Five Asian restaurants you can support 🥡 ❤️
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we report to you from the Great and Endless Indoors. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Hi Friends!
This is a hard time for all, but Chinese restaurants (and other Asian restaurants, coz let’s be honest, racists are not very good at telling us apart) have been hit especially hard by this pandemic. If you are lucky enough to still have a job and the desire to eat tasty things, here are five of my favorite Asian restaurants that you can support by ordering takeout or delivery. (Also, enjoy my blithe writing from sunnier times!)
Note: Restaurants are surviving by a tiny thread and closing daily; so please call them or check social media to make sure they are still serving. All information is up to date as of the time of publication.
Kopitiam
“Forgive me father, for I have sinned: This week I went to a straight bar in midtown and it was absolutely horrible. Going to a Very Heterosexual Bar in midtown is the equivalent of going to dim sum with a group of white people: It slowly dawns on you in horror that you’re expected to perform a role based solely on your appearances, and worst of all, you comply. To cleanse myself, I will now tell you about Kopitiam, a lovely haven of Malaysian food that’s owned by a queer woman of color.” (Antidote for a straight bar, March 22, 2019)
Required reading: A New York City Restaurant Owner on Responding to Racism and Making Difficult Decisions During Coronavirus, Vogue
What to order: Bek-kopi (Penang white coffee), Pulut Tai Tai (morning glory sticky rice with kaya jam), Pan mee (flat hand-pulled to order flour noodles, anchovy broth, fried anchovies, wood ear mushroom, spinach, minced pork)
How to order: Caviar, Seamless
For the latest, follow: https://www.instagram.com/kopitiamnyc/
Nom Wah
https://nomwah.com/
A classic dim-sum joint, that has become really gentrified over the years so I actually honestly haven’t eaten here in a long time. But I remember it’s pretty tasty, and I’d like it to keep on surviving.
Required reading:The Oldest Restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown Faces the Coronavirus Shutdown, the New Yorker
What to order: Shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings, but that’s also my favorite dumpling just about everywhere!
How to order: Seamless, Caviar, Grubhub, Ritual
For the latest, follow: https://www.instagram.com/nomwahnolita
Tiny Shanghai
http://tinyshanghai.com/best-chinese-food-new-york-city/
“The snow pea leaves shrimp dumplings at Tiny Shanghai look little fat parcels, square and dumpy, but they’re so cute, they better bring me some good fortune. I always judge a dumpling by its exterior — that’s where the most important skill is — and Tiny Shanghai delivers. The rice flour wrapper is firm and bouncy, with a nice bite. It’s on the thicker side, but just translucent enough to see a hint of the filling inside, which doesn’t skimp on shrimp. Plump and dewy, I couldn’t help but wonder: When was this dumpling going to drop its skincare routine?” (The lucky foods edition, Feb. 8, 2019)
What to order: Snow pea leaves shrimp dumplings, crab meat and pork soup dumplings
How to order: Seamless
For the latest, follow: https://www.instagram.com/tinyshanghainyc/
The Original BUDDHA BODAI Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant
The existence of a vegan, kosher dim sum restaurant that serves damn good food sums up just about everything I love about New York, and that I hope the pandemic never takes away (although many of these restaurants will sadly perish).
What to order: Pumpkin mushroom “seafood” soup, pan fried turnip cake, veg shrimp dumplings
How to order: Seamless
For the latest, follow: They have an Instagram, but it’s not very updated. Call: (212) 566-8388.
Junzi kitchen
“Junzi won my heart over when I learned that it gives out free White Rabbit candy at all of its shops. A fast-casual Chinese food mini-chain, all the dishes have a Northern Chinese flair, featuring things like sauteed eggs-and-tomatoes, cold sliced beef, cold hawthorn tea, and knife-sliced noodles. My family is from Beijing, and my parents grew up eating White Rabbit candies, so there’s definitely a lot of comfort and nostalgia in it for me.” (It's mochi mochi time, Oct. 4, 2019)
What to order: They currently are running a “Chinese food as therapy” special, which includes “Chicken broth, a sort of Chinese penicillin, that is sweetened with red dates and fortified in both flavor and function by ginger and apricot kernels which soothe the lungs.” Sign me up!
How to order: https://junzi.menu/menu
For the latest, follow: https://www.instagram.com/junzikitchen
These are some dark days, so please take care of yourself, please for God’s sake do not go out and socialize, please practice safe sex, please do not go home to your parent’s house or to try to escape the claustrophobic concrete metropolis you were so gleeful to live in before the pandemic hit, please tip your delivery person lots of tips, and please say “I love you” to your loved ones, even if you usually don’t.
Love,
Soph