 Oh, oh the bean curd roll. Oh, man. I don't need Pai Kueh right now. Go, uh, choose our fun goal. Yo, Andrew, do you think Chinatown Cheap Eats is ever going to go away? I mean, I don't know, maybe eventually because gentrification is inevitable, kind of like Thanos. You know, maybe a little bit, but at the end of the day, Chinatown Cheap Eats serves the working class community while they're working, and Asians never stop working. That is true. So, what are you saying? And we're Asian. Yeah, we're pretty Asian. So it means we got to keep it going. Chinatown Cheap Eats Part 9. I feel it, I feel it, but what if we stop at 8? Because 8, I mean, Chinese people love 8. That's a lucky number too. 9 is also a Chinese lucky number, but a lot of people don't know about that one. What does 9 mean? Look it up. We got a tractor coming through. That's my cuisine, Carmine. A reopened churng fund staple, Fuzhou Lychee Pork, Mexican Chinese sponge cakes, 25 cent skewers, and the Chinese takeout spot that we used to live on top of. All these things and more in this episode of Chinatown Cheap Eats. And by the way, there have been a lot of great organizations helping support the community. So we'll leave some links down below. Let's go. All right, you guys, I'm about to order some Fujinese food. I do not give Fujinese food that often. Lighter flavors, a lot of my fun. Which is a thin rice vermicelli noodle. So this is how they're making the core cares. And they're making the suey jiao still in a wok. This is pretty interesting. Normally, you would think that the suey jiao would be cooked in here, but they're cooked over here. So this is pretty dope. They know, hey, they know the Fengbo. They know we approve. We just try to do good things in the community, man. Out of here. Go. We are still in Chinatown extended two bridges right now. And in front of May Yu Spring. And the owners Fujinese, but they're serving sort of like pan Chinese food. Obviously they have some northern touches as well. But it's pretty cool. And it was actually super clean. Yeah, it's actually really clean in here. And it's really cheap. Each of these items was under $5. We have the Fujinese one ton. We have a ton. We have a ton. We have a ton. We have a ton. We have a ton. We have a ton. We have the Fujinese one ton. We have a taro cake. We have a big pork and chive bow. We got the bond man, which is the peanut noodles. I mean, you just have a variety of things here. Steamed and fried dumpling. So I'm excited to do this sofa. I can't comment because I haven't had the food yet. This seems like a diamond in the rough. Guys, this, I think this is a hidden gem, man. We're still on Catherine Street. Hand is holding it on the bottom. I'm going to go ahead and say this, man. Fujinese style one tons that look like little gold fishes are the most underrated style of one ton. Because nobody thinks about it, but they're good. Let's try the bond man. It's the bond. The bond man. A lot of people think those are sesame noodles. They straight up told me that's just their version of peanut butter. How is that compared to other bond man's that you've had? Sweet, salty, creamy. I like it. Noodles are cooked fresh. It's super hot. Can't complain. I believe that this is a Fujinese thing. Fried radish cake. Dumpling. It's pretty good. I hope. May you spring. May you try this. Aren't you guys, I think when it comes to ultra cheap Chinatown dumplings, these were 250. You just, you know, you're well within your right to just to do that. A little bit of that. Very solid. A lot of chill time, which is the green leak. And I've got some fried fish bowels. Why don't you go put this bowels in until you open it. Big springs. Oh! Wow. Ain't no wonder why you just have one of these two boxes and you're good for breakfast. You're good for lunch. I did not expect there to be big juicy chunks of pork belly in here. Dropped out. Might be the five out of five. There are some low-key bangers here at May you and you know, is everything fire? I don't know, but this is May you spring on Catherine is a hidden gem. You know what to order guys. Here's the address right here. Marco, we're on Henry Street. This is another one on your childhood list. Tell us about it. Yo, so I've been coming here for maybe the last 10 years. This is my first rice bowl I've ever had before. And they're really good. They're really cheap. And I had never had another rice bowl besides this one. Right, but they closed down during the pandemic and they just reopened. Yeah, they closed down for a few months. Yeah. This is really interesting, Andrew, because this is not really fully Chinatown. We're in Chinatown extended right now. And I would say, in my opinion, interview zero percent tourists. Zero. There's no tourists. They cannot rely on tourists at all. I don't think you're going to find this spot on a tourist list. Okay. You're going to find spots that are deep in the heart of Chinatown. Of course, we get it. But these are the outskirts. This is for the neighborhood. Sun Hing Lung Hall Fund Tofu. We are here at Sun Hing Lung Hall Fund in Tofu. The most longest name ever. I'm not going to lie. The food looks really good out here in Two Bridges. I was not expecting this. They're making it for the local people. You know what it is? They're making it for the local people. The local taste buds. So you got to make it legit, you know? And I'm not saying like these are the most expensive dishes, the highest quality, but the taste is on point. All right, you guys. We have the roast pork. You know, this is a classic. Chashu. I mean, what's more Chinatown than roast pork? I'm really excited about my curry fish ball one. Let's check this out. Dude, the amount of hair and labor they put into this for $2.50, $2 is incredible. I thought that the tofu was actually fish balls at first. Honestly, this is a five out of five. I think this is the best thing here. I don't even need to try that other stuff. The lapchoum one is good. The lapchoum one is good. The lapchoum one is good. All right, I dare you to try this one. So good. Okay. Okay. You got to get the curry fish ball one. Get an egg in it. The curry is on point. The flavor is spicy. It's very, very flavorful. It's not too milky. Fish balls are good, man. That's the one. That's the one. We're here on Madison