Manhattan: Chinatown
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, November 17, 2009 at 3:30 PM
[Photo: Kathy Chan]
Growing up, my sister and I referred to this as "The Eyeball Drink," served by Mom as an afternoon refresher on a hot day. But really, it was nothing more than basil seeds re-hydrated in water with a bit of sugar. You can literally pour a bag full of basil seeds into a glass of water and watch as they go from seeds to these translucent alien-like objects. $2.50 a cup is the going rate in Chinatown. Some places mix in sugar, others add liquid sugar, and others such as Banh Mi Sau Voi Cafe add in "pourtailai," pictured above. I don't know what the English translation is, but it's got texture of fine seaweed, thick and a bit crunchy. A fine pairing, if I do say so.
Banh Mi Sau Voi Cafe
101 Lafayette Street, New York NY 10013 (map)
212-226-8184
Posted by Ed Levine, November 3, 2009 at 11:00 PM
"We only had a fraction of the 237 items on the Amazing 66 dinner menu."
[Photographs: Robyn Lee]
Amazing 66
66 Mott Street, New York, NY 10013 (b/n Bayard and Canal; map); 212-334-0099
Service: Efficient, friendly
Setting: Brightly lit dining room
Must-Haves: Pastrami shrimp fried rice, roast chicken with garlic and preserves
Grade: B
When Save the Deli author David Sax wanted to meet up at Amazing 66 to try some of its deli-derived dishes while we discussed his extraordinary book, that's when I knew that Amazing 66 had, well, a truly amazing menu for a Chinese restaurant.
I brought Robyn and Alaina along for the interview, and we knew we weren't in the Chinatown that I grew up with, the moment we started reading the huge menu. Consider the following Sax-recommended items: Pastrami over Spinach. Corned Beef over Lettuce. Pastrami Shrimp Fried Rice.
And how about these chef-recommended dishes:
- Short Rib Beef in a Pumpkin
- Golden Prawns over Twin Rice
- Mixed Asian Mushroom over Bean Curd Rolls
- House Special Crispy Chicken Stuffed with Sticky Rice (Pre-order Required)
- House Special Crispy Chicken Stuffed with Shrimp & Almond (Pre-order Required)
- Roast Chicken with Garlic/Preserved Vegetable
Of the three deli dishes, the one to get is the pastrami shrimp fried rice. Why? It's pastrami and shrimp nuggets in fried rice. What could be bad? If I had a reform Jewish, decidedly-not-kosher nephew or niece having a bar mitzvah, I would tell their parents to serve this dish at the reception. The rest of the deli dishes were more interesting than delicious, but they certainly piqued my interest in returning. What clinched it were the two dishes that required pre-ordering: Crispy Chicken Stuffed with Shrimp & Almond, anyone? We were so there the next week.
My first impulse was to quote (or should I say, liberally paraphrase) Talking Heads founding member David Byrne. "You may ask yourself, how did they get there?"
Continue reading »
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, October 2, 2009 at 11:00 AM
[Photos: Robyn Lee]
By Gordon Mark and Chichi Wang | The Mid-Autumn Festival begins tomorrow, October 3rd, and for me and many other Asian people, that means it's time for a mooncake! The mooncakes that I am familiar with are Cantonese in origin. Circular or square cakes, with a thin outer skin and thick inner filling, they're usually composed of lotus seed, peanut, or red bean paste. Alternatively, you may have seen round and white cakes with a flaky exterior and red stamping on the surface. These mooncakes are more prevalent in the Suzhou region, yet not as easily found in the United States.
If you've been around any Chinatown neighborhood recently, you will have noticed boxes of Cantonese-style mooncakes at the grocery stores, supermarkets, and bakeries. When you're buying a box of these, you'll get a gift bag to hold them; the whole package is often given as a gift to family and friends. (But if you just want to try one mooncake, fear not; bakeries will sell them individually.)
