A sleepy Chinatown?
Anyone who's tried to walk for more than two blocks along Canal Street knows just how packed Chinatown can get. But 20 minutes away, in Sunset Park, you can get a lot of the same delicious food and vibrant street life without the elbow-bruising bustle of lower Manhattan. As a bonus, you'll also find some of the best Vietnamese food in the City, and a tiny Polish enclave that's perfect for when yet another iteration of bland Tsing Tao lager is not going to cut it anymore.
I recently enjoyed a late (almost 3 p.m.) dim sum brunch at a bright-if-slightly-gaudy new Sunset Park spot, Pacificana (55th St. off 8th Ave.), which looks like a cross between a trendy SoHo lounge (you'll see it when you head to the bathroom or the private banquet room) and, well, a Home Depot display on steroids--I've never seen so many layers of molding on one ceiling. All that aside, I'm willing to pit Pacificana against some of the best dim sum I've had in Manhattan.
I made the pleasant mistake of putting our entire order in the hands of my Chinese companion (only a few carts were going around anymore, so we had to put in an order), who then proceeded to get us two types of tripe (honeycomb and, um ... well, it looked a little like white slivers of ribbed or dimpled prophylactics), chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, and shrimp cheong fun (you know, those little shrimp balls that are wrapped in a tri-fold sheet of rice pasta, then dressed with a sweet soy-ish sauce). It all came in at just under $16 for everything,* including pots of jasmine tea.
The ribbed tripe, wading in a small bath of light, savory broth, was a happy discovery--it had the snap of, say, jellyfish (or, for the uninitiated, a springier, slightly rubbery pasta?) and was gently steamed with scallion, ginger, and the tiniest slices of hot peppers. The honeycomb tripe was a bit too intense even for me, and I've never been a huge fan of chicken feet (although the dish here was much less gummier than the ones I've had before). The wrapping on the cheong fun had just the right hint of sweetness, and more than made up for the mediocre quality of the shrimp itself (although, to be fair, the vast majority of shrimp out there is farmed and bland, even at fancy restaurants). Maybe it was because everything else was so unusual, but the shrimp dumplings were neither good nor bad--the only really standard thing there.
If you can, try to give yourself an extra few hours to stroll down 8th Avenue for the wonderful Chinatown (which, incidentally, sells even cheaper groceries than the joints over on Grand Street) and 7th Avenue for some Vietnamese coffee.
* I've been told that, for dim sum, you can just tip a few dollars--does anyone understand it differently?
Pacificana (map)
813 55th Street (Eighth Avenue), second floor
N to 8th Avenue; the building also has parking
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
(718) 871-2880.
I recently enjoyed a late (almost 3 p.m.) dim sum brunch at a bright-if-slightly-gaudy new Sunset Park spot, Pacificana (55th St. off 8th Ave.), which looks like a cross between a trendy SoHo lounge (you'll see it when you head to the bathroom or the private banquet room) and, well, a Home Depot display on steroids--I've never seen so many layers of molding on one ceiling. All that aside, I'm willing to pit Pacificana against some of the best dim sum I've had in Manhattan.
I made the pleasant mistake of putting our entire order in the hands of my Chinese companion (only a few carts were going around anymore, so we had to put in an order), who then proceeded to get us two types of tripe (honeycomb and, um ... well, it looked a little like white slivers of ribbed or dimpled prophylactics), chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, and shrimp cheong fun (you know, those little shrimp balls that are wrapped in a tri-fold sheet of rice pasta, then dressed with a sweet soy-ish sauce). It all came in at just under $16 for everything,* including pots of jasmine tea.
The ribbed tripe, wading in a small bath of light, savory broth, was a happy discovery--it had the snap of, say, jellyfish (or, for the uninitiated, a springier, slightly rubbery pasta?) and was gently steamed with scallion, ginger, and the tiniest slices of hot peppers. The honeycomb tripe was a bit too intense even for me, and I've never been a huge fan of chicken feet (although the dish here was much less gummier than the ones I've had before). The wrapping on the cheong fun had just the right hint of sweetness, and more than made up for the mediocre quality of the shrimp itself (although, to be fair, the vast majority of shrimp out there is farmed and bland, even at fancy restaurants). Maybe it was because everything else was so unusual, but the shrimp dumplings were neither good nor bad--the only really standard thing there.
If you can, try to give yourself an extra few hours to stroll down 8th Avenue for the wonderful Chinatown (which, incidentally, sells even cheaper groceries than the joints over on Grand Street) and 7th Avenue for some Vietnamese coffee.
* I've been told that, for dim sum, you can just tip a few dollars--does anyone understand it differently?
Pacificana (map)
813 55th Street (Eighth Avenue), second floor
N to 8th Avenue; the building also has parking
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
(718) 871-2880.
posted by Dave Lee at 1:50 PM
3 Comments:
Sunset Park is an amazing place. Just a visit for the cool park on a hot summer's day is worth it - to say nothing of the varied culinary delights.
WHO IS THIS DAVE LEE AND HOW DARE HE GO TO PACIFICANA WITHOUT ME?
Yes, that and Jackson Heights/Woodside are my two favorite food neighborhoods in the City. There was a story in the Times a few months ago about a guy who basically moved to Jackson Heights just for the food, and I think I can relate to that.
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