and Catherine here at Shunwei. Marco, you grew up going to this spot. Can you tell us more about it? Yo, it does not get more hood than Shunwei. All right, does not get more hood than that. This is like the Mike Tyson of hood eats right here. Right. This might be something that you more would think you would find in Brooklyn or Harlem, right? Now, what are we defining as hood Chinese food? It's because this spot serves a dish that is just chicken wings and french fries, which not every hole in the wall Chinese spot is even going to serve. Even spots that serve chicken wings may not serve it with just french fries. But listen, what they did here was they perfected the chicken wing. It has the perfect crispiness to it. They downed it with hot sauce. You have your fries on the side and overall it's a 10 out of 10 over here with the chicken wings. And you can get sweet plantains. I got sweet plantains. So where could you find that anywhere else? Like on the outskirts of Chinatown or Lower Eastside area? How long has Shoomate been here for? How many years? How many years? I got 10 something years. 10 years bro. Yo, I'm not going to lie, Marco. I think this is the first time we've done like an Asian centric food video where you knew more than me. I know, right? You do. I don't even know what the garlic sauce is. Yo, I'm going to put you on, David. I'll put you on. All right. Let's take a look at what we got. That's the way to rip the bag, open it up. It was very cheap, guys. I want to say everything was about like six dollars. Six dollars. Here's the main event, chicken wings and fries. Of course, with the hot sauce on it, garlic sauce on it. With the ketchup on it too. Everything. Wow. Yo, we got the whole nine yards on there. I mean, it doesn't get better than that. But with these chicken wings that I love, is that cinnamon taste. Obviously, they have the fried plantains that sort of cater to like the Dominican or Spanish population. Yeah, which there's a lot of Dominicans, you know, but there's a lot of Dominicans here in the area. So, you know, everybody can see crab rangoons. Oh, you look really good. Good. Yeah, man. The history of the crab rangoon is really interesting. It's kind of based off of a Burmese dish, but it was served at Thai restaurants. It's from the Bay area. It's really not a Chinese food at all, but it uses one ton chips and cream cheese on the inside. So, dude, this is your amazing. No, it's good. Those are some good crab rangoons. There's very little crab in there. Cream cheese, I say. But, yo, it don't get more hood than that, man. We love our cream cheese in the hood. It's little bits of the imitation crab. I swear to you, this is the best Chinese hood takeout chicken wings you'll ever have in your lifetime. Okay. Hood chicken wings. It's good. It's good. And they make the base batter very, like, blank slate. Wow. Like, it's kind of just an eggy flavor. It's not really like, it doesn't have the salt and pepper or the jalapenos on it or anything. What I love about these chicken wings is that the batter's not too thick. It's probably one layer. They didn't double batter it. And you really get to taste the chicken because the wings aren't that big, but the chicken is tender. And, yo, it's almost like, why would I want to go to KFC of Popeyes when I have chicken wings out of the fetch right here? In a larger sort of macro perspective, do you bemoan the disappearance of hood Chinese food? Because it's sort of slowly going away. Yo, it's slowly going away. But, yo, it's what I grew up on, like, you know, growing up, I didn't have a lot of money, so I was always, you know, getting my hood spots all the time. And, you know, it's a staple in my life, the hood Chinese spots, which a lot of them are going away, and I noticed a lot of them, they're making seafood spots out of them, you know? So they're cool, but you can't be the hood Chinese takeout. You can't do it. Hood Chinese spots in Chinatown. Sirens. It doesn't get any more real than that. Onto the next spot. All right. Next up on Chinatown Cheap Eats is a very interesting spot, Golden Forest. Now, on the spectrum of Chinese takeout spots, especially in New York City, there is a spectrum, okay? There was ones that are a little bit more for, like, the, you know, Asian community, and then there's ones that are really designed for, like, the non-Asian community. And I would say Golden Forest does an amazing job of cutting the difference. The quality-wise, portion-wise, and even price-wise, it's actually gonna be in between an actual Chinese restaurant and a Chinese takeout spot. So, ran by a great family. They're super nice and fun little fact. First time we lived in New York, we lived on top of Golden Forest. Let's go. Hello. Hello. How are you? Chris, how long has Golden Forest been here? 25 years. 25 years. These are the customers. They're just customers. They're becoming my friends, you know? They're repeating, you know? Some of them, you know, order, like, three, four times a week, you know? When my customer eating happy, I'm happy, too. No complaining, you know? Guys, when it comes to Cheap Chinatown Eats, you've got to include some of the Chinese takeout spots. And like we were saying, this spot has really split the difference between, like, an authentic restaurant and an Americanized Chinese spot. I mean, here, even the orange chicken, or this is, excuse me, this is the General So's chicken. And as you can see, the quality is pretty good. It's not too soupy. It really looks like the picture here. That's really good. The chicken to crust ratio is super high. One thing that's really interesting is that kind of because of the pandemic, a lot of even Chinese international students got introduced to more of the American Chinese food because during the pandemic, they needed to get food and a lot of the big chains or big restaurants were closed, but the Chinese takeout spots were open. So they were ordering from spots like this. And so you got kids from China eating Americanized General So's chicken. Of course, I got to go with the chicken and broccoli. White breast meat, big slices, cooked very well. Just not that greasy, man. Shout out to Golden Forest. Sometimes when you get chicken pieces this big from certain other spots, it can kind of feel a little rubbery or