 Sir, you're right. I have not had a good tofu pho in probably like five years. Okay, he said he said don't mess it up. I did mess up my tofu, okay. What's going on everybody? You know that we just moved back to New York City. We're in the LES Chinatown area right now. This area is famous for a lot of things, but perhaps the thing that is most famous for is delicious cheap eats. So what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be hitting up several of our favorite Chinatown cheap eat spots where you can eat pool for I would say under $10 each. All right Dave, we're going to start off this video by going to the number one most famous cheap eat spot in Chinatown and maybe the entire city, Wafeng. Let's go. All right Dave, I just got out of Wafeng man. I got two, two item combos. That means I got every meat possible. What are the four meats possible at Wafeng? The four meats possible is the roast chicken, you have the roast duck, and then you have the roast pork, and then you have the barbecue pork. Each of these was seven dollars. You could get it as cheap as five dollars. You can get it as cheap as five, but because I wanted the seal yoke, which is the roast pork, it's a little bit more expensive. And dude, I got extra saw. You guys, for seven dollars, I challenge you to find a better deal in New York City and Manhattan. Guys, we're not going to spend too much time here. This goes without saying this is probably the best cheap eat in Chinatown. Perhaps in the entire region of Manhattan. You guys have already seen a million videos about Wafeng here on Christie Street. We got to keep it moving. What is often said to be the most famous hole in the wall in Chinatown and that spicy village here on four side. This is a Henan spot that is co-owned or at least maybe owned by people that are Fujinese. It's actually one of our favorite restaurants in the area. So let's check it out. Are you guys from Henan or Fujian? All right, Andrew, I figured it out. They're all from Fujian, but they're cooking Henan food. That's okay with me. Describing this chicken pepper dish, the peppers are really cooked well. You can see that they're very soft. There's plenty of wake, meaning that the chicken is kind of burnt here, which is great. It's juicy. It kind of looks like a type of like teriyaki chicken, almost tossed with peppers. And it tastes actually a little bit like teriyaki, but it's different. Eight dollars. White beef noodles. The noodles are handmade back there, and man, it's just tasty. Tomato egg. Fanqie chiaodan min. Fanqie chiaodan. Fanqie is tomato, chiaodan is stir-fried egg. These are stir-fried egg tomato. So David, this is one of your favorite dishes, of course, tomato egg. This is a Henan tang bao cooked by Fujianese. Oh, I mean, those are the cheapest soup dumplings you can buy. Yeah, soup dumplings being either a tang bao or a shalom bao. Those are really, that's a really good deal right there. This is a rojama, aka kind of a minced pork sandwich. The reason I like Spicy Village a lot is it's a great way to introduce people to regional cuisines without costing a lot of money. That has a lot more flavor than a lot more expensive rojama ones that I've had before. Well, everything here rounded up with tax. Eight dollars, eight dollars, eight dollars, eight dollars, five. So that's thirty-two, thirty-seven dollars for all this food. It could probably serve three of us. All right, David, favorite dish out of these five. All right, for me, I just got two. When I'm, for my go-to is tomato egg, but when I'm feeling like I need the protein, I get the garlic chicken. The garlic pepper chicken. Pepper chicken. That's what I meant. I meant the pepper chicken. That's what I meant. Dude, you're so hungry. You can't even think about the right word. Andrew, what was your favorite, man? I gotta say the pepper chicken. Yeah. Which is really good, man. Because you know what it is, Andrew? In Henan, they would never make the chicken that sweet. And then in Fujian, they would never cook the peppers that hot. But it's the combination of the sweet and the hot together. All right, Andrew, that was a great way to start off. Let's head on to the next hole in the wall. Okay, so the next spot up on our Cheap Eats Hidden Gems food crawl is 74 thighs. Andrew, we've got Bep Ga. All right, this spot is started by a Parisian Vietnamese guy, and it only specializes in poached chicken. That means