3. East Village
The East Village, about half a mile north of Little Fuzhou, has developed into a very modern and diverse Chinese enclave, featuring restaurants fusing traditional Chinese recipes with trendy and creative interpretations. The East Village, with an abundance of Japanese, Eastern European, and Latin American eateries, has seen a recent growth in Chinese and Taiwanese eateries just a few blocks from NYU, making it one of the city’s newest Chinatowns.
Szechuan Mountain House, with a location in Flushing, specializes in Sichuan cuisine, notorious for its extreme spice and numbing quality called “Má-La.” Popular dishes here include fish in chili oil, mapo tofu, braised frog, and pork belly. MáLà Project specializes in dry pot, in which diners choose meats and vegetables prepared with dry chili.
Dian Kitchen offers diners with a taste of Yunnan, a region whose cuisine is rarely seen in New York City. The menu includes Yunnan’s signature rice noodles called mixian, prepared either hot or cold with proteins like minced pork or tofu. Little Tong Noodle Shop also pays homage to Yunnan with dishes like Grandma chicken mixian and Garlicky Tingling mixian.
Other restaurants like Spicy Moon offer more contemporary twists to Chinese classics; Spicy Moon recreates Sichuan specialties using 100% vegan recipes like three cup mix vegetables, dan dan noodles with Beyond Beef, and cumin tofu. In addition to offering spicy Sichuan dishes, The Bao also features wasabi and super spicy xiaolongbao as well as chocolate soup dumplings.
The area also houses many popular drink places like Bubbleology, featuring creative bubble tea options like caramel frappe, white peach, and Nutella. In addition to tea, Mango Mango also offers ice cream-based desserts like mango juice sago with mango ice cream.