Wu's Wonton King

Wu's Wonton King stands where Wing Shoon once was (East Broadway and Rutgers streets). Before Wing Shoon, there was Wing Shing. Before that, the Garden Cafeteria.

We went back (Significant Eater was hoping for the ghost of Trotsky) to Wu's Wonton King for lunch yesterday; what we had was pretty tasty.  Good enough roast meats; by now I've tried the roast pig, the roast pork, the duck and the soy sauce chicken.  The surprise was a bowl of what they call "Bone Soup Noodle," in their "Special Noodle" category.  It's a different prep of broth, made with actual bones (beef, pork, and chicken) allegedly (per our nice waiter) cooked for a long time, as opposed to the 95% salt and MSG broth used in their "HK Style Noodle Soup." And the noodles are quite ramen-y, so they have a nice bite to them (though they will let you select another style of noodle). The soup is cloudy (once again, think ramen) and extremely tasty, without being overly salty.

A giant platter of gai lan ($11, with about 6 cloves of minced garlic) was properly cooked - and evenly sliced, so we didn't have to wrestle with long spears of this almost-bitter-enough vegetable.

Nice to have them in the neighborhood, and there is plenty more to try on the menu, including dishes like Rack of Lamb (at $21!) and the ubiquitous Butt G So White (at $29), which I might have to try just to figure out what the hell it is.

Oh - for those who wonder (and for those who take pictures) - the inside of the place is bright - think dining on the surface of the sun, and you've got the right idea.

Wu's Wonton King - 165 EAST BROADWAY, NYC

Man With a Mission, Take 2

I was gonna make this pun about a man (Chef Danny Bowien) with a mission, figuring I could tie it to the Elvis Costello song Everyday I Write the Book. Of course you know that song - it has a line which goes: "I'm a man with a mission, in 2 or 3 editions..."

But googling that phrase, it turns out that not only is there a band named Man With a Mission, but everyone from Van Halen to Hall & Oates has used that damn lyric, in one way, shape or form. 

So no pun. And minimal backstory. Because if you don't know the backstory about Mission Chinese Food New York, you've either never read Eater (good for you!) or any of a million other publications which talk food in NYC, or you just don't give a shit (good for you again, I guess). 

Last night, Significant Eater and I ate at the new Mission Chinese Food New York, for the second time since its opening in late December, and last night we had a friend with us, so we were able to sample even more of the menu.

Now, I come to the new MCFNY with a bit of a chip on my shoulder, since its location was the home to a restaurant I really liked (Rosette), with a chef I really like (Nick Curtin). Nick's now cooking in Copenhagen, and Rosette's now just a memory, and I'm not saying a word about that lyric.

I'd rather just remember the delicious food 3 of us consumed last night, and 2 of us had consumed 2 weeks earlier. Cause delicious it was - from a redefined classic or two originally served on Orchard St., to a lamb riblet special that was just great...even though it looked like a Cantonese fried fish when it was brought over to the table.  Instead, it's a portion of rib that contains the chine bone,  and instead of using it for stock, it's braised, roasted, and then deep fried; served with a freshly baked, smoky and puffy flat bread from the wood-burning oven (passed down from Rosette), the idea is to pull off a chunk of lamb, wrap it in the bread, and slather it with a tzatziki like sauce. And then go - holy shit, lamb gyros!

Kung Pao Pastrami (one of those redefined classics) is now stir-fried with home fried potatoes as the starch (did it have rice cakes before? I don't remember); potatoes work, and remind me that pastrami and eggs were a great diner staple way back when - and they were always served with home fries. Squid-ink peanut noodles are dense, chewy and funky. There are oat noodles and wheat noodles on offer as well, but since we'd all had oatmeal for breakfast, we went with the more dinner-like pasta. Turnip cakes? I don't like turnip cakes - but for some reason - I liked these. We repeated the green papaya salad, because its vinegary zip is a perfect foil for these rich, spicy flavors.

So, you got any problems? Yeah, of course I do. There's absolutely no coursing of the order, which the kitchen "likes to get all at once." And evidently they like to send the order out "all at once." So the juggling we had to do at our table was a bit comical at times, since drink glasses, water glasses, plates, and dishes loaded down with food all don't fit on a 24" square table with 3 people sitting at it. I think they can do better with this. The cocktails I've tried don't move me, but that could be because I'm a cocktail snob. I love ciders, so I'd like to see a few more American ciders, those which aren't sugar bombs, on the list.

