Chinese STREET FOOD TOUR With Adam Richman! BEST NOODLES & DUMPLINGS in Flushing New York!

Going to New York City right now to hang out with a friend to go on an epic Chinese street food tour You will not believe how loud my stomach has been growling all morning. Let's go I don't know if you guys recognize this handsome face behind the Bandana out of dude, so we're gonna do a, you asked for this, a street food tour of Flushing. I did, I did Well, it's amazing while we've been setting up the camera and putting my mic on this guy rockstar status Already, I love it Like whether it was the hot pot place on the Lower East Side, you go to Flushing, as long as you're with Mike Chen You're good. Doors open. It's pretty impressive. You flatter me too much But but I'm excited to get your feedback of some of that some of the really comfort really good comfort Chinese food We're gonna find here in Flushing. Now, did you wear this because we did hot pot last time? Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna give you one of these too. Well, I will rock that I have to say these are some of my house-made pickles. Oh no way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I've gotten into pickling. I have a garden. Yo, I saw your garden on Instagram. Yes, I have a new IGTV series called Garden of Eaton And those are my cucumbers and there's some radish and some onion and this is amazing My hot wheels coming out when I do that, I'll give you a jar too, but you're busy. Yo, I don't know how hungry you are I'm starving. Oh, let's get some food in our stomachs first. Let's do it brother. Absolutely. Let's do it All right, buddy. We're at our first stop. This is where we get traditional Chinese breakfast And this is breakfast street food. So I don't know if you ever had traditional Chinese breakfast before. No, I mean I don't think so. All right, you ready for some brains? Brains? I'm serious. You ready to eat some brains? Listen, I will I will try everything. My dad used to say You try it. Don't have to finish it, but at least try it. Try with an open mind. Can I ask you an honest question? Yeah. Yeah. How would any of us know Like what to look for like I mean this place is really kind of a hole-in-the-wall Like you would definitely walk by if you didn't know what was in here And this is also a place like it's not really on places like Yelp You would really have to know a local to be like, yeah I need to go inside here and you need to know what to order because when you go inside it's more confusing Do the place have a name? Yeah, it's called Sheng Jing So it's like Tian Jing. I think it's like I don't know the magnificent Jing or something like that By the way, we've been just getting this from behind in these follow shots Walking around with this guy in any given Chinatown. It is like I told him It's like walking with Harry Styles in London There's a girl literally right behind the camera who straight-up just dropped her shades like it like a look. Yeah, you alone it Yeah, whatever. She just was like, oh Damn, there's Mikey Chin. He's hotter than Sichuan, dude. I'm just saying man. He's like pure mala human He's spicy and tingly. Okay. All right, you ready to get more confused inside? Let's get more confused inside So this is where you know You have to kind of know what you're here for and we're here for this place And I'm hoping they still have some items left. So we're gonna get why you said one like a dolphin now like younger self for dolphin now Oh Good job, man. I don't even ask if this guy can handle his spices. You've been tormented with spice Can you still feel things on your tongue? You know what I can it was for a while I thought like, you know, I had like developed to sensitivity like an immunity to iocane powder like in Princess Bride You have always recommended or taking me to places that do it well where fire and flavor are balanced Yes. Now I heard what kind of tofu I know that this stinky tofu, which I've never tried So this is something super unique to to Chinese culture and there it's different from northern to south So we got the brains. This is brains. Is it really? Yeah, this is called tofu brains in Chinese No, no, and why is it called it because it's so soft and and this is something we eat for breakfast More people eat as a dessert So in the north we eat the savory like we're having now and in the south they make it into a dessert So don't typically eat that after a meal and we're also getting a champion goods, which is the most popular street food in all China All right, buddy, here's your tofu brain, thank you very much is this just like thicken with stuff like corn starch Yes, it's sticking with cornstarch and this is breakfast. This is breakfast food. This is usually made with a super fresh tofu Uh-huh. Let me know anything and I guess this would be silken. I could focus. It's soaking And I liked it the spices. It's more like a fragrant spice It's like a tango But you also feel that nice silky blanket of tofu just melt on your tongue The texture is insanely good and you got some wood ear in here for a little crunch The flavor is somewhere between like chestnut and mushroom. Mm-hmm And it's a bit slimy like brain should be So they call it that because it looks like brains. It looks like brain and in the south They would not put this they would not make it savory. They would just make it sweet Yeah, how would you make this sweet? There would be no cornstarch You'll just be the tofu and you drizzle honey or syrup or sugar water onto it Here's the pro version of how we do this grab your jianbing guozi This is the most popular street food in all of China All right. So this thing is a big Chinese crepe And you said there's a crispy thing in the