cherrypatter nyc
and great ideas for what to do too!
jade asian: not quite hong kong but a good substitute
one of the best parts of my time in china long, long ago, was all the time i got to spend in hong kong on the way in and out of the country. there, i had the most fantastic dim sum ever. i loved the setting — always in some palatial room with views of the harbor –; the incredible variety and freshness of the food; and just the general hustle and bustle of the scene. i haven’t really found that in new york, and have been particularly disappointed with dim sum in manhattan’s chinatown (i’ve tried out both golden unicorn and jing fong), and my sunset park experience has been even more mediocre. if i really must satisfy my dim sum craving i head out to queens.
this past december, for my birthday i dragged the family out to flushing to try out jade asian, and i was not disappointed. nice and bustling (though we didn’t have to wait too long at noon). we got our own table, and the place was filled with very active carts with lots of options though it did take a while for some of my favorites to circle by. i tend to be a bit more conservative on the food choices than in theory i would like but whatever. this is about eating what you want right. to push my adventurous side, we tried out the fung zau, or chicken feet (nice and chewy), but moved on back to the dumpling side of things quickly. the har gow were steaming hot, and plump with shrimp, my obsession — the chee cheong fun or steamed rice noodle roll with shrimp — was sticky, thinly wrapped and filled with fresh shrimp, and lastly the lo bak go (or the turnip cakes) were dense but not too heavy, not too greasy and had plenty of that delicious sauce . the final jade asian treat, the egg custard tarts, were nice and warm and quite tasty too.
i was especially happy that my carbohydrate-focused daughter had a good time (mostly peeling the bun off the char siu bao and the lai wong bao) and playing with the cute umbrellas. the jade asian service was efficient – i don’t expect friendly — and we were able to hang out as long as we wanted. and of course it was very cheap. while it wasn’t just like hong kong it was definitely good, and we’ll be back after we try out a few more of the favored dim sum spots that are on my list. jade asian, 136-28 39th avenue, flushing, new york, .