it's like over-starchized, I think. You know how it's like a little bit too soft and it's too tenderized? But this is just right. Really plump pieces. Honestly, this is one of my favorite Cantonese noodle dishes. This is Singaporean, my fun. And honestly, I've never really seen them eat this dish in Singapore, so I definitely think this is a Hong Kong creation. But they have their own style here. They added some Napa cabbage, which I actually think might be from some of the Fujinese influence because they are Fujinese owners, but they also are masters at the Cantonese. Fast food cuisine, man. Look at this stuff. It's very clean, guys. It's not too greasy. The shrimp is very plump. That is some of the cleanest sing-tao-tao my fun out there. I'm not even gonna lie. Even sometimes if you get this at a restaurant, they won't spend as much time on it because this is not what they specialize in. So sometimes they'll just whip it out as like a filler dish. But this, this is the main event. Of course, a classic dish at any Chinese hoodspot is the chicken wings and plantains. And of course, plantains, this is gonna be something that you're gonna more find in New York and maybe the overall East Coast because of the Caribbean influence out here. But of course, guys, these chicken wings, they don't really try to make them too Chinese. They keep them pretty plain. They don't put like the salt, pepper, garlic on it and stuff like that. They just keep it regular to let the hot sauce shine. So, guys, we showed you Shunwei earlier over on Catherine Street, but this is Golden Forest on Grand Street. Whoa. I can actually tell in the seasoning they put chicken powder in the batter. So it's like chicken on chicken. It's the double chicken flavor. When it comes to Chinese American restaurants and Chinese takeout spots, I see why people want to elevate it and reinvent things, but I don't think that's always the case. I don't think you need to do that. I think all you need to do sometimes is tweak things, maybe upgrade the quality of things. You don't even have to change the recipes completely. I mean, look at Chris. He's running a successful business. You know, he has been in America for a while. So he understands how to keep customers happy. And basically, man, you just provide good quality and be nice. And ultimately, I think it's going to work out. All right. So our next spot on Marco's personal list. We're outside of Manawon Bakery. Right still here on Catherine. There's a lot of hidden gems on this street. And you love this spot. Like you were telling me about this bakery. I know they have multiple locations, but you like this location. I've been coming here since I was a kid. My aunt, my great aunt, my great uncles. We all get the Taoshebaos and we get the hot dog buns. So she recommended, you know, me get the ham and egg sandwich. Have you ever had the ham and egg? I have. I have had that. I had the ham and egg, the Taoshebao, the coconut bread. Oh, let me get the ham and egg. You get the ham and egg. You're the ham and egg man. So the owners of Manawon are originally from Hong Kong. And you know, during the pandemic, they're just trying to stay afloat. They said that they weren't able to release any new items. So they're just doing the traditional ones, the ones that they know will sell. All right. Yo, ham and egg. They didn't go for that yellow folded egg. They went for a real egg. That's the real egg. It's a fried egg right there. And I got oval tin. I don't know if you ever had this, but. Never have. Next time. Next time. All right. We got next time. My markup just got his teeth done. Yeah. So you can't drink anything with color. I get it. All right. Yo, Catherine has got crazy stimulus, man. I just feel like we're like in a village in China. Like in, we are on Taoyang Lu. Manawon Bakery. All right. Let's break it open. Yeah. Tintan for to bao. It's a real egg right there. Glizzy bread. There it is. The glizzy bread though. That's a classic. One thing I always call my eye when I came in was kid. It was just a bread, the shyness of it. But like this, the sweetness of the bread. It's amazing. Oh, watch out. We got a tractor coming through. You know that guy? I do know that. That's my, that's my cuisine. Come on. What? I don't know. I don't know. I'll say this, Manawon Bakery. Tastes like a neighborhood spot in Hong Kong. Very authentic. They have multiple locations, guys. Check out Manawon Bakery. Yo. This announcement that they have running on a loop, David, is just saying bread, one for one dollar. Bread, one for one dollar. Bao. Ya ko. Ya man. Pan-hao. You good? All right. On to the next spot. We ordered the tofu porridge dish. Yeah. This is the tofu porridge dish. The authentic tofu porridge dish. The authentic tofu porridge dish. The authentic tofu porridge dish. The authentic tofu porridge dish. The authentic tofu porridge dish. Yeah. Talking about how this is Fuzhou-style food, but it's like from the city. They want to let us know this is like the new Fuzhou-style food, modern Fuzhou-style food from the city. They make new Fuzhou-style food here, so they wanted to make sure that I knew Andrew. Yeah. They were not from the countryside or the village. They were from the city of Fuzhou. All right, you guys, you're looking at a ten dollar plate of seafood mee fun from New Arping. Hell yeah, man. This is a Fuzhou-style dish. I've only had maybe like three times before in my life. Obviously, it's not that crazy. Oh my goodness. This is the lychee pork. And this is lychee pork. Man, this lychee pork is the dish that I was really looking forward to trying. Hey, I was looking to try the mee fun too, but this one, this is the one. Oh. And then I got these fried taro pork. So these are three dishes actually, Andrew. Ah. Not Cantonese. Not Cantonese, guys. We are eating modern metropolitan Fujinese dishes right here. I would say the place that we've had the food that was most similar to this at Andrew was actually in Taizong, Taiwan, which actually, obviously, they speak a language very similar to Fujinese, because they like really sweet meats there. That's a good point, man. Let's take a look at this lychee pork here. Okay, so it's bright red. Obviously, you got some coloring in there. Is it going to taste like lychee? Because, guys, you've had