 Hey yo, what is you all right now? These are some BK dumplings. I could eat this dish like every other day for lunch. Very interesting. This looks like a McDonald's menu right now, look at it. This might be the most HK spot in Chinatown. Welcome to part 13, Chinatown is forever growing, shrinking and renewing itself at the same time. And these brand new spots might just blow your mind. After much controversy, we witnessed the return of the king of dim sum. We got a new top dog in the Korean corn dog lane. We see the expansion of the spicy OG. We sit down with the uncle of Chinatown and we try some rare Choo Chow delicacies, most of which are all under $9. See, the cheap eats ain't going away. Hit that like button, let's go. A staple of Chinatown that was legendary. It closed down during COVID due to also a lot of controversy and now has found a new home on Center Street. We are talking about Jingfeng restaurant. You guys, Jingfeng is the center of a lot of controversy. It involves a lot of rich, powerful families. It involves mocha, it involves de Blasio, and it involves Eddie Huang, the famous chef. The truth is oftentimes in the middle, off to the side. And sometimes the truth can even shift based on whose perspective you take. Let's see if the food is still good. These are the top dishes here at Jingfeng. That's what I was informed by, you know, the hostess. This is a not a Gong Tao hall. This is a sub-tow hall. So it was like a wet gravy instead of being cooked into the noodle on the walk. I will say this, the meat pieces look pretty solid. The meat, they got the meats. We're not talking about Arby's, we're talking about Jingfeng. Big shout out to today's sponsor and my favorite snack box subscription, Bokksu. Yes, it is true you can get Japanese snacks at a lot of places in America, but you cannot get these. Bokksu actually works with local purveyors and vendors to send you exclusive Japan only snacks. Guys, you're not gonna find these at your Japanese market here, I'm telling you. Every box that is sent to you is themed, so this one is the Valentine one. This chocolate's from Kukuo-ka. It is a chocolate-covered mochi rice puff. Spicy rice cracker hearts from Taiyama. Mm, oh, this chocolate on-pon is actually a collaboration between Bokksu and a Hokkaido on-pon maker. Wow, red bean and chocolate. Purple yam hoka-hokos. Ooh. Pickled plum flavor crackers from Yamagata. Mm. So click on that link down below for 10% off of your subscription of Bokksu, Feng Bro's 10. All right, back to the video. And I would say that most people are not as familiar with this dish unless you're like actually can't tell yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is definitely not a dish that you will find at every late night spot. I mean, you definitely feel the beef and the gravy. Mm. Subtile, wet style was $18.95. It's not cheap, but they did give you a ton of beef and it was pretty large. Andrew, I'm gonna cut this durian pastry in half right here. Boom. Let's take a look inside. Heavy, heavy durian paste in here, Andrew. This is some straight li-n-yong lian-rong. Andrew, durian is a very controversial fruit, right, in the Asian world. Hey, and Jing Feng is a very controversial restaurant. Ha-ha. No, that's it. I'm gonna go ahead and give that five out of five banger. Wow. That's the hit single off the album. That's the most streamed on Spotify. I'm shocked. This is the best durian pastry we've ever had. Guys, we gotta bleep this out, but I thought it actually reminded me of a... Or... Come to Jing Feng and get the durian pastry. All right, guys, so it was like six bucks for the dim sum, $8 for the durian pastry, $20 for the subtile. I wouldn't say that these prices are cheap by any means. They're probably more upper middle, but you gotta think, guys, I mean, it's still cheaper than Western. Next up on Chinatown Cheap Eats, we have a very Cantonese spot called Hai Lido. So, if you translate that into Mandarin, it says Shi Ni Tu, which actually doesn't mean anything, but Cantonese is a very slang-based language. There are some things that, to a Mandarin reader, make zero sense. Three dollar sandwiches, $7 curm chong gai, which is like a chicken cutler with ginger scallion. Wa, le albindo! Oh, Hai Lido! Yeah, Hai Lido! Hai Lido! Okay. Oh, hi, right at home. What should we get? Like, we're people who are coming to Lido that are tolong. What should they get? Because we are gonna order maybe three or four or five things. Curl Ludo. The curm chong gai. We gotta get the curm chong gai. 750, I know Andrew is a curm chong fiend! Guys, this might be the most HK spot in Chinatown. Do you feel like Hong Kong cafe food is like kind of going away or decreasing, or do you see some people trying to bring it back? They try to bring it back. They try to bring it back, you know? But still, people, you know, like those, most Jukxing people, I mean, people born in here, they not really crazy