Cute ducks taste good
There doesn't seem to be a rush to show all that Chinatown has to offer, at least not on the serious new york foodie scene. That's where I come in because I am neither one of those things. Actually, I am a hunter. A couple of weeks ago my friend Jeremy told me it was a good idea to go hunt ducks in Central Park. You see that little bugger up there? We shot it. Roasted it. Ate it. He was too busy cleaning himself to see what came at him.
Ok, so we didn't actually hunt ducks in Central Park, but we did eat some duck at a restaurant called Hon Wong. It's located right next to the N/R/Q/W/6 exit on Canal street and Layfayette street. Situated right in the heart of tourist-ville, Hon Wong serves one of my favorite under-$5 dishes in the entire city: roast pig and bitter melon.
Bitter melon or ku gua is probably something that's not really on the radar of most Western palates. The day Thomas Keller serves this at Per se is the day I phone for that $400 dollar tasting menu. Not to get sidetracked, it's really something you develop a taste for over time. When I was a kid, there was no way in hell my parents could get me to eat that stuff, but one day my body went through all these changes, and my voice became deeper... no wait, that's something else. Basically one day bitter melon started to taste like M&M's to me.
Hon Wong also serves other stuff too, of course. Do not get sidetracked though, get the roast pig with bitter melon on rice. They stir fry it with black bean sauce which is like yummy in a black pill form, but fermented and delicious.
Oh one last note, make sure you say "Roast PIG" instead of "Roast PORK". Those Chinese... they sure know how to trick you. Roast pork is when they roast a slab of pork in the Chinese BBQ style. Roast pig is when they take the ENTIRE piggy and spray magic yum powder on it. And then it comes out delicious. If you watched No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain when they went to Hong Kong then you would know what I'm talking about. BTW, do not go to that URL at the discovery channel unless you want to watch life just drag away. That's the slowest site in the world.
Hon Wong
244 Canal St.
New York, NY 10013
212-966-8732
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Is this place clean?
chicago2007oct
October 31, 2007 12:04 pm
They are about as clean as you'll ever get for a place like that in Chinatown. That is to say, probably not horribly clean, but it tastes good to me.
Danny
October 31, 2007 2:57 pm