orange pork. You've had orange chicken. You've had orange beef. Have you had lychee pork before? Fujinese lychee pork. It tastes kind of good. It's cooked perfectly. It's very tender. It's juicy still. There's no batter on here. But I wouldn't say I really taste the lychee. I would say it definitely tastes sweet. Kind of like there's like a fruit syrup there, but I'm not sure that it's lychee. Here, we got fried pork and taro. Fried pork and taro. Only, I think this is nine bucks, guys. So this has kind of like a, I want to say a thicker kind of crust on top of it. Pretty solid. Actually, I would say maybe this is my favorite dish so far. So, guys, I think what's really cool is that, you know, we've been eating a lot of Chinese food and we go around to a lot of spots. And we're getting to the point where we're trying dishes that we've never had before. Right. And any time that I get to try kind of a modern food from that region, which it almost feels like you get a chance to eat more modern like Sichuan or Beijing food in America than you do modern Fujianese food. Right, right. But now you're getting that food that is popping over there and it's Fujianese, so I'm excited. I'm excited to be here. Seafood meat fun. Pretty good. Very tasty. That's way better than I thought. I forgot that this was a seafood dish. I thought it was like intestines, so I really was not excited. But when I realized that's actually like squid and cuttlefish and maybe some large clams, it's good. That actually might have been the best dish. I love the texture of the meat fun. It's like really small, but it's light and fluffy and it's just kind of like dissolving in my mouth. That is one of the most underrated noodle dishes in the Chinatown world. As far as the Zingbukku Kaifan, the mushroom and chicken dish, I struck out again. Moving on with Cheap Chinatown Eats Part 9, guys. If you are a late night foodie around New York City, this is probably one of your low-key slept-on spots that only a few people know about. It's Yunxiang Rice Noodle. They specialize in Guoqiao Mian, which is crossing the bridge noodles from Yunnan. But they also have garlic crawfish. We got to check it out. Delicious. Malasha Longxia. An art, you guys. I know that we already covered Yuewang and I named it one of the best, if not the best meats spot in Chinatown. But I just had to get the Peapot Duck one more time, guys. I don't think we had enough focus on it last time. Like I said, guys, the Peapot Duck is a regular roast duck that has gone through in an additional drying process. It's almost like dry-aged steak. I just got these drinks from Different Cup, Different Flavor. And basically, they have a new menu from three months ago. And three months ago, I had just gotten a little snack there, the little spiral tornado thing. But they got new drinks. Here is a layered avocado milk tea with real avocado in there. As you can see, there's faint lines of green right here. That's for the avocado. Beautifully made. You actually have a mango yogurt milk drink, okay? And both of these, this one was $6.50. This one was $5.50. And they're using coconut milk, right? They are using coconut milk. I got this Mexican chicken wrap, which of course you've never seen in Chinatown before. This right here was $5. So would you say, Andrew, in 2021, these boba spots are kind of like doing something different? Bro, I think boba spots, they can really have fun with the snacks, because they're cooking like the same thing, whether it's popcorn chicken or chicken skewers, but then you just wrap it up differently. Throw a different sauce on it. You have a whole new item. It's pretty interesting. Quite good. It's got spicy chicken, a little spicy mayo, and then it has cucumbers and lettuce. Honestly, that is a great snack. Very flavorful and very fresh. Chiwu tea. Honestly, from the Mexican chicken burrito to these avocado coconut milk smoothies, Chiwu tea. I'm going to go ahead and give it at least like a 4 out of 5. All right, you guys, we've arrived at Yunxiang Rice Noodle. Andrew, we actually have come here a few times on our own and not filmed it. Man, I actually really like this spot because it's open pretty late. It's really one of the only spots in Chinatown that is open past 10 p.m. right now. Garlic crawfish. Bro, so David, crawfish in China, it doesn't come from like some American Cajun influence, right? They've been eating crawfish in China for many decades. Well, the thing is, guys, most people who eat crawfish live around a lot of rivers, not oceans, because that's where crawfish or crayfish are found. And in China, there are a lot of rivers. Yeah, no, I mean, I remember going to Shanghai, what, 15 years ago, maybe? And they were, crawfish was big. Mala Shao Shao Long Shao. It was actually my first time getting this. Wow, that's actually not bad at all. So the garlic one was about $17, both flavors are. Like we said, we're going to break it right here. Some people, they like to, you know, juice the head. Where do you stand on the crawfish debate? Because a lot of people say, you know, it's a lot of work for not a lot of meat. I think if you grew up eating it, you're going to like it. For me personally, I don't lean towards crawfish. I don't have a problem with it. I think it has its place, but it's definitely not my favorite. I would rather eat shrimp. It's a great way to get involved with a group of people, but I'm not going to sit down by myself and bang out, you know, 30 crawfish, ultra dry peapot duck with this really sweet caramel sauce they gave me. It's like, I don't even know, it's ultra sweet. And we want to note that this is not from Yunxiang Mishan. This, uh... From Ye Guang across the street. Yes, this duck is from Ye Guang. Okay, so I'm taking the extra, I'm taking the extra crispy duck here, and I got this sweet sauce, David, that I'm pouring onto it. Do you know what kind of sauce this is? Is this that plum sauce? What is this supposed to be? It's like a double sweet version. Double sweet version of plum sauce on the extra crispy duck. Wow. Very like jam-like. Kind of honey-ish. I would venture to say that most people who have been eating roast duck their entire life, even other agencies, do not get the peapot duck. But from now on, anytime I get the chance, I'll take the peapot over