Hop Shing — Closed, but not Gone
Hop Shing storefront in 2017 (PC: Rick L. from Yelp)
If you were ever in Chinatown before the pandemic, you’ve probably walked by Hop Shing. Founded in 1973, Hop Shing was one of Chinatown’s most iconic restaurants, doling out cheap Guangdong-style dim sum to lines of hungry workers every day for nearly fifty years. Sadly, Hop Shing is one of the many victims of COVID-19 and served its last plate of dim sum on March 20th, 2020.
More than just an eatery, Hop Shing was a neighborhood mainstay and meeting place for the young and the old. Even though the restaurant has closed, its legacy lives on in the hearts of generations of customers who have walked through its doors to exchange stories over coffee and the restaurant’s famous baked and roast pork buns.
Through my role at Welcome to Chinatown, I had the rare opportunity to interview Mr. Cao, who was a waiter at Hop Shing for the past ten years. In this interview, Mr. Cao reminisced about what it was like working at the popular dim sum joint and explained why the owners of Hop Shing decided to permanently close the restaurant.
Stories about establishments like Hop Shing are so important because they remind us about the fragility of the restaurant ecosystem and how important it is to support local, family-owned businesses. As you read this interview, please take a moment to appreciate the legacies that restaurants like Hop Shing have left behind so that their stories are not forgotten in the wake of this terrifying pandemic.
Trays of buns behind the counter (PC: Luna C. from Yelp)
Tell us about Hop Shing and about yourself. How long were you open?
Hello, I’m Mr. Cao, and I was a waiter at Hop Shing for ten years. I immigrated from China twelve years ago and have been living in Manhattan’s Chinatown ever since. Before moving to New York, I worked factory jobs in Taishan, China. Once I moved to the U.S., I began working in the restaurant industry. Everything I know about NYC I have learned from working at Hop Shing.
Hop Shing was around for almost fifty years. My cousin, the owner and operator, first opened Hop Shing in 1973 after moving to New York from Hong Kong, where he had prior restaurant industry experience. When he arrived in NYC, the owner of the dim sum restaurant that was Hop Shing’s predecessor at 9 Chatham Square offered him a position there. After the old restaurant closed, my cousin opened his own dim sum shop and called it Hop Shing. The rest is history.
What kind of food did you serve?
Hop Shing specialized in Guangdong-style dim sum. Fun fact: Hong Kong-style dim sum is actually derived from Guangdong-style dim sum. Hong Kong-style dim sum is more modern and is more well-known around the world, but there are a lot of commonalities between the two styles.
We were the most well-known for our baked pork buns, roast pork buns, and baked coconut custard buns. People would come from all over the world to line up for our buns!
Shrimp dumplings, shumai, turnip cake, and spareribs (PC: Montana L. from Yelp)
Who were your customers / what demographic did you cater to?
Our customer base was very diverse. After we were featured on the New York Daily News, a lot of tourists began coming to try our baked and roast pork buns. We became popular very quickly because our prices were low, and our customers were happy that they were getting a good bargain. Our regulars were old-school New Yorkers who had frequented Hop Shing for decades. Those customers oftentimes brought their children and grandchildren to the restaurant, and it was common to see multiple generations of family members at one table.
What were some of your favorite dishes from the menu?
My favorites were the baked and roast pork buns and the beef balls. The pork buns were so soft and sweet, and the beef balls were tender, juicy, and delicious.
Inside the roast pork bun (PC: Angela W. of bopomofoodie)
Beef balls (PC: Jeannie T. from Yelp)
When COVID first hit NYC, what kinds of thoughts were running through your head? What were some of the things you tried to do in the beginning?
To be honest, we really didn’t have many thoughts in the beginning. We all assumed it was going to be a temporary thing and that we could just survive off our takeout business for a few weeks until things returned to normal. After a couple days of just doing takeout, New York issued the state-wide stay-at-home order, and our business basically came to a standstill. We didn’t even have time to come up with a plan; we just started running out of cash, and the owners ultimately decided to permanently shutter the restaurant. Our last day open was March 20th, 2020.
