 Is that galay yudan? Galay yudan. Okay. Okay. Show us what you got. Show us what you got. Welcome everybody to part 4 of our Chinatown Cheap Eats Hidden Gems series. In this one, we try to find the best churring fun cart in Chinatown. We'll talk to some owners, watch a master smack some fresh hand-pulled noodles and then visit a staple of Chinatown one last time before it finally shuts its doors for good. And almost everything is under $8. So make sure to hit that like button. Click subscribe because this is going to be epic. New York part 4. Let's go. What's going on everybody? Welcome to Chinatown Cheap Eats number 4. Woo. Andrew, how many are we going to do with these? It feels like the American Ninja series. Well, I got to be honest. Listen, we're reading the comments of part 3 and there's a lot of people that are like, oh, you guys got to hit up this and this and this spot. So we're like, well, I guess they want more. Well, we're on the corner of Elizabeth and Hester right now. Andrew, it's going down the battle of the churng fun carts, the battle of the rice noodle carts. It does not get more cheap than this, guys. If you guys know churng fun, it's the steamed rice rolls, but people do them differently. Sometimes they're fresh. They're the more squiggly kind. Sometimes it's the more tightly road kind. There's so many things you can do with it. We're talking about $3 sub $5. This is a cheap eat. All carbs and flavor. Let's get it. Oh, yeah, get it. 20-something years, Andrew. 20 years at this cart. 20 years! All right, so each of these was only $3, guys. This was only $10 for three because I tipped a dollar. That's a cheap eat. Not like in singular tubes. It's kind of like rolled up in a bunch, but when you eat it, you're going to still be able to feel the layers. No, you totally get the vibe. The vibe is not attached to the visual representation. So one of these is beef pork and chicken. It's falling apart. That's got to be beef. That is the beef. I believe this is the chicken right here. I like that one better. That one, whichever one that one was, it could have been the pork. It could have been the chicken. That one's good. I might have to go in for a second. What I like about this trunk fund is that it's still firm enough that it still stays on your pork. It's not completely falling off. Naturally, for $3, guys, the pork is probably going to give you the best bang for your buck because if you guys know about the composition of pork, it's very heavy on fat. The fat is going to melt into the rice noodle, the trunk fund itself imparting some flavor. The pork is my winner. Eric, what'd you think? I'm going to go with the chicken one. Heavy statement. It's a little bit later in the day. They ran out of a lot of stuff. I have to say that I just love... She said she's been making it for 20 years. Let me just tell you this. It's very basic here. More basic than, you know, even the standalone brick and mortars. But it's just as good. It's only $3. Oh, look. No, you can see the layers. Listen, at one point, it was folded together. But since she had to store it on the cart, they all got packed together in a clump. But let me tell you, when you bite this, you're going to start to feel it unraveling your mouth. Mmm. For Elizabeth and Hester, we got to give it a 4.5 out of 5. Let's continue on the trunk fund cart battle. All right, you guys, the second spot on our trunk fund cart battle. And right now we are on East Broadway in Rutgers. Official name on Yelp for the previous spot was just trunk fund cart. And the official Yelp name for this one is trunk fund cart on Rutgers. I'm super excited to try this one. I've personally never had this trunk fund cart on Rutgers. I've passed by it many a time. Saw a very interesting mix of people. Let's check it out. This is a Hong Kong cafe style of rice rolls. The previous rice rolls that you're going to see is more of like kind of a sit-down fresh restaurant style. This is more of the quick breakfast style. So it is a different style of rice roll. Why do you like this trunk fund cart so much? The taste is very good already. I like it. This type of roll, even better than the fresh one. This is better. This is better. My opinion. All right, you guys, this is the trunk fund cart on Rutgers. I think it's only fair since the other carts don't have as much other stuff that we get into the trunk fund first and foremost. Andrew, are you pro HK style or more with the fresh rolls? I think they both have their place. And obviously these Hong Kong style cafe rice rolls are not going to have as much meat and things embedded and cooked inside, but they're just