about this kind of food, but it's getting more people to know. I mean, really, it's getting more people to know. All right, you guys, this is the pearl noodle, the pin noodle, the ngang jen fun. Very, very hard for me to say, I'm not very good at the Cantonese language. Ngang jen fun. And let's check it out. Let me tell you this, guys. There is a lot of squids in here, there's a lot of shrimps in here, and I'm telling you that all that umami seafood noodle flavor has been very deeply seared by the wok into the ngang jen fun. $9, lots of seafood, lots of flavor, at least be 12 bucks anywhere else. We are looking at a $3.50 corn beet egg sandwich, a ham ngau tan chi. Very salty, but if you're looking for this flavor, this is the one. It's 11.30 a.m., maybe 10.30 a.m., at maybe a ga ga lok, ga ga lok in Hong Kong, and I regret ordering the corn beet because I'm not a corn beet guy. Next up, we've got these sausage egg, and they're using like a Western Jimmy Dean sausage. I've never even seen this before, so. All right, I mean, this is better than any fast food egg sandwich, easily in the game and cheaper. For $7.50, I have the black pepper and pork chop over rice. This is the hock chew, chew pie fond. Very hot, smells delicious. Mmm, that is the best pork chop deal you can get in Chinatown, $7.50 for fresh pork chop. Last but definitely not least, for $7.50, we got the gherm chong gai pa fond. Freshly made ginger scallion oil right here, lots, very generous with it. Shout out to Kenny Man and Flavor4. I could eat this dish like every other day for lunch. This is a great lunch food. Keep you going, $7.50, you get fresh chicken thigh, grilled to perfection, topped off with a lot of delicious ginger and scallion oil. It's light on flavor, but it is authentic, and it is delicious, and it is cheap. Highly though. All right, everybody, I am right outside of the new spicy village. Now, I love to see Chinatown spots expand, even if it's just, you know, up the street, they still have their old location over on four sides, but this spot actually took the old shu jiao. So shu jiao actually moved on to Grand Street, and then new spicy village took this spot. They're serving the same dishes, but it's a little bit bigger and cleaner of a spot, and the prices are a little bit higher, but maybe the food is better. Let's go check it out. Guys, the one thing I actually like about this dish is that it's a dish that I enjoy, and actually a lot of non-Asians enjoy as well. A lot of people come in here ordering this because it kinda looks like the more authentic version of a Panda Express dish, or something that you might be able to get at the mall at like a Manchu Walk or one of those Chinese takeouts, but it's got a lot of flavor and it is worth it. Let's see if it's as good as the old location or the original. Honestly, this tastes like a better version of that teriyaki chicken you're gonna get at Saurapoo at the mall, but it has peppers and onions stir-fried into it. One of those favorite dishes that I don't think it offends anybody. Everybody's gonna like this one. So if you got a friend who doesn't even like Chinese food, this is the dish to get. All right, trying the tomato and egg. All right, let's go for it. This dish is really clean, pretty light, just a little bit salty, but if you just wanna load up on carbs and have a light meal, I think this is the dish right here. All right, so we actually ordered just the side of noodles that was supposed to be in with the dish, but I forgot because I didn't know that actually if you order the big plate of chicken, it just comes with chicken. So we ordered the hand-pulled noodles. I'm just gonna weave those in just like that never happened. So this style of big plate chicken is actually a Henan style, which because the chefs and the owners of the spicy village are actually Fujianese, but they spend time in Henan, so they kinda learn this style of Dapar-ji. And you know, big plate chicken, all different dishes in China have different regional kind of takes on it, and this is the Henan style. Off the bat though, I mean, I don't know, for 18 bucks, this is a pretty good deal as far as the flavor you get. You see all those fennel seeds. You see that the chicken is very dark. I think that's a good sign. It means the flavor's cooked in there. Let's try it. So you're finishing up my meal here at New Spicy Village. I gotta say, like if you're looking for a flavorful big plate chicken dish, you gotta come and get this one. I think this is actually the best one in Manhattan within reason because I go to more expensive spots that have it. One's where it cost maybe $25, $30, and it doesn't have this much flavor. So guys, New Spicy Village, I mean, all you gotta do is look out for the little bones and stuff because you know, the way they chop up the chicken, there's a lot of little broken bones in there that you can bite on. This is the best cheap eat