Menuism New York City Blog

Pork chop from Excellent Pork Chop House. Photo by Robyn Lee.

I recently received a phone call from a friend of mine whose son had just started an entry-level job in the Manhattan office of our firm. He said he needed me to do a personal favor. I presumed the favor involved some kind of personnel issue, but that turned out not to be the case. Instead, he said that his son called desperately after he had gone to the office eatery downstairs and found, to his horror, that a fruit cup cost $8. At that rate, he couldn’t afford to eat out and would have to bring both his lunch and dinner to work every day.

I told my friend not to worry. The good thing about being Chinese or liking Chinese food is that the Chinese revere food so much that they believe even poor people deserve to eat delicious food, an unspoken corollary to our recent article on the lack of upscale Chinese food. Yes, the cost of living in Manhattan is very high, and Manhattan Chinatown is by far the poorest Chinese community in the United States. Nevertheless, you can get good and inexpensive Chinese food in Manhattan Chinatown, cheaper than any other Chinese community in the US, if you know where to look. (more…)

All photos by 536

In my previous series on finding Chinese food, I named Flushing as one of several sources of Chinese food in New York City. However, Flushing deserves a separate write-up of its own, as it may well be the most vibrant urban Chinatown in North America today. Yes, the Stockton Avenue shopping district in San Francisco is almost impassable during the day, but the sidewalks roll up around 6 or 7 pm. And East Broadway in Manhattan Chinatown is a madhouse on Fujianese Mondays when restaurant workers from all over the country arrive to spend their Mondays off. But for sheer continuous activity, Flushing has them both beat. Even as the 10 P.M. closing time approaches, the New World Mall Food Court on Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing is as packed as at lunch time. And even as midnight approaches, there is still a lot of activity on the streets of Flushing’s Chinatown. (more…)