Deluxe Food Market: Leave You Sucking Yo Fingaaaaz
Did you miss me? First off let me apologize for my 6 month leave of absence. It's been a crazy few months with mid-reviews, finals, job hunting, but now all that has passed. I'm still in the process of uploading Studio BAUS's work, but you can see what is up so far here.
Lately I've trying this crazy fad called dieting, so I have consequently spent more time cooking, and less time spending money. That being said, every now and again I get an itch for some crispy roast suckling pork belly, that just needs to be scratched. Deluxe Food Market had just the cure for my cravings.
This has quickly become one of my "must stop" destinations every time I visit china town (the other being Kung Fu Tea). The "deluxe" shop isn't really about luxury, but in terms of quality, quantity, and price, no other locale can compare. Part food court, part supermarket, this small strip extends from Elizabeth to Mott and within that strip is everything under the sun. They have pickled pig ears, tripe, chicken feet, buns the size of your face (with filling to match), soups, congee, zongzi, the list really doesn't end. FYI those face sized buns are only a dollar...yeah you heard me $1.
As MC Jin's first single states, "ya'll' gunna learn Chinese," I seriously wouldn't know what to do if I didn't know Chinese myself. The place is super crowded, and everyone inside is pointing to items, haggling, and screaming over one thing or another. I think though, anyone could get by with the right amount of body language.
It was hard to get good shots of the interior because there were so many people, and I didn't want to bother the people waiting in line for their food, so you'll just have to make due with these blurry low resolution photos.
Here's a shot of the hot foods/veggies stand. Bean curd with bok choy and some other dishes.
Some hot food, including bao (buns with pork + veggie filling) and cheong fun (large noodles with various meats inside; usually pork or beef). Behind the buns are scallion pancakes (chung yao beng) and some pot stickers (gao ji).
The seating.
And of course, the roast meat stand. They sell some pretty cheap roast duck here and various Cantonese-style marinated chickens, though I have yet to try them. But I see old Chinese people buying them so they must be legit.
They chop up whatever you order in front of you.
My favorite Chinese dish, hands down, is crispy suckling pork belly (Xiu Yu Ju). I usually get the combo which will run me $4.50. Believe it or not, this is one of the more expensive meals here, most combination dishes include three items (+ rice) for $3.75. The combo includes rice, and bok choy and roughly 15-16, 8 gram pieces of roast pork (roughly the size of a thumb per piece).
There's something about the fat meat ratio, mixed with crispy skin that is irreplaceable. Usually the underside of the slab of meat is coated with a dry rub so you know every bite is packed with flavor. The texture of the pork skin is what I'd like to call "proof that there is a God, and that He loves us."
Some people like to eat their pork by dipping it in sugar (sort of like the inverse of the salt and watermelon trick) because the sweetness brings out the flavor of the pork. I am not one of those people, and I wouldn't dream of putting any sort of sauce on the meat to potentially ruin the crispy skin, or drown out the flavor of the pork. The portion is quite large, I doubt most people would be able to finish this in one sitting; even I had trouble with it. I hope you can make it down there and point to something that looks amazing.