The Other Side of Chinatown

So I’ve been in the city for a year and a half already and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t done much exploring. I usually stick to the places I know – 5th Ave, Broadway, and certain areas of chinatwown. When Lilly, Mel and I went to Chinatown in search of Xi’an Famous Foods, I discovered a side I’d never seen before. When we walked east on Canal, towards the Manhattan Bridge, we came across a whole bunch of fruit and vegetable vendors selling groceries for a lot less than Hong King Supermarket (my usual go to place) or the vendors on Mott. They were selling fuji apples by the trayful for only $5! We were so tempted to get them but didn’t want to carry it back, I did get a bunch of other stuff though – oranges, grapefruit, carrots, a baby watermelon for $1, and some asian spinach type of thing that the lady was trying to sell to me at the price of 2lbs for $1. This is where I’ll be buying my groceries from now on.
We also found the $1 Skewer man under the bridge. I asked for cuttle fish but he gave me fish balls that tasted good anyway. And Lilly got lamb, which I really liked. Both were covered in a sweet dark soy sauce. Lilly said they tasted exactly like skewers she and Yawei had in Beijing. So when Yawei gets back from London, we are definitely going to take her there=)

My sister is going to New York for the first time next week and I can't wait! I'll finally get to do all the touristy things I've never done before like having frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity and seeing the Statue of Liberty. But most importantly, I'm gonna eat!!!! I have a long list of places I need to take her to and honestly, in order to get through that list, we're going to have to be eating constantly for the entire duration of her stay. Sighs. It's a hard task, but someone has to do it!!!

ME! ME! ME!

Xi'an Famous Foods

I think the last thing anyone would ever catch me wearing is a business suit. I hate being constricted by pants or button downs or skirts that go to the knee (I need them to be at least 3 inches above). I just don't enjoy being prim and proper. Bottom line: I don’t see myself going into the corporate world. This attitude towards suits also extends to food. You know, I always assumed that as I got older, my taste would become more refined and I would only eat in high end, sophisticated restaurants and whatnot. But I really don’t think that’s true anymore. It sounds weird, but I would prefer eating at the hole in the wall under the Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown over a fancy expensive five star restaurant uptown. I mean, this doesn’t apply in all cases because eating in nice restaurants is great once in a while but it just doesn’t give me the same excitement as the tinge of fear of getting food poisoning after a delicious but slightly questionable meal=)
Case in point: Xi’an Famous Foods. Based in Flushing, they just recently opened up a store in downtown Manhattan. Anthony Bourdain featured it in one of his episodes=) The shop is super tiny so beware! There’s counter space for 3 people to eat standing up and room for maybe 2 more people to stand, order their food and leave. Me, Lilly and Melanie went the other day and pounced on the table after the couple eating finished and left. The menu is pretty extensive and almost everything is $5 or less. As an appetizer, we ordered the Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles($4.00). You must get this, it was the best thing we ate and my mouth still waters when I think about it. It’s made with hand pulled noodles, bean sprouts, green onions and this spongy tofu thing all tossed together in this spicy, vinegary, red sauce. The dish is pretty spicy though, so spicy that Mel (the weakling) couldn’t take it and ran to the bubble tea shop down the street to get some cold liquid relief. She also thought the dish was the yummiest though. Also as an appetizer, we each got one of their burgers ($2.00 -$2.50 each). Mel and I got the Stewed Pork Burger and Lilly got the Savory Cumin Lamb Burger. I would stick with the lamb. The pork was good, but less meat flavored and more salty. The lamb was tender and heavy on the cumin and the bun was crispy and delicious. These were both pretty greasy though, well, all the food there was pretty greasy so let’s just pretend that I’m NOT on a diet=) At this point, I was already pretty satisfied. But we were being especially gluttonous and ordered two more dishes: the Mount Qi Pork Hand-Pulled Noodles in Soup($5.00) and the Savory Cumin Lamb Hand-Pulled Noodles($5.00).
The soup was good but really greasy (if you can see from the picture) I had to take a spoon and scoop off some of the oil on feel better about myself. The noodles had great texture and the meat was nicely season.
The noodles were a little pit plain for my taste though and they kinda skimped out on the meat, but maybe that was because it was the end of the day and they had a rush of customers come in.
All in all though, the meal was delicious. We paid $20.50 total for 3 burgers, cold noodles, stir-fried noodles and soup noodles. And the best part? We didn’t get sick! Yay=)

Xi'an Famous Foods

88 East Broadway #106 New York, NY 10002

(outside of building, on Forsyth side of bridge)

Everyday 11:00AM-8:00PM