middle Yeah, so the crispy thing in the middle changes varies by whoever makes it so here we have you'll tell Yeah, it does remind me of like the crawler thing from the hot pot Mm-hmm, what kind of flour like hold us together? So the flour is the most unique part of this you notice how it's not so chewy and They either use mung bean flour a mixture of mung bean flour wore a mixture of millet flour Like you never had a millet is like a little yellow Bitty rice and the pro move is to take this and dunk and dunk it into your dunking into your brain. Oh, hell. Yeah That little bit of heat kind of works, you know, there's so much Crunch so much dough. Yeah And it softens it up. It's like like a dumpling and the flavor mixture is so nice And this is what I love especially now is you know We're trying to come together as a planet and come together as a society I literally slid into his DMS in a respectful way to tell him how much I was a fan of his I am But I think that this is the thing like everything's one more person come to flushing and try it, you know What are you gonna do watching that game? Best way to enjoy your day. All right, you ready for the next next place? Yes, sir. All right There's why I love hanging out with this guy All right, this is the second place I want to show you alleyways are the best place to find Chinese food anywhere So this is area where they make shawding like stuffed pancakes Whole chicken whole duck really really good If you need any bow all sorts of bow all sorts of like snack food The best way just ask him what's good and they'll tell you like exactly what's worse pig ears. Okay, jellyfish I love jellyfish. So he's saying third their smoked chicken is really popular. So we're gonna try their smoked chicken. Look at that That's gorgeous. Look just sitting there. Let me ask you a question because obviously in American traditions We talked about smoking with barbecue and like what woods are used in Chinese tradition So I got okay, they try it first and they roast it in the oven this you will have so much flavor in this hair He wants us to take a bite of this first. This inside is made high. So it's preserved vegetables and meat. Just you know True oh and pork try that Well, that's good, how many get this I'm the sour with the salty pork. Yes. It's high It's a very popular vegetable we eat with rice and noodles and the pork goes with it perfectly I've had like the pickled pork and cabbage soups. Uh-huh. This is outstanding. This is really fantastic grab a little piece of their smoked chicken They just call it smoke it's delicious. Hmm. They just call it smoke. You know, it's actually smoke. This is fantastic I'm gonna give you the chicken leg. Oh, man. Yeah, that is gonna be the best piece That's what friends are for right there If your friend gives you a chicken leg where you're significant other gives you the chicken leg Yeah, that means they're especially your heart The texture isn't the same you taste the smoke Let's try some of the cells high some of the little dishes we call this cells high Like yeah, it goes with the main dish. That's right. It's right. I'm grabbing some pig here. All right, we have some pig here as well Crunchy Figure is one of my favorite things. Really? It's so crunchy and intended. It's so nice Why do you think that awful or something Americans haven't embraced yet? It's stigma. It's like people don't think about those parts of being edible So try if I sometimes have a little bit of a hard time with texture wise, but I love the flavors on this one. Mm-hmm So that's fantastic. Mm-hmm. I don't even normally mess with to be fun, but I love it. It's spicy and numbing That's the citron Flavor profile. This is pickled chicken finger. Okay The flavor is really nice though, which part you eat you Finger down you eat the outside of the bone. So you taste the tendon in the cartilage and it's pickled The pickling is the best part. This is outstanding right that my love the numbing. Yeah, and the texture it's not so soft Got a nice chew nice mouthful. Oh, we just keep dropping our fingers. Sorry. What is that? He's cutting I don't got a good eye this guy saw something like just got a quarter of it this bacon Grab a piece of bacon. Oh, yeah. Look at that It's like a bacon jerky. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's fantastic. Have you had anything close to this in terms of Chinese food? Yeah, we're gonna pack up. I'm gonna take you to my favorite what I think might be the best noodle place in all New York City Okay, she makes one of my favorite noodles in the world really and this is a have you ever had Chinese cold noodle I have It's a Chinese cold noodle, uh-huh. They make the best one outside of China, I think She's adding vinegar and sesame sauce and flavoring onto the cold noodles I hope you don't have a gluten allergy because this is part gluten like that whole section right there So if you have a gluten allergy, you might just explode from eating this. No, I'm down This is actually cold wheat noodles. And this is a specialty from my hometown of Xi'an So you mix all this up and this is one of the hardest things to make is so cumbersome Because they basically have to like wash the wheat like laundry to make these noodles Yeah, yeah, okay for this style of noodle, right it's obviously a hand-torn noodle no, no, it's not so when they wash the Wheat there's gonna be stuff flowing to the surface and they take whatever's on the surface and they steam it So these are steamed noodles. Well, I'm trying to eat with my mask on Texture of the noodles insane right the spice creeps on later and you said this isn't Xi'an So it kind of makes sense. This is just plain gluten like seitan. Oh like that It's almost like a