NYC Fat Tour Recap Part V: chinatown and celebrations

NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part I, the PLANNING
NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part II, friday fun & festivities
NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part III, saturday brunch, culture and indulgence
NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part IV, east village & nolita


Part V, aka unforeseen obstacle, unexpected taste/value BONUS, an epic eating fail, dessert-y things and DRINK!

NEIGHBORHOOD: Chinatown
to continue on with the next few stops on the fat tour, we made our way a few blocks east and south to chinatown. we had all been to chinatown before, many times and for many asian delicacies, but our tour included several places that were new to us.

FAT TOUR STOP #7
:: banh mi saigon bakery ::
address: 138 mott st, nyc
what we ate: NOTHING! 
yes, you read that correctly. NOTHING! because of the delayed start to our fat tour, by the time we arrived at this place, it had already been closed for 20 minutes! of all the stops on the list, banh mi saigon was expected to be the highlight for many of us. consider its potential awesomeness: a) it's a BAKERY in the front, banh mi purveyor in the back (it's like the mullet of vietnamese cuisine), b) we really really really like banh mi, but it's really really really hard to find a place that makes decent ones, and c) both andrew and kahee had endorsed the banh mi sandwiches from here as legitimately delicious (btw, banh mi is a vietnamese hoagie that includes pickled daikon, carrots, cucumber, cilantro, mayo and various meat fillings or tofu on a baguette). so hello, disappointment! no banh mi today. ah, well - but we were not defeated! we moved on to the next stop.

FAT TOUR STOP #7, Take 2
:: prosperity dumpling ::
address: 46 eldridge st, nyc
what we ate: chive and pork fried dumplings, sesame pancake with beef
by far the most economically efficient destination on our food tour, we managed to spend $4.50 in total at prosperity dumpling. each order of chive and pork dumpling comes with 5 pieces and costs $1 (!!!!!) so we ordered 15 and paid $3.00. ridiculous. they were pretty decently sized dumplings as well, considering.

i was afraid these would taste too game-y or too fatty/piggy (heh), but they didn't. i guess the chive really helped to balance it out. these were so delicious and i definitely could have eaten more had we not been towards the end of our fat tour.

unexpectedly, the star of the tasting menu here was the sesame pancake with beef. it was essentially a sesame pancake sandwich, with strips of beef, cilantro and pickled carrots stuffed inside. the ingredients/flavor profiles are similar to what is on a banh mi sandwich, but the sesame pancake obviously adds a very different feel. the pancake itself was very crispy on the outside, as though it had been toasted, but soft on the inside. this only cost $1.50! HOW??? i have no idea. but FYI, the sesame pancake only is $.50. AND yes, the pancake with beef is light on the meat, but seriously... SERIOUSLY?! it's only $1.50.

we scarfed these down. special shout-out to julie since we would not have ordered this sandwich had it not been for her. (andrew said it was the highlight of the fat tour, for him).

since we had missed out on one of our fat tour destinations, we felt it only right to add another impromptu stop. because how could we be in chinatown and not get SOUP DUMPLINGS! and conveniently, shanghai cafe was only a couple of blocks away. so we made our way there, praising the gloriousness of prosperity dumpling the whole way.

FAT TOUR STOP #8
:: shanghai cafe ::
address: 100 mott st, nyc
what we ate: steamed pork dumplings
SOUP DUMPLINGS are steamed dumplings that have an extra big pouch where you have a pocket of soupy liquidy deliciousness, along with the pork or with seafood or other types of meats. i found out recently that the way they get that soup into the dumpling is by using a meat gelatin and wrapping that up with the pork filling, so when you steam the buns, the gelatin melts into a soup. kind of gross, but TASTES AMAZING. the two places in nyc that usually battle it out for best soup dumplings are joe's shanghai and shanghai cafe. i am ambivalent since to me, they are both supertasty, but shanghai cafe won this night because of its proximity.

we got one take-out order of pork dumplings. i'm not sure why the cabbage, which is included here to help keep the buns from sticking to each other (which would cause a tear and then cause the disastrous leakage of the liquid heaven), looks radioactive. i tell you, it wasn't radioactive in person.

jenny, who joined us later in the tour, had never tried soup dumplings. so we asked joey to show her how to properly eat one (varies depending on who you ask, but you can pinch a tiny hole on top, suck out the soup, bite dumpling) and so he did. he stood right in front of her, grabbed one of the dumplings with 2 spoons... and then....

* SPLAT * ultimate FAIL. fail fail fail.... DROPPED! wasted dumpling laying sadly on the dirty chinatown street. all of us looking forlornly and thinking about the awesomeness that could have been. saddest day.

after this 8th stop, we were feeling comfortably full. we still had NY Hotdog and Coffee left on our list, but decided that it was much too late and inconveniently located across town to be worth visiting this time. plus, we do need to save some for our FAT TOUR, Round 2, right?

then there was the question of dessert. i mean, how can a meal feel complete without something sweet and satisfying? luckily, according to our banker, we had about $6 left in our communal pot of fat tour funds. we debated: a walk through little italy in pursuit of cannolis or a trip to the chinatown ice cream factory.... and the winner was....  

FAT TOUR STOP #9
:: chinatown ice cream factory ::
address: 65 bayard st, nyc
what we ate: black sesame, green tea, almond cookie, ginger, lychee, coffee ice creams
since the chinatown ice cream factory has a bajillion different flavors of ice cream, we agreed our indecisive selves would have the best chance for an awesome dessert experience there. chinatown ice cream factory offers traditional flavors of ice cream, as well as more unique ones like red bean, lychee or pineapple. they also have a wide range of sugar-free ice creams and sorbets. what is even more awesome is that they let you sample as many flavors as you'd like before you order!

one cup would give us 2 scoops of ice cream - and we found we could order 2 different flavors. so we got a black sesame, with a green tea scoop under it...

as you can see.... **  nom nom nom **

we had also ordered an almond cookie, with lychee under it, but found there was a surprising treat for us, since we scooped down towards the bottom of the cup to take a bite of the lychee and found... hmm... wait what is this... GINGER! they had accidentally given us the wrong ice cream flavor! the ginger ice cream had a really subtle flavor with just enough gingery taste to be recognizable. we still wanted to try to lychee as well, so jeanni went back in to ask for a scoop of the missing lychee.

almond cookie tasted exactly like almond extract on an almond cookie. really tasty, but almost cloyingly sweet. the lychee tasted fresh and bright and had tiny pieces of lychee riddled throughout, so you'd get a nice bite of fruit with each spoonful. the black sesame was one of the group faves. it reminded us of cookies and cream, but without the heavy creamy vanilla taste. jenny ended up ordering a cup of the coffee ice cream so we got to sample that as well.

THUS CONCLUDES THE FIRST EDITION OF OUR NYC FAT TOUR.
clearly this meant we had to go celebrate with a few beers. so, back to st. mark's ale house! CHEERS!