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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Annals of Chinese

A Week of Meats


This week I shall be eating roasted meats in Manhattan's Chinatown everyday.  Why?  Because I can.  I am currently operating a day behind schedule, so this dispatch shall describe events which took place yesterday, Monday, July 23.

I headed down to Chinatown to sample Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food.  I had tried going earlier in the month and found it to be closed.  This time, as I approached once more I saw it boarded up and a sign that once again read "closed."  On further inspection, the sign said "closed on Monday."  Ah, so they are closed on Mondays!  Devious dogs!

My time was short, and although I wanted to sample some new meats, I decided to go to nearby New Kim Tuong, which I've enjoyed immensely in the past.  After eating so many meats, I wondered if it was really so excellent, as memory indicated.  I took some bites of roast pork and smiled.  Sometimes we just need a slight reminder after eating so many meats.  I am sorry New Kim Tuong, for you truly are the king of kings.

(one issue, though: when the waiter brought my meats he grabbed a fork that was sitting in the tableside contraption which holds utensils and sauces; insulted, I grabbed the chop sticks and told him if he ever did such a thing again the fork would be used to gouge out his eyeballs).

After my satisfying meats I craved more.  This is supposed to be a week of meats, so sampling only one palace of meats was not enough.  I quickly trekked over to Henry Street looking for Noodle King, a place I had read about in the New York Public Library's Roasted Meats Collection.  There had been some confusion in my last attempt and I ended up eating at a place called JJ Family Noodle Restaurant (which had pretty good roast pork, although not spectacular).  This time I would get my man!

However, upon finding myself on Henry Street and wandering around, I realized there was no Noodle King. Or, perhaps I should put it this way:  JJ Family Noodle Restaurant is Noodle King! It's quite bizarre, on Google Maps it's listed as Noodle King, and in the link above the name is given as Noodle King.  However, the street view on Google Maps undeniably shows Family Noodle, and even if you look at the URL for the NY Mag entry, you see "JM Family Noodle" (which is still slightly different than the "JJ" which shows up on the menu).  What is going on!?

Anyhow, I settled on a roasted meats house called Chung Shing Meats on Catherine, not far from JJM Family Noodle King Restaurant.  This is a proper house of meats which is really just a small market with meats - no tables, nothing else. The two women at the counter looked at me with wide eyes until a friendly man asked me what my pleasure was, to which I replied, "roasted meats."  The pork and whole pig were not bad.

New Kim Tuong
Chrystie Street, Chinatown

Chung Shing Meats
Catherine Street, Chinatown


New Kim Tuong

Interior of New Kim Tuong

Chung Shing Meats

The meats of Chung Shing