soaked bread. Yeah, it's like a edible sponge It soaks all that great juice and sauce the chew is magnificent with this thing The noodles are insane It's supposed to be really light But also really chewy and the flavors are very typical Xi'an flavor spicy and sour Sichuan food is spicy and numb Xi'an food is spicy and sour. Oh, okay. All right, man. Okay, this is great All right, we're gonna go try some some more noodles. I may need to get a boba Okay, this is it Tiger sugar was like one of the first Brown sugar bubble tea place. Yeah. Are you ready? We got a show? Oh You must stop man. I think you went to a step four instead of step three You better just yeah, there you go It's like caramel like that syrupy this when you catch like a vein Can you feel your life force floating away when you're drinking this the quality of the actual boba is among the best I've ever had you like that. I don't like gonna has a little hard center, right? Hunan is known for their noodles. So it's very rustic cuisine. It's also where Shaolin Temple is What is Shaolin Temple man? Yeah Yeah, there you go and and we're literally in the basement it's hand-pulled, you know These are like pretty much the pyam pyam noodles. Oh my god, but everything is made fresh and So basically you're eating one long noodle So like if you look at this place, right no anguish There's nothing there's nothing in English. So come here and get the stir-fry lamb noodles. Oh, well, here we go So dumb on you those are these? Hand-pulled noodles and they named it down down because when they were like smack it on the counter That's the sound it makes yeah. Yeah, I'm just gonna add it, you know, it's had of hot oil on mine Yeah, well you try just you want you want a tad just I want the same amount But this is one of my favorite noodles in all of New York City, I try man I love the smoky cumin flavor But it's the texture of the noodle too. Mm-hmm. It's like soft enough without turning to mush exactly Wow, I like coming to this place because it's one of the few places in New York City stir-fry is it so you retain the Maximum chewiness the mouthfeel for these noodles. So we're gonna add the vinegar got a little bit. We're not a little bit go for it This is also so unique because it's almost like eating a lamb barbecue at the same time You're eating noodles because usually when Chinese people barbecue meat is with cumin and chilies So you get that nice barbecue lamb flavor and the meats Yeah, there's a lot of umami too because that lamb fat kind of yeah every noodle And the noodles have that sort of velvety Softness My goal today is get you the best noodles and we're gonna find you the best dumplings I'm all for it. And that's where we're going next Last place my favorite Xiaolongbao place in the city this place Kung Fu Xiaolongbao. We're sitting at a Cocoa Rooster So we're gonna eat a pot of a coconut chicken soup I don't know I feel like we need some chicken soup to kind of heal ourselves a little bit and then we also got the soup from the Dumplings which just heals anything. So this is the coconut chicken soup. All right. I know you like salted eggs salted egg soup dumpling No I have to say that when you uncovered this I was initially expecting like Tom Ka guy like a white creamy broth I have to say I find it so cool that it actually just has shaved pieces of coconut does it leach into the soup? It does flavor Wow. All right, so we have crab soup dumpling We have salted egg soup dumpling. We have very spicy soup dumpling. These are what I consider the best soup dumplings in New York City This is I think this is just yeah, this is the pure crab and And pork take your soup dumpling and I feel like their skin here is predominantly why I love this place So now I want to learn etiquette from the master. So I don't pierce so you can take a little nibble On top you're anti-piercing. No, I'm not look I will happily take this and dump the soup out Because I love drinking the soup before I eat the dumplings. Oh, yes You like that The soup is already kind of remarkable and then I usually try to fill in that little deficit You got a little vinegar to the soup Yeah, baby, oh my god, what do you think that's great best soup dumpling you've had so far It's the lightness of it is what it is. It doesn't taste like Sometimes you get them and it tastes like mochi thin skin is so important in a dumpling. I like them shy All right. I don't like them things. I don't like them thick skin I don't want them to run from me when I compliment them on their skin Wow, it's it's also the quality of the soup. Yeah, I Like popping the whole thing in my mouth If you're not hot What do you think oh I popped it. Oh That reminds me of cacho a pepe. Mm-hmm that creaminess that volute. Oh, wow I never thought that thing could make it inside a soup dumpling But right this one looks like like a little soup dumpling volcano. Yes, doing lava does This is spicy Wow That is way spicier than I anticipated. I'm trying to be cool about it, but I'm trying to be like It didn't hurt I'm like going for a second one, but that's spicy dude, but it's just cayenne I think I don't think there's any like ghost pepper or anything like that in there. I think it's not bad I mean, it's it's spicy. I don't feel like it's challenged worth here. You guys want to try one each? Let's get some chicken soup to heal physical and psychological wounds for the whole Now talk to me about this. All right, so I got this at Heihei in Hong Kong It's a very common sauce for barbecue meats and Chinese cooking. So it's a scallion and ginger sauce Or bone, hmm That's when you know, you're like next level I haven't taken that class where you can really navigate around a bone with really That's good broth