Eating In Translation

King Dumplings

The table settings didn't affect the chow; fried pork-and-chive dumplings were quite good. They did say something, however, about the typical customers at King Dumplings, a counter-service restaurant on the eastern extreme of Manhattan's Chinatown. At our table (and the others, too), vinegar, soy sauce, and hot sauce kept company with toothpicks, paper napkins, and plastic cutlery, but chopsticks could be found only at the register. That's where I left them; a fork, after all, is very handy for capturing a dumpling in biteaway view.

Via Mark Satlof

King Dumplings
74 Hester St. (at Allen St.), Manhattan
917-751-6681
www.Facebook.com/King-Dumplings-358670851431724

Fong On

This "family tofu shop" was once best-known, when known at all, as the factory outlet for soy and rice products sold at Fong Inn Too, its Mott St. storefront (now closed). Tofu squares, destined for restaurants, were the chief wholesale product. Many retail customers, however, visited the shop for hot taho, also known as soy custard (despite the lack of egg) or tofu pudding.

After a 2019 makeover and reopening, Fong On once again provides walk-up customers with tofu pudding, now with choices of toppings and syrups. Shown here is one of three house combos, christened with red beans, grass jelly, and taro balls. The most familiar syrup takes its character from brown sugar; at the counterwoman's suggestion, I added a gentle kick with the "more traditional" ginger syrup instead.

From several years back, before the shop's makeover: Hot tofu pudding sits in a tub (in the first photo below, shown uncovered), waiting to be scooped into takeaway containers. It's bland before the addition of a little syrup, much of which quickly filters to the bottom; delving deep with a spoon breaks up the pudding into smaller bits. Perhaps this looser consistency was the genesis of another name, dou hua — in full, dou fu hua, or "bean curd flower."

Fong On
81 Division St. (Eldridge-Pike Sts.), Manhattan
917-261-7222
www.Facebook.com/FongOn1933

Nuan Xin Rice Roll

Chinese breakfast to go: a seaweed-wrapped, purple-rice-padded, vegetable-filled fan tuan — literally "rice ball" but, in New York, invariably oblong.

Nuan Xin Rice Roll
67 Eldridge St. (at Hester St.), Manhattan
212-920-0156
(one of several locations)
www.NuanXinRiceRoll.com

E Noodle

In lieu of "homemade fish cake lo mein," at lunch we ordered this "homemade fish cake end cut lo mein" instead. For me, an easy choice — when it's time to cut the meatloaf, I always angle for one of the ends.

E Noodle
5 Catherine St. (Division St.-East Broadway), Manhattan
212-226-8919
(one of several locations)
www.ENoodle.nyc

Bonsai Kakigori

Shaved ice usually takes its flavor from syrup. That's true in Japan, too, but this particular kakigori also wears a crown of whipped cream and crumbled graham crackers. It evokes Key lime pie but discourages slices.

Bonsai Kakigori
Inside Canal Street Market, 265 Canal St. (Lafayette St.-Broadway), Manhattan
Also at 100 Stanton St. (Orchard-Ludlow Sts.)
www.BonsaiKakigori.com

Streetside produce stand

"Sweet" is the typical come-on that Chinatown fruit sellers apply to their handwritten signs. A few fruits are "very sweet"; some, merely "delicious." The moniker "Thailan[d] kiwi," however, seems to have been the invention of this one particular vendor. The fruit is known as chicozapote in Mexico and subtropical Florida, and by many other names — including chikoo, sapodilla, and sapota — around the world.

Its flavor mingles brown sugar and pear, Margret Hefner observes in Frutas y Verduras, with some of a ripe pear's granularity. Too bad that this one, like the rest of the batch, was rock-hard, and not nearly ripe. Ready to eat, it's considerably softer. Like a kiwi.

Streetside produce stand
Near the southeast corner of Mulberry St. with Canal St., Manhattan

Hak Box

(This venue is closed.) Reflexively, when I made my order, I referred to the rice rolls as "cheong fun." At this new shop, however, they're branded as "Hak rolls" — named for the Hakka people who emigrated to Taiwan from Guangdong and surrounding regions of southern China — and packaged accordingly.

By some accounts the young proprietors of Hak Box were given the recipe by the former owners of New Southwind, a beloved coffee shop that did business nearby more than a decade ago. The noodle itself, which had been prepared in advance, was rolled as I watched around dried shrimp, "low-sodium Spam," and scallion. Served cold (as at Southwind), the result was less like a roll than a log — a chewy, filling, delicious log. Next time I'll make a point to return by morning; early on a weekend afternoon, every other item was sold out.

H/T Kim, @garsleat

Hak Box
88 East Broadway (entrance on Forsyth St.), Manhattan
www.Facebook.com/Hak-Box-NYC-438723786669621
Morning through midafternoon; closed Monday

Yi Ji Shi Mo Noodle

A sign in the window illustrates this new shop's stone mill, which grinds rice into batter for steamed noodles. The sign is interesting less for the process itself than for the owners' awareness of the selling proposition — stone-ground, in-house — after the fashion of Joe's Steam Rice Roll. The menu promises the usual variety of fillings, but, not long after the grand opening and near the end of the business day, corn was one of the few still on offer.

H/T Kim, @Garsleat

Yi Ji Shi Mo Noodle
88 Elizabeth St. (Grand-Hester Sts.), Manhattan
646-233-6311

Joe's Steam Rice Roll

On a recent visit, for cheong fun with shrimp and egg and with roast pork, we marveled anew at the silkiness of the scratchmade noodles. Even a plain (that is, unfilled) rice roll could be a good first course in a Flushing food crawl.

H/T (from some time ago) Joe DiStefano, Chopsticks and Marrow

Joe's Steam Rice Roll
136-21 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts., inside a mini-mall), Flushing, Queens
646-203-7380
Also inside the Canal Street Market, 265 Canal St. (Broadway-Lafayette St.), Manhattan
347-379-6961
www.Facebook.com/JoeSteamRiceRoll

Keki Modern Cakes

Heavy on purple yam, light on Amish cream cheese: ube "bouncy" cheesecake.

Keki Modern Cakes
315 Fifth Ave. (entrance on East 32nd St.), Manhattan
212-889-0251
Also at 79 Mott St. (Canal-Bayard Sts.)
646-863-2094
www.KekiNYC.com