the regular duck. All right, you guys, this is the Guoqiao Mian. I got the mushroom one. It's got the fish and pork balls already in it. And this is, uh... Sometimes people get it wrong, and they start dipping it like it's hot pot throughout, but there's no flame underneath this pot, so it's not gonna keep cooking. So we gotta go... Shrimp. Lobchurn. Xiangchang. Wood ears. Some sort of a pickled radish. Garlic sauce. Some sort of pickled garlic. Yeah, that one's good. That's a big... Quail egg. Tofu skin. Love that. Slice of ham. It's kind of comical. Random the ham. Of course, here I also ordered some additional slices of beef. I could have ordered chicken, pork, fish. I had a couple different options. Last but not least, once all the meat has cooked, you want to put the noodles. You do not want to put the noodles first. I know that is also a common rookie mistake. Here we have actually one of the classic Chinese side dishes. Now, oftentimes it is not believed that Chinese have the equivalent of panchang, like the Koreans. But this is actually one of them. So they're slightly blanched shredded potatoes, tossing some vinegar, chili oil, and the dish is called tu dosu. And different spots make it different. But personally, I like my potatoes shredded very thin and very light. And I like this dish here. I love this dish. It's only $6 here. The crawfish, they were a little bit expensive. $17. Of course, this noodle right here at its base was $12. Every add-on is about $2. Ooh! I mean, what more could you ask for? Guo Chao Nian, crossing bridge noodles makes mushroom. You guys, I think that this is such a good alternative to getting a hot pot. A hot pot can be expensive. Sometimes you don't have that. Even, I think some of the boiling point style is a little bit unwieldy. I mean, sometimes with the fire underneath. I think that you're not Guo Chao Nian, crossing bridge noodles is an excellent, excellent alternative under $15. And I love how the flavor is light. Sometimes with hot pot, it feels like that you have to get a very, very salty, strong broth. Because, you know, you're really just cooking your stuff in there and then picking it out. Oh my goodness, man. We are being so Yunnan right now. Oh my gosh. Honestly, I would say, given that you do get a lot of things for $12, it's like probably one of the cheapest experiential foods you can get in Chinatown. I'm not saying it's the cheapest of the cheap, but in terms of getting an experience with it, I mean, you probably could take a girl on a date here or take your significant other here. $12, it's about as cheap as experiential gets. All right, Andrew, overall here at Yunshan, what was your favorite thing? I'm going to go ahead and say the crossing bridge noodles. You get so many different flavors. You could pick sour fish. You could pick pickled cabbage. You could pick pork, beef, chicken. Or, of course, I pick mushroom. Listen, David, for the price and how late this spot is open, everything is solid. But for this meal, I got to go with the crawfish, garlic flavor. I mean, I could just drink this broth as is. And normally, guys, this spot is open till 3 a.m., obviously pre-COVID. All right. This is Dan's very first time having a crawfish. Is this your first time? No. First time there. Opening in my cell please. Break the tech. You just broke the arms off. Bro. You got to break the body. Yeah, right here. Yeah. Don't suck the juice, bro. All right, so in your honest opinion, is it worth the effort or not? All right, our next spot is Nori Tide. We filmed here before Chad. This is your spot. Yes. And you guys have some cheap eats. Yeah. So our food is priced reasonably well. We're very well known for our all-day happy hour. $6 beer, $7 wines, $8 well drinks. Before 7, you could get any one of these skewers right here for 25 cents. Yo, 25 cents is ridiculously cheap. Now, I understand that your entrees and stuff may not fall into our typical Chinatown cheap eats, but your skewers for 25 cents after you buy a $6, $7 beer, that's a crazy deal. Yeah, so our beer prices, wine and well drinks is all day. So like I said before, before 7, these are our vegetable options right here. You have the eggplant, king oyster mushroom, okra, and brussel sprouts, sorry. They're all glazed with lemongrass, lemongrass chicken, lemongrass pork, spicy human chicken, spicy human pork. Man, now that the weather's warming up, it's starting to feel kind of like Thailand. Oh yeah, definitely. Guys, we also have these Tom Yum Cheecherones. Obviously, this is not a traditional Thai dish, but you guys sprinkle some of your Tom Yum salt on there. That's really cool. And then your lime fries are super well known. And these are really, really fire. Because what, these are Thai lime, right? Yeah, they're Kapir lime fries with Tom Yum May only. Guys, Kapir lime. These are some of my favorite fries actually you can get in Chinatown. Oh my goodness, these fries are incredible. Chad, I'm not going to lie, for 25 cents this officially makes it way cheaper than that Xiao Cao cart across the street. 25 cents, I want to say it's not even that cheap in China, at least in the city. Yeah, pretty much, you know, even though it is our happy hour special, we don't make the portion smaller than our regular out of cart entrees towards the dinner time. But yeah, we're not skimping on anything here. Guys, it just goes to show you you can find Chinatown Cheap Eats even in spots that you wouldn't expect. Alright you guys, this is one of my very favorite spots in all of New York City, Nory Thai, Grand Street, come check it out. You will not find better skewers for 25 cents. So the owners of this spot are from Tianjin. If you guys know about Tianjin, Tianjin is really known for dumpling so they're doing Tianjin style Huotie here. That's almost like the number one style in China. Alright you guys, we are in front of Fry Dumpling right here and I had no idea this spot existed but it's got pretty decent yelp ratings. We are on, I forgot which street we're on right now, maybe Madison or Monroe. Henry. We're on Henry, I'm sorry. My two bridges streets get a little confused sometimes. Yeah, we gotta look at these Tianjin Huotie which is a very northern style from Tianjin. All this by the way guys was $4. They also have Tianjin Shaolong Bao's guys. I've