as good to eat. Trunk fund cart on Rutgers. If you like more bounciness and chewiness, you got to get these rolls. I think that these trunk funds have more mass appeal. I do agree. Sometimes the other trunk fund carts are the ones that are freshly made. They're a little too gooey and they fall apart too easily. But you could say they might have more flavor. That fresh roll style became more popular in the past five to 10 years. But I would say originally a lot of people's first rice rolls, the ones that they get from the grocery store is like this. Well, I think it's because that Guangzhou style has only started to recently come to America. I'm really impressed by the quality that this lady has, man. As far as my recommendations go, for the trunk fund cart on Rutgers, after sampling everything, I would say this. Definitely get the trunk fund. Definitely get the fish balls. And for $20, you can get everything off the cart, guys. That's the trunk fund cart on Rutgers. So I know we're in the middle of a trunk fund cart battle, but when you talk about trunk fund, you can't talk about it without mentioning Yin Ji Chang Fun, which is a famous chain from Guangzhou that opened up here on the corner of Mulberry and Bayard. And then you also have Tony's Rice Rolls, which is started by Chinese Americans. All right, David, we're looking at two different styles of trunk fund. Here's from Tony's Rice Rolls, which is owned by Chinese Americans. And then you have Yin Ji Chang Fun, which is a famous brand from Guangzhou. All right, immediate when I look at these, Andrew, this is super GZ style. Straight Guangzhou. Straight. That's how they look in Guangzhou when I went recently. This is a more purely Guangzhou style. This is more of a general Cantonese style. We're going up with the Cha Leng. This is the sweet sesame hoisin one wrapped in a rice roll. Let's go. Very solid. I'm not against it. It's a 3.5. All right, let's try this fish and chive one. This is a very unique one. I've never had fish and chive. Now they were unsure if you were going to like it. They got fish in there. I've never had a fish churang fun before. But I think I'm going to like it. But fish pieces in Hall Fun noodle soup are pretty popular. This is the fish and chive churang fun. You know what? I don't know why the lady at Yin Ji was being shy on the fish. I thought it was a good combination. I thought, in fact, the fish pieces paired with the soy sauce, the sweet soy sauce, very well. Yin Ji churang fun number one special. Let's do it. It's pretty good, especially with the chili oil. I would say it's only like 20% rice roll. Yeah. Really, only 20%. Everything else is like the beef and everything. So, in a way, it's good. But it doesn't taste like a rice roll to me. All right, guys, this is Tony's rice rolls. All right? Opened up by a Chinese-American family. They're going to do things a little bit differently. They have the ribbon style. They have the ribbon style. It's very like wavy. Tony's special. Flavorful, more bouncy and chewy. Way more carby. Way more carby. Way more rice roll in it. Hold on. Let me get in on this. Anytime we get the pork and the rice rolls together. All right. It has dried shrimp, pork, scallions. And I want to say chicken. Duck churang fun. Siu op churang fun. Hey. Hey. Oh, what is that? Because a hoi scene goes with the duck. Oh. I might just start dancing on the pork balls right now. All right, you guys. My absolute favorite bite out of everything I got to say, Andrew, was Tony's rice roll special. Yeah. With the pork. Yeah. I had the hama, the dried shrimp. I had a lot of green onions on it. I thought that was the best one. Tony's rice roll to me is a definitely elevated version of the cart churang fun over on Hester Street. It feels a lot like it, but it's maybe a little bit, obviously more care. It's double priced. It's double priced. It's a little higher quality, of course. With a lot more flavors. Yenji churang fun. It's on something else. It's like totally different. To me, I don't get the churang fun vibe. It's good. But this, to me, is not, and I don't know, maybe that's weird to say that because it is from Guangzhou, but that's not what I know is churang fun personally. And that's not truly what I prefer. I prefer Tony's. Tony's is good. Happy Star Bakery Corporation. They have a full-on bakery right next door, but it's really small. But this is kind of their dim sum side. This is lap churang and ha mai, which is dried shrimp and the dried Cantonese sausage. Happy Star Cafe. Dude, we're just finding cafes that I don't even know existed. So this is that gooey fresh churang fun. Obviously not