Kong Sihk Tong

HONG KONG 🇭🇰

If you wandered around the streets of New York City's various Chinatowns ten years ago, you may have come across a cha chaan teng only once in a while. Now this particular style of Hong Kong eatery is popping up in all of them, and even sometimes on their own in other neighborhoods. While they may be a "tea restaurant" if translated literally, they are much more than that. In Hong Kong, they are usually quite informal, a stall inside a market, or a few plastic stools at an outdoor stand.

Here the look is much more formal but still casual, with a full menu of favorites. The appearance outside, with a faux-traditional tiled roof kept from the Sichuan restaurant that used to be here will not prepare you for the modern interior with murals and sleek design.

In addition to the fun interior, take a few moments to visually enjoy in all the good tchotchkes they have placed around the restaurant like cans of Ovaltine and Milo. It all has a connection to the beginning.

My greatest connections with memories with cha chaan tengs in Hong Kong is sitting down to plates of condensed milk "French" toast in the morning, preferably those with peanut butter. Those would be filled with a thick layer of the nutty condiment and drowned in condensed milk, a morning heart attack. As if that was not enough, many times a slice of butter would be placed on top and start melting as the toast was served.

The version of condensed milk & peanut butter toast ($1.95, above) here was comparably super healthy, with very small amounts of both between slightly toasted pieces of white bread. Light as a feather, and to be honest not nearly as satisfying.

I never saw chicken wings in Hong Kong tea restaurants, but that certainly does not mean they do not exist. Here they are offered with a few interesting sauces, a wonderful HK-USA mashup food. These grapefruit honey sauce chicken wings ($4.75, below) really hit the spot and the sweet citrus glaze was much better than imagined.

Throwing cheese on instant ramen is something of the Hong Kong equivalent of a guilty pleasure, maybe like a New Yorker's constant desire for a quick slice of pizza. Pork chops instant noodle in cheese sauce ($8, below) was everything we wanted it to be, comfort food on a chilly night and a complete guilty pleasure. They went a long way to bringing me back to Tsim Sha Tsui eating at Sun Kee Cheese Noodle.

Last but certainly not least was the forever order on my playlist, beef macaroni with tomato soup ($6.25, below), another dish that should be taken advantage of when not listed in the children's section of the menu. Sweet and savory in equal amounts, and completely comforting.

The most common iteration of macaroni soup in a Hong Kong cha chaan teng is a simple chicken broth with small cuts of ham, but the upgrade to some of the "fancier" bowls is a good move in my book.

Kong Sihk Tong offers all the tea and coffee classics, the most imaginative being the super sweet half milk tea half milk coffee concoction that is beloved in Hong Kong. In addition, a full range of other options are available like the red bean ice with coconut milk ($4.25, below left) and taro milk shake ($4.25, below right).

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CHINATOWN Manhattan
65 Bayard Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Roast 28

CHINA 🇨🇳
HONG KONG 🇭🇰

Roast 28 is permanently one of Sunset Park's busiest restaurants, with patrons coming and going at all times of day. Most of the popular goods on offer hang right in the front window, they do a brisk business in roasted duck ($19.95 for a whole bird, which they can chop for you) and roasted suckling pig ($17.95/lb, the Chinese version of lechon or whole hog BBQ). The thud and thwap of large cleavers on thick wood blocks never stops.

This branch is actually an offshoot of another popular spot in Flushing, Queens called Corner 28, and at the back of the restaurant they have a large sign brandishing this name. On the menu it seems the spot is called simply "The Roast." Whatever they want to call themselves, the food is worth seeking out.

If it is your first time, the system can seem a little frenetic, as people pack the place and there seems to be a lack of order. But it actually runs very efficiently, with a man near the door taking orders and printing you a receipt. This will not start being prepared until you find the cashier in the back and pay. Most of the people you see standing around are just waiting for orders, so politely push through and take care of your own.

Another specialty of the house are the claypot rice dishes known in Chinese as bo zai fun (煲仔飯). Ever since a personal favorite A-Wah closed in Chinatown, the search has been real for a replacement. Roast 28 comes fairly close.

The various Chinese preserved meat ($6.25, above) option is usually the first selection, and "sausages" may be a more positive word for what this entails. The clay pot is here simulated by an iron bowl, and this does not seem to have the exact same effect in making the outer layer crispy and wonderful, but the ingredients they use are very tasty indeed.

Also sampled was the minced pork with salted fish ($6.95, below), a combination that should be used more often.

A good way to start sampling small portions of the products hanging in the window is to order them over rice or in noodle soups. The barbecue rib noodle ($5.50, below) gives you ample portion of the tender rib meat still on the bones. These Cantonese style soups are somewhat bland but this is intentional and necessary for the product.

If you do not specify, these choices will come out with thin mei fun noodles, which is recommended for this type of soup. The top of the line choice is the roast suckling pig noodles ($7.50, below), which is presented with the pork on the side. Two fatty layers are given, one with the crunchy skin and one more meaty underneath. This can be eaten with or without the sauce they offer, and with or without the soup and noodles, each flavor combination is your choice.