Why did the owners of Hop Shing ultimately decide to close the restaurant?
Our lease was set to expire at the end of the year anyways, and the owners didn't think the pandemic was going to let up any time soon (they don’t think things will return to normal for at least another year or two). They decided to just close the restaurant rather than to continue operating halfheartedly.
There may be a chance that Hop Shing will open back up in the future once the pandemic is 100% behind us; however, it’s too early to say for sure at this time.
Counter with hot drinks (PC: Jeannie T. from Yelp)
Hop Shing price list from 2019 (PC: Tom C. from Yelp)
What was your greatest accomplishment or proudest moment at Hop Shing?
I’m not the owner, so I can’t speak from the owner’s perspective, but as a waiter who interacted with customers every day, my proudest accomplishments were the relationships I was able to form with our customers. I felt proud whenever I saw our customers enjoying our food, and I felt happy when I saw how well our customers were doing every time they came back.
What is your favorite memory of Hop Shing?
I don’t have an exact memory, but my favorite part about working at Hop Shing was being able to work alongside people I love and getting to see all the customers that I care so much about every day.
When I initially started working at Hop Shing, the first thing I noticed was that the boss worked alongside all the cooks and waiters and would eat alongside them as well. I loved the familial atmosphere of the restaurant. Every day, I felt like I was in the trenches alongside everyone, and I truly enjoyed my job.
What is one fun fact or something interesting that most people don’t know about Hop Shing?
Jeremy Lin once came to eat at Hop Shing. The minute he walked in, everyone at the restaurant started bombarding him because he was so well loved by the Chinatown community. He was getting so much attention that we were worried he was going to get scared and run away!
Anything else you would like people to know or talk about?
I just want the pandemic to be over. I want the economy to recover so that everyone can go back to work and make a living. Most of all, I hope that everyone can stay healthy and make it through this difficult time.
*****
Note: This interview was conducted in Cantonese with the help of a translator.
Chinatown establishments like Hop Shing are what makes the spirit of our neighborhood. We need your support — now more than ever before — to keep that spirit alive. Please consider making a donation to our small business relief fund, The Longevity Fund, or help us spread the word of what’s at stake. Together, we can preserve Chinatown businesses and help say “Chinatown will always be open for business.”
Closed (PC: Tsz-Cheong C. from Yelp)
Shanghai Asian Cuisine — Soup Dumplings Too Good to Share
First visit: July 2017
Price: Affordable
Cuisine: Chinese, Shanghainese
Vibe: Grandma’s home, hole-in-the-wall
Address: 14A Elizabeth St, New York, NY (Chinatown)
Veg options: Some
COVID-19 delivery: Not at the moment :(
The modest-looking storefront
Before we dive in, I first need to admit that it’s taken me quite a while to actually sit down and write this post, because Shanghai Asian Cuisine (let’s call it “SAC” for short) is one of those hidden gems that you want to selfishly keep to yourself so that you don’t have to start fighting crowds of Chinese grandmas for a table every time you want your xiǎo lóng bāo fix. However, amongst the rising xenophobia surrounding the recent coronavirus epidemic and the recent drive to increase Asian American representation in all areas of life, from film (ayy Parasite) to food (shoutout to David Chang and others for spearheading the effort), I’ve decided that this place is simply too good not to share, and that having to wait a bit for a table is worth being able to spread the joy of perfect soup dumplings to more people.
Ironically, I had first heard about SAC through my non-Asian friend and coworker, Jamie, who had in turn heard about it from one of her friends. If I had just been looking for soup dumpling restaurants on Yelp, I most likely would have scrolled right past Shanghai Asian Cuisine, with its generic name and an unassuming picture of some very standard-looking soup dumplings as its thumbnail image, and settled on one of the more popular establishments like Joe’s Shanghai or Kung Fu Little Steamed buns.