the pre-rolled, not the pre-rolls that the lady had done. Not even between, not a slurpee. That is very salty. Between the ha mai and the lap churang, it is packing the sodium. This has so much stretch. It has a lot of fat. This has so much stretch. It's almost beginning to taste almost like a mochi. So this is a special request. So they had ham and egg on the menu. I made it spam and egg, but they had spam as an option. So this is a special delivery. Spam and egg churang fun. The mixture of rice rolls itself is not my top pick. But overall, it's worth a try for the price. Can't deny it. If you are going to go on a churang fun crawl, keep Happy Star on. Andrew, our third and final cart. I know there's other ones, but they were close today. Is the rice rolls cart. That's the official Yelp name. We went from the churang fun cart to the churang fun cart on Rutgers. To now, I kid you not, rice rolls cart. Yup. Chang Lai fish ball noodles. That's not what it says on Yelp. But that's the name we're telling you right now. Is that gale yudan? Gale yudan. Gale yudan, okay. Ho yo yudan. Okay, show us what you got. Show us what you got. Oh, the fat noodle. Oh, the fat noodle. So these are the pre-mulled. These are the pre-rolls. The pre-rolled rice rolls. You got the fresh one and the pre-made con. Wow. He's a hustler because he got the blue tooth in his ear. Alright, he gave us each of our own Andrew. This is the Hong Kong style. But you've got curry fish balls and you've got sesame fish balls. I'm going to try the sesame fish ball first because I've never tried that. Chang Lai fish ball. That couple has a lot of energy. Let me just tell you that. That energy goes from their fingertips into this churn fun. Chang Lai fish ball. I'm not going to lie, man. This spot was pretty solid. I actually really, really like their churn fun here on Grand Street. I'm going to say something crazy. Just say it. As far as the Hong Kong style goes. Just say it, man. Chang Lai car was my favorite. You mean as far as the pre-rolls go? As far as the pre-rolls go. I'm just saying, you know, I actually thought auntie's fish balls on Rutgers were maybe more to my liking. But I'm just saying as far as the rice rolls go with the sauce. This spot I think has the best sauce for the Hong Kong pre-rolled churn fun. Mixed with oil, too. Mixed with oil, too. I think the fish balls on Rutgers might have, you know, won by a little bit. And maybe the texture at the Hester cart. You know what? Every cart specialized and was the best in a different category. This was the churn fun cart battle in cheap Chinatown hidden gems, part four. All right, you guys. Today I'm joined by Engel, the owner of Bowl Key. And I know there's, you know, a couple of different branches of Bowl Key around Chinatown. It's my favorite restaurant in Chinatown, New York. Thank you, David. I'm letting you know. Engel, I'm letting you know. I'm a lucky guy. And there's no Engel. I'm not only support from the community, especially from David. He stopped by giving me a surprise visit. I really appreciate it, especially at this pandemic moment. I mean, obviously we only open a few days a week. Tell us about Bowl Key, because from what I know, Bowl Key is Chiu Jiao Southeast Asian noodles. Absolutely. Right? It's about the Chiu Jiao diaspora from Taozhou, went all over Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia. Yeah. And you are a product of that. All right. I am a Chiu Jiao third generation born in Vietnam. You know what I noticed about Chiu Jiao spots? Yeah. There's the only Chinese spot that will let you put Chiu Jiao people. Yeah. Chiu Jiao people, they're like, what you want, man? All fun, wonton mean, chou mean. I got you. Yeah. This is how we run the business in Southeast Asia. So much stuff at Bowl Key is good. We got to go in the kitchen. Let's check it out. Yeah. Come on, gentlemen. The way we want. What are we going to put the chicken broth into? What dishes is the chicken? Obviously the main broth is the chicken broth. And whatever topping, let's say for example, you asked for Chiu Jiao. You asked for Cambodia. And then you asked for a gang joint, the preservative, vegetable, and some Okay, okay. So it's a little a little bit like Chipotle. Pretty much. You know, it's way better than Chiu Jiao. I think Chipotle followed me. Yeah, that's true. Chipotle copied the Chiu Jiao people. We've been in the we've been in the the other morning the other morning. Obviously. We were at Bowl Key this spot is back from the dead man, the location over on Grand Street Closetting There's two bokehs, so you don't know which one, but the food's equally as delicious. I don't hold one over the other, but shout out to this one. Look at this, this is beautifully done, man. This is one of the highest quality. This looks like it's straight from a hawker stall. Gimbi Mi. It's the flavor I've been looking for. All right, you guys. Chiu Jiao Southeast Asian Noodles might be my favorite noodles in the entire game, man. Wow. All games. Chiu Jiao Southeast Asian Noodles. 