The ideal mooncake achieves a harmony between outer casing and inner filling. The shell should be moist and cohesive; when cut into, few crumbs should drop. Inside, the filling should be intense without tasting overly sweet. If it is a red bean filling, for instance, it should taste extremely beany. Representing wealth and luxury, duck egg yolks are the most prized additions to the fillings. While pricier, mooncakes with yolks are much more indulgent and rich. The best duck egg yolks should be soft and unctuous; if you cut into a dry, crumbly duck egg yolk, the mooncake has mostly likely been too dried out.
Our favorite mooncakes, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Tia Kim, September 23, 2009 at 12:45 PM
"I leave my napkin smudged with cuttlefish kisses, but my plate is always returned spotlessly clean."
Recently, I've been frequenting Division Street in Chinatown quite often; not for Chinese food, but for Italian. Tucked away on a a quiet street, one block away from Ling Kee Beef Jerky and Lam Zhou, is Bacaro—a Venetian bi-level wine bar with small plates but plenty of charm. The ground floor, with large windows facing the street, is the brighter of the two floors, making it more popular with gossiping girlfriends and long-time couples no longer needing to woo each other. The floor below, darker and sexier with the feel of a wine cellar in a romantic castle in Venice, is more popular with amorous couples meeting for a clandestine rendez-vous.
Personally, I never care where I sit. I go to Bacaro with only one thing in mind: the Spaghetti Nero.
Continue reading »
Posted by Gordon Mark, September 8, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Manhattan's Chinatown is a huge neighborhood, and although it's a good thing that it offers a nearly endless number of eateries, one might be overwhelmed by all the choices. Where do you go on an empty stomach? What do you order? Sometimes, when you're faced with such a wealth of options, it's best to narrow your focus a bit. This, then, is a guide to jerky in Chinatown.
In Chinatown, there are shops that primarily sell jerked meats. These aren't like Slim Jims, but closer to the homemade kind. Most of them have beef and pork; some have chicken; some have both regular and spicy versions. The taste and texture differ from shop to shop. They sell in quarter, half, and one pound quantities—a quarter pound costing about $4 to $5. Here are four notable meat shops in Chinatown. Let me know if I missed any.
Continue reading »
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, November 17, 2009 at 3:30 PM
[Photo: Kathy Chan]
Growing up, my sister and I referred to this as "The Eyeball Drink," served by Mom as an afternoon refresher on a hot day. But really, it was nothing more than basil seeds re-hydrated in water with a bit of sugar. You can literally pour a bag full of basil seeds into a glass of water and watch as they go from seeds to these translucent alien-like objects. $2.50 a cup is the going rate in Chinatown. Some places mix in sugar, others add liquid sugar, and others such as Banh Mi Sau Voi Cafe add in "pourtailai," pictured above. I don't know what the English translation is, but it's got texture of fine seaweed, thick and a bit crunchy. A fine pairing, if I do say so.
Banh Mi Sau Voi Cafe
101 Lafayette Street, New York NY 10013 (map)
212-226-8184
Posted by Ed Levine, November 3, 2009 at 11:00 PM
"We only had a fraction of the 237 items on the Amazing 66 dinner menu."
[Photographs: Robyn Lee]
Amazing 66
66 Mott Street, New York, NY 10013 (b/n Bayard and Canal; map); 212-334-0099
Service: Efficient, friendly
Setting: Brightly lit dining room
Must-Haves: Pastrami shrimp fried rice, roast chicken with garlic and preserves
Grade: B
When Save the Deli author David Sax wanted to meet up at Amazing 66 to try some of its deli-derived dishes while we discussed his extraordinary book, that's when I knew that Amazing 66 had, well, a truly amazing menu for a Chinese restaurant.
I brought Robyn and Alaina along for the interview, and we knew we weren't in the Chinatown that I grew up with, the moment we started reading the huge menu. Consider the following Sax-recommended items: Pastrami over Spinach. Corned Beef over Lettuce. Pastrami Shrimp Fried Rice.