chicken salad, chicken pho, chicken noodle plates. All right, so technically, this spot has $2 signs on Yelp, but it's $12 for a bowl of pho, which just put it out. It's just $1 outside of the range. Essentially, I mean, it's like one and a half dollar signs. I still, for me, I put it in the $1 sign range because, you know, usually I'm not going to get a drink, but let's check it out. All right, we're here with the owner on. You're raising Paris, man. Tell us more about Bep Ga. Well, Bep Ga is my idea. We come out from a love of chicken rice. So we have a version of chicken rice in Vietnam. Then from chicken rice, you have to make a broth or you came off like, oh, she's making chicken pho, which we don't see very often. Did you want to open up just a chicken and rice spot? And then you realized that might not be enough items. So then you had it on. Real quick on, for the people, you know, we have a lot of American viewers. They might not believe you're from France. Why don't you just let them know something in French? All right, you guys, I have a dry pho God right here. And this looks really dope. And it comes with the some broth right here. You sip on that. The broth here at Bep Ga tastes unlike anything you've ever had before. I do believe it tastes a little bit more like French bone broth. Yo, I'm going to go in on a full guy, David. You can go in on the, on the dry pho right now. Full guy, dry for God. They definitely have some French sensibilities here because although the portion might be a little bit smaller, the quality is higher. Guys, each of these is $12. So I'd still say that's pretty fair price, especially for New York City. And for a really cool experience. And I'm going in on the Tunisian French baguette banh mi. Marquette banh mi. And actually the bread, even though it's, it's chewy, it's not too crispy. It's not cutting the top of my mouth. We're going to end it off, guys. So it's basically like the Vietnamese Hainanese chicken rice. I got everything in this bite. Come on. You gotta go to that guy, that guy, kitchen, chicken, chicken, kitchen. All right. Our next cheap eat in Chinatown that is $1 sign on Yelp is Steamhouse. And this is a Cantonese spot. This spot is truly a hidden gem because it's only got one review on Yelp as of right. And actually recently opened the people who opened up Steamhouse are from Hoi Ping, Guangdong. Our great grandfather is from nearby Hoi Ping, a different mountain called Huxan. And that's actually, I believe, where the lion dances from. Yeah. The Chinese American lion, yeah, the lion dance that everybody does, that is from Huxan. We really like this spot in there. I cannot say that it's not because my guy over here is from Hoi Ping and our great grandfather was from Huxan. Yo, let's go to Steamhouse. All right, yo, what should we get? Yo, John, what should we get, man? I think we should start off with the all-tact Chengfeng, the super combo Chengfeng. That's what we're getting today. You guys can get, you know, a more regular one, but we're getting the Mato Yao. Mato Yao means like, like, like everything we got it. This is the everything we got at the Mato Yao Chengfeng. Everything here is very affordable ranging from about six to eight bucks. So yes, it is very much $1 sign on Yelp. David, we got the spread here at Steamhouse. What are we looking at? This is the Mato Yao Chengfeng. Basically, this was an all-in combo Supreme Chengfeng. That is six bucks. They're Chengfeng at Steamhouse. In my opinion, it's a five out of five. It's a must-get. Soy sauce chicken leg. See how it got you. One thing I always notice about Steamhouse, Andrew, is their food tastes really clean. Mmm. That's a good point. Andrew, of all the curries I've had in New York City, Steamhouse's Galay Guy Curry Chicken Rice with Potatoes reminds me the most of how we would eat it in Kent. Oh my goodness. Man, it tastes so much like home. These, this is called their beef noodle. So basically this is going to be a dry kind of oil-based noodle. And these are barbecue pieces of beef kind of operate like gigantic Fonse where they're like really thick rice noodles that are very stretchy and chewy and sticky. It's unlike a lot of noodles that you can get out there. David, you are a fan more of kind of like gundai-mean dishes. For me, I don't see that much flavor here, but I could be wrong. Well, I'll tell you this. There may or may not be a lot of flavor in that