10 out of 10, 11 out of 10, 12 out of 10. Let me co-sign it again and again. See, they were saying how Chinatown was changing. Oh my gosh, is Chinatown gonna bounce back? Bokeh is back. That's all that matters. One of my very favorite dishes here is the bokeh with haul fun. Now he calls it bokeh. I'm sure there's a Chiu Jiao name, but because obviously Vietnamese, they eat a similar dish. It's pretty much the same thing. Beef stew. Chiu Jiao bokeh. Encapsulates all the things I love about a solid, hearty beef stew, but also throws in a lot of Asian elements. This Chiu Jiao dry noodle is a lot more hard to find. Yeah. And when you do find it, it's hard to find people who do it well. This Chiu Jiao bokeh was fired, but at the same time, a lot of other versions of bokeh are fired. So that's why I gotta go with the Chiu Jiao dry noodle. Okay, I gotta go with the Chiu Jiao dry noodle as well, even though I love bokeh call, but man, this dish right here, guys, if you get one noodle dish here at Bokeh, over on Baxter Street, it's this one. This is a grilled chicken curry. The potatoes are grilled. The chicken is grilled, but it's still in the curry. It wasn't only stew. That means you're gonna get a lot of different textures, fighting, contrasting, but ultimately, building synergy. Chiu Jiao curry. Look at the technique. You also get a piece of grilled eggplant in there for moisture. Forget about it. Last but not least, Andrew, we have a very Vietnamese dish to lemongrass pork chops, and then we have a very Chiu Jiao dish. We have cuttlefish balls. Cuttlefish balls, Chiu Jiao fish balls. And it's purely cuttlefish. You don't taste a lot of filler. You don't get like a weird smooth texture. It's really, you can feel the meat. Last but not least, Andrew, another really famous Vietnamese dish they have is the lemongrass pork. And I asked him, I said, hey, Chinese don't really eat lemongrass traditionally, right? He goes, yeah, we do. But we just put it in the spa. Hey. Vietnamese lemongrass pork chop. Oh, really good. Mm. Dan, Dan, you gotta try that. Yeah, it tastes better than Korean. It's good? It's good, man. Kimchi with this, man. All right, you guys, we have made it onto the legendary historical Doi Yeol Street in Chinatown. Andrew, behind us are two Chinatown cheap eats legends. Man, you can get an entire meal here for under $7 and at most $8 here. We are talking about Taiwan pork chop house and tasty hand-pulled noodles right next to each other. I know that this spot was so heavily requested in the comments section. Taiwan pork chop house, Andrew, they're from Taiwan. They have been here on Doi Yeol Street for over 20 years. These two spots compliment each other perfectly. One, you have essentially the Taiwanese bentos and then on the right side, you got, you know, your noodles. Okay, so Taiwan pork chop house, we're going to be getting four of the popular items, four of the deeper cut items, Andrew, everything's below $8 on the menu. It's crazy. Taiwan pork chop house on Doi Yeol Street. Let's go. So unfortunately due to technical difficulties, we actually lost the footage to Taiwan pork chop house but definitely get the pork chop, get the popcorn chicken, get the stuffed lotus root. It's sweet and it's cold. Get the taro ice for dessert and if you're adventurous, the oyster pancake. All right, David, our next spot, which is right next to Taiwan pork chop house is hand-pulled tasty noodle. Also another legend on the street. As you can see right here, this is a Lonzo style hand-pulled noodle spot but it is run by people from Fujian. So this guy is a, I believe a hui min, a hui person from Lonzo. Why is the hat? Look, the hat. Keep the hat. And look, they have 10 different types of noodles here. We're getting a sneak peek and a tasty hand-pulled noodles. Let's go back here and see the magic hat. To make 10 different types of noodles in one little spot, you just gotta focus. He said his favorite style is this one right here because it allows him to show his skill level to do what he does. I'm telling you, once these OGs retire, it's not gonna be $10 anymore and if it is $10, it's not gonna be a master at work. So enjoy it now, tasty hand-pulled noodles while you can. All right, Andrew, we just walked down, what, 10, 15 steps? 