And how about these chef-recommended dishes:
- Short Rib Beef in a Pumpkin
- Golden Prawns over Twin Rice
- Mixed Asian Mushroom over Bean Curd Rolls
- House Special Crispy Chicken Stuffed with Sticky Rice (Pre-order Required)
- House Special Crispy Chicken Stuffed with Shrimp & Almond (Pre-order Required)
- Roast Chicken with Garlic/Preserved Vegetable
Of the three deli dishes, the one to get is the pastrami shrimp fried rice. Why? It's pastrami and shrimp nuggets in fried rice. What could be bad? If I had a reform Jewish, decidedly-not-kosher nephew or niece having a bar mitzvah, I would tell their parents to serve this dish at the reception. The rest of the deli dishes were more interesting than delicious, but they certainly piqued my interest in returning. What clinched it were the two dishes that required pre-ordering: Crispy Chicken Stuffed with Shrimp & Almond, anyone? We were so there the next week.
My first impulse was to quote (or should I say, liberally paraphrase) Talking Heads founding member David Byrne. "You may ask yourself, how did they get there?"
Continue reading »
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, October 2, 2009 at 11:00 AM
[Photos: Robyn Lee]
By Gordon Mark and Chichi Wang | The Mid-Autumn Festival begins tomorrow, October 3rd, and for me and many other Asian people, that means it's time for a mooncake! The mooncakes that I am familiar with are Cantonese in origin. Circular or square cakes, with a thin outer skin and thick inner filling, they're usually composed of lotus seed, peanut, or red bean paste. Alternatively, you may have seen round and white cakes with a flaky exterior and red stamping on the surface. These mooncakes are more prevalent in the Suzhou region, yet not as easily found in the United States.
If you've been around any Chinatown neighborhood recently, you will have noticed boxes of Cantonese-style mooncakes at the grocery stores, supermarkets, and bakeries. When you're buying a box of these, you'll get a gift bag to hold them; the whole package is often given as a gift to family and friends. (But if you just want to try one mooncake, fear not; bakeries will sell them individually.)
The ideal mooncake achieves a harmony between outer casing and inner filling. The shell should be moist and cohesive; when cut into, few crumbs should drop. Inside, the filling should be intense without tasting overly sweet. If it is a red bean filling, for instance, it should taste extremely beany. Representing wealth and luxury, duck egg yolks are the most prized additions to the fillings. While pricier, mooncakes with yolks are much more indulgent and rich. The best duck egg yolks should be soft and unctuous; if you cut into a dry, crumbly duck egg yolk, the mooncake has mostly likely been too dried out.
Our favorite mooncakes, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Tia Kim, September 23, 2009 at 12:45 PM
"I leave my napkin smudged with cuttlefish kisses, but my plate is always returned spotlessly clean."
Recently, I've been frequenting Division Street in Chinatown quite often; not for Chinese food, but for Italian. Tucked away on a a quiet street, one block away from Ling Kee Beef Jerky and Lam Zhou, is Bacaro—a Venetian bi-level wine bar with small plates but plenty of charm. The ground floor, with large windows facing the street, is the brighter of the two floors, making it more popular with gossiping girlfriends and long-time couples no longer needing to woo each other. The floor below, darker and sexier with the feel of a wine cellar in a romantic castle in Venice, is more popular with amorous couples meeting for a clandestine rendez-vous.
Personally, I never care where I sit. I go to Bacaro with only one thing in mind: the Spaghetti Nero.
Continue reading »
Posted by Gordon Mark, September 8, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Manhattan's Chinatown is a huge neighborhood, and although it's a good thing that it offers a nearly endless number of eateries, one might be overwhelmed by all the choices. Where do you go on an empty stomach? What do you order? Sometimes, when you're faced with such a wealth of options, it's best to narrow your focus a bit. This, then, is a guide to jerky in Chinatown.
In Chinatown, there are shops that primarily sell jerked meats. These aren't like Slim Jims, but closer to the homemade kind. Most of them have beef and pork; some have chicken; some have both regular and spicy versions. The taste and texture differ from shop to shop. They sell in quarter, half, and one pound quantities—a quarter pound costing about $4 to $5. Here are four notable meat shops in Chinatown. Let me know if I missed any.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 3, 2009 at 10:45 AM
I went to Shanghai Asian Cuisine with a large group in search of xiao long bao (soup dumplings), but ended up finding two completely different dishes that I liked as much. Not to say that I don't like xiao long bao—that'd be silly—I'm just no connoisseur of these pork and soup-filled dumplings. Their version satisfied me: the skins were perilously thin (a few dumplings broke in the tonging process) and the innards were full of burning hot soup and a pork ball.
