Category Archives: Chinese
HOP LEE: Perfect for Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner (or any night)
Dear Food Diary:
Today is Chinese New Year’s Eve, a night where families gather, from far and wide to share a extravagant meal. Not all of us can be home with our loved ones tonight, so a dinner with close friends aka “Chinese New Year Orphans” will take it’s place. There’s a chinese saying, “friends are your family away from home” this couldn’t be more true in a night like tonight.
Hop Lee is one of those no fuzz, traditional Cantonese Style places you can count on for quality and taste. There’s usually a wait, service is fair and somewhat friendly, plus you can BYOB. Enough reason to make this a great place for Chinese New Year’s Eve… well, actually any night you crave good and solid chinese at fa prices.
Hop Lee is one of those no fuzz, traditional Cantonese Style places you can count on for quality and taste. There’s usually a wait, service is fair and somewhat friendly, plus you can BYOB. Enough reason to make this a great place for Chinese New Year’s Eve… well, actually any night you crave good and solid chinese at fa prices.
Da Jiang Nan Bei: My favorite Shanghainese place
Dear Food Diary:
“Nong ho”! That’s hello in Shanghainese. So here’s my last post for the next couple weeks. I’ll be home to my birth city of Shanghai. I’m looking forward to checking out the World Expo and of course seeing my family. There will be lots of eating, eating and more eating. I’ll bring back pics of mama’s cooking and my favorite places to eat. In the meantime, I figured I’d leave you guys with a taste of Shanghai in Flushing, Da Jiang Nan Bei.
Super Taste: La Mian (Hand Pulled Noodle) vs Dao Xiao Mian (Knife Shaved Noodle)
Dear Food Diary:
Seems like I’ve limited myself to above Bowery over the year, so when Sketchy Grub mentioned Super Taste, I was all in, the problem was I didn’t know how to get there. It’s a little embarrassing to admit that I had to print out a Hop Stop Map for chinatown, but I did… shame on me.
Taiwanese Gourmet Corp: Yummy Stinky Tofu, Duck’s Tongue, Intestine and more
Dear Food Diary:
I didn’t grow up in Asia and my parents weren’t adventurous eaters or cooks, so I’m not quite sure where my love for all things “unique” came about. My first taste of stinky tofu (fermented) was at 18 while in Shanghai and duck tongue was only something I saw on TV until moving here. I’ve only been able to find these items in Taiwanese restaurants, mostly Queens.
Taiwanese Gourmet, Corp. in Elmhurst is second after my favorite Taiwanese joint, and it offers really yummy renditions of these dishes at very reasonable prices. This place has a good variety of Taiwanese specialty dishes, a lot of which you would find in a night market or street food stall while eating around Taiwan. If you’ve never been, this would be the place to start and a good choice for an upcoming “adventurous” Chinese New Year meal, or any awesome gathering. It’s best to order a lot of dishes and share family style.
Excellent Pork Chop House: Anything but excellent, specially not the pork chops
Dear Food Diary:
Since it’s almost Chinese New Year, this coming week, I’ve decided to dedicate my upcoming posts to ma’ peoples! Ni hao chinese restaurant week! From cheap eats to well… more cheap eats. Rarely are good chinese places expensive, we are too honest and fair. Sometimes, I feel like telling them, with a little more hype and advertising/social media, you can charge double, but I refrain… looking out for all our wallets.