But I've got solutions to all this.  Right next door is the 169 Bar, where a cheap drink can be had beforehand. And I'll only order 2 or 3 dishes from now on; I figure if I'm still hungry, they'll let me order some more...it's still a restaurant, after all. And since it's right down the street from us, I greedily hope (unlike its short-lived predecessor) it's here for a long time. 

Locavore, Schmocavore

Everyone talks locavore.

You know, eat locally.

Support your local farmers.

Eat sustainably.

Be eco-conscious.

Only take what you are going to use.

Be good to the planet.

The whole nine yards.

That's why it warmed my heart, when walking up East Broadway yesterday, I spotted this local farmer fisherman...

Locavore Fisherman

As you can tell, Mr. Fisherman cares about the environment. I mean, he bicycles to and from his fishing hole, right? Very little carbon footprint, no? And his product is special...

Product

Of course, I don't know that fish from the East River is what you want to be eating these days (pregnant women beware). And I don't know if it's legal to sell your catch from the East River, on East Broadway, out of a bucket.

But - it's locavore, so what the fuck?  And - at least Mr. Fisherman was nice enough to toss his cigarette before serving you. Rules, you know...

Look ma - no  cig!

Fresh, local fish - Various locations around Chinatown, often East Broadway, Grand St., etc.

If It's Not Paella...

What do you get when you take rice, add some tasty ingredients to it, cook it on top of the stove until all the rice is tender and a crust forms on the bottom?

If you said paella, for sure you’d be right.  But you’d also be right if you mentioned the classic rice dishes from a few other places around the globe.

Take China, for instance.  While it might not have a specific name, you can get the popular rice dish at many restaurants in NYC’s Chinatown, and if a restaurant (most likely Hong Kong style) is offering it, it’s simply called rice in casserole on the menu. After trying a couple of versions around town, including an excellent one at a restaurant called A-Wah (recommended by a neighbor), I decided to make my own. 

To start, you'll need one of these...

It’s called a sandy pot, or clay pot, and it’s made out of - you guessed it - sand and clay. Usually just glazed inside and on the lid. Before using a sandy pot for the first time, you should soak it overnight; according to a few other sources, it’s also a good idea to cook a little rice in it to seal up any microscopic cracks and crevices.  I did both.

Wanting to make a version with chicken and mushrooms, which seems to be a favorite at the Chinese restaurants that offer the dish, I cut up a few chicken thighs, as well as 2 or 3 types of mushrooms which happened to be in the fridge. To punch up the flavor a bit, start by browning the thighs and mushrooms in a hot pan…

Then deglaze that pan before adding the thighs, mushrooms and deglazing liquid to the rice (medium-grain) in the sandy pot. For even more flavor, use a nice home made chicken stock, but water will work, and the standard ratio of rice to water (1 cup rice to 1 3/4 cups liquid) is fine too.  It all looked like this, before being brought to a boil and then covered and cooked at a moderate simmer for around 20 minutes…

I think it helps to turn the heat up to medium for the last few minutes in order to get the rice nice and crispy on the bottom. I did okay on my first attempt…here’s what the dish looks like when it’s done, before garnishing with some chopped scallions and cilantro leaves...

Looking for Duck in Chinatown

Reliability. In the restaurant biz. There’s something to be said about a restaurant that you can rely on.  Especially if that something you rely upon is a particular dish that you want to be good each and every time you order it. When I was working "the line" at a hot downtown restaurant back in the mid-90s, that was something that was drilled into my head by the chef/owner over and over.  Make the dish the same way every time. That's what the customer comes back for - the same damn dish again and again.


In NYC’s Chinatown, there is just such a place. Strangely, or perhaps not so much, it’s eponymously named after its most famous dish, Peking Duck.  Now, you have to understand; I eat in Chinatown – a lot.  Most of it’s C and below level stuff, though I do have some faves (can you say Great NY Noodletown?). We live in Chinatown and I often get annoyed by Chinatown and its profusion of crappy restaurants using the cheapest raw materials they can find.  But I love Peking Duck House.


Now, you have to understand that Peking Duck isn’t one of those dishes that you can just “throw together” or “whip up” at home. It involves inflation of the duck's skin, scalding with boiling water, hanging, dripping, roasting, pancake making – basically,  it's just too damn much work. This ain’t no 30-minute meal, if you get my drift.


