December 17, 2006
Weekend in New York
Chinatowns: Dim Sum, Borough by Borough
By SETH KUGEL

TOURISTS and New Yorkers alike flock to Chinatown for the bustling street life, flimflam designer bags and mobbed dim sum palaces.

Other tourists and New Yorkers alike spurn Chinatown because of its bustling street life, flimflam designer bags and mobbed dim sum palaces.

But both crowds should find something to savor in the city’s other two Chinatowns, both a no-transfer ride on the subway from Times Square. For the latter group, all you need is a weekend, a MetroCard and a hearty appetite. If you’re in the first group, make it a long weekend and visit all three neighborhoods.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn’s Chinatown stretches along Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park, with all the restaurants, shops and markets you could ask for without frenetic sidewalks or terminal car exhaust. It’s just about impossible to get lost. Or bored.

From the N train stop at Eighth Avenue and 62nd, head toward the lower-numbered streets. The Hong Kong Supermarket of Brooklyn is at the corner of 61st Street, and if the idea of visiting a supermarket on vacation strikes you as odd, consider it more like grocery voyeurism.

It starts the moment you walk in and see the display that clusters prepared squid and Chinese beef jerky with Juicy Fruit gum and Ricola cough drops. How’s that for cross-marketing? Not that you won’t be tempted to buy items like Chinese teapots for $5, sake cups for under a buck, basil seed drink with honey, Korean pears, Singapore curry sauce and Ice Bon icies from Funny Hippo (with the slogan “Cool ... Bring You the Summer Snow”).

Farther down, duck into bakeries where local residents sip coffee, eat pork buns and watch Chinese videos. Restaurants range from simple noodle shops to palaces like Diamond on Eighth. One spot, the New Seawide Seafood restaurant, sets up a table out front where meals to go cost about $3.

One other activity: count all the businesses that use “Eight,” “8” or “Eighth” in their names. That’s a lucky number in Chinese tradition, and perhaps that’s why Chinese immigrants chose to open their businesses on Eighth Avenue.

Queens

Flushing’s Chinatown is at the terminus of the No. 7 train. Among other ethnic groups, New York City’s Taiwanese trek there for three-cup chicken, shaved-ice treats and bubble tea. One restaurant considered exceptionally genuine is Gu-Shine, which means hometown.

Don’t be turned off if you encounter a funky (O.K., gross) smell upon entering: that’s just your fellow diners enjoying what on the menu is called “sautéed smelled bean curd” but which is commonly called “stinky tofu.”

Gu-Shine has three-cup chicken (on the English menu, it is called “chicken with basil in casserole”), named for the one cup each of sesame oil, soy sauce and cooking wine traditionally used in the recipe. You might also try the sweet rice with mushroom and meat, which is often given by a new mother as a gift to those attending a party for her baby, and the “oyster pancake with egg and vegetable.” Lighter meals can be had at popular shops like Noodle House and Happy Beef Noodle House, which are next-door neighbors.

Probably the most interesting spot in Flushing is the food court in the Flushing Mall, where the number of non-Asians present when you arrive will probably equal the number of non-Asians in your group. Some of the posted signs and menus do not even bother with the Roman alphabet. (The note under the cart selling 75-cent red bean pastry says, approximately, “You can eat it a thousand times without getting tired of it.”)

The thing to get, though, is the essential summer snack for teenagers in Taiwan. It’s plain old shaved ice covered in all sorts of toppings, ranging from peanuts to taro to mixed sweet beans to herb jelly. You eat it with a spoon.

Manhattan

Finally, the original. Sure, you may have to wait in line at one of the vast dim sum restaurants, but the experience of sitting at a big round table with Chinese strangers ordering little dishes from roaming carts is worth the wait. There are a few interesting things to note: dim sum is usually served with tea, and you may have to make a special request for water. At the Golden Bridge, one of the bigger spots, dim sum includes everything from snails to fish dumplings to taro to fried dough covered with a rice sheet. But a glance around the room shows that just about nothing is more popular than chicken claw.

The great thing about Chinatown in Manhattan is that even overrun with tourists, there are always surprises. Mei Lai Wah coffee shop, a tiny, ragged place, serves delicious fried egg noodles with sweet syrup, lotus paste pastry and yuen yeung, tea steeped in coffee, not water. Across the street, at Yuen Yuen, a storefront with no English aside from the name, there is rattlesnake soup using medicinal Chinese herbs.

Even if you don’t get to the other Chinatowns, make sure you comb Manhattan’s thoroughly. Many visitors don’t make it past the Mott Street area, but the shops along Grand Street to the east are just as inviting, even if the selection of faux Dolce & Gabbana is a bit lacking.

VISITOR INFORMATION

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN

Take the N train to the Eighth Avenue stop. Walk toward the lower-numbered cross streets.

Hong Kong Supermarket of Brooklyn, 6013 Eighth Avenue, (718) 438-2288.

Diamond on Eighth, 6022 Eighth Avenue, (718) 492-6888.

New Seawide Seafood Restaurant, 5810 Eighth Avenue, (718) 439-3200.

FLUSHING, QUEENS

The 7 train to Main Street (the end of the line) places you right in the middle of the action.

Gu-Shine Taiwanese Restaurant, 135-38 39th Avenue, (718) 939-5468.

Noodle House, 38-12 Prince Street, (718) 888-1268.

Happy Noodle Beef House, 38-10 Prince Street, (718) 661-3969.

Flushing Mall, 133-31 39th Avenue, www.888flushingmall.com.

DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN

Take the J, M, N, Q, R, W, Z, 4 or 6 to Canal Street or, for the Grand Street area, B or D to Grand Street or F to Delancey Street.

Golden Bridge, 50 Bowery, south of Canal Street, (212) 227-8831; www.goldenbridgerestaurant.com.

Mei Lai Wah Coffee Shop, 64 Bayard Street, (212) 226-9186.

Yuen Yuen Restaurant, 61 Bayard Street, (212) 406-2100.

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