Jamie and I, along with our fellow first year analysts from the Los Angeles branch of our firm, were in NYC with the rest of the incoming analysts at the firm during the summer of 2017 for a five week training program. Our small, four-person Los Angeles analyst class had become very close over the course of our summer internship back in 2016 and, since we were all amateur foodies, we spent the majority of our free nights eating our way through the city together. After a few nights of snacking on hors d'oeuvres at French wine bars and drunkenly gorging ourselves on pizza afterwards, I started having some intense Asian food cravings and suggested that we try out a Chinese restaurant for a change of pace. As Manhattan is home to the largest Chinatown in the United States, I definitely wanted to eat some good Chinese food while I was in the city. Jamie mentioned that one of her friends had been to a hole-in-the-wall Shanghainese restaurant in Chinatown that was supposedly very authentic, so we decided to give it a shot. Little did I know, it was about to become one of my favorite restaurants in the city.
Since that summer, I’ve been back countless times and have created many treasured memories there. Shanghai Asian Cuisine was the first place I took Patrick to when he visited me in NY during the last week of my training program back in 2017. It quickly became our first food stop every time I visited him during the two years of our long distance relationship. It was where I first met Stu— Patrick’s high school friend and roommate while I was living in LA— who has become one of my closest friends in the city. It was where I took my parents for one of their first meals in NYC when they visited me last year during Thanksgiving week. It was where we went for Sunday brunch with Patrick’s family last month when they were visiting NYC for Patrick’s birthday weekend. Every single time I come back to the restaurant, the soup dumplings are just as plump and juicy, the space just as cozy and the tea just as hot and fragrant as the last time I was there. In a way, walking into the restaurant almost feels like coming home.
The interior
The restaurant itself can be tricky to find as it is tucked away on Elizabeth Street, a less traveled street a decent walk away from the Canal Street subway station. It’s just one door down from the well-known Cantonese restaurant Jing Fong, which is famous for having a red carpet leading up to a fancy-looking escalator that takes you up to a huge dining room that can apparently fit up to 400 people. Unlike its extravagant neighbor, SAC is very modest-looking and blends right in with all the other Chinese restaurants on the block. I’ve personally never had to wait for a table, but I’ve heard that it can get busy during peak weekend lunch and dinner hours. The dining area is small, but they’ve made decent use of the space by installing cushioned benches along the left wall of the restaurant that can help accommodate large parties of 10 or more people. The laminated menu is expansive and includes items ranging from standard Shanghainese dishes like soup dumplings and stir-fried rice cakes to more interesting items like mock duck and jellyfish to regional favorites like twice-cooked pork and Sichuan-style bean curd.
Every time I visit, I always get some combination of the following items: steamed tiny buns with pork (soup dumplings / xiǎo lóng bāo), fried tiny buns with pork (shēng jiān bāo), pan-fried pork dumplings (their version of gyoza), Sichuan-style wontons in spicy chili oil, scallion pancake and, one of my favorite vegetable dishes ever, sautéed watercress with enoki mushroom. I’ve also tried a bunch of their other dishes, such as their sautéed dry string beans and rice cakes with shredded pork and preserved vegetables. Everything I’ve had from there has been amazing, but I would strongly recommend starting out with the first few items that I listed, as those are the dishes that made me fall in love with this place. Below are more detailed reviews of my two favorite dishes from SAC: xiǎo lóng bāo and sautéed watercress with enoki mushroom.
1. Xiǎo lóng bāo ($6.75 for 6 pretty big dumplings)
Xiǎo lóng bāo
If you know me, you’ll know that I tend to exaggerate... a lot. Every other day, I’ll declare to Patrick that I’m the hungriest I’ve ever been in my entire life, and he’ll just shake his head and ignore me. However, you’ll have to believe me when I say that the soup dumplings at Shanghai Asian Cuisine are in fact the best soup dumplings that I’ve ever had. This has held true, even after Patrick and I ate our way through China and Taiwan last summer. I know, it’s hard to believe that the best soup dumplings in the world can exist somewhere outside of Shanghai or Taipei, but I’m here to testify that, after having consumed hundreds of soup dumplings across all of Asia, SAC undoubtedly makes the best soup dumplings I’ve ever had the honor of scalding my tongue with (the second best soup dumplings I’ve ever had were at Grandma’s House, a popular restaurant chain in Hangzhou, China). There are five factors that make SAC’s xiǎo lóng bāo so good: the thin skin, the flavorful filling, the consistent soupiness, the piping hot temperature and the affordable price price point.