never even had one of these before. I didn't even know they had Shaolong Bao's in Tianjin. That's just what they call it. I think I just had some juice in it, let's check it out. It ain't bad for $2 in order guys. I especially recommend the Huotie. $2 and they call these Tianjin Shaolong Bao's. Tianjin Shaolong, like Tianjin Bao's, but it's different, it's Tianjin Soup Dumplings. Well they wrap them, yeah, you're right. It is more like a Guobili Bao's but they call them Shaolong Bao's. Plenty of juice, okay, chives. Not bad. Honestly, this is one of the best $2 dumpling spots I've ever been to. Come check it out guys. Henry Street, just simple name, Fry Dumpling. Yeah, I come here all the time. They're actually really good for a dollar. Which dumplings do you even get? I usually get $2 of regular dumplings, pork. We actually come here for like years, to be honest. Yeah, if it's $2 you can't beat it. Hey guys, so even over the course of filming this Chinatown Cheap Eat series, you know, sometimes restaurants change concepts. So right now we are outside of what used to be Bepga. And you guys remember that from Cheap Chinatown Eat Part 1. Now we're at Part 9 and now it has become Rice and Miso. But of course guys, An is still around. The French Vietnamese guy. An, tell us about this spot right now because you're a partner here. What's going on? So Rice and Miso. It's a homestyle Japanese eatery. And it's all based on Miso and rice. That's why it's called Rice and Miso. And it's a bento box made with, we have an onigiri in it. So onigiri, we have a choice of onigiri. And it's all healthy food but tasty. Alright, from Bepga to Rice and Miso. Let's go. Alright, so we got our two bentos here at Rice and Miso. And the bentos here actually come with onigiri rice instead of just like a regular serving of rice. And here I got the chicken with actually a very special scallion sauce. Here you have the salmon here that's all marinated in koji, which is a fermented rice. You've got your side dishes. You've got your seaweed with tomato. You have your radishes. You've got your green beans. Radishes again, you know, kind of like a palate cleanser. Get your little veggies in there. It's very healthy. I think a lot of people are familiar with Japanese restaurant food, whether that's like omakase or some other type of thing. But this is actually what a lot of Japanese people are eating at home. Some version of this. And this is obviously, you know, like a very nice elevated lunch at a price point coming in at about $15 and $18 respectively. Yeah, for Chinatown that's not super, super cheap, but we're talking about high quality here. Wow. That salmon was cooked perfectly. It was really soft. I was expecting it to be a little bit more firm. It wasn't overcooked though. Let me try these green beans. You know, lots of flavor and it tastes very healthy. Mmm. It is called rice and miso. So of course you have your miso soup right here. It definitely does look next level. You got a little bit of mushrooms and vegetables in there. Life expectancy in Japan is very high and people age very, very well there. And I think if this is what they're eating, I could tell, man, because this is healthy and it's tasty. You got a lot of great fermented stuff that's good for your gut. You know, a lot of high, you know, a lot of probiotics and stuff. So overall, man, rice and miso, if you guys are looking for a high quality, healthy lunch, I can see it right here on the lower east side. This is something that Manhattan does not have a lot of. I think it's actually more prevalent in Brooklyn. Check it out. All right. So our next spot on cheap Chinatown eats part nine is a spot that a lot of people requested that we cover the back story of. We're at Spongies Cafe and basically Fernando is a Mexican guy who learned how to make sponge cakes from a sponge cake master and he has opened up his own spot here and they are some of the best ones in town. Amen. Shout out to Fernando. I think that that's a beautiful American story, right? You know, Chinese guy moves to America, becomes a sponge cake master, or was a sponge cake actor back in Asia. Obviously he has an apprentice who's Mexican, Fernando. He goes on to open up his own shop with his own influences, his own twists. That's a dope story. Oh, yeah. That's hard work and dedication right there at its best. And he is right on Sponge Cake Alley. Like this is a little dessert block here between Hester and Canal. Yeah. All types of mochi donuts and sponge cake galore. Let's check it out. All right. So I am right here with the man himself, Fernando. Yo, Fernando, nice to meet you. Where are you originally from? Mexico. Okay, man. What's the story behind Spongies? The story behind Spongies, so this is whatever I do right now is my CFO legacy. He's original from Taiwan. He's starting on... His parents come from Hong Kong. How did you want to make sponge cakes traditional but also do something different with it? Okay, this is traditional. I learned it from my grandmother. So when I started working with my CFO, so he just... I mixed everything together between Spanish and Haitian. So that's how I started and everything come out much like, you know. It's coming different. It's totally different compared to the rest of the people. So, Andrew, you were telling me that this sponge cake cooked by Fernando has some Spanish traits in there as well as obviously the Cantonese traits. It's actually a fusion. So it's like pretty much half a Hong Kong sponge cake and then half like Spanish sponge cake. But to be fair, the Hong Kong style was already mixed with like a British style. