current Chinatown lobster recs?

[Simon]

Wondering where people have been going these days for a South China Garden-style lobster special...(i.e. fried w/ XO sauce and/or ginger&scallion)...

When i walked down Elridge St yesterday i saw a few places i'd never heard of (like Fen Yang Restaurant)...

Suggestions welcome :)

[Lau]

fen yang etc are all fujian restaurants, so if you want SCG style lobster (cantonese) thats the wrong place to go

right now i'd go to fuleen

[AubWah]

I want lobster with XO sauce. Does Fuleen have good XO

[Lau]

i haven't tried their version with XO sauce only with ginger / scallion

[sgordon]

I like Fuleen's XO - but that said, I find XO in general inconsistent at nearly every Chinatown restaurant. i.e. Oriental Garden's used to be pretty solid, but the last time I had theirs it seemed watered down or something. That said, I've never had -bad- XO at Fuleen.

XO's tough for me though, since I make my own, and obviously I like my own the best since it's balanced exactly the way I like it, and I also use much fancier ingredients than any restaurant I know of - but until a BYOXO restaurant opens, if I'm eating out, Fuleen it is.

[Lau]

XO sauce almost never tastes the same anywhere

some of the really good restaurants in HK sell their versions, i should bring some back next time

[sgordon]

By inconsistent I didn't mean between different restos - I meant at the same resto over time. OG most noticeably, but I noticed quality imconsistency at A66 as well, and a couple other places. Could be on account of chefs coming & going, of course. Chef shuffles in Chinatown never get reported on Grub Street...

[kathryn]

Momofuku Ssam Bar makes their own XO sauce, I wish they'd bottle it and sell it!

[comiendosiempre]

The lobster country style, with scrambled egg, pork, scallion and black bean at Oriental Garden is excellent. Though their seafood has steadily climbed in pricing.

[Lau]

i wasnt that big a fan of that dish when i tried it, it was decent but not great

http://www.lauhound.com/2012/06/orien...

[Simon]

what would a fujian-style lobster dish be like?...fen yang seems to have clean tanks of happy angry snapping lobsters...curious how the preparation varies from the Cantonese places...

[Lau]

fuzhou and the fujian province in general are known for seafood

im much more familiar with southern fujian food (minnan) which is alot of what you eat in taiwan / singapore / malaysia than fuzhou food, so i cant say exactly what typical fuzhou preparation is

those restaurants you are talking about are high on my list of places to eat at in chinatown

[Simon]

i'll try Fen Yang and some of the others and report back: i've developed a serious lobster addiction this autumn...

[pravit]

Sing Kee on Bowery

[SomeRandomIdiot]

I like the cheese baked version at Sing Kee better than the ginger and scallion one.

[Lau]

i hated the cheese version at sing kee when i went a month ago, i thought it had this weird flavor and scent to it, i thought it was terrible compared to danny ng's (RIP) which is where their chefs came from

i was actually disappointed with every dish i had except their chicken, but im going to go back to try it a couple more times to make sure it wasnt a fluke or something

[SomeRandomIdiot]

I had the cheese version about three times at each place. I thought they were very similar but my visits to Danny Ng's were more recent than the ones to Sing Kee.

[Lau]

the version at sing kee had this odd smell to it, it wasn't the lobster it was the cheese they used although i didnt think the lobster they used was very good quality...again ive only been there once so could've been a fluke

[AubWah]

very interested to hear responses. there are probably at least 20 restaurants that do this. i rarely dine in manhattan chinatown