Delicious Places to Eat in Chinatown

I never know how to answer the question: “Where should I eat in Chinatown?”  I always just wander until I stumble upon something that looks delicious.  So, here is my attempt to sum up some of my wanderings!

The Dumplings on Mosco Street: http://frieddumplingnyc.com

You get five dumplings for $1.  You don’t get a choice of dumplings.  They are all pork.  They are fried.  They are greasy.  They are crispy.  They are delicious.  Best deal in all of New York and probably the best dumplings.  You don’t go there to sit for a leisurely meal.  You go, get your dumplings, they are usually handed to you by a rude lady (I like to believe this adds to the authenticity), and then you can eat while you stand or walk on Mosco street, OR, more highly recommended, sit in Columbus Park and take in the sites.

Most Excellent Dumpling House: http://excellentdumplinghouse.com

More dumplings – more flavors – more varieties – AND you can sit down.  They also have soups, eggs rolls, rice pancakes, etc… 

Mandarin Court: http://www.mandarincourtnewyork.com

Go there!  Get the fried pork chops.  Get the soup dumplings.  Get the boneless duck.  They have large tables that can comfortably seat a larger group. 

88 Palace: http://88palacerestaurant.com

This is the place to go to get Dim Sum.  You sit at a table, carts filled with delicious go by you, you flag down the deliciousness, you eat the deliciousness.  To add to the awesomeness, you are eating it underneath the Manhattan Bridge.  That it pretty cool.

Ten Ren Tea:  http://www.tenrenusa.com

Join the Bubble Tea fad!  Get gooey tapioca goodness.  They also have a bathroom – a valuable commodity in Chinatown. 

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory:  http://www.chinatownicecreamfactory.com

You can come here to get normal ice cream, but why would you do that?  Venture out and try their Durian or Sesame ice cream.  They also have Taro, Zan Butter, Pandan, Don Tot, and Red Bean. 

The Peking

I spend a lot of time at the South Street Seaport, and often walk by the Peking.  Compared to the sleek white catamarans like the Zephyr and Hornblower that roam the East River, the Peking looks like a pirate ship, but it has no history of pirates. 

The Peking was completed in 1911 in Hamburg, Germany.  She never actually docked in New York while in service, so she does look unnatural, yet beautiful, docked at the seaport.  She was not the type of ship you’d usually see in New York.  Her route went much further south.  She was one of the very last “windjammers” used in the nitrate and wheat trade.  (A windjammer is a large sailing ship with an iron or steel hull built to carry cargo.)  The Peking and her sister ships were all known as “Flying P-Liners” as all of their names began with P.  Windjammers were being replaced in the cargo industry by steam ships, but some routes were difficult for steam ships to navigate.  One such route was around Cape Horn.  It was hard for steam ships to carry enough coal to get them around the cape, so windjammers like the Peking continued to be used into the 1930s. 

 That didn’t mean it was glamorous to be on board of the Peking!  The sailors worked four hours on four hours off 24 hours a day every day for the entire voyage which could last up to four months!  The longest recorded journey for the Peking was 107 days from Caleta  Coloso to London under the command of Captain Oellrich.   But forget the sleep schedule – these men endured extreme danger.  The waters around Cape Horn are wild and waves would often crash up over the ships decks, and the crew was at the mercy of mother nature and her wild ocean.  They didn’t have safety harnesses or redundancies as ships do today.  Their only safety harness, as one crewman described, was “strong arms.”  That is strong arms holding onto a mast as the roars over you!  They would work in hurricanes, blizzards, and any other type of weather you could imagine.  At times the ocean looked more like Niagra Falls beneath them.  Yet journey after journey, the Peking made it and continued to sail as one of the last Cape Horn sailing ships giving work an adventure to a dying breed of sailor. 