big plate chicken that you can get in lower Manhattan, period. I love to see some of the Chinatown cheap eat legends graduate and expand up above Grand Street into more mixed zones. One of the traits about New York City is every like five to 10 blocks, it's almost like a new city. Previous location was so packed that they just had to. So I'm gonna be here more often. All right, our next spot is a brand new Cantonese style restaurant that has a ton of delicious dishes that are under $10, under $9 actually. It's named Uncle Lu, and Uncle Lu is actually a local legend here in Chinatown. You know, hopefully I'll get to meet him, but pretty much everybody around Chinatown who's been out here for a decade or so knows who that is. So shout out to him. Prices are very low, brand new spot. They specialize in chicken duck. They have really great seafood dishes that are very affordable. Guys, Uncle Lu's, let's check it out. All these dishes here were under $9. Why is the food so cheap here? First of all, we just opened, we're trying to promote it. We try to promote our dishes, let more people come in, we try to show the car, come in. We're opening up two days before Christmas. A lot of tools come in, too much business, too much business. Like we're short handed, inside and outside. Nobody wanna work now, right? Guys, this is freshly fried whiting fish. Now, whiting fish is kind of a cheap fish, but the fact that they fried it whole for you and they put all these little peppers and onions on top, I mean, guys, this is a deal, 8.50. That's pretty good. Whiting fish, if you know, if you've ever been to those Crown Fried Chicken, it's the fish that you're gonna get there. All right, here you got the crispy duck, freshly fried. Guys, I am ordering off the lunch menu before 4 p.m. You gotta come here before 4 p.m. and get all these dishes for under $9. It's crazy. Mm, wow. All right, guys, I'm here on to the Chenpi duck. Now, oftentimes you can find Chenpi beef, but there's not a lot of Chenpi duck. By the smell of it, it's a little bit sweet and vinegary. Let's try it. Mm, sweet, vibrant. It gonna remind you a little bit of like orange beef, but an orange duck style, mixed in with kind of like a Hongxiao roe style. So that's really good, man. Here, I got the sand ginger duck. Now, actually, I'm not gonna lie, these are the, this might be the first time I'm actually having this dish, at least calling it this name, you know. It's obviously the poached chicken with the ginger on top, got scallions, peppers. At this price point, these lunch specials are the best deal in Chinatown. Like literally, what can you get for under $9 even anymore? I know you can get a lot of dumplings, but to get a whole plate of chicken, man, just come here for lunch. Wrapping it up here, I have a very Cantonese dish here. This is the cauliflower with mushroom. Cooked all the way through, very nice. Still has a little crunch to it. Guys, I mean, just the fact that somebody like Uncle Lu, who's a local legend, you know, opened up a brand new restaurant. It just goes to show you that people who have been around in Chinatown for decades still believe in Chinatown. And these are ridiculously cheap lunch specials. Out of all the meats, I'm gonna say, I think the crispy fried chicken best thing here, it's sitting in that bed of soy sauce. Kind of feels like your standard or classic tatikai that you might get at like a spot like Congee Village. The skin and the batter is a little bit thicker, but overall, man, it's delicious. Show some love. Uncle Lu's Mulberry, I mean, listen, brand new spots are opening up in Chinatown. People believe in it. They wanna be here. All right, our next spot on Chinatown Cheap Eats is not a hot food restaurant. It's actually a frozen food store that sells all types of frozen Chinese food, particularly dumplings, dim sum, and wontons. In little Italy, are there spots kind of like this? There are actually, where you get like frozen raviolis, which are typically a little bit cheaper. And I think they're cheaper here as well, the frozen dumplings, right? Oh yeah, definitely, guys. This is a very economical way to eat. And I do think there's a lot of like stands or hot food places that have dim sum that don't make their dim sum in-house because that's very laborious and expensive. This is like essentially Chinatown level dim sum, maybe not the highest quality, but Chinatown level dim sum for cheap. This is their selection here. So what are you looking at? Oh, I'm not gonna lie, I'm looking at everything right now because I do like everything on this menu, especially the chicken paw roast and sauce. Love me a nice chicken feet. They call it chicken paw, not chicken feet. Interesting. Very interesting. Even the chicken shumai, that's always my go-to usually when I'm hitting up dim sum spots. Marco, pick out a pack of dumplings that you're gonna make at home. I'm going for this one, I might. But