Another season, another collection of pro tips from the Real Cheap Eats crew! This Spring, we’re focused on New York’s chinatowns, with 22 highlights in Manhattan and Flushing. Recommendations range from a porchetta Sandwich on the Chinatown border to one of Queens’ top slices (and all manner of Chinese food in between). Click here to [...]
Hours after a recent trip to Flushing’s newest destination food court, J.O. and I exchanged the following over SMS: “These food malls are like chucky cheeses for us.” “You are right. I definitely peed in the ball pit at Savor Fusion.” “Omg” Who said what isn’t nearly as important as the analogy. I’ve been to [...]
It took me five years to get over a brick of bread that yielded thick slices of breakfast while I was an exchange student in St. Petersburg. I said goodbye to those distant morning meals when I first stepped into Brighton Bazaar. A bustling Russian supermarket wrapped around a smorgasbord of prepared foods, the Bazaar [...]
The egg tart is perhaps not as lionized as the soup dumpling, but it can be just as much the subject of fantasy. Praises have been sung. Lists have been compiled. At least one film has been made. A good egg tart – not too sweet, barely savory and held together by a tender, flaky [...]
My first conversation on xiaolongbao was one-way. As I recall, it consisted of Boykji explaining to me: “You’ve never had xiaolongbao? They’re the bomb.” Typically, when “the bomb” is used is a predicate, I expect disproportionate amounts of irony or gravity. Not so in this instance: When Boykji drops “the bomb,” the delivery mechanism tends [...]
Plenty of people move to New York with the full intent of conquering the big city. Whatever they believe happens next, conquest is not it. Agreement on this sentiment is a bond I share with Mike, the daytime cook at Kuti’s Place. As he carves slices of fatty lamb from the glistening, heavily stacked spit [...]
Rice is rarely this audacious. Jinro is rarely the right choice. At a modest Korean restaurant in the far reaches of Queens, the rare thrill dormant in both staples springs to life in one sizzling sitting. Containing white rice soaked in a spicy marinade, a portentous mixing bowl greets the happy diners at Flushing’s Tong [...]
If you’ve wondering where exactly I’ve been over the past few weeks, the answer isn’t “Chicago” – all of these Chicago meals (the last of which will be on Serious Eats national in the near future) took place at the end of July. For the past few weeks, the answer has actually been, “chained to [...]
Chicago is Heaven on Earth for people who love dated signage, and quite possibly Hell in neon for those who don’t. Every self-respecting bar in Chicago seems to be the victim of some kind of small business moratorium on renovation, disallowed from admitting that America made it through the ’70s and convinced that the people [...]
He went from zero to vermicelli in 60 seconds. With two small white cords buoyantly stretched between his hands, a quick turn of the wrist swung one end towards the other. Fingers silently grappled the dough, producing strands that swept over the table below. Strands became noodles, noodles became strings, and for a brief moment [...]
