Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Fruit Riot, a product I genuinely love to eat. If you haven’t heard about it: Fruit Riot is made of real frozen fruit pieces tossed in a candy coating, just at the intersection of real fruit and sour candy.
I am a lover of sour snacks; I have been eating whole bags of these regularly (it’s low-cal). Find it in the frozen fruit aisle, or for delivery at Target. Thanks to Fruit Riot for supporting People & Food!
“In the whole of New York City, there may be only 10 still working in the old style way,” is what Stephen Li told me about Cantonese BBQ in our first interview. I was surprised: Surely, there are still ducks hanging in the window throughout the city. Was there not a line every day at Wah Fung? Didn’t we just get a new BBQ spot, Hay Hay Roasted?
How can there be only 10 restaurants making Chinatown’s most iconic dish?
We were sitting inside of Great NY Noodletown, a landmark of Chinatown standing on Bowery since 1964. The rumor about Noodletown is they pay only $1 a month in rent. For years, they were open until 4 AM, giving it cult status among chefs like Anthony Bourdain. Stephen told me it’s the oldest restaurant in Chinatown; that’s not true. Wo Hop and Nom Wah are older. But it is possibly the oldest traditional Cantonese BBQ restaurant in Chinatown.
I was able to get clarity on the $1 rent, the mystery of why Cantonese BBQ is disappearing, and much more in my latest YouTube documentary:
But wait! There’s more!
Gabriel and I filmed another behind-the-scenes vlog. It’s behind a paywall to help fund the production of these videos. We discuss:
How I got connected with Noodletown, and how I became (possibly) the first person to ever film in their kitchen
How I screwed up this production, and what I’ll fix going forward
Our next video that I shot in London 2 weeks ago
And at least one snide comment about the James Beard awards
