Japanese businesses on Grandstreet. So, we'll see how it does, but it's got some cool stuff. So, in case you guys don't know, tonkotsu or twengu in Chinese, it is pig bone, which is like what tonkotsu broth is. It's like bone broth, the bones that have been simmered for hours. And that's how you get that rich. Twengu. Yay. Gu is bone. It's another way to say pig. Yeah. But also, haitwen is like ocean pig, which is dolphin, which kind of makes sense. It's because it's cute and like chubby. Andrew, you have to open a blind box with me. It's a smitty. They're glow-in-the-dark little figures that are so popular and cute. I've only bought them for my friends who are obsessed with them. So, that's not necessarily the one you're going to get? No. So, each series has a bunch of different ones. This is the moving series, so he's moving different things. There's also what we call a chaser. It's a very rare one that you don't even know what it looks like. Yay! So, it looks like this. I like to steal it. Okay, I know which one I got. Wait. No, I don't. I knew it! Oh my god! There's two of them moving a giant box! It's like... Like the toilet one. Oh my god! You got the one that comes out of the toilet roll! I think I want to put them here. Alright, and let me tell you, if you are planning on coming to Band Mart and shoplifting, don't do it. Because they got facial recognition on these security videos, bro. This is like... This is using that Chinese technology. So, do not come here and try to steal. Don't slip a little natto under your armpit and try to walk out. They will have your face scanning. His face, their face, that's the street. Scanning your face. This might be the most secure convenience store in New York City. Alright, so also on Grand Street, right next to Band Mart is Go Sushi. This is a brand new sushi spot on Grand Street. It is ran by Chinese as well, but they're not related. They just happen to be two Japanese concepts next to each other on Grand Street. What a coincidence. I'm gonna go in there. I'm gonna try their lunch special, because I gotta try their sushi. Let's see this interior. Wow. Alright, we're in the back of Go Sushi. We're gonna make some sushi with Darren Sifu. Yes. Alright. Can you see your plate? Some fresh avocado. This is our kind of best. Efficient. This is the most efficient sushi. Okay. Wow. Tobiko. Alright, here at Go Sushi, they have a killer lunch special here. Three rolls for $18, and you can get all these different rolls. They have a peanut avocado one too, which I did not get, but you know, they have all these different options. They also have pretty big ramen bowls, so you can get your Tori ramen, your tonkatsu. Anyways, I got three rolls. Here it is. They were made super fast. Here we have the blue crab. We have the spicy tuna crunch, and then you have the unagi avocado. Let's try this first. No extra soy sauce, no wasabi. Just by itself. Good. I taste the unagi, nice roasted and sweet. Here we go. No soy sauce. Mmm. Mmm. My question to you all out there, how much wasabi do you dippy when the soy sauce mixes with the avocado? Bing, bing, bing. Smell that sauce. Mmm. Nice little lemon in my water. Little palate cleanser. Sushi's not bad. Three rolls for $18 for lunch time, right here on Grand Street. I don't know, man. This could be a new classic. You guys gotta check it out. Go sushi. Steph, though, you gotta try the sushi. Mmm. I usually don't really like unagi that much, but it's really good. Oh my god. I think they use crispy rice for the crunchy part. I think that's what it is. Look. Here we go. This is the snow crab and avocado and topiko, the little eggs on top. Mmm. Alright, everybody. Next up on Cheap Chinatown Eats, this is a spot that's been on Grand Street for almost two years now, but I've never walked inside. Is it a restaurant? Is it a wholesaler? It's Wong San Hing Lung. Is it related to the rice roll spot on Henry that's also called San Hing Lung? I'm gonna go find out. Let's check it out. Yes, this spot is a very hole-in-the-wall. It is, I confirmed, related to the spot on Henry Street. So, you know the term fun, a.k.a. rice roll, is gonna be delicious here. I might have to buy some. Take a look at it. Okay, they got it in bags right here. They got them in rolls. Nice and fresh. Look at that. Ooh, look at that. They got meat inside. D8 Henry Street. The only thing we don't have is the steamed rice roll. And then we, all the stuff here we make over at Henry Street. Some spring oil here, like the retail shop right here. Right. So this is basically another retail location for the San Hing Lung on Henry Street. And that's gonna be more of the factory or central kitchen. Want hot sauce? Yes, yes, hot sauce, please. We already want a wing. Alright, everybody, for $3.75 I got the curry fishball Kale Yutan. It's definitely not gonna be made super as fresh as the location on Henry, but I figured they're probably doing so much business. They were like oh, let me sell the whole fun, like wholesale. You know what I mean? So they got them in the bags. $3 if you want to take it home. So, they're like a new supplier on Grand Street. But anyways, let me try this. It's actually kind of good. It's a little bit more like bouncier and more together. A little bit more firmer, which I don't mind, because sometimes when you get the Cheung Fun, the rice rolls, they get too gooey, and too liquidy. So, actually, you know, this spot's not glamorous at all. But Wong, San Hing Lung over on Grand Street, right next to Hey Tea down there, I mean, in a pinch, it's not bad. Another spot I want to shout out to is Double Crispy Bakery. And I know that this has been here for a while. We filmed that here a long time ago, but I just want to say, they got a new sign. And, you know, I'm always down to see Chinatown spots, you know, renew themselves and put a little bit more time and effort into their signage and marketing, because that was needed. This thing is glowing. You can't miss it now. Alright, everybody, that concludes our Chinatown Cheap Eats Volume 22. If you have watched to this point, you understand how many videos we've done and how many restaurants we've actually eaten at, and how many restaurants keep opening in the Chinatown zone. I mean, it truly is amazing. And shout out to my intern, Steph, because, you know, she's joining me, helping me eat all this food while David's gone. But let me know what you thought. Did Steph get better at explaining and presenting the food over the time? Hopefully, you could see the progression, because she's just starting to get into this thing. But anyways, guys, hit that like button. Check out her links down below. Check out all the links to the restaurants below. And until next time, I'm out. Peace.