Here is a link to a documentary made by Irving Johnson called “Peking Square Rigger, Cape Horn.”  It’s about the Peking’s Journey around Cape Horn!  It is shocking to see the extreme power of the ocean tossing this ship side to side!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5dxfAJ6hdE

The Peking bravely continued in the nitrate trade until it became more economical for its owners, the Laeisz Brothers, to use the Panama Canal.  The Panama Canal made trade much easier for steam ships and it was no longer necessary to brave formidable the dangers of Cape Horn.  In 1932 the Peking was sold Shaftesbury Homes – a charity that supports children facing challenging situations.  In 1933,the Peking actually served as a children’s home and school!  (Her sister ship, the Passat, is current a youth hostel in Travemunde, Germany!)  The Peking next served in the Royal Navy during World War II.  She was then retired in 1975 and brought to her home at the South Street Seaport where she still stands today.

 

Today, the Peking is part of the South Street Seaport Museum and you can take a guided tour of her.  Some one took their super cute kids on a tour and took this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLJ6pO7ZnIg  The Peking is open on select days so for information call ahead.  Here is the information the South Street Seaport Museum gives about its tours.  https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/visit/street-of-ships/peking/  It’s also fun to buy lunch and sit out on one of the many benches outdoors at the seaport and look at this beautiful ship – a time capsule from the 1911. 

  

Red Hook, Brooklyn

To me, Red Hook Brooklyn is “homeport.”  Not because I live there, but because it is the New York Water Taxi’s Homeport.  Honestly – I don’t know that much about it beyond the fact that there is delicious key lime pie there, Fairway, and an Ikea.  So this blog entry is my attempt to learn more.

Red Hook got its name from the Dutch colonists in 1636.  They called it “Roode Hoek” which means “Red Point.”  Red Hook had red clay soil which inspired the name. 

Red Hook played an important role in the American Revolution.  It was home to “Fort Defiance.”  George Washington described the fort as “Small but exceedingly strong.”  It was one to one three pound cannon and our eighteen pounders.  (Whatever this means…anyone into military weaponry care to expound?)  Unfortunately on July 12 1776, the English made it past Fort Defiance and took “The Battle of Brooklyn.”  From this point on until 1783, almost all of the New York metropolitan area was under British Military occupation.  November 23rd, 1783 was known as evacuation day.  (Evacuation day is a super fun historical event in and of itself.  It’s the day the English left the newly independent New York.  It’s the day George Washington triumphantly marched the Continental Army down all of Manhattan to the Battery.  The last shot of the war was fired on this day.  A British gunner fired a canon at jeering crowds on Staten Island as the English left New York City.  To rub salt in the English wounds, this shot fell short and fell in the harbor.  But don’t think that the English didn’t get the last laugh.  They left a Union Jack flag flying on top of a flagpole at the Battery.  They also greased the flagpole so when the Americans tried to climb the flagpole to remove the offensive flag, they kept sliding down.  Gotta love a classy prank.)  Speaking of classy, today, Fort Defiance is a restaurant in Red Hook.  It serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, weekend brunch, and cocktails all day long.  

After the Revolutionary War, Red Hook became important as the “Offloading end” of the Eerie Canal.  By the 1920s, Red Hook was the busiest freight port in the world!  That sadly ended with containerization. (This is another thing I need to understand better.  Anyone?  It has something to do with intermodal steel containers that are easy to stack and put dock workers out of business, but made the shipping industry far more economical.)  As containerization began to rise after World War II, Red Hook began to fall into economics despair – think “I coulda been a contender!”  “On the Water Front” a film/play set in Red Hook, Broolyn.  (Although don’t be fooled – it was filmed in New Jersey.)  By the end of the century – Red Hook had developed quite a negative reputation for itself.  In 1990, Red Hook was reported by Life Magazine as one of the worst neighborhood in American to live in and the “crack capital of the world.”  The Public School in Red Hook, in 1992, was the site of a school shooting.  The beloved principle Patrick Daly was a shot in while looking for a nine year old student who had left his school in tears after a fight with a fellow fourth grader.   The student was missing, so the principle personally went to look for the student.  While out searching for this missing student, he was struck in the cross-fire of a totally unrelated drug gang shoot-off.  Oh my goodness why would anyone ever want to go to Red Hook!?!  And why would New York Water Taxi add a stop there!?!