conventional sense, but it appeals to me. Very light, lighter than most people would like. This, I would say, is probably their dish that reminds me most of something you would get at a Hong Kong cafe. This is the Dao Fu Fa. Oh, I got my own. You got your own Dao Fu Fa. So basically this is really, really soft silken tofu with a syrup on top. That is like the loaded carne asada fries of turn fun. That is. Go with the oil noodles right here. They're bouncy, lightly oiled, heavily flavored. I love it. All right. If you guys are liking this video and you're learning something and you want to try one of these spots next time you come to New York, definitely hit that like button, click subscribe, turn on your notifications, and there's more to go, man. Let's go. All right, David, we're outside of a spot that is said to have the best wonton in the entire city. Let's head into Wu's wonton king and find out what the hype is about. Is he really the wonton king? Guys, for lunch, it starts at $6.50, and it only really goes up until $8. So everything here is under $10 that we got. Andrew, we might be looking at one of the best under $10 spots in the entire city of Manhattan. $7.50, the best wonton in Manhattan, reportedly. Yo, I like how the, I like how the filling is still intact. There's a very thin wonton skin, and that's the thing about wonton skin is when it comes together, it kind of gives you a different texture. It's kind of gooey and honestly, it just kind of slides down your throat, pause, but it's actually hella good. Wow, wow, their wontons are banging. The other, the second dumpling of the three dumpling. A lot of choy in that one. It reminds me a lot more of, like I said, the Chew Jiao style. Gao Choy thing. Gao Choy is a type of green chai, the Chew Jiao dumpling. Third and last final kind. Has wood ear, shrimp, pork? My ranking goes Cantonese wonton. Then it goes the Gao Choy, and then it goes the Chew Jiao one. I agree with you. Guys, I have the scallion ginger noodles. You know, I'm a big fan of Jiang Chong, Gong Cheung in general, but to have this over just a bed of wonton noodles, kind of like in their Chinese angel hair pasta manner, I mean, this is just, this is a simple. While you go in on that, I'm actually going to go have this wonton right here with the siu ap and cha siu in it. This broth is different than the triple wonton bone broth. This is a different broth. I believe there's more shrimp and pork broth in this one. And it's a simple dish. It has a little bit of that like oyster sauce flavor, but really mostly it just brings out the scallion ginger. Try this. Out of all the spots in Manhattan, who's wonton king tastes the most like Hong Kong? Mmm. Okay, so their cha siu is not as candied, but it's super tender. So you can pike what? Oh man, their version of the salt and pepper pork chop looks really, really well done. If you're going to love this, it's not too battered. I think sometimes the salt and pepper pork chop is too crunchy and the skin is too thick, but this is perfect right here. Who's wonton king? Honestly? This is one of the best Hong Kong home style restaurants I've ever been to actually. Beef brisket. Beef tendon. Check out this piece of beef brisket with tendon. Wow. Andrew, if you take a little bit of sip of the soup they give you with the lo mein. Oh my gosh. Holy crap. I did not anticipate that. Andrew. Whoa. Their beef has just been stewed for hours and hours and hours. Bro, you know how you know it's good is because the tendon is sticky and just breaks down in your mouth. Guys, hock out. Xia jiang, aka shrimp dumpling in a rice wrap. Or as you would say, Xiaomai. That's a really good Xiaomai. You get your dog. Wow. Let's go. We ain't going small. I'm alive. Everything we had today was below $8 at retail price. Obviously, you know, you can tip if you want and you should, especially during these times. You are getting an experience like you are transported to the streets of Shenzhen, Hong Kong. Something caught my eye, yifang fruit tea. Okay. Yifang fruit tea is a chain from Taiwan. Probably Taiwan. Like it's almost like I want to say the pride of Taiwan. I would say it's the premium Taiwanese tea chain. A fruit tea, man. Nothing more refreshing than a nice yifang fruit tea. Andrew, we are debuting the official yifang fruit tea right here. This does not look like your average boba. This is the next level. This is something that you