10 different types of noodles. I just went back there. I cannot believe that there's that much skill in work that goes into a $10 bowl of noodles. You're not gonna find anywhere else, I believe, in America that for $10, you're gonna have one guy who's got a mastery of like 50 different noodles in his head. He makes only 10 of them here and he will make you the exact noodle you want fresh and then put it in a noodle soup and it's so complicated. Each way is so different for $10. I think it's almost comparable to selling a whole pizza pie for $10. So the special noodle, right, this has so many different types of meat. I'm not gonna lie, it looks crazy. I have oxtail, I have tendon, I have beef shank in here, I have an egg and I have tripe, bro. He said that that's his favorite style to make though. Oh, okay, so he had the most fun making this. And you can tell it's handmade because some of the noodles are like thinner at certain points and it's thicker at certain points, but overall it's the same generally. But you can see that it's handmade. Tasty hand pulled noodles. So both these noodle soups are under $10, but that has roast duck in it and this has like four types of meat. Oh, and then they didn't skip on the duck, bro. Nah, that's real roast duck. That's some op. These are some tasty hand pulled noodles. These are the knife cut because look how irregular they are. This is a true Lonzo style right here. So that's the wide hand pulled from Shanghai. This is your standard hand pulled noodles and then this is your knife cut noodles. We gotta try the knife cut, bro. Wow. Wow. Wow. Oh, this one's good. Actually, I would say my favorite noodles of these might be the knife cut right now. Yeah, yeah. Those are delicious. The op is a five out of five. All right, little bubbles, these blistering bubbles on the side of this dumpling right here. Boom, 525 for six of these. How were they, bro? Bro. My favorite is the $10 duck noodle with the wide noodle. Man, I really, what's cool about these dumplings is that it's chicken and veggie, which is different than pork and veggie. So it has a little bit less fat, I would say in a way a little bit less flavor, but it tastes clean. I might have to say that this is my favorite noodle dish that I'm eating right now. So it's a pan fried special noodle. So this dish actually does crack the $10 mark. It's about $11.50. But it's jam-packed with pork, shrimp, egg. For me, I'm gonna come back and get this noodle, especially after being back there with OG. I got a newfound appreciation for it. Tasty hand-pulled noodles. Hey, you guys, you know what you saw. All right, you guys, we are on Canal and Mott. We are talking to some of the fruit purveyors. These people are fruit experts. I'm going to be buying a large pomelo, Andrew, that is the ceremonial fruit for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Here's a pomelo that we've just got cut for us for $8. So pomelos are really, really popular in Southern China, and I'd want to say Northern Southeast Asia too. There we go. Pomelo, yuzu. Tastes like a less sour grapefruit. It's honestly better than grapefruit. Pomelo is used in a lot of like Chinese dessert spots. So man, shout out to this. Yo, this is the real coconut water, guys. Real fresh coconuts here in Chinatown. $2.50, coconut juice. Cheers. Wow. That's a Thai coconut. You know? I'm refreshed. Dude, this is even better than the $6 harmless coconut. No cap. Pass it on. These two. Thank you. Thank you. Zongchao tea, phyllo. We all can now. Hey, man, I'm not going to lie. My Cantonese is... You try to get your business again. And my Cantonese is kind of shaky. I'll be missing stuff when people say it, but you know what? A good response is just going, ha ha. Oh, yeah. Dave, I feel like she would take more than just your money. Oh, man. Ho! Oh, man. I would say, man, it's just, you know, they spend all day on the street selling, so they want to have fun. They want to have a good attitude, and they know the happier and better attitude that they have, the more money they're going to make. Jackfruit, $3 for a box. All right. So I think a lot of people confuse jackfruit for durian. Durian's way spikier. Jackfruit got little spikes. Jackfruit is way less offensive, less polarizing, but also in a way less delicious. I feel like jackfruit, it really tastes Asian. Like, I don't know. There's kind of like this Asian air to it. You know what I mean? I don't know. Jackfruit just tastes, it tastes how an old Chinese person's house smells. Like your grandma's house. I don't know if you're selling it, but I know what you