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like a fusion on a fusion. Here we go. David, you have the green tea one. Guys, they already sold out of a lot of flavors, so we weren't able to get everything. But trust me, this is good. This is good stuff. I have the cranberry flavor. I think everybody has their preference, but these are really good sponge cakes. They're really pluffy. I definitely know why they sell out for a reason early because they're really, really good cakes. This is something really interesting they do here. Obviously more from the Hispanic or European side of influence is their roll cake, but with like jelly and fruit in the middle. Yeah. They kind of look like one of those Cantonese Hong Kong cake rolls, but it's definitely like an in-between because like we said, a lot of the Hong Kong bakery items have roots from Europe because that's where they got the whole kind of like bakery style from. Well, Hong Kong was a European colony. The roll is $6. The sponge cakes are $1. I mean, come here. You get a little fluffy cake. It's very nice. It's whole fluffy. And it's tasty. Hey, you guys, spongies cafe, this is one of the best new Chinatown cheap eats. You got to check it out. We're here at Shinka Ramen over on Bowery. And we've actually been here before, but let me tell you this. This is one of those modern kind of non-traditional ramen spots, but they take the ramen art very, very seriously. Now they just released their new Mexican items. They have this brand new lamb shank birria ramen and they have beef cheek birria tacos too. So these three tacos are about $10. And then this ramen for this special one is going to be about $17, $18. But for the lamb shank, I mean, that's totally worth it. Okay, so for the special edition, they're going to give you this humongous lamb shank and it's been soaking in their consomme, which is super smoky because they put like three different types of Mexican smoked chilies in here. And the ramen noodles are, of course, very traditional. So wow, this lamb shank is just falling apart, bro. It's so juicy. I'm excited. And by the way, if you're wondering, this spot has won some Japanese ramen awards. Just look at the, look at the awards, man. They speak for themselves. Yes, is this a Chinatown Cheap Eats? You know what? For what you're getting? I'd say it's a really good value. This is the lamb shank birria ramen. Yo, oddly enough, it really does taste like a mixture of some very smoky consomme with kind of like some tangkatsu elements. So it's a little bit thicker, but honestly, that is super good. All right, guys, time to try the queso birria tacos here at Chinca. This is in Chinatown. This is beef cheek queso birria. I've never had beef cheek in a birria taco before. This is the consomme. Wow, super smoky. Had a little pickles there. Wow, guys, I got to give the ramen and the tacos five out of five, cinco out of cinco. I'm giving it, guys, these are a must try in Chinatown. I know that there's not a lot of great Mexican food in the area, but man, this is next level crispy, next level juicy, next level meat. Fresh elote at a ramen shop in Chinatown. Guys, they are doing things differently and they got a beer garden out there. You guys just got to come to Chinca Ramen. I know it's very low key. It's hard to see from the street, but if you walk in, you are going to get yourself a culinary experience. All right, you guys, we are looking at the $4.50 drinks here from 12 Corners. Marco, you said something interesting off camera. What was it? Yeah, so like whenever I'm in Chinatown, I usually just see like boba tea shops. So this definitely sticks out for sure. Right. Don, being Chinese American, but owning a coffee coffee shop is more rare. Obviously, I would say it's more like a Korean thing to own a coffee shop typically. Yeah. Now, here we have some non-coffee drinks. You have a pumpkin spice latte. You have your hibiscus tea. You have a lychee matcha lemonade. And then you have your rose lavender latte here. So these are really, these are the 2021 drinks, you know, that you need on your menu and the refreshing going into spring and summer. I'm excited. Shout out to Don. Let's go. I knew I had to try the lychee lemonade matcha mix because I knew that was going to be interesting mix. David, try this. Yo, you know why this is pumpkin spice latte is better? Because it tastes like roast Chinese pumpkin. Wow. Yo, I'm not even lying, guys. Not just because we know Don, this is a good drink. This is good. It's a fire. The lychee lemonade matcha. Lychee lemonade matcha. As far as I know, they're the only ones doing matcha lychee. So I'm going to give this one a five out of five. That one, you know, it's PSL. But like I said, is the pumpkin flavor more like a Lamquah? It's more like a squash. Wait, real quick. Is it like Starbucks pumpkin spice? All right, Marco, you try it. All right. Try this. I'm white. You got that anti-bucket. Yeah, that's a good PSL. Oh, man. Listen. No, it's not as artificial, right? That's really good. Come to your local spa. Don't go to a big corporation like Starbucks. Come over here and try it out. Hey, you got a hibiscus tea here instead of Starbucks. Everything's solid, man. Across the board. Less than $5 each. Come to 12 corners here on Elizabeth. Fresh and drinks for the summer. Our next Chinatown chief eat is multisweet. Now, and multisweet is really interesting because they're bringing a bakery concept from China 2021 to the US. So here's the story. There are actually students that are from China that studied in the US. They stayed here and they wanted to open up a cool business and they really got into doing all different types of new bakery goods. Now some are based in Chinese tradition and some are not. Can you tell us real quick about multisweet? Like when someone asks you, what is it? What do you say? All right. So actually it's like my second week working here. So I'm like new, but we have all these like Chinese style visas here. And basically these kind of aggro clubs are more like like traditional Chinese stuff. But like these shortcakes are like, they were like super popular in mainland China like during the last decade. But like it's like new, new like trend in China. So they like they kind of brought these trends also here. Because the flavors are more updated, right? Yeah, it's not just super, super traditional Chinese flavor, but like super popular in mainland China, like with like younger people. What I like about multisweet, and I know it's just a little stall inside a Nori Thai here on Grand Street, but they're taking all these popular pastry and bakery items that are popular amongst the millennials and youth in China right now, and they're recreating them here. All right, so let's go through. I mean, can we try like maybe the top five, six things? All right, you guys, you heard the story. This is the next up on Chinatown TV, part nine multisweet. Bro, these are trendy pastries in China. So these are