Sun Wah

Last Sunday, my family and I went to Sun Wah, the famous peking duck place in Uptown (Chicago). It's a good thing my mom made reservations (something you generally don't do at Chinese restaurants) because Sun Wah was featured in the Chicago Tribune a few days before, so non-followers soon caught wind of this place making it incredibly busy for a Sunday night. I'm no peking duck expert, but a lot of attention is paid to the way it is prepared and even carved, and supposedly Sun Wah has it down pretty well.


My family has been here several times, but this was my first. The peking duck was carved tableside. After carving the bulk of the duck, they took the scraps and used it for duck soup and duck fried rice, which came quickly soon after. Additionally, we were given pickled radishes and carrots, as well as buns to make duck buns. The duck was incredibly juicy and tender, and the skin was perfectly crisp. I honestly don't have much to compare to, so all I know is that this was some damn good peking duck. The buns are basically like Momofuku's pork belly buns, but I must say that the buns we constructed ourselves with the peking duck were a tad better, and significantly cheaper. A peking duck with duck fried rice, duck soup, veggies, and 6 buns costs $32, which is enough to feed 4 people pretty well.

Sun Wah has always been highly recommended, but I definitely recommend reservations and letting the waitress know ahead of time that you'll be getting the peking duck meal, especially if you're going to be there during peak hours.

Sun Wah
Near the corner of Argyle St. and Broadway

Yummy Noodles

As of now, I'm officially back in Chicago for the next two months. Since I was so busy hanging out with people during my last few weeks in New York, I haven't gotten a chance to update this blog much. I have a lot to catch up on! A couple of weeks ago, Gabe and I were craving some Chinese food, so we went to Yummy Noodles in Chinatown. I had never been there before, but he has with his coworkers. Ugh, why didn't I discover this place before? Everything about it was better than any other similar place in Chinatown. It was cheaper, cleaner, and better.



Gabe ordered the Salt and Pepper Pork Chops. It was perfectly crispy, salty, and flavorful. It was also a massive portion at only maybe $7 or $8. The meat itself was also very tender and not chewy or dry at all, which is a problem I sometimes have with pork chops.


I had the Rice Casserole with Chinese Sausage and Preserved Duck ($5.25). I've never had a Chinese rice casserole, so little did I know that it's like the Chinese version of bibimbop! I always love it when the rice gets burnt and crispy at the bottom, yum. Even though it was a large portion overall, there was still way more rice than Chinese sausage and preserved duck. I hate having a lot of leftover rice because I feel like it's such a waste. But I can't eat rice without meat to accompany it, so unfortunately, I didn't finish all the rice. In any case, this dish was really good and cheap considering the portion.

And perhaps the most charming thing about this Chinese restaurant are the tshirts that the waiters wear. On the front, there's a picture of a diamond, and underneath, it reads, "Noodles & Co." On the back, it says, "Noodles are forever." Get it?! To top it off, the tshirts are black, and the print is in Tiffany's signature greenish color! Seriously, I loved it. I would so totally rock that shirt too, you have no idea.

For a change of scenery, go eat at Yummy Noodles. I like it better than any other standard Chinese place in Chinatown.

Yummy Noodles
48 Bowery
btwn Bayard and Canal

Jade Asian Restaurant

Gabe and I decided to take it easy this month on the food spending, so we opted for dim sum in Flushing. After reading quite a bit about Jade Asian Restaurant, we went with that and were pleasantly surprised! I absolutely love Flushing for the low prices and high quality of food, and Jade Asian lived up to that. Perhaps the only difficult thing about dim sum is communication if you're not Chinese. The women pushing the carts at Jade Asian spoke/understood English better than others I've encountered at other places, but sometimes it was still difficult, especially when we didn't know what something was. Some photos:


Fish in Peppers: This was very oily, and I don't think this was fish in its most natural form. It was like borderline normal fish texture and fish balls. In any case, it was actually pretty good.


Shrimp wrapped in Fried Tofu: I really liked this one. The fried tofu was generously filled with shrimp. We were also given a soy-based sauce to dip it in which had a bit of sweetness to it.

