 Are these the best guo tian in Chinatown? This is the strongest and most similar to Asia durian flavored ice cream I've ever had in the United States of America. So it'll be Ming Wang versus Big Wang. Oh, Ming Wang versus Big Wang? Yo, we gotta get the wieners. Here it is. Here you go, yo. So we're eating Malatang from Halo Zhang in Chinatown. I just feel like this is the end of the series. It's like we don't need to do anymore because this is it. This is the apex. This is the pinnacle. Could this episode 14 be our last one? We've covered almost 200 spots in Chinatown alone, but you know what? Chinatown is constantly evolving. And in this installment, we got build your own dry pot, the Battle of the Wongs, a Taiwanese guo tian master, lobster burgers, and maybe, just maybe, I finally get that mushroom chicken dish I was looking for all along. Help us out. Hit that like button, share this video, and use this series as an ongoing guide to Chinatown. Let's go. 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Which one should we choose? Guo Tian. Guo Tian is a better sandwich. Okay. Okay. We all want Guo Tian. We all want Guo Tian. All right we're only gonna get Guo Tian. He was saying you know the boiled ones are cool but really what we specialize is the pan fried. 28 years of mastery of the Taiwanese Guo Tian here at the Ma Street eatery. Love it. Yo. This is the OG right here. Wow. You got the different colors of Guo Tian. All right you guys. $44 worth of Guo Tian from Taiwan. Famous Si Fu. He's been making it for 30 years. Let's check it out. Honestly it does taste like Taiwan. Like I don't want to say like 10 out of 10 but I would say 8 out of 10 match. Swapping in for David. I have the honors of trying the Pork and Chive Guo Tian. Pork and Chive probably one of my favorite dumpling flavors. That's actually a little bit like a chive pancake filling. Do you guys know the Jiu Tai Hezi? I think it's cool that a Taiwanese Guo Tian master has joined Ma Street eatery which is mostly Cantonese food because Cantonese don't always focus on Guo Tian. They more focus on maybe one ton or like dim sum you know steam dumplings. Guys the Guo Tian master's over there. I say check it out. These might be the best Guo Tian in Chinatown. After trying all the flavors here I gotta say my favorite are the chive ones that taste like a Jiu Tai Hezi and the Pork and Shrimp ones. Of course next up on Chinatown Chief Eats a new spot at the Ma Eatery is a chain from Hong Kong. And this is Dao Fu Pa. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. This is the Hong Kong style. Wow. No, it's original. It's so new. Right here we got some very traditional Hong Kong street snacks from a place called Yanhe Hall which means like of the people for the people. Cool name. Especially you know right now. So here we have some grilled eggplant. We have some fish stuffed jalapeños and peppers here. Some tofu with a little fish cake grilled on top. Kind of fried mochi dessert. Let's check this out. This is a fried outer sweet potato. It looks like an empanada or some type of curry puff. Let's try this real quick. That's savory. Wow. Right off the bat the mochi potato outer feels a little bit more like from the Chiu Jiao influence. And I can tell the ingredients. This is actually a food I've never had before. It almost gives you the flavor of kind of like a salted egg yolk. So I would say that I could see really old people really enjoying this. Before there was curry fish balls on the streets of Hong Kong you had these traditional snacks. They were grilled here. This is a tofu cube with a little bit of a fried fish cake on top. This one here guys is one of my more favorite dim sum dishes. It is a pepper stuffed with fish cake. Wow. That was good. Long pepper. More of your jalapeno style. One of my favorite fried eggplant with fish cake inside. As I'm here looking at the Dao Fu Fa and the fish paste and the peppers and this traditional treat right here which I forgot the name. You know there was a history before the curry fish balls or before popcorn chicken at boba shops. You know these were the snacks on the streets of Hong Kong or at your little cafes. And you can see some of these dishes incorporated into the larger dim sum narrative and cuisine of course. But yeah there's not going to be a lot of businesses that are solely dedicated to this so that's what I think is cool about Mott Street eatery is that a stall can exist just serving some specific old school Hong Kong snacks. I totally get it if you like the mango, mango, palmelo, sago, yogurt, milk cream, desserts with the brown sugar. I get it but you got to try these. And I think food halls like this make it really easy for you to try traditional treats that may not be able to exist as a big restaurant on their own. So shout out to Mott Street eatery, Chinatown cheap eats. Let's keep it going. All right Marco we are here at Zhangliang. This is a mala tang spot. It's actually a chain from China. Okay. And they said they literally just opened a few weeks ago so we're going to go ahead and grab our like mala tang items and they're going to put it into this like dry pot, stew it up. So we're eating mala tang from Heilo Zhang in Chinatown. All right you guys we are here at Zhangliang. We're about to just make one dry pot. Marco here's your tongs. I thought this was a one cooler at first. What's up you guys? By the way do not get mad at us. They