Looking for other snacks near Dumpling House in Chinatown

[Dave MP]

I'll be in Manhattan this weekend and will almost definitely be heading to Dumpling House on Eldridge St.....I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for other good snacks or small meals in that area. Possible ideas include do fu fah, bubble tea, any sort of asian salad, spring rolls, etc......preferably something that's good to eat with or after a lot of pork dumplings. Thanks a lot, I'll be sure to post about whatever I eat....

Dave MP

[Dave MP]

Thanks everyone....I'm leaving for NYC in an hour and I'm printing out all this stuff....will post later next week!

Dave MP

[big o]

From Dumpling House, it's a fairly easy walk to Kossar's Bialys and Doughnut Plant (next to each other, on Grand). Il Laboratorio del Gelato is also fairly close, as is Russ & Daughters.

If you're looking to stick to Asian foods, though, Cong Ly is nearby on Hester. I think their pho is vastly superior to the other Vietnamese restos in the area (including Pho Grand, which gets mentioned often on Chowhound, and which I recently found to have bland, lousy pho).

For bubble tea, I like Ten Ren on Mott, below Canal.

[Chandavkl]

Not sure if the new branch of Egg Custard King Cafe is ready to open up yet at Grand and Forsythe. Nothing like a honeydew flavored egg tart to top off a meal. There's always the original location at 76 Mott. Also there's Hong Kong Station build your own noodle soup at 128 Hester. For boba, there's the strange Quickly Shabu Shabu at 237 Grand--strange that Quickly is an international boba drink chain, but this is the only place where I've ever seen bubble tea drinks paired with shabu shabu, a large meal in itself, rather than just snacks.

[SomeRandomIdiot]

Which one is the honeydew one at the egg custard place? Is it the green one? I've the tried the normal yellow, the pink, the white and the green one. They're all sorta bleh but I prefer the white one. Maybe the honeydew will be one that explains why that place is so popular.

[Chandavkl]

I believe the green one is honeydew. I think actually it's more the novelty of different colors and flavors, rather than the taste, that is the attraction.

[zoej]

It is open - I went on Tuesday. I had an almond one - I thought it was horrible. The custard is more like jell-o than actual cream custard. If you like almond jell-o in an unsubstantial and tasteless crust then go ahead!
I would recommend walking further down Grand St. and going to Doughnut Plant for some churros.

[SomeRandomIdiot]

That was my impression of the four varieties i tried. The crust was horrid and it tasted more like jello than egg custard. The texture of the almond filling was way off and reminded me of those almond flavored cubed jello type desserts you get in dimsum places.

[spchang]

Get a vietnamese sandwich (banh mi) at Saigon Banh Mi at 138 Mott St south of Grand St (chicken or pork are good), ask for it spicy if you like that. Further south on Mott St., at 58 Mott st., New Wonton Garden has pretty good Cantonese noodle soups (esp. wonton noodle soup), and the fried bean curd w/ special sauce is good too. This is a sit down restaurant but there's not a problem having a small meal. You can then finish off the snacking with ice cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory at 65 bayard st.

It's further away, but for northern style Chinese noodle soups, you can go to Super Taste at 26N Eldridge St. Their pork bone noodle soup is good (if you like soup bones) and you can get hand pulled noodles or knife cut noodles (dao xiao mian). People also like their beef noodle soups, but I haven't tried them.