Tag Archives: Chinese

Chang Lai Cheung Fun

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Rice Noodles kept warm in the kitchen in anticipation of hungry customers are readily found in Cantonese restaurants and dim sum parlors.

Rice Noodle Rolls, on the other hand, are frequently found in street carts, made fresh to order from (often stone ground) rice gruel ladled into a thin layer and steamed in a special multi-level cabinet. The snack is transliterated as Cheung (or Cheong) Fun (or Fan or Fen) – feel free to explore the permutations and combinations – but 腸粉 will get you 23,500,000 hits on Google and a typically frustrating translation of “Steamed Vermicelli Roll” on Google Translate.

I would attempt to describe the process, but fortunately we have local purveyors like Chang Lai Fishballs & Noodles on Grand St, east of Bowery, so since a video is worth a thousand pictures, here you go.

Fillings can include roast pork, fresh pork, shrimp, dried shrimp, beef, and more. In this case, here’s the menu from the side of the truck.

 
 

Bigger Snacks from Little Fuzhou

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Following on the heels of my last post, Little Snacks from Little Fuzhou, we’re continuing on our journey along East Broadway; here are three more treats I spotted. Many of these snacks are based on sweetened lard; for some, it might be an acquired taste, but for me at least, it was easily acquired.

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Two of these were packed in a plastic clamshell; each is about four inches in diameter, sweet, chewy, and peanutty inside with a crisp outer shell.


In the shape of a block about 3½ inches on a side, this one was a good example of expecting a flavor profile based on how something looked and experiencing something completely unlike anything I had ever tried – so don’t judge a block by its color. It was midway between sweet and savory, soft but with crunchy elements, and shot through with nuts and dried candied fruit. Looks were indeed deceiving; worth a try.


These flaky (because of the lard in the dough), swirly treats were probably the best of this group: a hard shell enclosing a soft filling with nuts and dried fruit. (There’s a detectable but delectable theme here, right?)

There’s more to see on the Little Fuzhou leg of my Manhattan Chinatown food tour! Check out my Ethnojunkets page and sign up to join in the fun!
 
 

Little Snacks from Little Fuzhou

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Walk along East Broadway, the main drag through Chinatown’s Little Fuzhou, and it seems like every shop has a stoop line component spilling out onto the sidewalk – part of the characteristic charm of the neighborhood. Cases of wrapped goodies, some completely unidentified like the red block in the photo, beckon to knowledgeable passersby. Of course, my supremely knowledgeable Number One Spy knows the ins and outs of these treats, and she was more than helpful in making a positive ID.

These five are a representative sample of what I saw: the trio at roughly 10, 2 and 8 o’clock were filled with sweet, fruity, purple yam (red script), savory scallion (blue script), and salty meat floss/sweet bean (yellow script). (Trust me: these are so much easier to appreciate and disambiguate if you know what you’re eating!) The 4 o’clock position is occupied by a “pork floss muffin”, a bit better than its mate to the left. As to that incognito red block occupying center stage – ever had a crumbly Filipino polvorón made from powdered milk and toasted flour? This has the same sweet, powdery-in-a-good-way texture and in this case, the flavor is peanut. You buy any of these by the pound, and if the unmarked prices vary from one variety to the next, don’t fret, they’re close enough and the vendor will separate them for you.


The inner workings, so you can get an idea of the textures.

And yes, these babies (and some from the next post, “Bigger Snacks from Little Fuzhou”) are definitely on my Manhattan Chinatown ethnojunket!
 
 

Sun Hing Lung Ho Fun

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My Manhattan Chinatown Ethnojunket covers more than just the part of the neighborhood that some people envision when they hear the word “Chinatown”. Did you know there’s a Little Fuzhou right there waiting to be explored? My Number One Spy called my attention to “Sun Hing Lung Ho Fun”, a small, unprepossessing, mom-and-pop business at 58 Henry Street where the specialties are freshly prepared rice noodle rolls (cheung fun) and rice noodles.

I perused the rice rolls side of the menu and in addition to the usual pork, chicken, fish ball, beef and such, one described as Beef Brisket Rice Roll popped out. Perfectly seasoned, melt-in-your-mouth beef, it was a welcome change of pace from the usual.

Stay tuned for more treats from Little Fuzhou!
 
 

Yukun Shaobing

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A favorite stop along my “Snacking in Flushing – The Best of the Best” ethnojunket is Landmark Quest Mall, 136-21 Roosevelt Ave, a diminutive food court that’s home to some outstanding vendors – proof positive that good things come in small packages.

Two enterprising women own and operate Yukun Shaobing, a tiny stall where they turn out at least 16 varieties of stuffed flatbreads that run the gamut of flavors from Pork and Chinese Cabbage to Spicy Squid to Cumin Lamb, representing favorites from multiple regions of China.