saw from Taiwan. Obviously, there's a lot of tropical fruits in Taiwan. It's a subtropical island. And they were able to incorporate that with the boba. I don't know if they've had this for a long time or if this is a more recent invention. But I know that this is like one of the things that, you know, Taiwan's most famous for that's finally making it over to the U.S. This is actually kind of a thing right now, Andrew. This, like the brown sugar streaks. Well, the gradient, having the different layers. Now, obviously these layers got mixed up a little bit, but usually it should be green, white, and then brown sugar, and then boba at the bottom. Brown sugar. As you can see, there is some mixing already, but it's all good. No, but, Andrew, between brown sugar and the fresh fruit, those are two things that are pretty much new. Here's one of the marks of a high-quality boba. It's actually, if you touch the bottom, it still might be a little bit warm because the boba is supposed to be warm. Cantonese dessert spot right on the street called Mango Mango. And they serve a lot of pomelo, mango, sagos. But this is the mango-sago drink. Yo, that is so good. That literally tastes exactly like the mango dessert that you get out of that cup at Mango Mango. This is the, you know, house special Yifang Fruit Tea. This is my favorite fruit tea in the whole world, Andrew. This is still a cheap eat because it's under $10 and you get an experience. I'm going to just say this, guys. Yifang Fruit Tea, to my knowledge, in 2020 in the North America, the Yifang Fruit Tea might be the best boba chain in America. Another hidden gem cheap eat in Chinatown, Andrew, is on Pell Street. We're in front of Taiwan Bear House. Now, LA is traditionally known as having a lot more Taiwanese influence. New York City is a little bit more like SF in the sense there's a lot more Cantonese influence. The only Taiwanese representation in New York Chinatown are lunch spots. Let's go inside. Tsai Chi Tui. This is a fried chicken leg. Oh, look at that juice. That is actually salted salt and pepper with a little bit of star anise perfectly. That's cooked perfectly. I love this. Quite crunchy. Wow. This is your fried pork chop. Oh. Let's see if we like it better or worse than Japanese katsu. Dust off first bite, Andrew. I think that might be better than Japanese katsu. I'm not saying it's better than Japanese katsu with the curry and with the red radish and everything like that, but I think it might be better than Japanese katsu, I'm telling you. Taiwanese sodas. That tastes like 1963 to me. Popcorn chicken, right? Okay, yeah. No, this is crisp. Well, they call it crispy chicken, but it's essentially their popcorn chicken. It's these are dark meat pieces of chicken. Wow, look at that. The railroad bento pork chop. So this is braised. It has the soft outer. Let's get it. It just gives it a whole completely different complexion. It doesn't have the hot oil fried in as much. These two were $6. This one was $6. This one was $6.50 actually, because this is a braised railroad pork chop. And these were about $11. All right, Andrew, for myself, I've got to say that the sajitwe, the fried chicken thigh, was easily my favorite. I'm just going to go ahead and say the crispy pork chop is delicious because here's the thing. If you get the braised pork chop, you already get some braised pork in your rice. So why not get the crispy pork chop and then the braised pork chop on your bento? So you get both flavors. Yo, I kind of got to see Mongolian John have it. Mongol John. 200-pound Mongol John. Please try. We don't use this. Three different meats. Okay, it goes in for the Mongol John. It's the Mongol takeover show. It's the Mongol takeover show. Okay, it goes with the crispy chicken first. The stuffing is done. And then it goes in immediately. We need more. Fight the crispy pork chop. Child, then it's no big deal. Braised railroad pork chop. All three at one time. I'm trying to twist this game. Of course, you cannot go on a hidden gem cheap eats crawl without mentioning dumplings. Dumplings, you know, back in the day, Andrew, I think 15 years ago, you could get 10 dumplings for a dollar in Chinatown. Dumplings are still really, really, really cheap and pretty much still a staple food in Chinatown, guys. A lot of the other dumpling spots are not even open that we wanted to feature. But this spot right here, it's King Dumpling, guys. So