From The Peopling of New York City
Food and Chinatown
Along with language, religion, and clothing, culinary preferences, distinctive cuisines and elaborate delicacies help create the unique qualities that can be found in a culture. Food nurtures, sustains, and brings pride to those who create it. China is no exception to this, and with all the restaurants that can be found in Brooklyn’s Chinatown you’ll know why.
While walking down 8th avenue, you’ll notice a plethora of Asian restaurants, bakeries, and food carts. The idea of the community providing for the community is presented here again; you won’t find a McDonalds or Taco Bell around this area. The food venues aren’t exclusively Chinese; some are Malaysian, Vietnamese, and Middle Eastern. But the gastronomy of the countries is similar and has cross-cultural appeal, so the businesses continue to thrive.
Some of the restaurants in Chinatown have poultry hanging from their windows, giving their costumers and the residents of Sunset Park a sight familiar to native China. Others even display their menus on huge posters on the windows outside of their establishments. Usually the menu items are written in Mandarin and some of the restaurants only have native workers who can only speak Mandarin or Cantonese, which can pose a problem if you’re a tourist searching for lunch. But more often than not, there’s either a menu written in English or an employee that will be able to assist you in your food venture when you enter the restaurant.
Food Carts
The food carts along the avenue are unlike the ones we see littering Manhattan. There are no hot dogs, pretzels, or shish kabobs being sold. Instead, you’ll find chicken-on-a-stick and chow mein being sold in small containers. The prices of these items beat a Manhattan cart any day; the cost is anywhere from $1 to $2 dollars, compared to the $2.50 you’ll shell out for a hot dog. In fact, most of the restaurants in Chinatown have a knack for selling food at a price that people can actually afford, a welcomed idea in today’s economy.
Restaurants in Brooklyn's Chinatown
1) Pho’s Thanh Hoai III Vietnamese Restaurant, 5405 8th Avenue
Pho’s provides a great selection in Vietnamese dishes, such as Goi Tom (shrimp salad and peanuts), Ca Luoi Trau Chien Don (crispy fried whole flounder fish with Vietnamese sauce), and Dau Hu Man Rom Xao Dau Hao (mushroom with soy bean cake in an oyster sauce). The meals are greatly varied and usually offer an item from most of the food groups. There is also a great vegetarian and beverage selection, and the take-out menu displays a colorful picture array of meals available for consumption.
2) Nyonya: Malaysian Cuisine S.M., 5323 54th Street at 8th Avenue
Nyonya restaurant is so popular that it has been reviewed by New York Magazine and The New York Times. It has also been chosen to appear in the Village Voice Best of NYC 2007 restaurant awards and featured in the Zagat Survey as a “Best Buy”. Nyonya is one of the trendier restaurants in Chinatown; the lighting is dimmer than most food venues on 8th Avenue, the menu is printed in English, and the décor is very modern. But the native foods are nothing like the American-stylized atmosphere of the restaurant; the menu boasts a collection of seafood, noodles, rice, poultry, and even casserole dishes made ready to order. While they don’t have a delivery option, eating at Nyonya will not require making a dent in your back account or a reservation to be seated (which is usually the case with restaurants of its caliber).
3) Redang Island: Malaysian Cuisine, 5112 8th Avenue
Redang matches Nyonya in décor, atmosphere, and cuisine. They also have a fish tank and a humongous HDTV. But Redang feels like it has sacrificed a bit of its integrity in order to appeal to American consumers; the spicy Pad Thai was mild at most, and they'll give you your order with a fork if you don't ask for chopsticks. While the food is still delicious, the foodie experience gets a bit tainted by these unfortunate occurrences (especially with the audio of an American soap opera fills your ears instead of traditional music.
4) Kai Feng Fu Dumpling House, 4801 8th Avenue at 48th Street
The Dumpling House is the most pocket-friendly restaurant of the four listed. The most expensive menu item are the Frozen Dumplings (25) at $5, and you can easily have a full meal here (complete with a beverage) for $2. It’s a small venue of about 4 tables, but what they lack in size they make up in affordable dumplings filled with everything form pork and leeks to chicken and mushrooms. If your low on cash, you can never go wrong here.