There was barely enough meat for a decent pork face salad.
The flip side of this half-headed impulse purchase — it was sitting on the counter, already labeled for sale, not far from the checkout — offered even slimmer pickings. Your neighborhood butcher might provide a meatier subject but is unlikely to match the price: a flat 50 cents.
This blocklong shop maintains a dual identity. Inside the Mott St. door, Deluxe is a meat market, fishmonger, and grocery; you'll find crowded café seating and a double row of steam-table standards nearer the Elizabeth St. entrance. That's also where you'll likely see a simmering pot of "sweet rice ball peanut soup" (about a pint, $2). Unlike the versions I first encountered in Singapore, then in China, Deluxe's soup sports uncrushed peanuts as well as six to eight spheroids of glutinous rice and a number of soft reddish items that might be halved dried jujubes. It's an acquired taste.
Also shown: a roast pork bun (70 cents), too big and fluffy for backgammon but just right for a midafternoon snack, and a "gaya" bun (90 cents), shown in squished biteaway view. A Malaysian shop would have spelled it with a different initial consonant, but after voicing various velar plosives under my breath, I guessed the filling.
Deluxe Food Market
Entrances at 79 Elizabeth St. (Grand-Hester Sts.) and 122 Mott St. (ditto), Manhattan
212-925-5766
