YongChuan brings the cuisine of Ningbo to New York City
Clinton Street may just become a destination for Chinese food.
There’s a lot of wonderful Chinese food in New York City, but the most authentic spots tend not to be in the borough of Manhattan but out in Queens, in Flushing, near to where I grew up in Rego Park. Now I’ve just learned about YongChuan, a new Chinese restaurant right here in Manhattan on the Lower East Side (90 Clinton Street). The restaurant features a rather unique regional Chinese menu; it is the city’s first restaurant to hone in on the delicate cuisine of the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo, where chef-owner Tony Li grew up. And word on the street is it’s pretty special, so sharing with you all so that you can check it out.
Along with executive chef Xing Zhong Qiu Li has created a menu that straddles the more pristine flavors of Ningbo with the explosive flavors of Sichuan. There’s a Ningbo Style Smoked Fish Fillet, a cold appetizer of deep-fried fish in sweet and sour sauce; Ningbo Wontons filled with minced pork, dried shrimp, pickled vegetables, and garlic chives. A signature is Ningbo 18 Cuts, a dish you’ve got to order in advance: a giant East China sea crab air shipped from Ningbo’s Zhoushan fishing grounds and packed with red roe, flash-frozen at -38°C skillfully divided into 18 even pieces.
There are also Sichuan standards like Ma La Prawns and Mapo Tofu. In true keeping with the mission to highlight the cuisine of both regions, there’s a dish that combines them: YongChuan La Zi Chicken, Sichuan dry fried chili chicken with Ningbo sticky rice cakes. How good does that sound?
If you’re into being really bold, there is also an unabashedly sour Ningbo delicacy, Stinky Winter Melon, which, you know, is fermented so it’s not a shy melon. For dessert, there’s savory sweet Seaweed Mochi with pine nuts as well as Soymilk Ice Cream and Ningbo Sticky Rice Balls filled with black sesame.
The restaurant is very Lower East Side in design—modern and lovely, decorated with a refined palette of natural materials, including elongated bricks, walnut wood furnishings, and a sleek metallic ceiling grid. Let me know what you think when you go!
YongChuan is located at 90 Clinton Street, (646) 609-6324. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 p.m.-11 p.m. and Sunday-Monday from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.