Another Chinatown afternoon

We headed again to Chinatown and lunched at a true dive. It was out of the way (close to Manhattan bridge), subterranean, with foggy windows. This is definitely not a place to impress a date! It is, however, a place to check out if you want an authentic Chinatown experience and dine with locals (very little English beyond some paper menus, so be prepared to point and gesture) as well as enjoy the hand pulled noodles.

We chose the Fujianese-style dumpling hand-pull noodle soup ($4). We, of course, added Sriracha hot sauce to the broth. The dumplings were plump, meaty (filled with pork), and plentiful (there were over 10 of them). The broth was savory and comforting. The bok choy is crunchy. The fish ball with pork in the center is another delightful treat.

Duck hand-pull noodle soup ($5 plus $0.50 for fried egg): We love adding fried eggs to most meals (we've had it on pizza, pasta and soup) because the yolk just tastes so good! The duck was a little chewy, but the overall broth and noodles were very savory.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience, including watching the chef twirl the pasta dough like pulling salt-water taffy.

Egg Custard King is our favourite bakery in Chinatown.

The bakery offers other types of egg custard tarts (strawberry, honeydew, etc. that we do not particularly enjoy) as well many other buns and pastries (which we like to get for a cheap snack).

Portuguese Egg Tarts: $0.90 each. These richer, tastier versions of the typical egg tarts (Hong Kong- style ones are the plain yellow ones) we usually have had in various bakeries. These egg tarts also have a thicker, flakier crust.

Sheng Wang is located at 27 Eldridge St. (at Canal St.)
Egg Custard King is located at 271 Grand St. (at Forsyth St.)