So enter Peking Duck House. It has been in business for over 25 years at 28 Mott St. in NYC (there’s also a midtown location), and I recently reacquainted myself with the place, after a long hiatus, when a friend wanted to go out for…guess what?


So off we went, 3 or 4 of us from the building.  And all I can say is this place totally rocks - at least for the Peking Duck.  I’m not responsible for the rest of your order.  Remember, the whole of Chinatown is fairly mediocre; the whys of that are a subject for another post (lousy cooks, shitty ingredients – you be the judge).


The way the menu at Peking Duck House is set up, they try to trick you into ordering a lot more food, for a lot more money, than you really need.  The “special house dinner,” or the “Peking Duck dinner” are just money grabbers, so do as I do.  Order a whole Peking duck, a couple of apps – say pickled cabbage and mock dock made from tofu skin, a safe vegetable dish (forget about stuff like snow pea leaves – not gonna happen) and another stir fry and you’ll easily have enough food for 4 people.  And it’ll end up a lot cheaper than the dinners they put together for you.

What emerges from the kitchen around 15 or 20 minutes later is a thing of beauty. All glistening, drippy, and mahogany. Of course they show it to you, and then a guy with really good cleaver skills expertly cuts the meat and skin off the bone, till all that’s left is the carcass.  A few times I’ve ask for the carcass to go, and get some strange and annoyed looks, but that’s duck soup…and here’s our duck, all cut up and ready to go…

Then it’s all up to you, brushing your pancake with hoisin sauce, getting the right percentage of meat vs. skin, adding the scallion flourish, the rolling up of the package and taking that first bite of one of the still great dishes in Chinatown.

When It's Hot, You Gotta Wing It

Yesterday was a rare full Friday that Significant Eater and I got to spend together in NYC. I had been in DC earlier in the week, and because it was about 1,000 degrees there, I decided to drive us both back to NY Thursday night, because, you know, it's so much cooler in Manhattan.

I don't know if I've mentioned that I'm really cranky in the heat...oh yeah, I have...but I am. And I cook much less in the summer, because...well, you know why. Anyway, we decided to take a walk for some lunch, and as soon as we hit the street, I said that I was mostly interested in the coolest, best air-conditioned place we could find...food secondary to cool and a not-too-long walk to get there either. That's when Sig Eater, most likely tired of listening to me complain about how friggin' hot it was, mustering up all of her insouciance, said: "How About Wing Shoon?"

Wing Shoon Seafood Restaurant is the "Chinese place" on the corner of East Broadway and Rutgers St. At one time in its glorious past, it was a famous kosher restaurant called The Garden Cafeteria, and many of the movers and shakers of the lower east side orthodox community used to dine there. It had a built-in clientele of writers and various other newspaper people; in addition to being a block from our front door, it's right up the street from the Forward Building, the long-time home of the once-daily Yiddish language newspaper called, strangely enough, The Daily Forward.

So here's a great pic of the Garden taken back in 1973 by the photographer Bruce Davidson, who often chronicled life on the lower east side with his wonderful photos. Now it's Wing Shoon - a place where I sometimes grab roast pork or roast duck over rice and bring it home for lunch. For about $5. On a "normal" day, we'd much rather walk over to Great NY Noodletown for a steaming bowl of shrimp won-tons, or maybe to Cong Ly on Hester Street, for a bowl of pho. But on this soupy day, Wing Shoon it was.

And you know what? In addition to the various $5 lunch specials of roasted things over rice, or stir-fries over rice (SE's favorite is the spicy ma-po tofu, fyi), Wing Shoon also does a traditional dim sum lunch, and as far as Manhattan Chinatown dim sum goes, it's not all that bad. Carts and all, but without the craziness of some of the vast dim sum parlors in Chinatown, where you have to act like you're an NY Jets linebacker just to get a dumpling.

So, in addition to our special lunch plates, we ordered a couple of old faves when a cart wheeled by - har gow and pai gwat. The shrimp dumplings were just fine, with a nice delicate wrapper (which was probably even better when it was fresh out of the kitchen) and the pai gwat (basically, spareribs braised with black beans) was delicious too...

