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Manna House Bakery Scallion and Ham Roll: I was on my way to Golden Steamer when I passed Manna House Bakery ~2 doors down on Mott St that had a small queue of older Asian customers. Locals don't normally wait in line, especially in places as impatient as Chinatown, so I decided to stop in and check out their selection. The cash-only bakery is very narrow, yet has an impressive selection of traditional Chinese pastries like pineapple bun, sponge cake, egg tarts, and more, all thankfully labeled both in Chinese and English. I left ... (read more) 3.5/5.0

recommended chinatown nyc mannahousebakery scallion ham roll 3.5
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Kopitiam Lychee Bandung: Kopitiam is everything I want in a restaurant – it's unfussy, always introduces me to new flavors, is dependably delicious, and a great value. And I love their drinks, which are always served in pouches. Their current seasonal drink consists of lychee and rose syrup, with a generous helping of whole pieces of lychee fruit. I'd normally find it a little too sweet, but with the extremely hot weather in NYC, it was the perfect thirst quencher. Its floral notes are present but not overly dom... (read more) 3.5/5.0

recommended drinks nyc malaysian kopitiam lychee bandung 3.5
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Kam Hing Pandan Sponge Cake: Kam Hing offers ~half a dozen flavors of sponge cakes, and after working out of NYC for a couple weeks, I've sampled a good number of them including pandan, original, brown sugar tea, ube, coconut, and black sesame (to be fair, I also brought back a bunch of them to share with my parents at home). The first one I purchased was pandan, a spiky tropical fruit that looks like a cross between a pineapple and durian but has a milder flavor that belies its spiky exterior. Overall, it has a pleas... (read more) 3.5/5.0

recommended chinatown nyc kamhing pandan sponge cake 3.5
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Ghia Ghia Ginger: I love ginger, so I was excited to try the ginger version of Ghia Soda, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Their ginger soda is a little more subtle in flavor but has a pleasantly peppery aftertaste (it contains black pepper abstract). Overall, it had similar flavor notes as the normal Ghia Soda (combining grape juice, yuzu, fig, orange) along with a hint of spicy ginger, but it wasn't as strongly flavored as the original, which I preferred. Still, a solid drink. 3.5/5.0

recommended drinks ghia ginger 3.5
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Kitkat Matcha Kitkat: I’ve probably had surprisingly few KitKats in Japan despite it being the dominant market for unique seasonal flavors, so I’m always grateful when they are gifted to me and I have an excuse to try one I haven’t had before. The matcha KitKat has a waxy coating that seems like it’s probably white chocolate based, rather than milk chocolate. The flavor was more nuanced than I expected - not just a standard matcha-flavor taste but a little more bitter than the typical. I think my overall take on... (read more) 3.5/5.0

recommended candy japanese kitkat matcha 3.5
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Snacklins Barbecue Plant Crisps: I purchased this bag of plant-based "cracklings" from Whole Foods not knowing anything about the brand's Shark-Tank success story. The vegan crispy, puffed crisps are made with a combination of yuca, onions, and mushrooms and have a light, melt-in-your-mouth texture that is definitely the closest I've ever tasted to meat-based pork crackling (though more like the softer versions than the heavily fried crunchier ones). Comparing it to a meat product is a little unfair though, because they a... (read more) 3.5/5.0

recommended wholefoods vegan snacklins barbecue plant crisps 3.5