what people our age are eating in China. So this is really cool for me. I got the mochi matcha dangta. You know, I got to go with the durian. One thing I know about people in Asia, is they generally don't like their sweets as sweet, especially in China. The ratio of durian paste inside of this pastry is perfect. I'm getting some in every bite, and the durian is not too funky. I think this is a great segue into durian for anybody who wants to try it. I think for anybody with more traditional taste buds, they're going to say that matcha mochi dangta is a five out of five. Taro and matcha, these are about $4.50 each. It is fascinating to have that much egg yolk, mochi, and crispy flaky pastry all at the same time. Normally, you would think those flavors would be separated. All right, here we got some classic flavors. I have the classic dangta, aka dangta, aka egg tart. I've actually got the pork floss, the ronson, ronson. And you know what I've been really impressed by here, Andrew? This is actually like an advancement of an older style. But not breaking that older frame. This still would appeal to somebody who's like 70 or 80, if you could get them to try it. Yo, because to be honest, this traditional pastry, David, you already know me. I don't like it. If you are looking for treats to bring your parents, your grandparents, but still give them something new, it's true, Andrew, that a lot of the really modern dessert shops, those items are probably not going to appeal to your grandparents due to the nature that it's too westernized. It's too sweet. And I love all those boba shops, Bibel and Sip, too. But if you want something to give your grandma, come to Multisweet. It's not too sweet over in Noritai. It's not too sweet. It's just right. Hey, I'm not going to lie, Andrew. I always told you. I have five taste buds. I don't like it. You're kind of a father. I don't go against it. All right, you guys. Next up on Chinatown Chief Eats is the Little One. Now, this spot is offering some of the best Japanese desserts in the city at an affordable price and nobody knows about it because it's on East Broadway, guys. We're in the middle of a very inconspicuous neighborhood that you would not believe some of the best Japanese desserts are being cooked on. But believe me, they are. Let's check it out. Everything is made here. We make it from scratch. All the recipes are ours. The only thing that we import from Japan is the Manaka shells. We are here at the Little One. Like I said, I'll stand by this. The most affordable best Japanese dessert spot in New York City. Right now, we're looking at a strawberry calpico and a hoji chow lemonade. Two advanced flavors. Let me just try this. I have not had this strawberry calpico before. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Next up, we've got the hoji chow lemonade. Wow. That's way more refreshing. But in terms of something decadent, I'm going to go with strawberry calpico. Next up, we are looking at two incredible desserts here at the Little One. One is hoji chow tiramisu. This is matcha banana pudding. I'm super excited to try both of these. Oh, my goodness. They almost got this in a little container like a TV dinner. But it's not a TV dinner. I think the reason that they're able to encapsulate decadent and light is because the cream is more of the Japanese style cream, which looks heavy, but it isn't. And then the flavors are tea flavored. So you just got a whole lot of oxymorons in the best way possible going on. Next up, we've got matcha banana pudding. Guys, this is about, you know, $11. But it doesn't matter because one person's probably not going to eat this completely. It does qualify as a Chinatown cheap eat because you could split this dessert amongst many friends. Wow. Listen, guys, I've always been a fan of banana pudding. You know, shout out to the Midwest, the Heartland, Missouri, wherever banana pudding comes from. But I'm moving on to the next wave. The Little One got big taste. You guys, this is a cheap eat for what you are getting. This is a bargain. $6 for this kake gori. $5 for this kufatsa, you know, chrysanthemum manaka with the honey drip from real bees. You guys, kake gori, obviously Japanese shaped ice. There's a lot of different things you can do to it. I opted to go with one, you know, for the vegans because it is matcha oat milk. This is my favorite type of shaved ice is kake gori. Just the eatability and the ease of mouthfeel is like totally 10 out of 10. Check out this chrysanthemum manaka, perfectly shaped, honey drip. Looks like an emoji. How much more picturesque can it get? Did you hear that, Chris? You guys are in a gourmet dessert, Japanese flavors, some sort of melding between Japanese and Chinese flavors. Come to the Little One here on East Broadway. We got to give a shout out real quick to Dunkin' Donuts right next door now. I know Dunkin' is a gigantic multi-billion dollar chain, but these individual franchises are owned by a family. So this is owned by a Bangladesh family and they're super nice. I think this place is super important, especially for the non-Asian population, although I have seen, you know, Asian-Americans that are third, fourth generation that are more Americanized absolutely love themselves. Some Dunkin' Donuts all wanted to showcase them and the new products that they got, maybe new in the past year. This just came out. This is a coconut milk refresher. Pink strawberry coconut milk, very similar to the pink drink from Starbucks, which also used, you know, the dragon fruit and the coconut milk. Is it as good? You know, probably not, but is it also way cheaper and family-owned? Yes. And of course, you know, I had to get my favorite hot food item from Dunkin' Donuts. I got the tortilla meat roll-ups. You know, you've got one ham, one bacon. I thought this was such a cool thing when Dunkin' started getting these because they reminded me of the ones that you would make when you were a kid. And of course, for myself, I got this from my mom. I have a taste for French curlers. Like I said, guys, I think it's important to remember that, you know, even, you know, multi-billion-dollar corporations, sometimes individual shops are owned by a family. So, you know, just trying to support everybody. Plus, I do think Dunkin' improved their menu game.