The roast pig over rice comes in a huge portion (share it), the skin all crisp and crackling, just like it should be; you all know it's served at room temperature or at least served at hanging in the window temperature, after it's taken off the hook and chopped up by the guy in the picture at the top. Here's the plate...

While Isaac Singer, one of the aforementioned Daily Forward's most famous writers (he even won the Nobel Prize in 1978), might be rolling over in his grave knowing that a good Jewish couple like SE and me were eating pork and shrimp instead of blintzes and sour cream (and really, are there two cultures who harden your arteries any more than the Chinese and the Jews?), it turns out that Wing Shoon may, after all, be a pretty good neighborhood find. For dim sum and the lunch specials, certainly. Or when they have the lobster special: two lobsters for $25 - how can you beat that?

Oh, and the air conditioning? Easily some of the best around.

The Dumpling Dilemma, Eldridge St. Version

Ahhh, the dumpling dilemma - especially tricky here in New York City, specifically on the lower east side and even more specifically, in Chinatown, Jack. Because that's where they, "they" being the dumplings of the 5 for $1 variety, are found practically everywhere you look. And let's call them the 5 for $1 variety, even though some of them now cost more at 4 for $1. You see, even the dumpling people realize that raising the price isn't the smartest marketing move, so instead of raising the price, they charge you the same $1, and they give you less...Ogilvey and Mather has nothing on these marketeers.

As an aside, the other day I was shopping in DC with Significant Eater - Harris Teeter, for those on a need to know basis. Tropicana orange juice was on sale for $2.99 for a half gallon, not a bad price for juice that comes from oranges grown so far and wide, so I picked up a carton to get a closer look - and there it was. Yes, that half gallon had somehow mysteriously shrunk to a mere 60 ounces, and as any (or at least my) self-respecting high-school math, science or even English teacher would've told you, that ain't no half gallon. They want you to believe it's a half gallon, but you can't bullshit a bullshitter, as they say.

Back to the dumplings. Since there are a fair number of these dumpling places on the
lower-east-China-side, I needed to narrow my search. The dumplings I want to check out are the pan-fried variety type, though I usually order something to go along with them because after all, who can only spend $1 for lunch? At some point, I'd love to do a side-by-side of the cook-at-home varieties that many of these places offer - they are usually sold in bags of 50 for something like $8 (!), making them something like 16 cents a piece, or 6.25 for $1 - and take THAT, high-school math.

I decided to narrow my search even more, by doing a street by street comparison. So the other day I took off, camera in hand and traversed Eldridge Street from bottom to top, simply because Eldridge may well be an apocryphal street in dumpling lore...and there's a really cool Jewish synagogue on it too.

The first place you come to on Eldridge is called Prosperity Dumpling, at No. 46...

Prosperity's dumplings are held in high esteem by many dumpling lovers, and rightfully so. They strike that perfect balance between crispy bottoms and a soft enclosure, with plenty of porky chive (chivey pork?) flavor. The skin is nice and thin, and not gummy like some of them get...it can barely contain the righteous amount of filling. Take a look-see...

Mmmmm, those are some damn good dumplings and guess what? Still 5 for $1! How do they do it, folks? By the way, I also ordered one of their sandwiches - yes, the dumpling shops usually sell some sort of sandwich, which is made on a thick scallion pancake that has been split open and stuffed with - well, you don't necessarily want to know what it's stuffed with. When you get one on a pancake that is hot and steamy, they're really good, and Prosperity is no slouch in this department either. They come in a number of varieties as indicated on the menu, but not really; every time I've been in they only have beef, so that's what I have - basically dried or dessicated beef with a few shredded carrots, cilantro and maybe a squirt of hoisin and they're not half bad...expensive, though, at $1.50.

One final money shot - check out the activity in the back room of Prosperity - there's some dumpling making going on, with no less than 4 people cranking 'em out.

Waddling out the door and heading north, you'll come across this shop, with the rather unglamorous (or maybe it really IS glamorous, I dunno) name of Hua Du Dumpling Shop Inc.