I won’t even tease you with my customary “will this be on our tour?” gambit; the answer is yes, of course it is, because these exquisite pockets of goodness are amazing!

Of course, you’ll have to take the tour to find out which ones we’ll be enjoying 😉 so check out my Ethnojunkets page and sign up to join in the fun!
 
 

My Chinatown Ethnojunket Video!

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“Reels” (videos) are de rigueur these days on Social Media giants like Facebook and Instagram, so when in Rome, etc.

Here’s my entry into the competition for eyeballs, focused around my Manhattan Chinatown Ethnojunket:

Of course, since you’re reading this, you’re already on ethnojunkie.com, so please check out my food tours: visit my Ethnojunkets page to learn more and sign up to join in the fun!

Tianjin Baozi Shop

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The last time I visited Stall Number 27 (a couple of months ago) there was nary a word of English extant: not on the menu, not even the name of the vendor, and certainly not uttered by the folks behind the counter. I had been making the rounds within the New World Mall Food Court, 136-20 Roosevelt Ave, to ferret out some good candidates for my Flushing food tour and I might have passed by, but I was riveted by the maneuvers of the chef. He massaged a clump of dough on his work surface, piled a mammoth heap of meat onto it, folded it into a seriously massive cannonball, and proceeded to drop it onto his work surface repeatedly until it was ready to be rolled out and pressed into shape. I guessed he was constructing one of the examples depicted on a sign gracing the front of the booth.

I snapped a photo of it, caught the eye of the woman busy behind the counter, and pointed to the picture I had just taken. I nodded at her with questioning, raised eyebrows, she nodded back in the affirmative, and I waited, hoping for the best. The dish arrived in a tin, sliced into wedges and was surely more than I could consume in a single sitting. She held up a finger which I took to mean “wait”, went to the back, and returned with a plastic pint container filled with an unidentified liquid that she added to the bag.

After some gratifying research at home (admittedly, I have a strange idea of fun), I confirmed that I had just visited the Tianjin Baozi Shop and purchased an order of Beijing Xianghe Meatloaf, a meat pie that unexpectedly comes with complementary Tong Sui (sweet soup). The tong sui was beany, laden with rice, and barely sweet, a good foil for the slightly salty meat patty. I’ve pulled a couple of hunks of the filling out of their pancake cloak so you could see where a lot of repetitive pounding and rolling gets you. (Note that there’s a Tian Jin Dumpling House on Kissena Blvd with a very different menu.)

Oh, and as I’ve mentioned, this is all part of the process of selecting the best of the best for my ethnojunkets, so not all of the dishes I post show up on the tours, of course.

Curious about which ones we’ll actually sample? Take a tour and find out!

To learn more about my food tours, please check out my Ethnojunkets page and sign up to join in the fun!
 
 

Old Street Pan Fried Dumpling

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Picked up these pan-fried pork and crabmeat & pork buns (sheng jian bao, 生煎包) from Old Street Pan Fried Dumpling (the awning reads 老 街 生 煎), 135-45 Roosevelt Ave, Queens as I was exploring the neighborhood for my Flushing ethnojunket.

A perfect snack.
 
 

July is National Ice Cream Month! Celebrate Globally!

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The story began here:

Every August, as a routinely flushed, overheated child, I would join in chorus with my perspiring cohorts, boisterously importuning, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” Little did I realize that rather than conjuring dessert, I was conjugating it and probably laying the groundwork for a lifetime of fascination with foreign languages and world food.

We lived in close proximity to one of the best dairies in town; it was known for its wide assortment of locally produced natural flavors, certainly sufficient in number and variety to satisfy any palate. Perhaps my obsession with offbeat ice cream flavors is rooted in my frustration with my father’s return home from work, invariably bearing the same kind of ice cream as the last time, Neapolitan. Neapolitan, again. My pleas to try a different flavor – just once? please? – consistently fell on deaf ears. “Neapolitan is chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. That’s three flavors right there. If you don’t want it, don’t eat it.” Some kids’ idea of rebellion involved smoking behind the garage; mine was to tuck into a bowl of Rum Raisin….

There’s lots more to the story, of course. Click here to get the full scoop! 🍨
 
 

Lamb Dumplings in Flushing

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I just realized that I haven’t posted any dumpling pix in quite a while, so here’s some research from my Snacking in Flushing – The Best of the Best ethnojunket: takeout from Chinese-Korean Dumplings & Noodles, Booth 30, in Flushing’s stalwart New World Mall on 136-20 Roosevelt Ave.

(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

Luscious lamb dumplings, because who doesn’t love dumplings?


The inner workings.

So many great vendors there and we’ll go to a number of them. Curious about which ones we actually visit? Take the tour and find out! (Hint: The name of this ethnojunket says it all! 😉)

To learn more about my food tours, please check out my Ethnojunkets page and sign up to join in the fun!