New York City Chinatown Tour Part 2! Manhattan Chinatown

Hey, what's up guys? Whenever someone mentions New York, Chinatown, they're typically talking about the one in Manhattan, which is by far my least favorite Chinatown because I love good food and to me this Chinatown is no more for cheap buses, counterfeit bags, and loud noises than it is for good food, which is what's important to me. Like seriously, it's 9 a.m. on Saturday morning and construction, noises, crowds already. I don't think I could live here, but there are a few hidden gems, so let me show you guys around. I feel like the unofficial border of Manhattan and Chinatown, one of the borders, is Allen Street and East Broadway. So let's just go from there. I'm going to take you guys to my favorite shop for jerky, yeah, Chinatown jerky. We're at the less crowded section of Canal Street on the corner of Canal and Ludlow, and if you're a jerky fan, got to make a stop here, Linky's Beef Jerky. Stop here and get some spicy beef jerky or spicy pork jerky. This is a Malaysian jerky joint where all the jerky is made fresh, like I said, so when you buy it, the jerky is typically warm. If you've had jerky before or like a Slim Jim, you know it's kind of tough, but Malaysian jerky is actually quite tender and it's infused with awesome Asian flavors, nothing like you ever had before, so definitely make a stop here. I will get some, but I don't think they're open yet, which is a shame and I'm sad. I'm on one far end of East Broadway and guys, do not eat there. You've been warned. Don't even go inside. I mean, there's nothing for you here. Actually, East Broadway, if you're a tourist, you want good food to eat, East Broadway is not your street. Stay away from this whole entire block. Although you see a lot of restaurants and shops on the streets and it's very crowded, there's a lot of locals here, don't eat here. There's really nothing good on this block. There's one semi-okay place, but that's about it. Locals come here for groceries, they come here for some mediocre baked goods, and all the restaurants here are actually only really tailored to the wedding crowd. So all the dishes you find are pretty similar, very bland, very mediocre. This is a very little known fact about Chinatown. You see this shop right behind me, it says Paris Wedding. Wedding studios are huge in Chinatown and it's not what you typically think when you think of a wedding studio. Chinese wedding studios here in Manhattan are mainly tailored to the Fujian Chinese group and it's very specific. So typically a bride and groom will enter one of these studios, which has maybe hundreds of different wedding dresses, all, you know, they're not good wedding dresses, but there's a lot of them. And typically there's a photo studio inside these shops where the bride and groom go and take photos and they change into different dresses. And on the wedding day, the bride and groom typically go do something which is called Pai Wai Jin, which means photo and video outdoors. So they'll go to Central Park or Dumbo and they'll take photos and video there. Then they come back to Chinatown at night to one of these banquet halls, and that's where they're gonna have a 10-course feast with all their friends and family. Now you might be thinking, well that's pretty normal, what's so strange about that? Well, there's a couple of things that are way different than Western weddings. One is that typically these weddings happen on either Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday because those are the days at night when the restaurants are less busy and then more of their friends and family can attend because most Fujian people work in restaurants. And typically when you go to a Western wedding, the photo is the most important thing, but not here. Here the video is the most important thing because most of their relatives are still in China, so they need to film the entire thing and send the video back to China so their relatives can watch it. It's kind of bad to say, but a lot of these weddings are sort of like a business where the bride and groom get married and on the day of the wedding, everybody brings exorbitant amount of cash and checks and gold to the wedding, so they actually make a lot of money. