RANKING CHINESE FOOD: Sichuan VS. Cantonese VS. Shanghai | Fung Bros

O is mouth, shui is water, ji is chicken. See, I'mma break it down. Hey, you the laoshi. I'm the laoshi right now. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a very, very, very special New York episode of Fun Bros Food. Today, we're up by Central Park. Bro, we are on 56th Street. And guess what? Just when you thought there wasn't Chinese food this far up in New York, there's actually a ton of Chinese spots. So, Andrew, even though a lot of people in New York City that are a little bit older might imagine that Chinese food is this, today, we are going to be trying out Red Peony on 56th Street, which looks a lot more like this. Red Peony is a Shanghainese restaurant that also has touches of Cantonese and Sichuan flavors. So, what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be trying one dish of each style and comparing them against each other. And if you're excited by this video, make sure to give it a big thumbs up. Let's go. The food is flying out, and I think it's funny because it's lunchtime right now on 56th Ave. There's a lot of business people. There's a lot of non-Asian people here. A lot of non-Chinese people here. But they're ordering a lot of the authentic dishes. On this side, we have the Shanghai xiaolongbaos. Specifically, New York-style Shanghainese xiaolongbaos. And then here, we have the vegetable dumplings. Andrew, I think no place other than New York City has xiaolongbaos with this much amount of soup in it. No, if you go to Din Tai Fung, they do not look like this. There is a crazy amount of soup in this, guys. This one, this dumpling is braided in the middle. You know, it's not folded like other dumplings. It's very pretty. Look, Cantonese like a pretty dumpling. Wow. In the battle of these two, I'm not going to lie, the Shanghainese side. Oh, I mean, this one had way more flavor. David, on to the battles of the chicken dishes. We're looking at kou shui ji from Sichuan. Yes, the spicy, cold chicken. We're looking at shui ji, drunken chicken. And this, we are looking at the Cantonese fried garlic chicken. Shanghainese drunken chicken first. I will say this, this is a very simple dish. And that's maybe why not that many people rave about it, but I just think it's very unique. That's why I like it. Let's move on to the kou shui ji. I'm not making a judgment. David, who are you? I gave a thought about the drunken chicken. You better give me your deep thoughts about the mouthwatering chicken. I will say this, and I'm not trying to throw no shade, at the full Sichuan Sichuan spots. Really Sichuan. Sometimes the savory umaminess can get covered up in the lime-ness. Yeah. The spiciness is so strong. Okay, all right. All right, David. So kou shui ji, something you enjoy. I like that a lot. This one is not one you make at home. This is a restaurant-style Cantonese garlic fried chicken. What are you picking? Chicken section. They got three different cuisines here. I'm going with the kou shui ji. Wow. That was a good one. For me, I'm going with a dark meat piece of the Cantonese garlic fried chicken. Fair. I can't believe you were just hyping up the shui ji from Shanghai. This is Taihe, and you didn't. You just wasn't even. Am I going back for this? Let me tell you this, David. This is the only chicken dish you can chase these other chicken dishes with, because this is refreshing. You were saying it was a close call. This is like a chicken salad. It's a close call for all three. Yeah. Let me just tell you this. These three chicken dishes are fire. Ain't no loser amongst these. Quick break from our province battle, and we're just going to do a dim sum battle. We have the shrimp and chive crystal dumpling here. Here, you have the fungus out, and then you've got one of my favorite dim sum dishes of all time, the xin jiu qiu, which is the pork tofu wrap. Bean curd wrap. Sorry, I shouldn't say tofu. Bean curd wrap. Crystal skin is soft, chewy. I like this better than hot dog. Bean curd wrap, xin jiu qiu. Low-key, I really like the mixture of textures, because the bean curd is wrapped, and it's folded on top of each other, so it's chewy, a little stretchy, and then there's the pork. Would you say that xin jiu qiu, this pork bean curd wrap here, is the most slept-on dim sum dish for more Americanized Asians? Not enough people talk about it, man. Of course, chicken feet. That's good flavor. Nice, sweet, beany flavor. What you rockin' with, bro? What, out of the three dishes? Yeah. Out of the three steamed dim sum dishes. What do you think I'm rockin' with? How you gonna even ask me that question? Well, let me guess, it's the bean curd. It's the xin jiu qiu. What are you rockin'? For me, really. I like how you always qualify that for you, and make sure it's- A really good feng chao is unbeatable, but, yeah, I'll say that. No, I'm confused, because actually that crystal shrimp and tau miao dumpling, the tau miao, aka the pea vine, that's the best. It was. Beef section. Niu rou. Starting here on the Cantonese side, we have beef and broccoli, fried braised gluten. On the Sichuan section, we've got a cold appetizer dish, the cold sliced spicy beef shank. And then you have the ma la fei niu. New York beef and broccoli. I would say 90% of Americans are familiar with the beef and broccoli dish. I still like that dish. Moving on to, all right, this is the Shanghai fried gluten. Sweet, spongy, chewy, bursting with flavor. Just a sleeper. Spicy cold beef. Let's get it. Ander, we are, have entered the Sichuan section. I like their ma la Sichuan sauce that they have here. It has just the right amount of numbing spice, but a really heavy sesame seed flavor. Last, Ander, but not least, this fatty beef with mushrooms and different things like that. This is in right now. There's sprouts, there's sesame seeds, there's celery, there's peppers. I just love that mixture. My favorite dish out of the beef, I gotta go with this one. That just came through swinging. I'm gonna go with the cold slices. Ooh, that's not bad. Anything that, anytime I don't like something and I eat a version of it that makes me like it, like the tripe pieces in this cold beef ma la dish, I gotta give it up. Pork section, guys. John, I know you're excited filming this. Guangdong side, we have salt and pepper pork