mean. Our next exotic colored fruit is the red organic dragon fruit. We got this whole pale for just $2. Guys, you know dragon fruit, usually only the outside would be red, and then the inside meat would be white with the black seeds, but this is all red. Kind of looks like a beet. Pretty good. Very juicy. For me, red dragon fruit and a white dragon fruit, I tend to like the white one a little bit better, but both of them, their flavors can be a little disappointing. The con tastes like a leather couch. All right, you guys, we are at 888 Jaya. This is a Malaysian Chinese restaurant. I'm here with the sifu right now, and he is going to make me a very special order of Moon Light Hall Fund. We call it Yu Guang Hall. And it is a very special noodle. They don't have it on the menu. They use a dark soy sauce. They put a raw egg on top. I'm super excited. Let's do this. 888 Jaya is clearly a cheap eat, because here, your roti is $6.50. This is $9 for the curry noodles, and then this for the Moon Light River noodles is only $9.00. And Andrew, that's not regular roti. That's roti talor. Roti talor. That has eggs. It's got onions. It's got all types of spices in it. We did also get a roti kanai. That was only $4.50. Malaysian Moon Light River noodles. It may not taste exactly like it did in that food court in Kuala Lumpur, David. This is the next closest thing. Overall, though, shout out to them for making that dish for you, David, because they didn't have to. They could have just been like, man, I don't know that dish. Man, I don't want to deal with it. They're like, no. Or they could have been worried about, like, starving me a raw egg. Yeah. Roti talor, $6.50. And a little bit of that Tamil Indian influence. Yeah. Well, roti does come from India. So here you got some flavor, like onions. You have purple onions, white onions. It's almost like an omelet inside of a roti, and then you dip it in curry. Um, Andrew, we have the beef rendang, and we have roti kanai. Andrew, this roti kanai. So chipla. Let's get this roti kanai real quick. Mm. So apparently, Andrew, in roti, they call it roti prata in Singapore and roti kanai in Malaysia. All right, so this beef rendang here might not fall within the $10 range, but it's still a good deal. All right, guys, beef rendang. It didn't look traditional, but the flavor was banging. Oh, man, very soft beef. Last but not least, Andrew, this was the first dish they brought out, the chicken curry mee for $9. They were very, very proud of this. Andrew, I've got to say, this curry mee for $9 may be the most authentic thing they had on the menu visually. Chicken curry mee. Young tofu. I can see why they said something about the tofu. Yo, it was crazy because everything is stuffed with fish cake, whether it was the eggplant, the jalapeno, or even this tofu. It's half fish cake and half tofu. Yo, Andrew, this might be the most surprisingly good thing I've eaten today or in this entire video, Chinatown Cheap Eats 4. The young tofu at 888 Jaya, come get that. That's fish cake stuffed tofu, fried and curry. The fact that we're on part four of this video series just goes to show you the abundance and diversity that Chinatown has. Today, we are on East Broadway in Forsyth. Behind us is King's Kitchen, Andrew, this is not a tourist spot. A lot of people do not know about this spot. A lot of people do not know about East Broadway. A lot of Chinatown locals say that this spot has the best roast meats in New York. I haven't been here in a while, Andrew. We got to see what the hype is about. King's Kitchen. David, King's Kitchen gave us a very, very authentic Hong Kong experience, okay? Roast duck, see you all later. Dialogue kiss. Wow. I'm glad. I want to say something right off the bat. It wasn't the juiciest roast duck I've ever had, but it was definitely the highest quality. Yeah. Cleanest, very clean. Look at this. For me, I am taking the goose over the duck and chicken. Wow. All right, so here I have the dry-style duck. This is where they kind of drain a lot of the juices out. Now, why would they do that? Well, it's a different style. Let's see how it goes, because I saw that this was fanned out and split down the middle, and then the other ones were kept intact and enclosed. They said some people enjoy the style, and if they need to cook other dishes with it, it's better. Oh my God. That was better than the other duck. Boom. Wow. This was the lap yoke, and this was the special combo with paekwet, aulam, and yimkai. So you have your classic lap churang flavor and your lap yoke flavor, a lot of soy sauce. Overall, pretty good. I'm excited about the special combo, though, because