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars at some point. I attended a wedding where the bride received a check from her parents for $500,000 and a key to a Lexus. I'm at the corner of East Broadway and Catherine and the Golden Unicorn Restaurant is pretty It's probably one of the most famous dim sum places in Manhattan. So on the weekends around 10, 30, 11 o'clock, there'll be a line out the door. So if you want to get out of a really crowded place with overpriced, mediocre dim sum, then definitely come here. This is one of my favorite places to eat in Manhattan and I'm going to miss it. This is Baozai Fan, clay pot rice, and it's better even than some of the places I've had in Hong Kong. It's called Ah Wah Baozai Fan and guys, definitely come here and try their clay pot rice. You will love this place. I would even suggest if you go for dim sum, it's too crowded, then walk a couple steps over here. You're going to love this more. I actually really like Doyer Street. It gives the vibe of a kind of a hutong in China or like a little alleyway. And this is probably the most famous noodle shop on this street, Lanzhou Ramen Guan. The noodles are okay. It's okay. It's very much Lanzhou Ramen, which is thin noodles. This one is okay too. This is actually a good restaurant, Taiwan Pork Chop House. You come here, you got to get their fried rice. I'm just kidding. Let's get their pork chops. Nam Wah Tea Parlor, one of the oldest dim sum restaurants in the city. I love souvenir shop in Chinatown. Littered with them, but every time I see them, I kind of want to go in because I love this stuff actually. From Doyer's, we come to Pell. If you guys didn't know, of course, Chinatown didn't used to always be this big. So in the beginning, there was only three streets, Doyer's, Pell, and Mott. That's why on those streets, you'll find some of the oldest shops and restaurants in Chinatown. Like this one. Mott is perhaps the epicenter of Chinatown. Has a lot of shops, cafes, restaurants. Gets very crowded, but it's very vibrant, it's fun to walk around. And if you want Peking Duck, I guess you could go here to Peking Duck House, one of two in the city. Their Peking Duck is, it's okay. I think it's the best you're going to find in the city. But one thing to keep in mind, when you go to this place, it's more about the food than the service. I think the last time I came, they literally threw the menu at me, and I had to duck. See what I did there? Alright, okay, whatever. And Pell Street is of course home to one of the famous, or infamous, soup dumpling places in New York City, Zhou Xing Hai, which, guys, please, I mean there's much better places than this. This is a pure, overhyped tourist trap. Go to Queens, go to Kung Fu Soup Dumplings, go to The Bao in St. Mark's, so, so, so much better. We're at Mott and Bayard, and this street is really fun because of the Chinatown ice cream factory, which is always awesome, and actually founded by one of my good friend's grandfather. I love coming here for lychee ice cream. Can't get any because it's not open yet. But come to this place, really awesome ice cream. Right next to the Chinatown ice cream factory is another place I really dislike, Xi'an Famous Foods. This is another one of those overhyped places that, because of the travel channel, the food network, and being a Burdean and German, that people flood to. But besides their burgers, the pork and lamb, which are okay, everything else, the noodles, the cold skin, everything else, very, very mediocre. Not that good. We make a left on Bayard onto Elizabeth Street, and here we will find the most popular dim sum restaurant in all of New York City, Jingfeng Restaurant. This place is massive. Now, any given weekend, it is absolutely packed. Let's go in for a second. Let's see if we can show you guys around in there. I did a video about this place, but you walk in, escalators, wow. Look at this. Look how big this place is. Now we're approaching my most feared street in Chinatown, Canal Street, because that street doesn't really make any sense to me. It's the most crowded street, literally. I feel like I'm in China just squishing through, and there's nothing there. All there is on Canal Street are jewelry shops, well, there's a lot of counterfeit bag places, but no restaurants, no good restaurants, no good cafes, no really redeeming factors about it. It's just crowded. So, we're gonna just cut across and try not to walk around over there, because that place, I'd rather, there's so many things I'd rather do in the world, including like punch myself in the face than walk down Canal Street on a weekend. You know, guys, although I do knock Canal Street for having all those jewelry shops, no restaurants, and that's mainly because I love food more than anything else, but if you do want to buy your girl a beautiful engagement ring at the best price, Chinatown is the place for you. I mean, it definitely lacks the cachet of a Tiffany's, but if you want a really good deal on a diamond, no better place than to come here, and remember, bring cash and bring a Chinese friend to negotiate for you, because if you walk in here all, you know, white, then you might not get that good of a deal. I'm on Mott and Hester, and