New Southwind: Chinese Diner
New South Wind
21 Division St
(btw Catherine & Market St)
Lying near the far end of Chinatown, almost underneath the Manhattan bridge, this is a mom & pop diner that most locals will know. Unfortunately I never knew about this place when I was a kid because I lived in the other side of town, but hey, it’s better late than never right? haha. Luckily, my boyfriend grew up eating at this place and tells me how good their food are. So I decided to come to this place once and for all, with him, and to find out how good their food really is!
If you look at the window of the restaurant closely, you’ll see a tray of big fat specialty rice noodles. Can you see it?
Can you see it now? This is what you called Ha Mai Chern in Cantonese, which is essentially rice noodles with scallions and dried baby shrimps. What’s different about this is not only it’s big packed size, but there’s ham in it! Yum yum! This is the restaurant’s best seller. Yeah I can just tell when I walk into the restaurant and tray after tray of this is coming out from the kitchen to the front window. Man, it sells fast!! It’s cheap, at about $1 per roll, and it’s so delicious! I have never tasted something like this anywhere else in Chinatown, and I really highly recommend it.
Honestly, New South Wind isn’t really a nice/clean restaurant to sit in. It’s better if you order out here, but of course it’s entirely up to you. Since I’ve never been here before and I hail all the way out from Brooklyn, I figure it would be nice to eat here with the boyfriend.
Now from what he tells me, this place has went through reconstruction. The walls and furnitures are completely new, except for the floors, but who’s looking right? Haha. But yeah, this place is a simple Chinese restaurant that doesn’t need to look fancy and impressive. It just serves the needs of its locals, which is cheap delicious food.
When you first walk into this restaurant, you’re not going to have someone to guide you to a table. You just walk in and sit anywhere you please and eventually a waitress will come out and ask you what you want. Don’t expect to have a menu at your table. Most locals don’t even need a menu, but if you need one, look at the other tables and you’ll see a menu lying somewhere.
There it is. That’s all there is and then on the back it’s completely in Chinese. Refer to menupages to see the menu in full.
Alright the moment we sat down, out of nowhere this waitress comes to us and asks what we wanted to eat. I guess most people already have it ingrained in their mind of what they wanted to eat, but I wanted some more time with the menu. So we started off with some sodas. I heard that they make some kick ass ice milk tea, but I didn’t try it, but if you like it and you happen to stop by here, go for it and tell me all about it.
My boyfriend is always raving about their pork chops here and tell me that no place can make it more succulent and delicious. So we both order the pork chop w/onions over rice, $4.00, and he ordered the meat with tofu for starters, $2.50.
This is the meat w/tofu obviously, but it wasn’t that impressive to me at first. Apparently the tofu wasn’t fried which was a first to me, and to me this dish looks really bland. But I was wrong! Haha, the meat is really rich and flavorful, with the right amount of salt and the right about of greasiness. It sorta reminds me of the meat that you eat at a dim sum place, err…sorta like the shumai but better and meatier! Man, the only bad thing I can say about this dish was that they didn’t make more meat. God! The meat is so so good and it works perfectly with the tofu. Delicious!
My porky porky! If you’re an onion fan you’ll be drooling all over, but if you’re not, like me, you’ll still enjoy it too. Yes this dish doesn’t look like much at first, but you’ll be amazed at how much flavor it has. The onions are really, truly sweet mixed with a delicate taste of sweet soy sauce that’s obviously pan fried, and the pork chops are soft and salted to perfection, not at the least dried and cooked with soy sauce as well. The sweetness and the saltiness created a perfect balance for this dish which created droolage overload for me. This got to be the best pork chop cooked Chinese style I have ever had. I will highly recommend this dish.
I see most people order the pan fried rice noodles (sup chow gnow hor) and the green peas with minced meat over rice and a fried egg. It looks delicious and I can’t wait to come back here for take out!
After ordering another 4 rice noodle rolls, the bill came out to be under $18 and that’s including tip. I’d highly recommend this place. This is truly a gem of Chinatown.
Health Inspection Results!
NEW SOUTH WIND
21 DIVISION STREET, MANHATTAN 10002
212-966-4116
Current violation points: 21
Inspection Date: 11/13/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained.
2.) Wiping cloths dirty or not stored in sanitizing solution.
3.) Personal cleanliness inadequate. Clean outer garments, effective hair restraint not worn.
4.) Hot food not held at or above 140°F.
