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96 97 GLOBAL ROAMING LITTLELITTLE ASIASASIAS AROUNDAROUND THETHE WORLDWORLD There are bustling Little Asias to be found in cities around the world. Centuries of Chinese emigration has resulted in well- established Chinatowns, bound by large, decorative archways, or paifang. But waves of arrivals from other parts of Asia have also borne Koreatowns, Little Saigons and more. Within these communities, dishes are adapted to suit local tastes, while ingredients and techniques are borrowed from the local cuisine and, over time, these enclaves evolve their Handmade noodles at own unique foods and flavours – resulting King of Noodles in San Francisco. Left: Lamb and in New York’s chop suey, Mumbai’s gobi coriander dumplings, Manchurian and LA‘s Korean tacos. recipe page 118. FEAST 97 98 99 GLOBAL ROAMING and Worth can feel especially transporting, with grizzled old cooks in their stained aprons taking a smoke break on the corner and kids in buzz cuts and colourful backpacks wandering home from school. A taste of the old Chinatown can be found at New Beef King, a family-run shop that has been making and selling Cantonese-style beef and pork jerky out of a tiny storefront since 1982 (the beef curry chunks are my and the owner’s favourite); Mei Li Wah, a beloved bakery that turns out fresh barbecued pork buns all day long; the no- frills Big Wong King, where you can dine on or take away one of the masterfully roasted olourful, chaotic and ducks or spare ribs hanging in all their aromatic, Chinatown in bronzed glory above the counter; and at lower Manhattan is the Nom Wah Tea Parlor, a modest and cheery only Chinatown that most dim sum joint open since 1920, which serves New York City visitors and its buns and dumplings to order instead of even residents know of, but in fact, there by pushcart in a charmingly retro, diner-like are two other, larger Chinatowns (and space. For the dim sum-by-cart experience, many more small, but growing Asian there’s Royal Seafood, which is also one of communities sprinkled throughout the the best spots in the area for dinner. metropolitan area), each just a 45-minute The latest and ongoing immigration subway ride from Midtown, each with its wave has brought Fujianese from China’s own distinct flavour and each worth a visit. south-east coast, and they have set up shop The oldest and original, however, is on the east side of the neighbourhood. A still going strong. Manhattan Chinatown few of their eateries, such as the working- was largely created in the 19th century class canteens Super Taste and Sheng Wang, by Cantonese immigrants, who trickled serve Lanzhou-style hand-pulled, knife- in from the West after the end of the cut noodles from the inland province of California Gold Rush and its railroad Gansu, in addition to the delicate wontons construction. Many of them were from and pork-stuffed fish balls of Fujian. If the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong you’re looking for another obscure regional province, and they, along with later arrivals cuisine, as food-obsessed New Yorkers from Hong Kong, opened laundries, shops always are, visit Spicy Village, a Hainanese and, of course, restaurants. Their eateries eatery that also happens to specialise in became synonymous with chop suey, an ‘spicy big tray chicken’, a Xinjiang dish of NEW YORK’S American-Chinese concoction of stir-fried chicken and potatoes swimming in an oily, meat and assorted vegetables, the origins dramatically red-hued sauce. of which remain a mystery. Cantonese If Chinatown in Manhattan offers mum-and-dad businesses still anchor this a glimpse of the past, the one in Flushing, neighbourhood, even if chop suey has Queens, is a vision of the future. The become increasingly rare, and many of the bustling intersection of Main Street and restaurants haven’t changed in decades. Roosevelt Avenue could have been plucked CHINATOWNS On a weekday afternoon, the stretch of from some Asian megalopolis: the wide Mulberry and Mott Streets between Canal streets and sidewalks are packed with FEAST 99 100 101 GLOBAL ROAMING GLOBAL ROAMING Left: Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Clockwise from top left: Korean eatery Seongbukdong; Korean fried chicken from The Prince; a store in Koreatown; Korean bites and soju at Dan Sung Sa; I Love Boba’s iced coffee; banchan (side dishes) at Park’s Barbecue; budae jjigae (Army base stew) at Chunju Han II Kwan; an ice-cream truck; pat bing soo (shaved ice dessert) at Ice Kiss. NEW YORK HIT LIST MANHATTAN New Beef King 89 Bayard St, 10013, elderly ladies clasping their groceries, dogged leaflet jockeys for tables. You can spend an afternoon +1 212 233 6612, newbeefking.com distributors, and