chop. This is the Shanghainese pork thigh. Thigh meat's always the best. This dish on the Sichuan side, on the menu, is just called shredded pork with vegetables, but I don't think that does it justice. All right, let's go into, let's start here. Perhaps with the hands. Oh my gosh, this is hot and juicy. This is a great late night food too. All right, pork pump. Oh my gosh, look at how fatty this is, bro. Ooh, right there. Ooh, that's a good piece. You want that? Wow. Falling apart in your mouth. I'm not gonna lie, my favorite pieces are the ones with hella fat. Oh my gosh. That was herbal and sweet. If you guys know, that is a very particular trait to Shanghainese food. Yeah. Let's move on to the Sichuan dish. Bro. Anytime I see a bunch of cooked chilies, my foodie side is turned on. You gotta get some peppers in with there. Gotta get a pepper bite. It is between these two, man. I'm going with Sichuan. Oh! Sichuan is the winner of the pork round here at Red Bull. Wow. The peppers were so good, I almost could just put those peppers over rice. Just eat that. Oh my goodness. I'm rolling with the Sichuan. Andrew, what section have we arrived at? We are at the shrimp section. All right, so this is yellow salted egg yolk, and it's under the Sichuan section. Okay. This is the crystal Shanghai shrimp. Do you wanna eat Haiyan, or do you wanna Haiyan? This is the salt and pepper Cantonese shrimp. All right. This looks a little different, Andrew. They have shelled this. Yo, butterflied nicely down the back. Almost split in half, almost like a lobster tail. Wow. I like this style better on the shrimp than I did the pork. It's lighter. More lighter batter. The salt brings the shrimpiness out. I enjoyed that so far. All right, this is the crystal shrimp, David. The flavor is incredibly light. Very light. It's there, though. It's very light onion, light garlic, maybe a little bit of white pepper flavor. All right, let's do this. Oh my gosh, I'm excited, I'm excited, I'm excited. I don't even know what position the shrimp is in. It got butterflied and then folded, and now it's- Now, Andrew, I don't know if this is like 1,000% authentic, but it could be. It was in the Sichuan section. It's in the Sichuan section, so it's probably at least Sichuan-inspired. That's good. That's a big shrimp. Wow. This is better with the shell on, the Cantonese version. This version was actually better with the shell off. That was my winner. You're picking that one? Not for me. I'm going with the Cantonese one. You know why? This tastes like salted butter popcorn. David, we could argue about shrimp all day. What do you want? What do you want, man? You want me to say this? They're both good. Everything's good. Everything's good here. The shrimp was good. Even the Sharon. We have arrived at the last and final round. This is the Shanghainese section. We got two Sichuan fish dishes. Sui Zhu Yu, Duo Jiao Yu Tou, Hai Tiao Yu. Andrew, this is the fried seaweed fish. Yo, I gotta give it up. I love the way this is fried. Like the batter, super airy and crispy. I don't believe we've ever shown this dish before on our channel. You have to have patience to eat the Sui Zhu Yu, but it's worth it. But don't do it if you need a quick lunch. I'm getting that same multi-faceted flavor bomb as the Kou Sui Ji. Oh man. Make sure you guys, if you know this dish, Sui Zhu Yu, Mala red oil fish head, give this video a big thumbs up. Last but not least, guys, when you see it come out and you're like, oh my God, the fish head. You're Chinese. That had more of a pickled pepper flavor. The fish head meat, it's very, very tender and very juicy. Dude, the fish cheek, bro. That's right there. This is the best part right here. You know, I don't want to be known for the guy who made a bunch of qualifiers this episode, but it does matter because different parts of different dishes taste different and are ranked different. I'll tell you this. If it is the cheek of this fish head, that's going to be my winner. Okay. Before I give my final verdict. That's crazy. We're looking at a bunch of stuff right now, and this is the new wave. This is it, man. And between some of the Sichuan dishes they got and the little animal buns, you know why this one's good? Whoa. There's so much Laosa compared to the bun. Oh my gosh. No. What a way to end off that meal. That was fire. Last but not least, this is Xueyuan Taochou. You eat a cup of this for $9.95, and then it's like getting 10 facials. We have a mango sago. Mongo. What is sago? It's called a mongo sago. Sago or sago is the little spongy pearls. It's these, the tapioca. It's good. Wow. We had a battle today. I believe the amount of winners probably went Sichuan, Cantonese, Shanghainese at the bottom, but Shanghai did have a huge, huge winner with the xiaolongbaos. I think it's important to have spots like this that are located in areas where a lot of non-Asians work so that they'll come here. But this spot is nice enough, and the food is good, and it's authentic and it's clean that basically it's gonna appeal to them as well. And here they can enjoy authentic Chinese food. But they actually couldn't get the New York style. I saw some people eating egg rolls and orange chicken too. Yeah, they can get those choices here. But if they want, I mean, I saw Finance Bros scarfing down xiaolongbaos. They love the xiaolongbaos. They're going crazy on the xiaolongbaos. So I'm just saying, Red Peony is doing some things. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching that Chinese food battle here at Red Peony in Midtown Manhattan. Make sure you like, subscribe, and turn on your notifications. Let us know in the comments section below what your favorite province of Chinese food is. It doesn't have to be Shanghai, Cantonese, or Sichuan, but it can be. Let us know what is your favorite dish from that. And then please let us know another spot we need to check out on our travels. We're headed to Boston next. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching that video. And until next time, we out. Peace. I have been said this before in the past. I don't know if I said this on the channel. Oh, I think I know what you're gonna say. I know. I actually, and I kind of like, I don't know if this is the most foodie thing to say. I like Cantonese versions of Sichuan food. That's real.