A large selection of rice noodle rolls are also offered and quite good. The dried shrimp rice noodle roll ($3.25, below) was ordered on this day but untouched at the table because the soups were just too filling. Steamed at home later, it was a perfect snack.

There also may be other types of dim sum sitting around. On one visit, a tray of turnip cakes was on offer and delicious. The congee seems very popular. Other roasted meats available run the gamut, with all parts of the pig, whole chickens cooked in many ways, and even cuts of beef.

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SUNSET PARK Brooklyn

5124 8th Avenue

King's Kitchen

HONG KONG 🇭🇰

The experiences of Hong Kong are much less frequent in New York City than some others. In Sunset Park, 7th and 8th Avenues are dominated with chefs from Fujian, cooking Fujianese and sometimes other Chinese cuisines (the Lanzhou-style pulled noodles shops are run by Fujianese and frequently change hands). King's Kitchen stands out for more Cantonese and HK specialties both here and their Chinatown Manhattan location on East Broadway.

Rice rolls are popular, and we tried one with the fritter inside seen below, fried fritter rice noodle rolls with beef ($3.25, below). In the end, I think the "fried fritter" really only takes away from the dish, and would order one of the many slippery versions available without it.

Appetizing roast duck hangs in the window here, and was impossible not to order for me. My bird went into roasted duck noodle in soup ($4.95, below), the bony sections on top of a generous bed of Cantonese noodles. The broth is light and tasty, as it should be, letting the duck speak for itself. As you can imagine from the photo, the skins held all the flavor and were the most cherished part.

After eating bo zai fan first at A-Wah, and then many times in Hong Kong, I was excited to check another New York City version out. This clay pot rice casserole is given with your choice of meats, and should have very crispy rice around the perimeter of the bowl. Unfortunately the version here is kind of limp, our rice casserole with preserved meat ($4.95, below) lacked the straight out of the oven crispiness, and the Chinese sausages and meats lacked the bite they usually have.

After my disappointment, I looked around and noticed none of the Chinese patrons in the busy shop were eating bo zai fan here, and probably should have done this check before ordering. For my Cantonese fix, I will stick to the good soups in the future.

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SUNSET PARK Brooklyn

5223 8th Avenue

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Kowloon Cafe

HONG KONG 🇭🇰

Like most restaurants of this style, Kowloon Cafe offers a menu so grand and all-encompassing that it reads quite intimidating. Most customers know what they want from the minute they walk in, so inevitably the server will come to ask what you want less than a minute after seating you.

We ask for a few minutes and continue reading as the lime green glow around us offers plenty of light. The menu has a broad range of Hong Kong and Cantonese favorites, as well as the pasta and western dishes that always seem to be present when a place describes itself as Hong Kong style.

I thought it wise to start off with the namesake dish and ordered the Kowloon Cafe fried rice ($8, below), a plate that turned out to be quite tasty. The rice is not oily at all, and is prepared with bacon, tiny fried fish, shrimp, peppers, egg, and onion, has multiple textures, and can be spiced up as pleased.

Tomato & egg ($5, below) over rice is a staple of any Cantonese menu and here is probably the sweetest I have ever seen. The rice helps counter this though, and as always, a good feeling of comfort is awarded to the diner of this meal.

In the middle of the afternoon, we were only one of three filled tables, but you could tell the staff was preparing for a crowded dinner as they all chipped in to cut vegetables and prepare for later.

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GRAVESEND Brooklyn

2365 86th Street

Map of Eat the World NYC:

M Star Cafe

HONG KONG 🇭🇰

The stars here refer to celebrities you idolize in Hong Kong, with the images of the most famous drawn on one wall, and a few photos of some lesser celebrities who came for a visit on the other. Some of them seem surprised to be having their photo taken.

The mortals that run the place are dressed in 90's style neon yellow and have to fight to hear your order over the cacophony of loud Cantonese voices that echo around.

A good way to begin is the H.K. style milk tea & coffee mix ($1.65, below), which tastes exactly as you might expect. It is a popular drink there apparently, and tastes more like milk tea than coffee, because technically it should be 70% tea.

The macaroni with ham ($4, below) is actually a clear salty broth soup served with an egg. No doubt this is comfort food, and a peculiar mashup for sure. Throw in a nice amount of white pepper to give it a necessary edge.

Another fun mashup is the baked chicken Portuguese style ($6.50, below), a casserole of rice, chicken, potatoes, sauce, and egg. The creamy yellow sauce is thick with corn starch and I could not come up with a descriptive word to describe the taste. The chicken has a very simple marinade, probably of soy sauce or just salt. The whole thing is deeply satisfying, perfect comfort food. I can only assume that "Portuguese style" is somehow adapted from some foreign tastes brought to Macau long ago, because you would actually never find something similar in Portugal.

The place has very cheap prices, quick service, and no hassle. It is definitely the kind of joint people are not lingering around but instead in for a quick lunch on the go.

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CHINATOWN Manhattan

19 Division Street

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