I know that a lot of you are probably wondering how SAC’s soup dumplings compare to those of some more famous dumpling shops, so here’s a quick and dirty summary of what I think about Ding Tai Fung and Joe’s Shanghai (the former is a popular Taiwanese chain that you’ve all probably heard of, and the latter is a New York City institution with a cult-like following): Ding Tai Fung’s soup dumplings have a very thin skin and are decently juicy, but the filling is pretty bland in my opinion, and the price point is way too high ($12 for 10 tiny dumplings at the Westfield Century City location in LA). I do like Ding Tai Fung for some of their other dishes, such as their famous shrimp and pork potstickers that come connected by a thin layer of fried flour and their vegetable and pork wontons in spicy sauce, but I would not recommend their soup dumplings. Joe’s Shanghai is always crowded (there’s almost always a line at any time of day), way too hectic (you have to share a table with strangers) and their dumpling skin is a bit too thick in my opinion (you can tell because the “knot” at the top is super dry and tough). However, it is still an establishment with a rich history and is definitely worth a visit for the experience.
If you decide to pay a visit to SAC, you MUST try their soup dumplings. Trust me. You won’t be disappointed.
2. Sautéed watercress with enoki mushroom ($14.75)
Sautéed watercress with enoki mushroom
If you love enoki mushrooms like me, then you’re guaranteed to love this dish. If you don’t know what enoki mushrooms are, they’re basically these super long, thin mushrooms (think of them as the noodles of the mushroom world) that have an almost crunchy, chewy texture. They’re great in hot pots and soups and are delicious sauteed as well. Watercress, an extremely underrated leafy green vegetable, is also long and thin, making it a perfect match with the enoki. The two together make for a super flavorful stir-fry dish with tons of textural interest. Patrick doesn’t typically like vegetable dishes, but even he was a fan. The sauce that they use tastes like a mixture of hoisin, black bean and garlic sauce and tastes delicious over steamed white rice.
There are a plethora of dumpling restaurants in New York, some of which have thousands of reviews and perpetual lines that wrap around the block. While it may be tempting to go with the crowd and que up for a more popular, more aesthetic-looking restaurant, I highly urge you to give Shanghai Asian Cuisine a chance to surprise you. From my experience, these hole-in-the-wall, mom-and-pop restaurants typically have higher quality food and deliver a more authentic dining experience than what you would usually get at larger chains and popular “touristy” spots. So, the next time you’re in the area, consider showing my favorite Chinese restaurant in the city some love, and let me know what you think!
Shēng jiān bāo ($6.75) - Same filling as the soup dumplings, but with a doughy exterior and crispy bottom
Pan-fried pork dumplings ($6.75) — Better than I expected! They’ve recently become a new staple
Scallion pancakes ($4.25) — Not my favorite, as I prefer flakey scallion pancakes and these are more doughy, but they’re still tasty and a good way to start the meal
Tips:
They have a sister restaurant called Tiny Shanghai that recently opened within the past few years on the outskirts of Little Italy! The menus are almost exactly the same. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but it looks just as good!
Like many Chinatown restaurants, this place is CASH ONLY.
For dessert, head on over to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory (ice cream shop with lots of unique, Asian flavors like durian and almond cookie) or Keki Modern Cakes (jiggly Asian cheesecakes!), both of which are walking distance.
In summary:
Hangry Alice rating: 5/5
Must-get dishes: Xiǎo lóng bāo, Sauteed watercress with enoki mushroom
Skip: Can’t say; I’ve never had anything from SAC that wasn’t great, but I’ve also only ordered from their core menu of ~10 or so items.