Now, the first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the dumplings (5 for $1) were sitting in a steam table pan - and that's not a good sign. Pan-fried dumplings are at their best when they come right out of the wok/pan/whatever it is that they're pan-fried in. These weren't. That, along with a total inability to communicate in any way, shape or form, and the fact that there really didn't seem to be any customers for the cooked-on-premises dumplings led me to turn around and walk away without even trying them. I'll be back in order to try out the frozen product at home, but for now I continued my trek northward,

For many, the Dumpling House on Eldridge is really where it all started. It has been around for a number of years, and was always in the top tier of 5 for $1's. They started getting written up in guidebooks and in tourbooks and then all hell broke loose. There was an expansion to 14th St. (maybe a cousin or some other family member). They were able to take over the storefront next door on Eldridge St. a year or two ago and renovated and reopened under the name of Vanessa's Dumpling House...at 118 A Eldridge, and here it is...

Now, don't get me wrong, for I love a successful business person as much as the next guy. What I don't love is the thundering hordes. It makes for a not-so-good experience in my mind. And sometimes the wait is unbearable and the product is less than stellar. Oh, I'll go there sometimes (it is practically around the corner from our apartment, after all), but it has to be off hours. Otherwise, it looks like this...

And, at ONLY 4 for $1, it's just not worth my time.

Next up for dumplings, the double of Henry and Madison Streets - should be some interesting finds down there.

A Fuzhou Supermarket on the Lower East Side

Back in the day (oh, say 1970), NYC's Chinatown was a fairly easily definable area, roughly bordered on the north by Canal Street, east by the Bowery, south by Worth Street and west by Baxter Street.

When we were high schoolers who wanted to come "into the city" to eat in Chinatown, we went to Mott Street, the center of it all. That was Chinatown to we Long Islanders.

Now of course, Chinatown encompasses a much larger area, with no definable borders at all, or at least with borders that are constantly changing. Our building, actually on the lower east side right next to Seward Park, could almost be considered to be in Chinatown...but I prefer Chinatown to be considered in the lower east side. Whatever, it doesn't really matter - because for food lovers like Significant Eater and me, it opens an exciting world just outside our front door - no need to travel halfway around the world, that's for sure. Or even to Mott Street any more.

For instance, just around the corner, near the East Broadway subway station, I came upon this bustling market at the corner of Henry and Rutgers Streets:

Fuzhou is the capital of the province Fujian, from where many of the newer immigrants to Chinatown arrived, and is also the home of one of the four traditional cooking styles of Fujian cuisine, which in turn is one of the eight recognized regional Chinese cuisines - whew - thanks, wiki. From Chinadaily.com:

Generally speaking, Fujian dishes are slightly sweet and sour, and less salty, and often use the red distiller's grain for flavoring.

Whatever that all means, I happen to like the store and it's display of vegetables. Look at those amazingly low prices...

Vegetables like this can even get me into the kitchen on hot, sweltering days (like today), because to cook Chinese doesn't necessarily involve heating up our whole apartment like some other methods might...most of the work is in the prep, the actual cooking can take place very quickly, especially if you're not preparing soups or roasting whole animals.

Whenver I'm getting ready to stir-fry a couple of dishes, I make myself a plate of the holy trinity of Chinese cooking that is garlic, ginger and scallions - now don't show this to Daniel or Eric or any of those other fancy French chefs, because it probably would be tossed, but for SE and me, and you, it's just fine.

For a stir-fry of vegetables, the next step is to heat a wok till it's very hot. Very hot. Then, a tablespoon or two of oil (peanut or something with a high smoke point) is swirled around followed quickly by however much of the 3 ingredients above (a good teaspoon of each is nice) you're using, then the vegetable which is tossed and turned, exposing it all to the heat of the wok. I usually add a little (say, 1/4 cup) of homemade chicken stock seasoned with a bit of soy and sugar and cover and steam the dish for a minute or two. Uncover, let the liquid boil off, and you're pretty much done -here are some of those baby bok choy cooked in just that manner:

To round out lunch for Significant Eater and me, I happened to have some leftover rice in the fridge and that's perfect for fried rice. As a matter of fact, it's really good for fried rice. Along with some wild-caught frozen shrimp and some peas, and starting off the same way with the holy trinity, it's pretty cool living and cooking in "Chinatown!"

Cooking Chinese in Chinatown

Even though Significant Eater and I live within walking distance of literally dozens of Chinese restaurants, I often prefer cooking "Chinese food" at home rather than going out for it. Mostly it's because of the dozens of restaurants that we might walk to, in general they suck. They're slophouses for the masses - inexpensive food prepared from less than the highest quality ingredients. It's a shame really, because Chinese food, when prepared properly from high quality ingredients, is great cuisine.

