My Favorite Diet food: Freshly Steamed Chinese Rice Crepes

EATERY:

Sun Light Bakery (not the bakery but left-hand side shop)

LOCATION:

160 East Broadway St (btw Allen & Essex), New York, NY 10002

REVIEWS:

This place has the best Chinese steamed rice crepes in the city. Because they make it right there in front of you. If you want to see how popular they are wake up at 6:30am in the morning and you will see people line up for it. It only does take-outs (no seat not even standing place inside) and the menu is as tiny as the shop itself, you can pick from one of the following ingredients: chicken, pork, beef, fishball, Chinese sausage with dried shrimp or ham with corn. Each crepe is $1.25. You have the option of adding an egg to it for extra 25 cents. For vegetarians, they have the pure steamed crepes for $1. The way they make the crepe is quite interesting, they got this special stainless steel steamer that has 5 racks. The chef ladle the ground up rice liquid on top of your choice of ingredients in the stainless steel tray than put in the steamer. Around 2 minutes of steaming the chef take it our and scrapes the crepes out. What we got here in the picture is the Chinese sausage with dry shrimp (my personal favorite!) and the beef. The crepe is very silky, smooth and tender with a great flavor.

RANTS & RAVES:

The day I visit is a hot 95 degrees summer day. The take-out place inside is well over 105 degrees because of the steamer and how small and poor ventilated the place is. (Poor chef got to take that for 10+ hrs everyday) So the best place to eat that is at the Seward park half a block away. Some tips: Be sure to tell them you want cilantro and scallion in your crepe or they won’t put it. Also tell them to put extra special cooked soy sauce to enhance the flavor. Since steamed crepe is mostly a breakfast/ lunch food for Chinese, this place closes rather early- around 3-4pm.

TAGS:

New York Chinese Chinatown CHEAP ASS PICK!