After this, we got what we thought were going to be mini pork buns, but whatever was inside of the breading was yellow, sweet, and very good! I forgot to take a picture of this.


Beef wrapped in Rice Noodle: We also had the option of the more popular Shrimp wrapped in Rice Noodle, but since we just had shrimp in the previous dish, we opted for beef. It was equally good as the shrimp version that I always get at other dim sum places.


Fried Bread wrapped in Rice Noodle: The nice lady pushing the cart didn't really know what this was in English but could only tell us that it's good. Since it did look good, we went for it, and it turned out to be some kind of toasted or fried bread wrapped in rice noodle and topped with sesame seeds and a soy-based sauce. It was also served with oyster sauce on the side. Noodle-wrapped bread sounds weird, but this was actually really good. It seemed like a large portion compared to everything else.


Shumai: Not too much to say about this other than it was better than much of the Filipino-bought shumai I always ate growing up.

I think we both had room for more food but decided to stop since we didn't see too much else that we wanted. Since we got there around 2:30, I do wonder if there was more selection earlier in the day. There were things I had seen in other reviews that I wasn't encountering when we were there. In any case, we were pleasantly satisfied and full, but not full to the gills. Our bill only came out to $21.20 which seemed ridiculously cheap. If only Spanish tapas were that cheap.

Jade Asian Restaurant
136-28 39th Ave
Flushing, NY

Joe's Shanghai

Joe's Shanghai is famous for their xio long bao, also know as soup dumplings, so you can't make a trip here without ordering some of those. I've been to the location in Manhattan's Chinatown as well as the one in Flushing, Queens. I MUCH prefer the location in Flushing. While it is far, I find the quality, value, and portions to be significantly better. This location also isn't clogged with tourists who don't really know why they're there to begin with, aside from the fact that it's perhaps the most famous Shanghainese restaurant in the city.


These are the famous soup dumplings that Joe's attributes its fame to, and for good reason. I've honestly never tried soup dumplings anywhere else, so I can't compare, but as far as I know, these are the best in the city. If there's better, then I'd be happy to hear where I can get them. My technique is to nibble a tiny bite, slurp some of the MSG-filled broth, then eat the rest of the dumpling in one bite while leaving some of the broth in there. The broth is perfectly flavorful. What an explosion in my mouth. The only thing to watch out for is that you don't spill any of the broth because what a waste that would be.

I wish I knew the exact name of this dish, but it's not on the menu online since it's featured on the Chef's Daily Specials menu. Basically, these were crispy fried prawns (head on) with some peppers and preserved egg yolk. I wasn't really sure of what to expect from the preserved egg yolk, but WOW. It added another flavor and texture to the battered prawns. The texture was almost along the lines of cream cheese, but not quite as creamy. Even though this dish may be pretty atypical of what most people would order at a Chinese restaurant, this is perhaps the most memorable dish I've had at any Chinese place. Definitely order this if you ever make it out to Joe's Shanghai. It's only about $12 for 15 whole prawns on skewers. I'm pretty sure this would be way more expensive in Manhattan, if they even serve this there.

This doesn't look like much, but this is the Braised Pork Shoulder, which I loved as well. I've actually never been a fan of pork in it's most natural form. (Meaning, I'm all about the sausages, but you won't see me eating pork chops or lechon) There was such a ridiculous amount of meat in this dish though that it was basically impossible to finish. It was certainly swimming in a lot of sauce (not sure what kind), but the taste was not overwhelming. Since I don't like the natural taste of pork, a lot of sauce worked for me. The meat was also so tender. It really just fell off of bone. This was a heaping portion of the Pan-Fried Noodles with Beef. Some people don't like the really thick noodles. I do as long as it's pan-fried, so I really liked this dish. As long as you like the thick noodles, then get this because it's pretty darn good.

These are among my favorite dishes at Joe's. If you can, go to the one in Flushing. If not, then deal with the tourists and the more cramped one in Manhattan. I haven't been to the midtown location, but I think it's safe to say don't go there.

Joe's Shanghai
136-21 37th Avenue
Flushing, New York 11354