lifted the mask mandate so we don't got COVID. So we're good. We're going to get a little lobster ball. We'll take two. How you doing? What else should we get? Should we go with a one? Spam, ham. Two pieces of spam. Spam goes really well in these ganguo like spicy mala tang. Two eggs and spam. Let's get it. Yo we got to get the wieners. Here it is. Yo. All right you guys this is a ganguo, shanguo. So this was a dry pot. I couldn't do the soup. You know after the last time we did Sichuan food my bowel movements were impacted. Let's just say that me and the Beth from we're best friends. Oh man this is your vermicelli right here. Oh that's it. I never had vermicelli at this color due to all the spice they put in there because usually in the Vietnamese spots they're just so solid white. And this is the most Chinese spot that Marco has ever been to in his entire life. Yeah, I'm usually going like wafeng, big wong, small wong. This is much more like the designs that you see in China in malls and strip malls. And even in Flushing by like Northern Boulevard you come to a lot of these authentic spots which in Chinatown here in New York City you really don't find that. Man Andrew this is from Dongbei, Heilongjiang. So let's check it out. Even though they're cooking Sichuan food they change from Heilongjiang. So this whole thing guys was not super cheap it was about 30 bucks but you could probably feed four people. Feed four people maybe it's good for a little date night maybe you know. I think more vermicelli needs to have spice on it. Dude, I'm telling you my favorite type of la is not ma la it's xiang la. I mean this is a very family style dish and I like it for picky eaters because they can just get a lot of what they like and nothing they don't like. Yeah so just say if you like the spam ham and I don't like it you could put it on your side if you know and I can grab the the calamari. All right you guys Zhangliang ma la tang from Heilongjiang is something I've never seen before in Chinatown definitely way more of a flushing thing but more and more of these chains are going to come in like we said you don't have to get that much food so it totally could be a cheap eat for lunch you probably could eat for like 10 bucks. Marco sometimes in the restaurant world there's like a dialogue and a narrative and all these stories and dramas that us as regular consumers are not aware of right but what did we hear about this spot in the next spot? I heard that there's another spot down the block to manage a left he went to this place he opened up this place so it's not just a little illy with his drama they boarded across the bridge to Chinatown too. Right right right I guess we'll just order like maybe a one ton duck noodle here we'll order a one ton duck noodle at Big Wong so it'll be Ming Wong versus Big Wong oh Ming Wong versus Big Wong who is the bigger Wong? this is $13 you could fully loaded one ton mean here at Ming Wong they serve at it with class with the clay pot to go wow with the little sprinkled scallions on top love that we gotta see if Big Wong does it just as nice wow look at that there's no fat on there a lot of meat the brainy one ton we got the brainy one ton right here look at that okay okay okay legend has it that was Albert Einstein's brain he just ate I like that out of these old school Chinese spots in Chinatown they have a lot of these old school style of cooking and the way it tastes it's very different from these new spots by the way guys this is not meant to be ultra competitive we are supporting both Big Wong and Ming Wong you know regardless of how the owners feel about it we're here for the eats we're here to support Chinatown also it is fun to lean into the drama a little bit I mean it's hilarious listen you know what we all love we all love this bulletin okay so right off the back comparing the chashu I can see that this one's a little bit more roasted a little bit more burnt on the edges this side at the Ming Wong is not as dark it looks a little faded not gonna lie so I don't know which one's better David you guys gotta try it but uh so far Big Wong aesthetically looks better the barbecue pork battle between the OG and you know the new the new guy I don't know copycat whatever you want to call it well the OG one the OG restaurant their roast pork sticks together so this is gonna be a good battle I gotta go with that one yeah Big Wong yeah got way more flavors in there no you're right the Big Wong chashu flavor wise killed it I would say cut wise I think it's more debatable aren't you guys onto the duck comparison between the OG and the newcomer again I would say aesthetically this one looks a little bit more roasted possibly more flavor on the outside a more shriveled skin this one looks very clean though I think again the flavor at Big Wong might have been better but I like the cut of the duck better from Ming Wong I agree with you 100% I actually overall like the duck from Ming Wong better I agree yeah all right you guys you could say the tie breaker needs to be you know the noodles the broth at the one time but we don't have all time you know we don't have all day to analyze this guys it's going down with the one tons all right you guys it's been a tie so far one one we're letting the one tons be the decider you know what I had both but I have to go with I have to go with one more from uh from Ming Wong the winner between the wongs on