Continue reading »
Posted by Joe DiStefano, August 18, 2009 at 11:00 AM
"Something I’d try again—if I happened to find myself in the area after smoking a blunt with Snoop Dogg."
Normally when Zak Pelaccio recommends a spot, particularly an Asian one, I’m eager to try it out. But when he told me about LQQM Kung Fu Bing, I wasn’t so sure. He described it as a strange new Chinese fast-food joint down on Division Street under the Manhattan Bridge. I asked him whether it was similar to cong you bing, or scallion pancakes. All he would say was that it was a really weird sandwich type thing with a “ton of MSG.” Nevertheless, I had to try it; I’m a sucker for ethnic fast-food concepts.
Just as Filipino fast-food chain Jollibee has its bee, and Pollo Campero has its chicken, Kung Fu Bing, too, has a mascot—one that bears a suspicious resemblance to the lead character in Kung Fu Panda. Add to that their “KFB” logo, done up in the same font as KFC, and it becomes clear that these folks are looking to franchise Kung Fu Bing. The sign outside with KFB’s franchise hotline number makes it pretty apparent too.
Continue reading »
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, August 13, 2009 at 4:00 PM
My boba and bubble tea cravings intensify during the summer months, when I'd gladly pass up my morning chocolate muffin for a cup of cold boba tea. Green milk tea or black sesame are the usual orders at my neighborhood tea shop, Saint's Alp. But when at Ten Ren in Chinatown, it's the ginseng-honey drink I find myself ordering time after time. They go light on honey and heavy on the ginseng, making for a barely sweetened herbal, almost bitter drink.
Those unfamiliar with the medicinal flavor of ginseng won't find it immediately pleasant, but the flavor grows on one with time. Have it hot in the winter, and iced during the summer; it's utterly refreshing, if nothing else. The boba, which comes in very generous portions, leans on the firmer, chewier side. For those who prefer "softer" boba, stick with Saint's Alp.
Ten Ren's Tea Time
79 Mott Street, New York NY 10013 (map)
212-349-2286
tenren.com
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 4, 2009 at 2:00 PM
"The name translates to 'Delicious Beautiful,' or, more literally, 'Saliva Beautiful.'"
The first time I heard of Chinese Food was on the subway. I was talking about food (as I am wont to do) with a friend while riding the L train and another passenger who overheard us asked, "Have you guys heard of Chinese Food?"
Chinese Food? We thought she was joking, but some online searching revealed that there is a place called Chinese Food. My mom translated the sign as Jin Mei* Potstickers (the other characters say "Northern style/taste" and "handmade"), but it was the super-generic name that enticed me to visit the handmade dumpling shop.
Although it may not close until around 8:30 p.m., you should get there earlier if you want fried dumplings. When I visited around 7:30 p.m., they had already cleaned out their fryers and were only boiling dumplings. (Instead of cooking, they seemed to be focused on making more dumplings; we could hear them furiously chopping vegetables in the back of the restaurant.) Not that I have anything against boiled dumplings, but I was a little sad that I couldn't fulfill my hankering for fried, crispy dumpling skins filled with juicy pork-y nubs.
Continue reading »
Posted by Joe DiStefano, July 10, 2009 at 11:30 AM
The other night I popped into Great N.Y. Noodletown for a drunken late-night snack and did two things for the first time at this Cantonese roast meat emporium. The first was getting beef chow fun, an ordering misstep that was driven more out of nostalgia for my recently deceased father's favorite dish than any desire to wolf down a plate of noodles and beef bathed in slippery corn starch-based sauce. The second thing was use the ladies' room, where I spied the above bit of anti-porcine propaganda. Just who is this M. Hamm? A tagger who genuinely feels (however mistaken they may be) that swine kills? Or perhaps someone who really loves Noodletown's roast pork so much that they've stooped to a graffiti campaign to ensure that they get their share of succulent pig meat? The identity of M. Hamm will likely remain shrouded in mystery, but I would heartily advise my fellow eaters to ignore the anti-porcine message and heartily partake of Noodletown's roast pork.