I love the salted chicken. I'm just gonna break through. Look at this. The steam is coming out as I break up the egg. Mm. All right. I know it's one I like better, so you gotta try it. See if we agree. Am I in some sort of po' kowloon right now? The lap yoke is better. Lap yoke lap churang. This is the winner. That is the best bowl here. I think the other one, it didn't give me as much of the bowtie fond feeling. It just kind of felt like aulam or just, you know, huckchill pipe. What, over rice? For $30, you could feed three people easily. And that's a lot of meat. You know, there's not that many fond-tuan spots in Chinatown, so I'm super excited to try this out. You guys ready? Let's go. All right, you guys, we are arriving at what looks to be a very good breakfast here at Nanxi Rice Rolls. Andrew, they got it. They've taken more, like, some 2020 China influence, man. Yo, I love the quality that they're bringing this at, man. This is not like a traditional fond-tuan spot. Basically, they took something, we're like, oh, everybody loves eating this breakfast food, but it's like really only for old people. Wow, this is the Korean one. Look, they have a tag on the front. Wow. Oh, that looks great. This is kimchi, bacon, and cheese. All right, David. Yo, Andrew, maybe we might just have to split. Uh-uh, because I'm safe. Half for Dan Chang, the cameraman. Definitely, you got it. This is for Dan. This is the beef, pork, and roast duck. I've never had these three meats together, but you can see it has some of the traditional elements of a fond-tuan. It doesn't have the pork floss, but it also has cucumber, lettuce, some kind of like mayonnaise. Oh, fond-tuan. It's not bad. You know the cheese they use, it wouldn't be the cheese I would pick personally, but. Mm. But it doesn't taste like fond-tuan. I like it. And honestly, all the ingredients come together. It tastes good. I can't say it tastes like traditional fond-tuan, but at this point, it's not supposed to. You have cucumbers, lettuce, but I think you have some preserved veggies. I'm into it. We're at a very local corner, man. We're a block away from Grand Street Park, but not on the touristy side. All right, Andrew, this is the spicy garlic chicken. Yeah. And this, I got a more traditional flavor of fond-tuan because I wanted to see if I could get that flavor here. So this is more your pork with preserved veggie. Wow. I saw him grab some pork belly out of a tray and put it in there. Spicy garlic chicken, pork and preserved veggie. Man, look how nicely wrapped it is, man. They really run a good operation here. And for only like $4.50, totally worth trying. This is very filling. Yo, they weren't playing with it. They said spicy garlic. There's so much garlic in that. Jay's like a traditional Taiwanese dish, but put into a fond-tuan. I am somewhat missing, you know, the Chinese doughnut, the yo-tow, but this will pass. My favorite would be the crazy three-meat combo, the beef, pork and preserved veggie. Yo, let me try that, man. This one, you guys, didn't hit our $5 mark. This one's $6. Still a cheap eat. Three meats, let's do it. All right, let me try this garlic chicken because you haven't made a reaction. You know, David, I'm a big garlic guy, so let's see if it's too much for me. Put a whole clove in there. That's pretty good though. Like, I like this one a lot. And like I said, guys, it's kind of more like an onigiri where they're putting all different types of things inside and it's wrapped in seaweed. But it's just basically onigiri with like traditional Taiwanese and Chinese flavors. The spicy garlic chicken and nanchin, really good. Packin' the flavor. I gotta see Dan try this kimchi one real quick. Man, the kimchi one, let's go. It's like a giant kimbap. But kimbap, they don't usually put cheese in it, huh? Hey, you know what? Dan's gonna finish it, that's Korean approved. You guys, it is a rainy early fall afternoon meaning that we've officially transitioned out of summer in the fall time. What better time, Andrew, than to hit up the legendary Vanessa's Dumpling. Vanessa's Dumpling, man, when you're talking about cheap eats in Chinatown, especially ones that have been able to expand beyond the Chinatown borders because they have multiple locations around the city, I mean, you gotta talk about Vanessa's. This is a really well-ran business. So I'm definitely, for me, I like the dumplings here for sure, but I feel like the Sesame Pancakes is the thing. The Sesame Pancakes is what makes them different. Vanessa's Dumpling, let's go. You know, Auntie over here is from Beijing, so they're doing everything Beijing style. I told her