Mach Street is three two one go Ming Wong for me I gotta go Dai Wong sorry you know what I think that it was so close both spots have their own merits I would say Ming Wong maybe tastes a little bit more HK Asia style and Dai Wong of course Big Wong you know has the OG Chinatown flavor yeah and that's what I love about it because I love that old school comfort food style when I used to be a kid going in there and eating it and it just the flavors are there and it just never disappoints I really think it comes down to preference guys come check it out do the battle of the wongs yourself cheap Chinatown eats $13.50 for both this is with extra add-ons uh even the $10 version would get you full all right we're in the back of burger Pete's I'm here with Chef Josh Josh what do we got going on? right here we got the lobster burgers that's gonna go with the house burger the house burger is with the Angus beef burger and the lobster burger both combined what you guys we're with Josh from Burger Kwan tell me about the lobster burger because this is something that's kind of like I've never seen before guy Kwan who wanted to do something with lobster and make lobster burgers he decided to do our whole thing so we bought some of the whole style we did beef burgers we needed beef burgers so we bring the same quality of beef here that one spot steak and lobster a flat iron but like in a burger aren't you guys this is $18 at burger Kwan at mod street eatery but you get a lot I mean lobster is not cheap so 18 bucks is actually still a Chinatown cheap eat yeah that's good it's good guys you guys have had surf and turf that steak and a lobster tail this is like surf and turf in a burger this is the burger Kwan house special you got lobster you got Angus beef on the same burger surf and turf it's crazy that potato button real buttery soft cheesy lobster on top are the Angus beef man guys you're not gonna find this burger at a lot of places out there so they got it right here at mod street eatery all right you guys next up on Chinatown cheap eats we've got the durian ice cream coming in at $8 home this is made in house I believe Zunping was a Chinese general that sailed like all around the world and I believe that's the name of the cafe don't quote me on it that's just what I'm inferring dude this was a little bit warmer I could like cut through it a little bit more I'm telling you the durian flavored ice cream at Zunping Cafe is mucho durian the durian flavor is five out of five in fact this is the strongest and most similar to Asia durian flavored ice cream I've ever had in the United States of America Zunping Cafe of course Chinatown cheap eats you gotta stop by the cheapest omakase stall in Manhattan domo sushi this is omakase level so look at the mastery of it wow I'm here at domo sushi and I have the Japanese siamagi okay ten dollars a piece but omakase level I know it's kind of weird to be here but trust me the stuff is good wow soft a little citrusy a little salty from the shoyu banging bluefin toro bluefin toro with caviar bluefin tuna with caviar and gold flakes on top guys let's try to join with the gold flake on there sugoi all right you guys I cook like we said they're sort of pushing this technology where it allows you to saute things by robot this is the general south chicken does it taste any better than other general south chickens straight up this general south chicken low middle high it's probably more towards the high end this is pretty good I personally never come to Chinatown to get orange chicken or general sows or sweet and sour pork but I don't blame you if you do all right I've made it to 54 Bayer market and guess what I think they have it it's called steam rice with pork ribs but I'm pretty sure that's a mislabel and that's actually the baku guy mushroom chicken wow everything looks mad good right now super hot Chinatown chief eats 14 do I finally get it after all this time just to show you what they got at the bayer market they have all these marinated fishes and they actually have the chicken thigh with shiitake right here and that's basically this right here chicken thigh with shiitake chicken thigh with shiitake they're giving you the mix you don't have to do anything it's a very triumph and victory finally it's been a long time coming 12 episodes in I finally got it now I know it says mushroom and pork ribs it's actually chicken thigh guys we have chicken thigh and the shiitake mushrooms we got it for four dollars I finally this was the most elusive dish it always sold out they only got like two or three of them but I'm just so excited that we finally get to try it now do I really think that it's going to live up to the actual expectations or is it going to really be that great I don't know it's probably going to taste exactly like how I think it is all right guys let's see what I got I'm just going to eat it right here because you know what it is I can't wait oh look at that is this what you want is this what you want honestly it's pretty good wow wow I'm not even going to lie this is probably the best cheap chicken and mushroom dish in Chinatown that's why it always sells out this is good the chicken thigh is tender the mushroom flavor is coming through got a little vermicelli up in there got some rice got some cabbage got the whole shebang got the whole package guys four dollars Chinatown cheap eats finally got it it's 10 a.m buckwheat guy chicken