Great N.Y. Noodletown
28 Bowery, New York NY 10013 (map)
212-349-0923
Posted by Joe DiStefano, July 2, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Long ago this Canal Street storefront must have sold art, or more likely knockoff handbags. These days it hawks something far more interesting: fresh jackfruit. The impressive array of huge green fruit looks like something out of a science fiction flick. At first I didn't know what they were. A sign with two Chinese characters and the English word “sweet” indicated that the mystery fruit costs $4 a pound.
When the couple working this hole in the wall told me the ginormous green ovoids were jackfruit, I jumped at the chance to buy some. Not willing to commit to a gigantic wedge, I grabbed a small container. They told me that many people cook the seeds, but that it was fine to eat the fruit itself out of hand, which is exactly what I did as I strolled down Canal Street. I had all intention of taking a closeup of the jackfruit flesh in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, but it was so damn good it was gone long before Grand Street.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, May 15, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Photograph from BoweryBoogie on Flickr
Hong Kong Supermarket, the Chinatown landmark at the corner of Pike and East Broadway, burned down last night. Bowery Boogie has photos and video footage from the scene. Apparently the fire started in the adjacent building around 9:45 p.m. and had people in the smoke-filled streets until well after midnight.
Shopping at Hong Kong Supermarket was something of a delightful madness. The shelves were stocked with everything from sesame paste to grape jam-filled marshmallows. Sure, there are plenty of other Asian markets in the city, but this was a special favorite of Serious Eaters.
Related: Noodling Around Hong Kong Supermarket
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 24, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Bowl of pho with close ups of noodles and tripe.
I'm a noob when it comes to pho. Although I like it, I've probably eaten it less than five times in the past three years. There's no good reason for this negligence of such a satisfying, inexpensive, and accessible noodle dish. I hang my head in shame. (And I welcome all pho suggestions.)
When I recently got a craving for thinly sliced beef and rice noodles in a light beef broth, my Google searches for good pho in the city led me to Pho Grand. It's named after pho—seemed like a good bet.
I went for the Tai Sach, pho with thinly sliced eye of round and omosa, mostly because I didn't know what omosa was and wanted to find out. Omosa is tripe, in this dish's case, satisfyingly chewy and thinly sliced to a noodle-like resemblance. That first bowl was enough to make me want to order it with all future bowls of pho. On first whiff, the soup smelled strongly of anise and cinnamon, but the soup's flavor wasn't quite as alluring. Not that there was anything wrong with it (although it was a bit cloudy, if that's something to watch out for)—it tasted like a balanced beef broth. I added chili sauce for some hotness and piled on the accompanying basil and mung bean sprouts for crunch.
Pho Grand
277 Grand Street, New York, NY 10002 (map)
212-965-5366
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 14, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Just because Excellent Pork Chop House is named after pork chops doesn't mean you should overlook the rest of their menu. (Besides, I already wrote about the pork chops.) Supplement your pork chop with these other dishes.
Scalded vegetable may look like a boring pile of chopped cabbage, but it's so much more than that. Or a little bit more than that. This pile of briefly cooked cabbage—resulting in soft leafy bits and a slightly crisp center—is doused in an oily garlic-laden sauce. So much garlic that it leaves a slight tingle in your mouth. In my mind, that's a good thing. It may not be as magical as Grand Sichuan's scallion sauce, but if I had a bowl of rice I'd definitely would've poured the sauce over it and happily eaten the resulting garlicky rice.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 7, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Sometimes I want noodles. And sometimes I want soup—but not too much soup. And any bowl of noodle soup tends to fall into the category of "too much soup."
It wasn't until I ordered combination rice stick with soup on the side that I realized I could control the amount of liquid I ingest with my noodles, similar to how I like having my maple syrup on the side when I eat pancakes instead of dousing the pancakes in sweetness. A small cup of soup accompanied the bowl of flat rice noodles topped with ground pork, sliced pork, sliced fish cakes, sliced spleen, and chopped scallions. The spleen was my least favorite part—it was a bit too funky for me—but the other meats made up for it.
