Author Archive: Helen Chen

The Decline of Chinatown’s Meat Markets

The Decline of Chinatown’s Meat Markets

At 7 a.m. in Manhattan Chinatown, grimy trucks slowly crawl through the narrow streets. Male workers watch as the trucks unload their bloody cargo. Workers chat and yell at each other in both Mandarin and Cantonese as they carry freshly-slaughtered animals out of the trucks. They are moving whole pigs, […]

 
 

5 reasons these Yunnan rice noodles are the new ramen

The Rice Noodle is a small Yunnan noodle shop on Bleecker Street in lower Manhattan. It is a new restaurant, started by Yao Tang, a Chinese immigrant from the Yunnan region of China. This ethnically diverse region is rich in spicy food and famous for its rice paddies. As the […]

 
 

Happy Hot Hunan Owner: Why Americanized Chinese food is “too easy”

A growing Chinese population in the United States is leading to a new wave of proudly authentic regional cuisine from the homeland. For restaurant owners like Yunchou Liu, this is a way to fight back against what they consider a one-dimensional, Americanized view of their food. Liu owns the popular Happy […]

 
 

Golden Corner Noodles: Authentic Wenzhou Chinese Food in Flushing

Golden Corner Noodles: Authentic Wenzhou Chinese Food in Flushing

The Chinese scallion pancake is a staple of most Chinese restaurants. It doesn’t vary much from restaurant to restaurant. Usually, they’re round, fried flour pancakes with scallions. But Golden Corner Noodles makes fresh Chinese scallion pancakes differently. The fried pancake is stuffed with ground pork, pickled vegetables and marinated dried vegetables. It’s […]

 
 

Mooncake Mid-Autumn Festival at MOCA

Mooncake Mid-Autumn Festival at MOCA

Colorful molded Play-Doh dropped from the plastic mooncake molds into the hands of impatiently waiting children. They squealed in delight. Families weaved through the museum stopping to try the star food: mooncakes. Traditionally, Chinese people hold the Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival to mark the end of a successful Harvest season. They […]