New Old Yeah No Shanghai Deluxe, Chinatown

Yeah not sure if I got that name right. It’s on the corner of Bowery and Mott, I know that much.

Staff was friendly, didn’t speak much English. A large guy near us wanted lemon with his tea. After much confusion, concluded that they had no lemons. Got up and told his wife he was going to go look for a place where he could buy a lemon. I don’t think he came back with a lemon.

I had a phone conversation with Angel afterwards. It went a little something like this.

Me: Had some pretty decent Chinese food today.

Angel: Oh yeah, what’d you have?

Me: We went a little overboard…dumplings, orange beef, sweet and sour pork, pan fried noodles…

Angel: That’s not Chinese food!

Me: What?

Angel: That’s not Chinese food! That’s, like, Americanized Chinese food.

Me: Well excuse me! What do you consider Chinese food then?

Angel: Chinese food is… steamed fish… and … I don’t know. Not what you had.

She’s right I guess, it was not authentic. But in my defense, it’s not like it was P.F. Chang’s, which is westernized beyond recognition.

And in my defense, I don’t think I need to have the “Americanized” qualifier before I say “Chinese food.” Most of what I come across will be Americanized to some degree, so I think it’s implied. After all, I’m not having lunch in rural China.

And in my defense, the only thing she could come up with in her defense was “steamed fish!” WTF.

So whatever. Maybe it wasn’t legit Chinese food. It was what it was. And it was good.

But I thank Angel for always keeping me humble.