we are approaching Little Italy. Canal and Mulberry signals that we officially arrived in Little Italy, and we are going to one of my favorite places to go on weekends only, and you should come here as well, because you, you guys are gonna love this. We are going to La Bella Ferrara Bakery, and this is one of the most famous bakeries in Little Italy. You guys gotta come here on Saturday or Sundays only. I'm gonna tell you why. Usually people come here for cannolis, but I come here for this, and they only serve this on the weekend. This is called a lobster tail, well, because it sort of looks like a lobster tail. How attractive it is, the beauty of it. Powder sugar, flaky. I don't get to come to Little Italy very often, and whatever I do, must have on my list. Do yourself a favor, and get one a dish. Look at that beautiful cream. That's beauty right there. I can't talk too close to this thing, because it's blowing powder sugar onto my camera. This cream might just be the lightest thing on this planet. Look at it. I'm shaking this slightly, and this cream is just vibrating. If I filled, like, a balloon with this cream, it's just, like, fly me up. It's awesome. They usually have a small version and a big version, I only had the big version this weekend, but you know what, I got three of these, because this is my meal for the day. I usually like eating the smaller version, because I feel like it's crispier. Listen to this. Mmm. You guys hear that crunch? This could be one of the best pastries in New York City. Lobster tail, get it. Walk down Mulberry Street, and we arrive on Grand. Grand Street in Chinatown is filled with grocery markets, shops, and a lot of good restaurants. I feel like that's where more of the locals gravitate to. Grand has some of my favorite places to eat, including Bami Saigon, one of the best bami in New York. It's also the home to my dad's store, and this is actually where I get the woks that I use in my cooking videos, and they work really, really, really well. These are some of the best woks I have ever used. I think I got this one at home, but I'll do a video just about my cookware another time, but these are really, really awesome cookware. Wow. One of my greatest nemesis, the Dorian. Usually you find the frozen kind, but this is really fresh. I love Chinese food stands. These are some of the best, juiciest peaches you'll find, flat peaches, lychee, dragon fruits, and my favorite, the queen of all fruits, mangosteen. One place I kind of steer clear of in Chinatown are the seafood markets, because it's definitely cheaper, probably because they don't do anything to actually keep the flies away. I used to love these movie shops. Every single bootlegged movie you want is here. We're taking a short detour, making a right on Valerie Street, and come to one of my favorite places of all time, and still, in my opinion, the best place to get roast pork waffle number one. I love this place so much. You can't beat this. Roast pork or chicken, $3.75, with veggies, with rice. This is a full meal right here. You guys never seen this before. This is called Handball. I feel like it's just for people who can't really be bothered to buy a racket. Pho Grand, one of my favorite pho spots in the city. But that's not really saying much, because New York is really not known for pho, and basically every single pho place here is opened by the Chinese. From Grand Street, make a left on Eldridge, and we are going to Vanessa's Dumpling House. A lot of people come to Vanessa's for dumplings, but what you should actually get is a sesame pancake sandwich. This is typically what I get when I come here, spicy wontons, which, it's not that I even love it that much. I think it's just filled with some kind of addictive substance. I think it's because of all the hot oil that's on here. I don't know. I just love it. And like I mentioned, sesame pancake sandwich. I usually get the beef, and what you do with this, after you get it, throw some dumpling sauce on it, and fill it up with sriracha. There you go. First, the wontons. Particularly like about these wontons is that the filling, there's really not that much filling. So I feel like the skin to filling ratio is way off, but something about them is it comes out extremely hot, temperature wise, and spice wise, and the skin, although it's not like really soft, it's got a nice texture to it. And this is by far, I feel like, the best sesame pancake sandwich in the city. That's awesome. You know what it is? They do something really simple that sets their sandwich apart. They add some carrots in there. So it kind of gives this sandwich a little sweet crunch, a lot of cilantro, nice flavor. Auntie's laughing at me now because I'm sitting in the next two bar. The