I got 30 bucks, put together an order for me, and she said she's gonna go. So that's how I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna let Auntie Vanessa pick because she knows best. All right, you guys, we are here at Vanessa's Dumplings. We're looking at about $40 a little bit, over $40 worth of food. But it could have been cheaper if you didn't have the crazy add-on. Yeah, I mean, I got drinks, I got eggs and sandwiches that cost extra. You can easily eat at Vanessa's for under $10. Vanessa's Sesame Pancakes. I have the duck one. Yo, this honestly, this is really good. Mine's like a five out of five. I love this one. I bet you it's better than the duck one. For me, I don't think duck goes without egg. You're right, I could have done without the egg here. I could see without the egg it would have been better, but David, I believe you. That's a beef sandwich, how can you go wrong? Oil dumplings, Shweja. Has clear glass noodles, wood ear mushrooms, carrots. Mine kind of tastes like a shrimp cocktail. The skin on these dumplings are so thick. It's a lot, it's very filling right now. These are good, man. Very filling. Pan-fried dumplings. Guo Tian. As a traditional 80-year-old Chinese man, I gotta go for the Guo Tian. Those are good. It's pork and dill. Ah! Anyway, guys, I'm getting into the spicy wontons. Spicy wontons, Hongyou Chao Shou. The amount of chili flakes, I gotta get me a honey lemon. Vanessa, Auntie Vanessa runs her operation super clean. Everybody works super hard. Nobody's, for lack of better word, dicking around, joking around. It's very militaristic, but in a good way. Everybody's locked in, like lethal shooter. And she's adapting the flavors, the production system. And most importantly, she herself, I'm sure doesn't need to be there. She's successful. She has four, five, six, seven locations now, but she's there every day. I just love the way she runs business. And I think that other Chinatown businesses, if they could, you know, take inspiration from that, I think they're gonna do very well for themselves too. Yo, Dan, I gotta see, I gotta see Dan. Dan, can you handle this? I'm sorry. The whole thing. Yeah. Fuck out, eat the rest of it. Oh! Let me get this boba ready for you. No! Oh, that's so good. That being said, Dan goes for another one. All right, you guys, that does it for Chinatown Cheap Eats 4. Behind us right now, Andrew, is 88 Lonzo Ramen. And we covered this spot in its original location five years ago. And it's kind of like a somber note to end on in the sense that this whole series has been designed to spur on small business and encourage people to, you know, support local businesses that are struggling. But the truth is, you know, they're not everybody's so lucky. Hey, you know, as much as we try to promote and as much as people out there try to support, some popular spots will actually still close down just like this spot. As you can see the note on the front, they're ending, they're closing on October 31st, but right now you can buy some frozen dumplings and that's what we're gonna do. There was actually a whole campaign to keep this spot alive, but at the end of the day, you know. Well, they kept extending. They kept extending their lease, they kept extending their rent, but you know, there's a lot more things going on than we might be able to know, so. You know, some people, they are very much dependent on dining and business. It's true that some landlords are not really willing to work with their tenants either and give a cheaper rent. So people are racking up stuff. There's personal guarantees. It's kind of crazy. So it's okay, one last time. One last time, let's get some 88 Lonzo. All right, so we actually don't have a pot at our house. So we're just gonna give these frozen dumplings away. So what happened was I was trying to give it to the guy who was selling his trinkets, but then actually one of the customers that was looking at it was like, oh, are you giving that away? Like, I could use that. And I was like, yeah, you know, honestly, if you're somebody who is willing to take something like that, I think you need it. So I think it was cool to give that away. And yeah, I mean, you know, there's just a lot of initiatives around Chinatown right now to go get meals for people who are struggling. And you know, maybe he hadn't had these dumplings in a while, so it's a good thing to do. Support your local businesses. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching that episode of Cheap Chinatown each part four, you know, sometimes you gotta end on a somber note because somber things are real. And until next time, we out. Peace.