yo, are they easy to me? Because I can't cook. All you need is a steamer. I gotta buy one. I think I do. You don't have a steamer. We're Italians, we got everything in the kitchen. Where are these made? From Eminem, Brooklyn. These are some BK dumplings. Would you call yourself a dumpling dealer? Dumpling dealer? That's funny. My man right here is the dumpling dealer. These dumplings are made on 8th Ave in Brooklyn. Shout out to Brooklyn's Chinatown, Sunset Park, man. You know, I could see that in Brooklyn, they have more space to have like the dumpling warehouses essentially. So, okay, okay, okay. Bye-bye, dumpling dealer. All right, I'm about to steam these one tons that I got from Red Bull. $9 gives you 20 high quality one ton. Yes, they have pork shrimp. They have water chestnut. They have white pepper in them. They have all the main ingredients that you'd need. So, I was about to pop these into my steamer. By the way, if you do not have a steamer at home, I highly recommend it. This is actually called the baby bullet. It's actually made for baby food, but I like the size of it. It's not too big, but steaming is a very efficient, quick and environmentally friendly way to cook food because I use so little water. Next up, we finally have Korean corn dogs in Chinatown at a little-known chain called Mr. Cow. A lot of people not familiar with this particular Korean corn dog franchise. So, there's okay dog that does well. There's two hands. There's some other brands. Mr. Cow is starting in America. It is ran and operated by Koreans, but they do have some interesting flavors. Now, the Korean corn dog game is getting to a point, David, where I think people are looking for even wackier flavors. You're saying that the Korean corn dog game is at 2.0. Yeah, the regular standard Korean corn dog is now not wacky enough. Guys, this is right in the heart of Chinatown, right next to Grand Street Park, right here on Hester Street, right across from Mekong Food Tee, Bamboo Desserts. All right, the Mr. Cow has arrived. We always like to try the new Korean corn dog chains if we can, but of course, I had to turn to an oldie goodie right here, the Bamboo on Hester, guys. There's only two of them in New York City in Manhattan. It's a chain from, I believe, San Jose. This is not a bad thing to get while you're eating corn dogs because the corn dogs are going to be, you know, deep fried, kind of greasy, kind of heavy, but this is gonna cool it down. The Richie Lee special, the number one, replace the longan with the lychee, 10 out of 10. Wow, I have the caramel puff. These are sweet barley puffs with powdered sugar. Wow, here I have the spaghetti sticks. Yo, this is Parmesan cheese over spaghetti sauce. Where's Marco? Marco would like himself a good spaghetti stick corn dog. Guys, here I have the fruity pop. These are fruity pebbles sprinkled on top with sugar as well. David, is there one of these that you wanna try? All right, so immediately I wanted to try the fruity pebble ones, that's the one I'm going for. All right, guys, spaghetti stick fruity pops. One of those kids just said, hey, yo. All the times that our film, us eating these out on the street, there have always been some young kids who are across the street or right next to us saying, hey, yo, hey, yo, what is you all right now? Yo, honestly, I've got to say that this fruity pebble Korean corn dog is good. This is good. I did not think that the fruity pebbles on the outside were actually gonna turn into almost like a candy. And it actually does go well with the cheese. Obviously, they make sure this one is cheese more than corn dog. That's crazy. Okay, guys, here I have the caramel one. This is a mixture of, it's kind of like putting cereal. This kind of reminds me of smacks. You know, the box is here with the frog on it. Andrew, obviously part of our mission, part of our brand is to showcase new Asian concepts, new things that are from the Asian culture but making it into the Western society. Mr. Cow is just one of the numerous Korean corn dog chains that we've tried, but I have to give it one of the highest eatability scores in terms of like, I can eat the whole thing. A lot of them I can't. Honestly, guys, I think I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, Mr. Cow, right now at this moment in time is my favorite Korean corn dog spot. It's easy to eat. It's just enough sweetness. I think they've had the time to study the previous chains and work on things. And like I said, the crust is way thinner. The shell is way thinner. You get way more flavor. And the other times, the other ones to be honest, a lot of batter. Proved, all right. Let me try this Oden cup. These three hot dogs plus the Oden cup was $19. So just to let you know the pricing, but I do appreciate how the Korean corn dog spot. Keep it pretty Korean as in offering this traditional snack, which they don't have to because it looks a little weird to