Well, in true New York fashion, neighborhoods constantly change – and Red hook is no exception.   Much like Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan, Red Hook, home to longshoremen not fit to mop the floor of Hell’s Kitchen moved out when the shipping industry died.  Then young couples and artists priced out of other portions of New York City, looking for affordable housing, began to move in.  For example – in 1978 the BrooklynWaterfront Artists Coalition moved in to Red Hook.  They took a Civil War Era storehouse on the Brooklyn Water Front and transformed it into an art gallery that assists emerging artists advancing in their careers and presents the art of today in an accessible format.  In 1994, the WaterFront Museum, which is actually located in a Railroad Barge, docked itself at Red Hook and stayed!  It is on the Leigh Valley Railroad Barge #79 to be precise.  This railroad barge carried coffee beans and other merchandise until around 1960 when she was sunk in the mud in Edgewater, NJ.  She was rescued and brought to Red Hook as the Water Front Museum in 1994.  Going into this museum will give you a taste of the vibrant flavor of Red Hook Brooklyn in its shipping hey day, and illuminated many stories of the those who worked these docks and the industrial railroads that serviced them.

Today, Red Hook is rather remote.  Its not actually served by any subways.  For many this is a negative, but for some celebrities such as Michelle Williams and Jason Segal, this is a huge positive.  Much harder to be heckled by crazed fans in the much more residential and isolated Red Hook. But don’t let its remoteness fool you!  Red Hook is home to some pretty awesome things.  It is home to IKEA.  The Ikea opened in 2008 and brought a lot of consumer traffic that is brought there from Manhattan by none other than the New York Water Taxi Ikea Ferry Service!  Where consumers go, inevitably restaurants and shops pop up.  Steve’s Key Lime Pie is my personal favorite destination in Red Hook.  Brooklyn Crab is a popular destination.  Not only does Brooklyn Crab have delicious seafood, it also has a mini golf course.  Don’t forget about the Red Hook Lobster Pound.  Go there to get delicious Maine lobster rolls that are so popular they now have a food truck that serves Manhattan! Red Hook is also the only portion of New York City that faces the Statue of Liberty (who is positioned to face France) head on!  You can go and get dinner at Fairway, and then sit out on dock and watch the sunset behind the Statue of Liberty for an evening to remember. 

Speaking of Fairway, this particular Fairway breathed new life into Red Hook.   Red Hook was devastated by Hurricane Sandy.  It is in a flood 1 zone and even the home belonging to Michelle Williams and Jason Segall was damaged.  Fairway, a major grocery store in New York City (in fact it is one of the highest grossing food retailers per square foot in the United States!), had opened up a brand new Red Hook branch in 1996 – right on the water.  When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, five feet of water rushed through the aisles of Fairway destroying dry good and carrying off crates of fruit.  This behemoth grocery store, one of the major draws to Red Hook, was devastated by the storm just as much as the rest of the community.  Unlike the rest of the community, Fairway had the resources to help Red Hook and itself bounce back.  A New York Times articles quotes Howard Glickberg, the store’s vice chairman for development as saying “the only things inside were the bare walls and the flood, but we made a decision when this happened that when we came back, it wouldn’t just be about Fairway.  It would be about Red Hook.”  They kept their promise, advertising other local Red Hook businesses such as the Dry Dock Wine Store and local art galleries on their websites and on t-shirts at the Fairway grand re-opening event.  While you might think, how would having your name on a t-shirt at a re-opening event for a grocery store help, this was no ordinary re-opening.  This opening was a beacon of hope for the future of Red Hook and even then Mayor Michael Bloomberg showed up to the party.  Fairway stands strong to this day, and in the summer time they have a BBQ set up outside where you can grill anything from marshmallows, to burgers, to lobster. 

Red Hook may be far, but it is worth it.  And don’t be intimidated by the lack of subways, the New York Water Taxi Ikea Ferry and Hop On Hop Off boats will take you there!:)

If you enjoyed this entry – you might also enjoy one of my earliest entries about the Red Hook Trolley Cars.  Today only one lone trolley car sits outside of Fairway, a time capsule to the past. 

Also – to learn more about Patrick Daly – visit this link.  http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121217/red-hook/murdered-principal-patrick-dalys-legacy-lives-on-20-years-after-his-death  He seems to have been a truly courageous and kind man who put his heart and soul into better a community, seeing people’s potential, helping them reach it, and give them a modicum of hope and happiness.  We should all carry on his legacy by trying to do the same.