only thing is, every place I go to get this sandwich, they never give you enough beef. I mean, there's like three pieces of beef in here. If they could fill this up with like nine, six, seven slices of beef, this would be even better. Another thing I love to do, see all that hot oil, nice sauce there. I like to dip my sesame pancake into that nice garlicky sauce. That's awesome. So when you come here, sesame pancake and hot oil wonton. And on Hester, one of my favorite hot pot places, Houyi Hot Pot. There's a couple of reasons I really love this place. One is that they give you a ton of like little drinks, like little yogurts, a little juice, which I really appreciate, slushy, all different kinds of tea. And the other reason is, this is by far the spiciest hot pot I have ever had in my life. So spicy that I feel it days later. And there's really only a couple of really good hot pot places in the city. Houyi, and then you got 99 Favors, and these places tend to be packed super early. So if you want a seat, definitely make a reservation. Or you know, do the smart thing. Go to Brooklyn or Queens. Oh my god, guys. I think I discovered something. Yeast dumpling. I'm pretty sure this was my favorite dumpling place that was shut down for health violations. I think it's reopening. There's yeast dumplings. And that's awesome. And that was by far my favorite dumpling spot. Their fried dumplings are awesome. Their steamed dumplings are awesome. You can get frozen dumplings for like 9 bucks for like 40 or 50. So cheap. They used to be 5 for a dollar. Now I think they're still 4 for a dollar. And they were shut down because they caught on making dumplings in like the back alley, which you know what? I don't care. How do you think they make dumplings in China? Now it looks like my favorite dumpling shop might be opening back up. What a happy day. I love it when I walk through Chinatown and good things happen. Something else to look for when you're in Chinatown. You guys see that store behind me? Right over there? That's a restaurant supply store. And you're gonna find some of the best prices for anything you want in the kitchen. Bamboo steamers, woks, knives, cleavers, Chinese soup spoons, Chinese tableware, chopsticks. All the best prices. Basically any Asian kitchen supply you want are in these stores. And the prices are unbeatable. I just got this actually. Ninja. I gotta meet up tomorrow while I'm making scallion pancakes. I'm gonna wear this. It's gonna be awesome. Another hidden gem. This place got some awesome pork chops and fried chicken legs. Don't forget to tell them to add an egg. Looks like my jerky place is finally open. Wow. So good. Everything is freshly made here. Yeah, yeah. I'm a here. Yeah? Yeah. Thank you so much. This is David, the owner of the Malaysian Jerky Place. I've been coming to you guys for actually a few years now. And I love your jerky. So, David, what's so special about Malaysian jerky? They're homemade. Yeah. And they cook it softly. Not like American jerky. Yeah, it's too hard. A little hard. What kind of spices do you usually put in here? Pepper. And sometimes they put like Chinese spices. Yeah. You know. It's spicy. I know this. I love it. It's so spicy. Right. It's one of my favorite things to eat. Yeah. Definitely a really good job on this place. Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, look at this. Look how fresh this is. Something else that's really different about this jerky is that when you smell it, that charcoal smell right from the grill smell hits you in the face. That is so nice. It's like smelling awesome barbecue right here. Oh my god. This is the beef jerky. It's very saucy. Oh, that sauce is so good, guys. That's what it looks like. Like I mentioned, and also like David said, it's very soft. You definitely know you're eating jerky, but see? Not nearly as hard as typical jerky. And the flavor, guys. Flavor is incredible. It feels like I'm eating jerkied barbecue. The charcoal flavor is so strong in this. And this thing. This is amazing. And it's got a bite to it. So make sure you come here and get the spicy one. It's very flavorful. It's very peppery. And it's got a bite to it. I mean, when you're eating it, you can definitely tell that one, you're eating jerky. Two, you're eating something right off the grill. It's very flavorful, very peppery, and distinctively Asian. So definitely give that a try. And guys, I think that's it for my tour of Chinatown Manhattan. I tried to show you guys some of my favorite places, and I'm sure there's some other great places out there that I don't know about. So if anybody else has any suggestions, post it in the comments below. And I'll see you guys next time in my favorite Chinatown, Flushing, Queens. Later!