Chandavkl: "What New York Chinese Dining Has That Los Angeles Doesn't"

@chandavkl in his blog writes:

While as a whole Chinese food in Los Angeles surpassed New York probably 20 years ago and continues to pull away, there are some things Chinese food wise in New York that don’t exist in Los Angeles. Here are three restaurants from my recent visit to New York that fall into this profile.

Thanks for the publicity. The post wasn’t finalized when you posted this link last night (how did you even find it?) but now it is finished…

I have Russian friends.

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Yes. Flushing looks like a very unique experience. I have yet to visit. I love the fact that they have Chinese street food and a few of those “food malls”. Seems pretty balanced with Cantonese, Taiwanese, and Mainland.

The Roasties are pretty disappointing here. My family has been going to the Sam Woo on Valley/Alhambra for years, which might be the only acceptable place. Never been to Sham Tseng.
(Still Dreaming like Selena about the Roasted Goose in HK, I haven’t had it but I know it will be one of the greatest things I ever ate)

I bet that Midtown buffet was mostly Chinese tourists.

Not much Cantonese in Flushing these days EXCEPT for the banquet sized restaurants, and I have a suspicion that a lot of those are run by Fujianese. Last time I went to the New World Food Court which has thirtysomething venues I think there was just one Cantonese place in the entire court. Given that Flushing was “founded” by Taiwanese, that cuisine is surprisingly not well represented though it has made a bit of a comeback recently. I was told during last week’s visit that the Taiwanese residents have moved from Flushing to Long Island and New Jersey.

Interesting. But not surprised.

Is there anything in Flushing that you like better than SGV or anything that we can’t get here?

There are a few odd regional cuisines they have there. Two that come to mind immediately are Wenzhou and Yanbian. Also certain cuisines are more plentiful, e.g., Guizhou, meaning a wider variety of dishes. Also an especially large number of Dongbei places. The one thing in Flushing that I really really like is the cold marinated tofu. There are restaurants (e.g. Homer’s Taste, Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao) which make a version which has a texture halfway between tofu and egg white which is fantastic and I’ve never seen similar versions elsewhere.

For Cantonese roasted meat, how about Monterey Palace–locations both in Monterey Park and San Gabriel.

Sham Tseng and Sam Woo (on Valley/6th) are probably the best two at their particular price point for BBQ duck and chicken.

Ruby BBQ is great for pork.

Now posting from Sham Tseng. $21 for a half goose seems reasonable given HK pricing.

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Did you get to try it?