The Best Snacks in Sunset Park's Chinatown
Soups, noodles, a great banh mi, and plenty of duck
It had been almost a year since I’d visited Sunset Park’s Chinatown, I realized as I jumped off the N train at the Eighth Avenue station.
At the top of the stairs, I found this Chinatown much transformed. A giant skyscraper was being constructed just south of the station and shoppers filled the sidewalks jammed with prepared food carts. Eighth Avenue remains lined with vegetable and fish markets, and there are more restaurants and cafes than ever before — most in a Taiwanese, Hong Kong, or Fujianese vein. This is a working Chinatown perhaps more exciting than those in Lower Manhattan and Flushing.
Sunset Park’s Chinatown reinforces what’s happening all over the New York area, with the city’s Chinese restaurant scene growing at a breakneck pace in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Hell’s Kitchen, and Midtown; Long Island City; as well as Jersey City’s Newport and Downtown, populating retail spaces with inexpensive noodle shops and formal restaurants focusing on regional fare.
I’d intended to eat a full meal in a restaurant I’d never visited before, but confronted by such a rich assortment of new and unfamiliar places, I decided to snack my way through the neighborhood, toting a bag to take leftovers home.
I noted with satisfaction that a couple of my favorite banquet palaces — Bamboo Garden and Affable Eatery — still stood steps south of the station, retaining their dim sum cart service. Fei Long Supermarket is still open. Its famous food court and dumpling stalls were long gone, but two restaurants were open among the standalone stores on what used to be the front entrance of the complex, including Zheng Lu Wei.
Zheng Lu Wei
The boxy small café specializes in Fujianese noodles and soups. The peanut butter noodles — a favorite of children and the cash-strapped — are a real bargain at $3, but I went instantly for the fish ball soup ($5). The perfect mellow broth paired nicely with a handful of bouncy fish balls. Inside they revealed a center of savory minced pork, providing a surprise as appealing as soup dumplings. To-go containers of roast duck, pig intestines, and pressed tofu on a table in front are sometimes purchased by customers, to dump some into soups while taking the rest home. 6321 Eighth Avenue
98K
Proceeding northward, I noticed a brand-new storefront up a flight of stairs. 98K is a burgeoning chain selling hamburgers, spicy chicken sandwiches, chicken fingers, and other poultry-based products, all of it halal. Among the dozens of fried and grilled combinations, one choice caught my eye: “chicken racks,” three for $5. I ordered it and what arrived five minutes later blew my mind, chicken backs that had been grilled with a Uyghur spice rub of dried chiles and cumin, like something you might get from one of the Chinese kebab carts. Absolutely delicious, but requiring some gnawing. 6217 Eighth Avenue
Hong Kong Dim Sum
I noticed as I meandered that there were plenty of new Cantonese cafes — you know, the kind with roasted ducks and other siu mei hanging in the windows — proving that old is new again in Sunset Park. My heart soared as I crossed 59th Street, long ago the southern verge of Chinatown, once a Turkish neighborhood.
I was delighted to spot the yellow awning of Hong Kong Dim Sum, where I’ve been going for the neighborhood’s best rice noodle rolls for 10 years or so. The salted chicken was unavailable, so I picked beef ($3.50), and while eating at the narrow shelf noted that, in addition to regular congee, the place also sold a thinner variety from Hong Kong’s Lai Wan district. 777 60th Street
Little Thanh Da
This tiny antique lunch counter has been slinging what are probably the city’s best banh mi for over 20 years, made on light, crisp demi-baguettes, and enfolding house-prepared meats. I went for the first of seven ($9), filled with pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro, lots of thick mayo, and three meats: house barbecued pork, high quality sauteed Virginia ham, and pork roll. The sandwich was absolutely irresistible, and I ate the whole thing. 5624 Eighth Avenue, entrance on 57th Street
Mr. Duck
In my afternoon wanderings I ran across four restaurants that specialized in duck. Yes, they served other things too, but duck was the focus with all sorts of offal like necks and feet, in addition to stir fries, noodles, and fried rice dishes. The duck lo mein ($11) arrived with a smoky and slightly spicy quality and lots and lots of pulled duck, along with crunchy vegetables, and a cup of consommé on the side — it was way too much to finish, so I took most home. The plush orange interior is a nice place to relax with a cup of tea. 5602 Seventh Avenue
