The Most Competitive Chinese Food Scene in NYC

[Music] oh yeah these are salted because they're supposed to be eaten with things like kanji in the morning [Music] yeah I mean that's salty that's a salted duck egg all right no golden dragons Red Lanterns or touristy gift shops here at the end of the New York 7 train an hour away from Manhattan is another newer Chinatown one that's not really interested in catering to Western visitors welcome to Flushing Queens home to a soaring number of new immigrants from China and some of the best Chinese food in the world as a kid I used to spend every summer in Beijing visiting family but the flushing food scene is more diverse than anything I've ever seen today I want to take you to a secret place in Chinatown so I've asked yeah you Chen an international student turned Tick Tock food influencer to lead me around the neighborhood [Music] we're gonna add the grilled coat noodles is that like um iced hot chocolate I love that pumpkin is better okay sausage okay one of your favorite bubble tea spots yes oh my God so tell me about what we have here okay we have two options here one is the traditional crab pork soup down please and this is the rainbow soup dumping platter it's very fancy mmm Umami so good it's mostly Chinese menus delivery apps and even payment systems through apps like WeChat many restaurants here are created for the local immigrant Community it's like a mini China here mini Asia even you got a very traditional Sweet Street snacks you get big brands from China the diversity here just phenomenon in other words flushing's Target Diner is Chinese Foodies and that makes it one of the most competitive food scenes in the world I mean it's gorgeous this kind of New Chinatown is very different from the traditional one started centuries ago which were built out of necessity migrant laborers many coming from Southern China against their will were pushed into ghettos by racist laws and had to band together against violent xenophobia and to support themselves shopkeepers and restaurant owners had to adjust their decorations and menus to appeal to Western customers but things have changed as China's gotten richer enclaves like flushing are popping up across the world formed by wealthier immigrants from all over the country they've now managed to transport the Comforts of home it's a Melting Pot of not even just all different cultures but just the Chinese cultures so this is one of the base places that you can see that Scott Wang was born in Flushing and has now spent a decade working on the neighborhood's real estate market so we know is probably better than anyone how the neighborhood and the food scene that comes with it has changed it's really around the 1970s is when a lot of Asian people started migrating to Flushing and it started with the Taiwanese over time more people from different provinces started coming here and obviously they open restaurants it's not just restaurants over the years the influx of newcomers has created a big enough market to sustain a self-contained ecosystem with massive malls luxury condos fruit stands a mirror image of Modern urban China where the development is growing as fast as the wealth Gap this used to be a models that they changed into a supermarket recently it sold for 67 million wow so it set a record for the highest price per square foot I mean it's wild to me though that for a record-setting price and it's it's a supermarket despite the soaring prices people are still rushing into the neighborhood for the comfort of home here you kind of see similar aesthetic as to what you see in China they use a lot of glass way more balconies than I'm used to you get the like classic Chinese rooftop over there yeah you know I mean this reminds me personally of China for centuries this kind of freedom from Western stereotypes is something that the Chinese diaspora has been searching for including the residents of traditional chinatowns [Music] a Chinatown Boutique shop owner originally from Beijing has been hosting events to celebrate Chinese diaspora for almost a decade so we're trying to do like Chinese themed Halloween party just because we've actually I've never been to one this one is inspired by the 1993 Hong Kong film green snake a modern classic and all the drinks they're pouring have a key ingredient the signature Chinese liquor so this is the liquor of China this is the liquor of China yes you'll see there's more at business settings so if you were just uh you know taking shots non-stop with each other and what is it made from I think this one contains the large portion of sorghum strong yeah yeah strong I feel like my own personal experience would buy Joe I was always way too young and it was always he was always an uncle trying to just get me a drink absolutely instead of taking shots like their parents Young Folks are turning by Joel into cocktails this is called a sutrang mu so it's basically a meal with ginger beer and apple juice lime um and baijo this almost reminds me of like a like a caipirinha or like a Mojito yeah yeah it really is very palatable across the world chinatowns are Reinventing themselves and this time the diaspora is using one simple ingredient living unapologetically foreign

Channel: VICE News

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Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, vice news 2023, new york, chinese food, new york city, nyc food, new york food, nyc chinatown, mike chen, american chinese food, chinese restaurant, asian food, nyc vlog, nyc chinese food, new york chinatown, mike chen taiwan, nyc chinatown food, nyc chinatown apartment, nyc chinatown shopping, nyc chinatown walking tour, nyc chinatown tour, flushing, flushing chinatown, china, boba tea, dumpling, chinese

Id: gYSeTpY-WrM

Length: 6min 21sec (381 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2023