that soup is really nice what we have here pork sesame paste Spicy hot oil wontons. This is one of my favorite things in the bloody world because it's such a delicate little dumpling That I'm like terrorizing with this metal spatula, but oh my god. Oh, this is not going well I'm just trying to get it all covered in sauce Try one of those Adam. All right. These are one of my favorite things here Bring out the jar of pickles. Oh, yeah. I don't know if it would go well with this. No, I'll go they'll go Pickles will go well with anything Doughy like the dumplings. You let me know Papa. Okay Yeah Seriously, no, I'm serious the first person not related. I could have bought this and I'd be happy. Thanks. You know, I'm serious That's very big. You can sell this very big coming from you, bro. Thank you. You got doing here It's one of my favorite dump favorite dumpling ingredients is dealt. This is all mine, right so I can go in here From my garden That's great, too. I bet you this will go well with my with my I'm really very very flattered. No, no, it's really good Everyone you know, who else has tried to miss, you know, they love me and then therefore have to say nice things about it. No Pleasure, man. I'm not trying to blow smoke up your hickory hole. Hey, well done That's called the but it's good to a bit but it's good Dude, you're involved in so many projects now talk about them. And also I want to talk about your YouTube channel Let's revisit what we talked about in the beginning of today. What made you think like I want to just talk biscuits But I you know it it was sort of Completely and totally random I put a tweet out and I was in my local grocery store has a little British section and I wrote European fam Which biscuits should I buy and got 12,000 replies? Well, and they were and it was guys passionate about your biscuits and for me It was sort of like they're like you should get a few and tell us what you think and people were like behind that And then I had this idea of like dunking them I clearly have known the love of a cookie or two in my lifetime It wasn't like this passionate thing that I love cookies and I always wanted to do this in-depth dive But when I found how passionate people were, I don't know what we live right now in a pretty tumultuous time It's just sort of talking about I like this cookie better in tea I like this cookie better in milk that the thing is I've gotten such responses from actors from athletes from chefs Who are like no, no, no, no if you really want to eat it this way That I think it's just cool because it becomes a point of departure to talk about other stuff But I am developing like other stuff for the YouTube channel It's why it's called quest for the best Because I want I think that that's kind of what the way I live my life is like the way you said Those lamb noodles these soup dumplings are the best in New York But you're never gonna stop looking because you have the same passion I do and that quest is sort of what propels foodies Explorers travelers Artists to keep going because if you if you get comfortable you get complacent and then you lose the next day So I did that but I've all Begun to record some other stuff and then wanted to explore Instagram television So I did this show for Copa 90 that will hopefully be coming back when you're allowed back in soccer stadiums Called match day menus about food and soccer all over the world I did a thing with General Mills showing tailgates and I was like You know IG TV is kind of awesome because you can intrigue people with a bit of content So I moved to IG TV and I have this series about my garden called Adams garden of Eton You'll see me pick it harvest it super quick a couple tips for anyone to grow in a urban garden or even in your home And I make stop-motion videos. So I just teach you the whole recipe with little video tricks and that's it. I've seen that It's pretty amazing. You are literally just like I never seen more busy You got so much stuff going on and they're a really good stuff So definitely check out all that stuff like I got all the links for your YouTube channel your Instagram all that stuff What else you working on the history channel? That's oh, I saw that. I was like my man's on the history channel I was very blessed, you know, and it's a channel that you know, you grew up watching. Yeah. Thank you There's more chocolate soup dumplings my man. What? That's right Chocolate, it's a good thing. I wore my hat so it didn't get messy when you blew my mind I mean chocolate obviously Nutella banana soup dumpling. Did you ever think those words whatever go together? No, but I'm glad they did. I Know you're suffering pain right now That is so decadent. Well, I just want to say dude I enjoy all the success that you've been having like I've been opening Instagram I've been seeing you all everywhere and on history channel everything like I'm so happy for you You are like there's not a lot of people in the entertainment industry TV Otherwise, whatever YouTube that are as nice. We're as genuine as sincere as they are in person. You are definitely one of them I really I appreciate our friendship. I enjoy meeting with you all the time guys You know Adams got so many great things going on Check out him eating biscuits and making people in the UK mad or are they mad? I don't know happy one of those two all that link all that information is down below man. Wish you continued success my friend Thank you, my friend and thank you for saying things about my pickles sell these pickles. I will sell those pickles I'll put some my hot oil in there. I'll be like hot oil hot Adam pickles. There we go Brooklyn brinery. There you go Alright guys. Thank you all so much for watching Thank you