Ping [New York]

"She's not so Dim, that Sum"

To round out my weekend in NYC, I had brunch at Ping in Chinatown. Although I am liking Boston more since my big move, one complaint I do have about Boston is the lack of a sizable Chinatown. Maybe its because I have not discovered it yet, but I feel there is a terrible selection of dining options in Boston Chinatown. There is probably only one decent dim sum place (which everyone and their mothers eat at). Boston readers, please let me know if you think otherwise and please prove me wrong. Anyways, I was quiet excited to eat dim sum since I haven't had authentic Chinese food in 2 months AND since my friend from Boston and I were going with NYC natives, I thought I would be in for a real treat.

Note: when I lived in NYC, I rarely visited Chinatown, as I am easily confused by areas that do not have numbers as street names and it was a bit far from where I lived. Being in Boston where there is virtually no Chinatown, I now totally regret that I did not take advantage of the NYC Chinatown.

Ping was quiet packed when we arrived at 11:30am. I would say 98% of the patrons were old school Asian (read: authentic Chinese food served), which made me trust the place even more. We had to share a table with 2 other parties (read: even more authentic Chinese food served). I was surprised to see the place was actually quiet clean (for Chinatown) and the servers were in actual uniforms of sparkly (albeit gaudy) silver vests and bowties.

The dim sum was good, although the selection was a bit lacking. My favorite dishes were the Chinese spinach saute with garlic and fried onions, the pan fried "lo bo gao" (turnip cakes), and shrimp in rice noodles. The rest of our party ordered chicken feet (I declined, the idea of eating any type of stinky feet grosses me out, plus I could see their nail beds...double gross). The items I was sad to have missed out on was the "fa gao" (traditional yellow slightly-sweet sponge cake) and the "do jian" (warm soybean milk) / "yo tiao" (fried dough sticks used for dipping in the "do jian". I was actually too full to eat anymore (still recovering from the previous night at Per Se) and I knew I had a long ride ahead back to Boston, so I decided to have willpower and not order these items.This place was very good. The place was small, so the turnover was quick for each item, which meant that the dishes were all served warm and fresh. Also a $40 meal (we gave a generous tip) for 4 people is pretty freaking sweet for NYC. All and all, not the best dim sum I ever had, but definitely not bad either.

Ping
22 Mott St.
New York, NY 10013

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