let's see what the King has to offer. All right, so even though we got these dumplings to go, one thing that you've got to do before you leave the spot is pour your dumpling sauce on. So I believe, I want to say, the concept of dumpling sauce came a little bit more from Japan for Gyoza. They tend to put this kind of spicy, sweet, soy sesame sauce on there. Yo, here we are, King's Dumpling. It had a lot of stuff. I mean, I think that in 2020, if you're going to open up a dumpling spot, you might as well serve and be multifaceted. You might as well be multifaceted in your menu, whether that sesame pancakes, that dumplings, that noodle soups, maybe even a pancake wrap. These were four for $2.50. $1.50. So, David, this banmian was $2.50. For $2.50, $2.50, you cannot beat some Fujianese banmian. Unbelievable to get this shenzhen bao for $2.50 for four of a man. Obviously, here we have the khaoyaping roast duck thing. For $2.50, I mean, you can't go wrong. No, Andrew, straight up, $3.25. This sesame pancake might be the best one I've had in Chinatown for $3.25. This is shui jiao, boiled dumplings. I believe it is four for $1.50. Yo, David, I have found my new dollar dumpling spot. Ounce per dollar for food value. This is the top one that we went to today. This whole video. Yeah, in terms of sheer volume of food for the price, you got to look at some of the menu prices there. Dumb cheap. King's Dumpling. Hey, still keeping the tradition of good ultra-cheap Chinatown food alive. All right, we are coming to our last spot on this hidden gem, cheap eats, food crawl around Chinatown, New York. And you know, of course, we had to end at something that's so popular at HKG, Hong Kong Airport. They're opening up so many of these chains around China the next couple years, Andrew. I think it's safe to say Chinese people love this chain. Chinese chicken chain called Bye Bye G. And of course, if you guys know, that's Popeye's Chicken. Let's just say Louisiana Cajun food fits the Chinese palette very, very well, especially fried chicken. Oh my goodness. And more than like even beef ribs and barbecue sauce, Memphis, Tennessee style, fried chicken, man, fried chicken. All right, you guys, we are wrapping up our Chinatown hidden gem's cheap eats with some very cheap eats. We're talking about Popeye's Chicken. Guys, they are going to be opening up 1500 locations in China over the next two years. That goes to show you, Andrew. They must really like it over there. You guys, we had to wrap it up. Andrew, what did you learn about your, on the crawl? I mean, for me, real quick, I'm just going to have some of this Popeye's Popcorn Shrimp. Guys, I do want to note that this Cajun rice honestly does look like some Luro Fan or it looks like some minced pork over rice that we just had at Bear House. Andrew, what did you learn on this cheap hidden gem's food crawl? I think that the first thing that I took away is no matter how cheap a spot is, there's still a story behind it. Whether it was the people from pretty much nearby our hometown or our grandfather's hometown of Hawkson, from Hoi Ping at Steamhouse, the Taiwanese railroad bento boxes. There were so many stories behind so many different things. Woo's One Tunking, they did an episode with David Chang there, and they're famous for replicating Hong Kong. I think one thing that I realized is that despite Manhattan rent prices going up and everything getting more and more expensive, to be honest, there are some spots that are still really, really affordable. And I'm not saying that the prices aren't going up a little bit year after year. Still able to hold on to like the cheap Chinatown meat, Steve. And for better or for worse, some of those spots are going to close down and go away and switch up, but a lot of them are still remaining. Aren't you guys, that does it for episode one of our cheap eats, hidden gems, food crawl. And we went everywhere, but particularly we spent a lot of time in a certain zone, the in-between zone between LES and Chinatown. There's way more than we covered though. Yeah, so we're going to keep the series going because there's a lot more spots that we need to cover, but we just want to let you guys know that Chinatown, it's opening up. I mean, you already know what it is, cheap eats in Chinatown. And by the way guys, we're just doing these talking segments for like 10 seconds out of time without a mask. Believe me, we're masked up.