PrintHead to Malaysia Beef Jerky in Chinatown For All Your Meat Jerky Needs
When my friend, cookbook author Corinne Trang, offered to take me on a lunchtime jaunt around Chinatown, she didn't tell me where we were going. I just trusted her to show me something tasty that I hadn't eaten before. "Have you had the meat jerky from that shop on Elizabeth Street?" she asked as we walked down from Soho. With no meat jerky in my past, we made our first stop at Malaysia Beef Jerky, which, despite the name, does much more than beef jerky.
There are ten types in all—beef, chicken, pork, shrimp and pork, spicy or not, "sliced" or not. In the front window you can watch a woman cooking the jerky by constantly flipping the meat flaps that blanket the grill to attain a light char and avoid undesirable burning.
Most of the jerky are unlike any American version: thin, tender, moist, red flaps of sweetened meat. The sliced versions are more like American meat jerky: drier, chewier, with long meat fibers. I prefer the moist, tender version, even if it leaves a grease slick on every surface it touches (that is, my hands). The spicy versions have just a hint of hotness, which may be disappointing if you like pain with your spiciness. Although you can eat the jerky by itself like candy, I feel like it would go nicely in a sandwich. Unfortunately, I have yet to test this idea.
The jerky is $17 or $18 a pound, or about $1.50 per piece. Most pieces are 3.5-by-3.5 inches square, which may not look like much, but eat more than that and everything will start to taste the same—like sweet, charred meat. Not that that's a bad flavor. Since the jerky is freshly made and doesn't contain any preservatives, it requires refrigeration and won't keep indefinitely.
Malaysia Beef Jerky
95A Elizabeth Street, New York, NY 10013 (b/n Grand and Hester; map)
212-965-0796
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6 Comments:
I knew this sounded familiar! Both Zach and Erin have pointed SE-ers to blogs writing about this place in Smorgasbord posts in the past 6 months or so.
Now I really HAVE to get there!
klg19 at 3:19PM on 03/31/09
Yeah this place is really good! Also try Pings on Mulberry across the street from the park. And there's another place on Bayard next to the flower store (I haven't tried though).
Gordon Mark at 3:24PM on 03/31/09
There's another great place on Canal just E of orchard, I think. S side of street.
Maybe there should be jerky-off (no pun intended) walking tour.
Jack_Barber at 5:47PM on 03/31/09
Glad you enjoyed Malaysian Beef Jerky. My friend and 10-time world champion bbq pit master Chris Lilly was impressed. It's hard to impress this man, but this one was definitely a winner. I sent him home with a pound of it too! Can't wait to try the other places mentioned by your readers.
ctrang at 9:33PM on 03/31/09
Ling Kee Jerky is the place Jack_Barber is talking about. I think Malaysia Beef Jerky is better though since they get more traffic, fresher jerky. It's also a bit cleaner.
bionicgrrrl at 9:51PM on 03/31/09
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fobbyamerican at 10:53PM on 03/31/09