mushroom ooh it's just so crazy to be here right now I just feel like this is the end of the series it's like we don't need to do anymore because this is it this is the apex this is the pinnacle this is a peak can't get much higher than this all right our next spot on Chinatown cheap eats is core coffee I think it stands for Korean because it is also Korean-owned and it's a really cool hip spot that just opened across from the police station right here looks really cool inside let's check it out I mean aesthetically this spot really stands out it has like white brick has like cool black and white photos of like some really cool street arts all right guys I think this is the most aesthetically focused cafe in Chinatown for sure and I'm sure the quality is good too let me try this because right here we have the matcha tiramisu latte so I never even had a matcha tiramisu latte I've had a tiramisu latte and a matcha latte but never the blend you know that is hella good wow I'm gonna have to give that a five out of five on the matcha latte it's it's very creamy though okay here's the black sesame latte but that's really good that actually tastes exactly like the Chinese dessert the tangyuan because it has like the black sesame inside and a little bit of cream a very trendy item here at Korean cafes all over is the croffle it's essentially a croissant but it's pressed in the shape of a waffle so it's gonna have some flakiness but it's gonna have the shape of a I mean look how they made the matcha one they put the matcha cream and then they dusted it with matcha powder you got a savory croffle it has gouda cheese, bacon on it I've never had this before this is looking like a meal that's my favorite one now first of all all this stuff tastes very very good super high quality but you can just look at it and tell that this is bringing something that you know Chinatown didn't have before all right you guys next up on Chinatown Cheap Eats we've got Jisoo vegetarian restaurant Su in the Jisoo stands for Su-tai which means vegetarian cuisine you guys we are looking at some vegan chicken vegan pork or no I'm sorry this is vegan chashu this is the vegan chicken we've got Japanese kombucha pumpkin we've got some potatoes of course we've got this seven grain multi-mixed rice I've got a soup right here that is normally made with a lot of like abalone and pork but this is of course vegetarian being that we're at the Buddhist Daoist spot and these are vegan meatballs in a lot of vegan restaurants in terms of western food they are more expensive right but the way Chinese think is there's no meat which is lower cost per unit so actually all this food is pretty cheap this is only ten bucks this was about six dollars and this soup was four dollars eight treasure meatball it ain't bad Chinese Buddhist monks have always tried to make food taste and look like meat but never have meat vegan chashu honestly it did capture the barbecue vibe with chashu quite well vegan jirou we are right next to actually a Popeyes chicken which is also a cheap eat but this is a much healthier option does that soup taste like it was cooked with seafood and pork honestly to about a seven out of 10 level this is a vegan hot pot guys they's told me there's only two types of food in this world vegan and carnivorous and they choose to side with the vegan it's not the cheapest thing it's about 30 bucks guys it feeds a whole family we are looking at vegan abalone vegan scallops vegan chashu aren't you guys man they were telling me how many different goos are in here because gu kind of indicates mushroom right so he said that's a chicken thigh mushroom but it's vegan obviously he's like saying man but we have all different things that are designed to taste like other things this actually reminds me of a lot of buddhist or Taoist vegan restaurants in Taiwan I know they have a really high percentage of buddhist there so I'm gonna go ahead and say this even tastes better for the soul and the body than it would if it had meat in it you guys 30 bucks jisoo thigh can feed four people that's eight bucks a person that's a Chinatown cheap eat obviously guys here at jisoo they got a lot of cheap vegan options but they also have ones that are 30 40 dollars for example these gigantic mushroom caps that are cut to look like abalone they even got vegan burgers on the menu guys they're like five six dollars come to jisoo check it out save a cow next up on Chinatown cheap eats we're here at the little one over on east broadway and they are bringing the high quality desserts this is kind of like their take on the Hong Kong swiss roll this is a kabocha aka Japanese squash cake with cream cheese filling so it's gonna be a little heavier than usual but it is it smells delicious I'm about to break it up wow crumbles right like that really light cream cheese frosting I think oftentimes cream cheese is very very heavy like on the cupcakes but this is delicious oh man I'm telling you they do such good work here if you guys want a kind of like Japanese twist on a lot of Hong Kong desserts you got to come here to the little one all right you guys next up on Chinatown cheap eats I got Marco joining me for this monumental slow occasion this is a part Dominican owned part Chinese owned Dominican spot called El Cetillo and you have an interesting story because El Cetillo means the site but you thought it meant I thought it meant C means yes and