Now, don't get me wrong...when I want a bowl of hand-pulled noodles or perhaps some roasted duck wonton noodle soup, I'm heading out and spending the under $10 that it'll cost me (Great NY Noodletown, if you must know). Dim sum - you'll see us at Chinatown Brasserie, where the dim sum is masterful. There's no getting around that, and I can't really reproduce that stuff at home - at least not without a fair amount of procurement, time and work, and it still won't be as good as what I get by heading out for that walk.

However, there are certain things (a lot of things, actually) that I make just as well as, if not better than, that which can be found in restaurants in Chinatown. The other day for lunch I did just that - and I started with my trusty old clay (or sandy) pot...

This sandy pot is a great little pot for preparing slow cooked, stove-top braises, as well as for some damn tasty rice dishes - and I did just that, taking a few varieties of Chinese sausage (duck and pork liver), along with a couple of soaked, dried shitake mushrooms, a bit of garlic, ginger and scallions along with a cup and a half of medium grain rice, 2 cups of water (chicken stock is even better, or maybe some of that mushroom soaking liquid) and cooking it all together. I did start by first frying the sausage and aromatics and then adding the rice and liquid...it didn't look like much at the outset...

but after you've brought it to a boil, covered it, lowered the heat and let it simmer for about 18 minutes, it looks really tasty, don't you think?

Of course, man...and certainly not Significant Eater, does not live by rice alone - even if it comes with 2 kinds of sausage, mushrooms, etc. And no self-respecting Chinese person would ever just eat rice for a meal, now would they?

So, to go along with the rice, I happened to have a piece of poached pork butt, which is perfect for twice-cooked pork, a Szechuan specialty. Earlier that morning, I had walked up to the corner to buy some fruit and veggies (that's the real plus about living at the edge of Chinatown), and I had picked up some beautiful baby bok choy for the low, low price of $1 a pound. Along with a bright red pepper, and using ingredients that I always have on hand ( a few kinds of soy, chili paste with garlic, Shaoxing wine, the aforementioned ginger, garlic and scallions), my twice-cooked pork and fancy steamed rice were on the table in under an hour. And SE and I thought they were both much better than we could have gotten at any restaurant in Chinatown!

Sun Light Bakery

Close to my apartment, East Broadway enters into Chinatown, and a whole new world awaits. Coming out of the subway yesterday, I was hungry for some hand pulled noodles, and started walking towards the now widely reported upon Lan Zhou Noodles, which makes some pretty darn tasty noodles of the hand pulled variety.

However, the activity at 160 East Broadway, Sun Light Bakery Corp., caught my eye, and I wandered into the tiny storefront, presided over by two very non-English speaking women (there was a lot more activity going on in the back of the shop, which was seemingly cranking out buns at a rate much greater than could be sold in the front of the shop). Fortunately, there was a young, bilingual speaker getting an order, and he helped me negotiate the offerings.

Okay, to start with, I've never seen one of these:

It is some sort of steamer, crepe maker thing, into which one of the women puts a bit of pork (or beef, or chicken evidently), and then pours a ladleful of batter on top - the batter can be seen in a bowl on the far right. Then, some chopped scallions and cilantro are scattered about and the pan is whisked into the cooker.

After a minute or two, the drawer is pulled out, and the cooked product is cut up with a plastic dough scraper...here's a semi-action shot:

A few sauces are put on top, and the finished product looks like this:

It was delicious - and different from the more traditional rice noodles, which it so happens are available from a little cart at the corner of Jefferson and East Broadway, and which I also bought in order to do a comparison :smile: . These noodles come with fish balls, and you get 5 of them and a portion of noodles for $1.50; the cart also has other offerings, including curry squid, lotus-leaf wrapped rice and congee, which amazes me, since there is literally no room to turn around inside the cart. It makes some of those coffee carts in midtown look like townhouses compared to a studio apartment.

The noodles from the cart are a little chewier, and are sauced in a much sweeter manner - i.e. with hoisin, sesame, and a "hot sauce," whereas the freshly prepared crepes are a bit more savory and tart.

Either way, both are delicious. And Sun Light also sells a bun, huge, with a pork filling, but not roast pork. My total for a bun and the noodles at Sun Light was $2.25, meaning I spent $3.75 for lunch and couldn't finish it all.

So, China-philes, are these chow fun or something else?