Good Food On A Dreary NYC Chinese New Year

I walked through Chinatown last night on my way to SoHo. The police had barricaded the street entrances for Chinese New Year, but on a freezing Monday evening there were no crowds, just a few hardy souls bundled up against the cold. With no cars on the streets, the place felt deserted and forlorn.

Happily though, some of the restaurants were doing decent business, and I was pleased to see a new one, Yee Li, has appeared on a corner where just a couple of months ago, another eatery had closed. Apparently, the new owners spiffed up the place a bit, and several tables were occupied by large parties of Asians (usually a good sign), so I went in for a late supper.

It's frustrating to eat alone in a Chinese restaurant. You can't get a sense of a place on the basis of one dish and, because there are so many dishes to try, it's hard to decide what to eat.

So anyway, here's what I ordered:

Spare ribs in black bean sauce over pan-fried noodles:


The dish featured a nice balance of ginger, garlic and fermented beans to complement the chewy rib bits, crunchy green pepper, onions over a generous bed of crisp pan-fried noodles. A list-topper? Maybe not, but certainly a satisfying supper for only $8.75.

Yee Li Restaurant
1 Elizabeth St. (corner Bayard)
New York, NY 10013
212-219-3686

Paul SL wrote:Spare ribs in black bean sauce over pan-fried noodles:

Looks good, but I'm a sucker for crispy noodles!