a lot of people. It's like a folded up fish cake sheet. So it kind of tastes like I'm eating a sheet of fishy top ramen. Not bad, but $3.99. You might be able to skip this one. I would say reallocate that money towards the corn dog. All right, our next spot on Chinatown Cheap Eats is this spot on Allen Street. And it's one of those businesses that you won't find anywhere else, but in Chinatown because it serves udon, ramen, dim sum, and sushi. Now I know that some of you guys might be a little skeptical, but it's actually kind of decent. Owned by Fujinese immigrants. Let's go in and check it out. We have the sushi sashimi combo for $30. And then we got the steamed crystal shrimp, which is your hot cow. So like I said, they got dim sum, they got sushi, they got ramen, everything. All right, so right off the bat, looking at the sushi, it's actually really well put together. It looks very clean. And actually looks pretty decent. Listen, this spot is actually ordered a lot through Uber Eats, but I don't think that many people walk in here and sit down and eat. But I mean, look at it. It's got the little Krispies and the spicy salmon. You have your tuna, you have your salmon here. You have your whitefish. Okay, so as far as Yuki, aka slash formerly go sushi, I mean, I think that a lot of people, you know, don't imagine themselves eating sushi in this setting, I get it. I think a lot of people when they go eat sushi, they only want to eat it at a high end omakase or nothing at all. But this is gonna get that sushi fix for you. The fish is very solid. It's not warm. It's chilled. It's well put together. And honestly, you know, shout out to Fujinese people because if you guys don't know Fujinese people, they do open up a lot of different businesses. They're not always cooking Chinese food. A lot of them are opening the affordable sushi spot. So I'm just saying affordable sushi is getting better. It doesn't have the stigma that it used to because, you know, a lot of its farm raise now, which is driving down the price. It's a lot easier to get now. So if you really need your sushi fix, you can stop at a spot like this. On the hunt for the elusive Tsingpaku Kaifan. There you go, Tsingpaku Kaifan. Mysei! Ah! All right, everybody. We have covered the spot in the past, but they have reopened after being closed for a while. It is Sugartown. It is like the exotic exclusive Japanese snack store of Chinatown. You guys gotta check it out. Lots of KitKats. Obviously, you know, in Japan, they'll have like 200 flavors of KitKats, but here, they're coming over. You got mango, Mont Blanc. You have an ice cream one. You have an apple cinnamon one. I might get this one. And then also, check out this Haichu. This is like a Yakult flavored Haichu. It's a yogurt drink. Oh, last but not least, you know, I really like Thai food. Here, we have half-half the grilled shrimp, which I actually had that at a Thai night market in Bangkok before. And then you got the chili sauce ones. Ooh, I'm excited about that. Okay, I'm not gonna lie. Not all KitKat flavors are good. I always like the classic ones a lot and like a few other ones, but let's try the apple cinnamon one. Holiday flavor. A lot of that. A lot of apple and cinnamon. Yo, I definitely think they're punching up the flavor of these KitKats and making it stronger because this one is hitting me in the face, almost tasting like a McDonald's apple pie. So the cool thing about Haichu is they adapt to every market. There's a lot of flavors from Taiwan here, but these are the Japanese ones. And this is a Yakult flavored one. It does really embody it. I feel like I'm chewing on Yakult. Thai Lays. Thai flavors work great on potato chips because Thai flavors are very robust, kind of sour, very spicy. So I'm very excited, but this is a dual one. So let me show you this. This is a green one. So this is gonna be like the little chili sauce one. I don't know the name of the sauce in Thailand, by the way. Shrimp one. Ooh, ooh, very roasty. Oh yeah, a little bit sour, sweet, limey. I'm gonna give that a four out of five too. Guys, again, just go for the flavors of things that you already like. You don't have to like go try new dishes via the snacks. Or maybe you do, maybe that's how you wanna do it. But anyways guys, Sugar Town in Chinatown on Bear Street, it is open. It has exotic Japanese and Southeast Asian snacks. You gotta try it out. All right, our next spot on Chinatown Cheap Eats is actually a bookstore that's not only going to have some cheap eats, but actually got some cheap reads. This is a brand new bookstore, Andrew. This is an Asian-American female-centric bookstore. And they have like signings by famous Asian-American female authors. They've got all types of stuff. I see some books by W.E.B. Du Bois. This is fairly interesting. This is a second generation Asian-American owned bookstore. They're gonna have coffee. They're gonna have like little