Chinese Street Food NYC is part of the TPOL in NYC ongoing Trip Report.
Nostalgic for some Shanghai street food, I listened to a local-non-local native Chinese, now New Yorker for where to get spicy skewers. The name of the place is Friendship Foods. Judging by the crowd, the place looked top notch. Judging by the aroma, I thought I was in Shanghai. Judging by the prices, I knew I was in NY.
While the place had a lively atmosphere, all that mattered was the food. First the order. Then my thoughts.
In Shanghai, the eggplant was my favorite. Here it was decent but not great. The meat skewers were pretty good, but the small portions had me wanting more. Seems like spicy skewers are expensive everywhere now (see Spicy Skewers Shanghai: Best for Late Night Grub). In total, with no drinks, the price for everything pictured was $75.
Overall
I would take friends who have not been to Shanghai here for the sake of novelty. I would also go with friends who have been to reminisce. I would not come here if I was hungry and wanted to binge on one hundred skewers. That would cost more than a first class ticket to Asia (see Cathay Pacific First Class JFK-HKG: 15.5 Hours of Bliss).
TPOL’s TIP: Friendship Foods is located at 103 Bowery, New York, NY 10002
As a complete non sequitur from this post, I have to thank you. I stayed in Kota Kinabalu over Chinese New Year at the Hyatt and it was great. If you hadn’t written about the hotel and the area, I doubt I’d ever have gone there. Just a really nice time overall. I appreciate it and please keep it up. Just wanted you to know that your writing does actually affect people’s decisions. Thanks so much!