Tio means uncle I thought it said the yes uncle right we got to find out what it means Marco do you agree with me I actually think there's a lot of visual similarities between Dominican food and Cantonese food or at least a lunch time like a waffle absolutely like because you have the barbecue meats that are all outside and it's a quick easy and go meal that you know prep quickly and it's very similar hey hub fun it's just it's a rice box me I got to get the ribs I have not seen those at any Dominican spot that I've personally been to so I got to get the ribs yo I got to go with the white rice I want the vanilla I got to say it like I'm like I'm glad and I don't get the Delaware oh man they put gravy from one beef dish on the other beef ribs talk about flavor wow look at that Marco I know you were working on your pronunciation I was the word for Neil you got you got like a slight D in there a little B I've been Neil you know how we say Brazil though it's Brazil we say but Neil pronounce it with a B Marco we were talking in there about the visual comparison between a lot of Dominican lunch foods and Cantonese roast meats yeah I noticed that they're very similar obviously you know even with the food you're eating pig in the Cantonese spots Dominican spots it's all about the pig you know what was really interesting about El Cetillo is they actually have these ribs and that you can take sauce from like the other trays and put them on this entree that entree the sauces are not exclusive yo this reminds a lot of the shu yoke yeah no this looks a lot like the shu yoke from wafang that's crazy that it could look like an eight out of ten match over here I've got the ribs I've never actually seen this at a Dominican Scott myself I'm sure that it's always been there let's go in let's do it all this for 20 bucks guys El Cetillo Dominican lunch come get it for dinner too hey you guys want some beans rice and beans there we go wow yo that's so good can you blow your plate yo when I was back there I said to them yeah when I was back I told them give me the greasiest fattiest piece of perennial you have and he did that and let me tell you something it's tremendous no literally they took some of the fat oil runoff and used it as a sauce I feel like that gives it so much more flavor a lot of people don't like it because everybody's like you know a health freak but yo I want the flavor in the dish well you know what's really interesting is that back in the day this was considered literally Italy but now it's considered Chinatown but it's also really cool to see that there's different spots besides Asian food here like Dominican straight up I think all the kids should know for ten dollars and maybe 20 bucks like five of you guys can eat for ten dollars this is a steal you get about four pounds of food for ten dollars you can't beat that hey is the food any good C.T.O. yes uncle all right everybody I'm here at Suntung Fat meats over here on Catherine Slitman this is a real gem this costed 8.50 for the Samping fondant three treasure meat but you can look at it man the chashu is looking very very very flavorful very deep dark red very saucy it's got a little bit of a choy you got the rice oh man let's see if it's worth it 8.50 here at Suntung Fat meats they got a meat shop on the left side it's connected to the Sume spot on the right side Suntung Fat meats I would definitely give it a 7 out of 10 very very solid the highlight here was the chashu it was very juicy very flavorful they give you plenty of duck aka the juice they pour that all on top I would say the other meats were very decent the duck was probably worth getting to and they actually have other things like fried chicken and some other cooked foods so you know they got a meat market right there they got the roast meat market right there you guys check it out right a real neighborhood spot on Catherine Street let's go all right you guys next up on Chinatown Cheap eat you've got a yomi's inside of a happy veggie which is doing really inventive soy protein takes on like saute skewers they actually have a ton of like chiujiao Malay type dishes Malaysian chiujiao dishes on the menu man gotta try this hey guys this is my very first time having vegan Malaysian food and let me tell you this it is good all right you guys I know a lot of people watching our foodies let me know in the comments section below if you think that yomi's yogurt which is this Chinese modernized take on like almost like Beijing Swannai has legs or is it just going to stay in very Chinese communities vegetarian food will surprise you I know I'm not a vegan I'm not a vegetarian but I have to be honest after I eat vegan or vegetarian meals I do honestly feel kind of light at least I don't feel weighed down by any of the fat and oil and stuff you have your vegan avocado spam musubi let's check it out this is a vegan goit here I honestly think it's about a 75 to 85% match for meat so guys if you need to lose weight if you need to feel lighter maybe your body can no longer process meat go vegan come to happy veggie that's it for number 14 we've covered almost 200 restaurants yes but despite the economic setback that Chinatown New York and Chinatowns across America have taken the past two years they're still bringing new spots listen this place ain't going away anytime soon it's just going to change and evolve thanks for watching and until next time we out peace