snacks and stuff. So yeah, is it really a restaurant? Not really, but we wanted to give it a shout out because it is new to Chinatown and it just opened. And let me tell you this, by the amount of people that have been here every day since it opened, people are excited. Clearly it was something that the community was looking for. Cool, so I'm here with the owner Lucy of UME Books. What was the goal behind this? The goal was to create a bookstore that had immigrant stories, writers of color on the shelf. And I just really wanted to see people like me represented on books on the shelves. Okay, cool. Is there a particular focus on Asian-American female authors or Asian female authors? Or is that just kind of how it's working on the beginning? It's, honestly, we have a lot of Asian authors on the shelves, a lot of Asian female authors. We have a lot of writers of color on the shelf, stories of color. So if you're looking for any diverse reads, you can most likely find it here. Next spot on Chinatown Cheap Eats, Tiu Tai. Super small, low-key spot, just open. It's serving a mixture of Chiu Jiao food and actually Thai food. So that's why you have Cow Moon Guy and you have this traditional Chiu Jiao meatball, kind of like fun type noodle dish right here. You got shrimp ball, cuttlefish ball, squid ball, beef ball. Man, it actually smells amazing. It has a lot of like scallion oil in this. All right, so this is a 1450. This is not the cheapest Cow Moon Guy in the game, but it does look pretty legit. So we're gonna go ahead and put some of the ginger scallion on top. David, what I'm loving about that is the yellow skin. David, that is a yellow skin chicken. That is an Asian skin chicken. They're pretty good portion size. You know, is it the cheapest? No, but you actually can't find Cow Moon Guy Thai style in Chinatown, really. One of the best high non chicken based dishes in Chinatown for sure. Here I got the assorted Chiu Jiao fish balls, all different types of fish balls and meatballs. But you can tell that with the little extra garnishes, scallion and little pickled mustard greens, you know, they're adding a little bit extra here, guys. This is deep cut balls right here. Andrew, if there's anything about Kanto people or Chiu Jiao people, which is, you know, generally the same region on Southern China, Andrew, they love seafood, fish balls, squid balls, cuttlefish balls. So this dish is actually really popular in Hong Kong. I've never actually had it before, but it's a well known dish and it's well known to have Chiu Jiao roots. And I'm telling you, this is a great lunch food. Come on, you got all the little fish balls and meatballs in there and a lot of different flavors. And this is just hitting home. All right, this is the assorted seafood tom yum style. I'm just gonna pour it out into this larger bowl here. Ooh, you got mussels and shrimps and all types of things. Pick up a seafood, I'm gonna go for a shrimp. Guys, too tight. Surprisingly got the quality on lock, man. It's a small spot, but it's doing a lot. Tom yum soup. Aren't you guys last but not least? Like we said, this spot is not the cheapest of all Chinatown cheap eats, but the quality is there. It's in a little bit of Chinatown extended, LES, McZone. I mean, they have a durian on rice, guys. They have a durian sticky rice. This, I feel like, is a dish that you're really only gonna find at specialty dessert spots. And they give you a little cream topping and everybody loves eating everything over rice. What about durian over rice? Let's get phoned. Whoa! As a person who's actually grown to love Chilchow food over the past several years of my life, guys, I am so glad that Two-Tie Kitchen opened because not that many spots serve Chilchow food in Chinatown right now, but this spot is doing it right. All right, our next spot here on Chinatown Cheap Eats is a kind of unexpected coffee shop that's actually been here low-key for a few years now, but this is my first time ever grabbing a coffee where at Chantum Square, this is Oliver's coffee. Yo, have you ever been here? I've been here. They have a solid cold brew, but it's a little too cold for the cold room. I have to go with something warmer than that. I like this because it is adding some hipster vibes. They have macadamia milk. They have coconut. They have hemp milk. Hemp milk? We're about to go check out Oliver's coffee inside. They love their fashion, their photography, and their books. So let's check it out. A spot like this I would not attract to be in Chinatown, but it's 2021 and we got coffee shops all over the place, but at least it's good coffee. Now we had been asking for a McDonald's China imitation sandwich in Chinatown. Flushing had one, Bensonhurst had one. Chinatown finally has one at one cup of tea. This looks like a McDonald's menu right now. Look at it. Ah! This is the closest thing we have in Chinatown to imitation McDonald's China. Oh my goodness. It