They told me to go to NYC

Jing Fong Restaurant
20 Elizabeth Street
Between Bayard and Canal
New York, NY
(212) 964-5256

After trying to get good Chinese and East Asian food in Nashville, and being told by every restaurant owner that I have to go to NYC if I really wanted Chinese or East Asian food, so I final went. So here it is. I was a woman on a mission. I wanted to get dim sum, the real deal, Hong Kong cart style, in a big banquet hall, red or pink table clothes, and pushy little old Chinese ladies wanting the best bok choy or dumpling for their table.
The place we went to was Jing Fong, deep into Chinatown. The entryway looks similar to a Washington DC Metro stop with a really long silvery black escalator. From the ground floor, The doorway was just wide enough for the base of an escalator that seemed to go to go up and up and up. Because the entryway wasn't that big, I thought the restaurant would be a normal sized restaurant. I was wrong, it is the size of a two football fields. There were banquet table after banquet table, and all the tables were packed by 11:15 am.

Here is a picture of turnip cake - lau bok go that we ate. It had little pieces of pork in it.

Here is a picture of sticky rice with savory pieces of meat and Chinese Sausage, and sometimes with boiled peanuts - Jung. This dish was so fresh and hot, you can see the steam coming off the Jung.

Here are chicken feet, steamed pork ribs with black beans - pi gwut, and pork dumplings wrapped in seaweed - shiu mai. I actually haven't had a chicken foot in over 30 years. The last time, I was so young, I had no idea what it was. One of the Novice guys at the table was brave enought to try it! I smiled, and thought how brave he was! Second Novice did not try the feet, but then again Second is a vegetarian. The best part about dining with dim sum is that there are veggie only options, and Second was stuffed to the hilt too!

This one is a shrimp dumpling with a rice flour noodle covering to hold it together - hawr gow. This one is personally my favorite. I can eat this til the cows come home. We also ordered veggies, chow fun, chive dumplings, steamed pork bun - char xiu bow, and baked char xiu bow, steamed chow fun and shrimp ravioli things (I don't know the Chinese name) which is another one of my all time favorites, and other items that I cannot remember right now.

This steamed dumpling was filled with a lovely velvety, yellow, sweet, creamy, egg custard and covered with the same hawr gow rice flour covering. This is the first time I and everyone at my table has had this dumpling, and we were all pleasantly surprised! We liked it so much, we grabbed another one when the cart came by again.

I really like this way of eating. The carts come around, you look at the food, and if you like what you see, you take it, and then the cart lady marks your ticket to indicate the price of the dish. If you don't like what you see, you wave the cart lady onto the next table. This restaurant was quick with sending out the carts, and they came fast and often. There is a theater aspect to this dining experience, and to eat here is to be a part of the cast. Here is our ticket after we were stuffed to the gills. We got 25 dishes, and some were piled high on the plate, and it turned out to be only about $12 per person. That is rather cheap if you ask me! I have decided that everytime I am in NYC, I have to dine at least once in Chinatown and get my fix of really good Chinese food.

So I did it. I did exactly what all the Chinese restaurant owners in Nashville told me. They always say, if you want real Chinese food, go to New York. And the food was AWESOME in New York! So there!