The flavor of the chewy, flat rice noodles would have been masked and the texture would've been softer than I prefer if only eaten while swimming in the soup. I like the flavor of plain rice noodles—and plain rice, for that matter (and just about anything else made of rice). I'd be happy eating these noodles without soup as well, but a spoonful of soup here and there does enhance the noodle-eating experience for a shot of moisture and sodium.
New Chao Chow
111 Mott Street, New York, NY 10013 (b/n Canal and Hester; map)
212-226-2590
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 31, 2009 at 2:00 PM
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.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 25, 2009 at 4:15 PM
Soft cake is one of those basic Chinese bakery items that hits the spot when all you want is something simple, soft, and sweet—oh, and cheap. For only 85¢, you get a large, super moist and light spongy cake nub topped with a few slivered almonds that are more for decoration than flavor. Although spongy in texture, it's not like a typical sponge cake—it's considerable lighter and has a bit of chew.
While you don't have to go to Hon Cafe for this cake, we've designated Hon Cafe as our most oft-visited Chinese bakery mostly because it's open until 10:30 p.m. (much later than most other Chinese bakeries), making it a great late-night snack destination.
Hon Cafe
70 Mott Street, New York NY 10013 (nr. Canal Street; map)
212-219-1431
Previously
Sugar Rush: Tiger Roll at Hon Café
Sugar Rush: $1.25 Sponge Cake at Hon Cafe
Sugar Rush: Normal Milk Tea Vs. 'Hong Kong' Milk Tea at Hon Cafe
Posted by Erin Zimmer, March 4, 2009 at 6:40 PM
Photograph from kathyylchan on Flickr
At Deluxe Food Market in Manhattan's Chinatown, you can actually buy crocodile meat, displayed with claws attached no less. And since everybody loves crocodile meat variety, there are two kinds available: the leg meat for $3.99 a pound, and "other parts," more like steak-quality meat, for $4.99. Those nails are just, wow. 79 Elizabeth Street, New York NY 10013 (b/n Grand and Hester Streets; map); 212-925-5766
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 4, 2009 at 5:00 PM
My first sip of Ovaltine was at a bakery in Chinatown. I liked it enough to buy my own jar of the powdered drink mix, but I would still buy a cup from a Chinese bakery in those times of Ovaltine cravings while outside of the comfort of my own home. Also, they seem to be able to make it better than I can.
You can get hot or cold Ovaltine from just about any Chinese bakery for $1 or less (for those who need some guidance, I'll list some addresses below of where I've had it, but seriously—any Chinese bakery). It's like drinking hot chocolate mixed with cereal milk. When I'm not in the mood for milk tea and I want to fill my belly with something hot and sweet, I usually go for Ovaltine.
Hon Cafe
70 Mott Street, New York NY 10013 (nr. Canal Street; map)
212-219-1431
Savoy Bakery
5922 8th Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11220 (nr. 59th; map)
718-439-6343
Posted by Kathy YL Chan, February 20, 2009 at 4:30 PM
I often find the drinks and dessert section of Southeast Asian restaurant menus to be the most intriguing. From Mo-Mo-Cha-Cha to sour plums in seltzer water, and even carrot juice with milk, I am hopelessly fascinated. But while curiosity has taken me from one end of the menu to the other, it's the cool glasses of soy bean milk and grass jelly that I faithfully return to time after time.
Skyway Malaysian in Chinatown does a lovely rendition of this drink served in large glass mugs. Soy bean milk with a touch of sweetness is poured over a plentiful heap of grass jelly cut into one-inch strands. Some places use only green grass jelly (pandan-flavored), while others use black. Skyway appeases all with an equal mix of the two. There's but a subtle taste difference between the green and black; nonetheless, an extra burst of color gives this version a slight edge. It appears as "Soya Bean with Grass Jelly" on the menu, but in various parts of Malaysia the marriage of these two entities—soy bean milk and grass jelly, is fondly known as the "Michael Jackson." Pretty sweet, huh?
Skyway Malaysian
11 Allen Street, New York NY 10002 (at Canal, map)
212-265-1163