spiky-haired teenagers in matching grazing on dishes from each stall, but of particular Mei Li Wah 64 Bayard St, 10013, outfits furiously tapping away on their phones. interest are Taiwan Market Foods (stall 18) for gua +1 212 966 7866, meiliwah.com This community started from more moneyed, bao (pork belly buns) and shaved ice with red bean Big Wong King 67 Mott St, 10013, middle-class immigrants, many from Taiwan. and tapioca; the immensely popular Live Seafood +1 212 964 0540, bigwongking.com Unlike Manhattan Chinatown, where you’re as (stall 5), where, indeed, lobsters, crabs and various Nom Wah Tea Parlor 13 Doyers St, likely to hear German and French from tourists other marine life await their fate in tanks next to 10013, +1 212 962 6047, nomwah.com as you are Cantonese, in Flushing, you’ll hear the counter; and Tian Fu (stall 24), where you Royal Seafood 103 Mott St, 10013, a dozen Chinese dialects. This is where Chinese choose your own ingredients to be cooked together +1 212 219 2338 come from all over the tri-state area – and further with a fiery Sichuan peppercorn-infused sauce. Super Taste 26 Eldridge St, 10002, still – to shop, play, and, most importantly, eat. The largest, fastest growing and least +1 646 283 0999 Here you can find Mongolian hot pot, prepossessing of the New York Chinatowns is the Sheng Wang 27 Eldridge St, 10002 Shanghainese soup dumplings, Dongbei lamb, one in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where many of the +1 212 925 0805 Sichuan chilli-oil wontons and Taiwanese oyster Fujianese newcomers live alongside transplants Spicy Village 68 Forsyth St, 10002, pancakes – and in Flushing’s underground food from Manhattan Chinatown seeking much cheaper +1 212 625 8299, spicyvillagenyc.com courts, you might find all of these, and more, under rents. But the eating is no less impressive. Some one roof. Golden Shopping Mall offers a dingy, 30 blocks of Eighth Avenue from the Gowanus QUEENS cramped, badly lit warren of stalls where the food is Expressway to Green-Wood Cemetery are lined with Golden Shopping Mall 41-36 Main uniformly excellent. Visit Tianjin Xianbing on the modest storefronts and scrappy sidewalk vendors, St, 11355 ground floor for beef rolled up in a spring onion with some spillover onto adjacent avenues. Some Xi’an Famous Foods Various pancake. Head to the basement for the cumin lamb of New York’s better Vietnamese restaurants are locations, xianfoods.com ‘burger’ and spicy ‘cold-skin’ noodles at the original located here as well. One of the best restaurants in New World Mall 136-20 Roosevelt location of Xi’an Famous Foods (there’s also a branch the neighbourhood is Yun Nan Flavour Garden, a Ave, 11354, newworldmallny.com in Manhattan Chinatown), as well as juicy lamb and grander incarnation of a former hole-in-the-wall, zucchini dumplings at Tianjin Dumpling House. specialising in the deliciously complex dumplings BROOKLYN New World Mall occupies the opposite end of and noodle soups of Yunnan, China’s far south-west Yun Nan Flavour Garden 5121 the food-court spectrum. The stalls sit in the brightly province. Sunset Park is also where you’ll find New 8th Ave, 11220, +1 718 633 3090 lit basement of a massive, shiny glass-and-steel York’s best dim sum, at Pacificana and East Harbor Pacificana 813 55th St, 11220, shopping complex, which also houses a cavernous Seafood Palace, two grand, modern banquet halls +1 718-871-2880, sunset-park.com/ Asian supermarket and a handful of retail shops. that roll out cart after cart of inventive, unusual and mall/pacificana More than 30 vendors ring the spacious common expertly prepared dumplings, noodle rolls, buns, East Harbor Seafood Palace 714 seating area, where a mostly young, Chinese clientele tofu, roast meats, seafood, egg tarts and rice cakes. 65th St, 11220, +1 718-765-0098 100 FEAST FEAST 101 102 103 GLOBAL ROAMING Clockwise from left: spicy beef soup from Park‘s Barbeque; LA’s Koreatown; tea and cookies from Hwa Sun Ji; a shop vendor in Koreatown. LA HIT LIST Park’s Barbeque It doesn’t seem is part mess hall and part secret much from outside, but one look cubby house, but the food – at the Michelin awards and photos mostly booze-friendly snacks of visiting K-pop heart-throbs – is exceptional. Try the spicy and Hollywood starlets lining the barbecue pork ribs or charred walls here more than suggest that beef intestine skewers. 3317 W this smart stalwart is an LA icon. 6th St, 90020, +1 213 487 9100 Widely considered Koreatown’s premier smokeless barbecue Kobawoo Open since 1983 (with restaurant – the beef is of high decor to match), Kobawoo is a rom bibimbap to In the 1950s, a second wave of immigrants buyers who have been priced out of other parts quality and their array of banchan classic.