Guangdong cart

It has an adventurously oozy texture.

It's easy to walk past this unnamed Chinese cart (unnamed in English, at least); I had, many times, before spotting a customer spooning up black sesame porridge ($1.50). In a category of desserts called tang shui, or sweet water, black sesame typically turns out thicker than its fellows, but even by that standard this lightly sweetened bowl was on the stout side (click the photo for a better look). Also interesting: It's prepared from hand-ground seeds, unusual nowadays even among tang shui specialists.

More approachable than the porridge, once they appear from within the cart, are the snippets of steamed rice noodles called cheung fun ($1.50), whose closely spaced ripples have a wonderful texture. Add-ons ($1 each) include beef, fish balls and pork skin, though pantomime may be necessary; the Guangdong-born proprietor doesn't post an English menu, though she does speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. As a ready-made alternative, try hardboiled tea eggs (three for $1), steeped in and flavored by the brew.

Guangdong cart
Elizabeth St. near the northwest corner with Hester St.
Morning till evening, except in inclement weather

Comments

[Kim]

The ladies who work at this station is really nice. I agree that the black sesame sweet soup is heavy on the corn starch, so it's not the best. You can find better version at XO Kitchen or dim sum restaurants. The steamed noodle is fresher and better at the cart across, but this cart serves bigger portion and more accoutrements.

[Dave Cook]

Thanks for your comment. I like those nearby noodles, too: http://www.eatingintranslation.com/2009/11/noodle-cart.html

And I don't dislike the black sesame porridge; another version that I tasted around the same time was so thin that I could drink it from the pint container, and far too sweet. I haven't tried it at XO Kitchen, though, nor thoroughly comparison-shopped in the neighborhood.