Chinatown Vegan Eats

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In recent months, I've made getting Chinatown vegan eats a weekly thing ... sometimes even twice weekly!

In September of this year, I discovered the @sendchinatownlove Food Crawl, organized to help struggling businesses in Chinatown due to lack of tourism and blatant racism as a result of COVID-19. The food crawl itself encouraged people to visit participating restaurants and shops, obtaining vouchers when you spent a minimum amount of money there, and then you could redeem those vouchers for discounts and contest prizes. I actually didn't get to redeem all of the discounts I could get, but I wanted to patronize as many of the businesses taking part as I could.

There were a few places I kept going back to and there were a few places I only went to once, but it was a fun way to help Chinatown. And even after the food crawl itself ended, I kept going to Chinatown at least once weekly because I got hooked on some super yummy foods and because a lot of them brought back nostalgic feelings (especially the dim sum).

When I was a kid, we periodically went to a rather popular dim sum restaurant in San Francisco Chinatown - one of the ones that had the push carts containing various dim sum items that meandered around the tables. (Unfortunately, it doesn't exist anymore and the building is now a residential building.) The staff pushing the carts (usually women, but there were a few men I think) would holler out the items in their carts, and you'd stop them if there was something you wanted. They'd put a dish or steamer basket containing the dim sum item on your table (or more than one if you were there with a lot of people), and then stamp a card that tallied up all the various dishes you got. At the end of the meal, the total was rung up based on that card.

Because we were a big family (my parents and siblings, grandparents on my dad's side, and some extended family members also from my dad's side), we almost always sat at one of two places in the restaurant that I can remember. There were lots of dim sum dishes that I loved ... maybe a couple that I didn't really enjoy as much, but I couldn't tell you what those were now. In my memory, they were all good.

After I started college and became vegetarian, there were fewer dim sum items I could eat. We also didn't go to dim sum quite as often after my grandfather passed away and our extended family relatives got older. In my mid- to late-20s, our occasional dim sum outings were usually just our immediate family and was only once or twice a year. And when I became vegan, there was even less I could eat. One of the last trips I remember was A little over ten years ago (when I was vegetarian, not yet vegan) in Oakland Chinatown, and there were only a few things I could eat (shrimp or non-meat things). Most items had pork or beef in them.

When I moved to New York City, I found there were a couple of vegetarian/vegan dim sum places in Manhattan Chinatown, and I visited them with friends once in a while. Chinatown was a little bit out of the way for me and my friends, so it was very infrequent. But it was super fun and brought back lots of nostalgia, and it was interesting seeing how they made certain items vegetarian or vegan. That was many years ago now, though, and it wasn't until I was back in Chinatown regularly that I re-visited them for take-out. And it brought back all that nostalgia again, especially trying to remember the Chinese (Cantonese) names for all the things I was getting.

Here are some of my favorite Chinatown vegan-friendly spots!

Chinatown Vegan Eats

Buddha Bodai

5 Mott St. New York NY, 10013
https://www.buddha-bodai.com/

Nearly everything is vegan (there are a few dishes that use real egg, I believe, but are indicated on the menu). LOTS of dim sum items to choose from as well as main courses, appetizers, and desserts - using mock meat instead of real meat or seafood. Definitely one of my favorite places to order take-out from anytime I'm in Chinatown.

Favorites: Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll (Cheung Fun), Fried Eggplant Stuffed with Vegetarian Meat, Fried Taro Dumplings (Wu Gok), Watercress Dumplings, and Tapioca Dumplings.

Bodhi Kosher Vegetarian

77 Mulberry St,, New York, NY 10013
https://buddhavegetarian.com/

The other restaurant that I love to get dim sum from. I believe everything here is vegan! Bonus: gluten-free items are clearly indicated on the menu. They used to also do a wide variety of vegan sushi (with mock fish substitutes), but I don't see them as options anymore from their online ordering. Hopefully that is just temporary. Not affiliated with Buddha Bodai from what I can tell.

Favorites: Salt & Pepper Pork Ribs (intriguing use of sticky rice as the "fat"), Sticky Rice Shiu Mai*, Shrimp Dumplings* (Har Gow), and Pan-Fried Turnip Cake* (Lo Bak Go).

(* also found and essentially identical at Buddha Bodai)

New Golden Fung Wong Bakery

41 Mott St, New York, NY 10013
https://www.yelp.com/biz/new-golden-fung-wong-bakery-new-york

I pretty much come here for only two reasons: BBQ Pork Buns (Char Siu Bao) for my non-vegan roommate, and the Red Bean Cake (Hong Dou Go), which I get 3-4 at a time so that I can have them for breakfast for the next several days. The Red Bean Cake is only slightly sweet, and it is a good balance of a little protein and some carbohydrates to get me started in the morning.

Sometimes I also get their Green Bean Cake (which is mung bean), Black Sesame Cake (Zhi Ma Go), or Tapioca Cake (Ling Fen Go, which is actually water chestnut). These are all also very lightly sweet. Sticky, gummy, chewy, and oh-so-delightful.

Alimama

89A Bayard St, Manhattan, NY 10013
https://www.alimamanyc.com/

Alimama is probably most known for their mochi donuts or maybe their cream puffs. They also have a variety of coffee and tea drinks, some of which can be made with almond or oat milk to be vegan. And they have mini boba for their drinks if you so desire.

Right now, their only vegan mochi donuts are the Chocolate Munchkins and the Matcha Munchkins. It's a little confusing that their menu says the taro Munchkins are vegan, but they actually contain milk powder in them. The chocolate ones may be my favorite. And if you're not vegan, the mochi donuts and cream puffs are apparently quite delicious as well.

My favorite drink to get is their iced cold brew with oat milk and mini boba. Or if it's cold outside, I'll do the same with hot coffee.

46 Mott Bakery

46 Mott Street, New York, NY 10013
https://46mott.com/en/

There are a handful of items in this traditional Chinese bakery that are vegan-friendly. The white or brown sugar cake and Bozai cakes are made with just rice flour, sugar, water, yeast for the fluffy cake, and a little bit of oil so they don't stick to the pan. They're super nostalgic for me as my grandmother made these all the time when I was little, and I would watch her make the batter and steam them. ("Bozai" literally means "little bowl" and these cakes are made by pouring the batter into little bowls to be steamed. They're so cute!)

I also found that they have Mung Bean Cakes, but I'm not 100% sure that they're vegan. Their ingredient label says: mung beans, sugar, and coconut milk ... but most recipes that I see online have butter in them. I should ask next time I'm there.

Other Vegan Chinese Goodies

Other food items where I've gotten one item from a restaurant. Hopefully I'll be able to go back in the future and create categories for those places!

Mango Sticky Rice is a popular Thai dessert. I got a small serving of it from Wok Wok Southeast Asian Kitchen on 11 Mott St, New York, NY 10013.

The Mixed Vegetable Rice Noodle Roll is one of a couple of vegan-friendly items from Tonii's Fresh Rice Noodle on 83 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013.

The Fried Veggie Taro Cake is one of many things from Happy Veggie Restaurant on 76 Mott St, New York, NY 10013. I'm not 100% sure if everything there is vegan or not, and it seems like there is a lot of gluten used, so I haven't ventured back here to try other things yet.

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