doubled the chicken patty. This is like one of those double joints that you occasionally see. D, are you ready for this? You guys. Are you sure you want to do this? The chronicles to search for the best Shanghai McDonald's McSpicy imitation has begun. Actually guys, this is actually pretty solid. I'm going to go ahead and give it the 6.75 out of 10, maybe the 7 out of 10. However, it doesn't really fully taste like the McDonald's version. It almost tastes like those Chinese fast food chains. They are also serving Western food. This is still pretty solid though. A lot of pepper, double chicken patty, little bit too much New Orleans flavor from you. Guys, next up is a spot that is right on the cusp of Chinatown, right on the cusp of what? The police station? Yeah, I would say this is like, Loonage is like the bridge from Chinatown to like Fidai. Right, right. Because there is, what? You just go under a bridge over there, right? Go under a bridge and you're practically right by the trade center. That's a good point. You guys, this is really interesting because you can argue that this is like the only pizza spot in Chinatown. Absolutely. Even though like, you're not gonna find probably any Chinese people in there. You don't want, the pizza's that good. You're mine, you're mine. It's not good, the pizza. But the pizza's good, so let's check it out. You can palm slice, and can I do a lasagna slice? And then what do you think? Should I get a spicy pepperoni and sausage? That looks good. Yeah, this looks good. Can I get that too? Marco, you are Italian. What do you think traditional Italian spots don't typically have like a lasagna slice or a chicken palm slice, right? Yeah, this is just the elevation of pizza. This is the pizza game. This is like the new normal. 10 years ago you didn't have any of this. People are taking like entire dishes like eggplant, palm, and converting them into slices. And they're even somewhat putting pasta on it too. Right? I mean, pizza game's crazy right now. Oh no. I don't even know what's the, what's the hymn? Oh no. This is Italian-owned. It's sort of like just situated in a very interesting place. And pizza looks pretty good. Not cheap. Five bucks a slice. You know what? It's not cheap. You know, it's a quality though, you know? And also, you know, you're getting pepperoni and sausage, five dollars. I mean, today's world is not that bad. Yeah, that's true. There's a lot of inflation. The ports are all backed up. This is a lasagna slice. I've been wanting to eat a lasagna slice for a long time now. So let's check it out. This is cheap Chinatown eats guys. Luna pizza. Oh, I love that. Oh, are you luring? I'm not married. I'm married. Luna's just the name. Where are you guys from? You know my mom and dad? I'm from Morocco. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Neighbor, say neighborhood. You know this guy? Yeah. This is the neighborhood spot. Long time. This lasagna slice is really, really good. It actually mimics the flavor of that dish pretty well. Oh, it's amazing. You know, even with this is salient slice, look at that undercarriage right there. It's crispy, fluffy. Got two different types of fresh mozzarella cheese. Now, I believe it's fresh mozzarella cheese. And what's the other one? And grande. How you doing? You know, for chicken parmesan on the pizza too, that's somebody who obviously, you know, I'm not Italian. I didn't grow up eating this stuff. To have it on a slice is a cool way to make it more accessible. We got the vodka slice, but I'm going to make it a spicy vodka slice. There we go. All right, you guys. I mean, we had to top it off here. Cheap Chinatown eats Luna's pizza. They got cannolis. And they cannoli them right in front of you. This is freshly made right now. Crispy only outside and just... You were making a comparison with like Chinese food earlier. Yeah, because I'm going to say like, you know how Chinese take out, you have your egg rolls? This is the Italian egg roll. Same size. Same size. Obviously the inside is just cannoli cream. The cannolis here on Luna's pizza. Wow. That is fresh. That's fresh you made. Like that's good. Zero sogginess. This is one of the best things about living on the East Coast. Cannolis everywhere. Everywhere, yeah. Come check out Luna's pizza. Chinatown was always in a state of change. With the rent prices changing, new properties popping up, newly arrived immigrants coming in, you can expect things to look different over time. And not to mention the pandemic really put that change into high gear. And while all business owners will say that Chinatown is not back to 100% or even close, there's definitely some new hope. There's actually a lot of new, cheap quality eats, while also some new higher end concepts are trickling in too. There's still plenty of the old spots and there's still a strong spirit. Sometimes all you can do is enjoy, support and embrace the evolution.