11/18/2023 0 Comments Wo hop city 15 mottThis is why Wo Hop shall forever remain such a special place. We ordered beef fried rice, won ton soup for two, and shared a pot of hot Chinese tea. Our first meal in the United States together - the first of perhaps 10,000 or more since that memorable occasion - took place in New York’s Chinatown, at 15 Mott Street. Then again, it was distinctly American - a cuisine that had come here from abroad and stayed, and ultimately been embraced by nearly everyone. Late that same night in 1991, our first American meal together ended up not being American, at all. She landed at 6 pm and within a few hours, we were together and haven’t been apart since.īy now, you might have guessed that remarkable young woman’s name was (and is) Marieta. This young woman prepared herself to leave everything behind and live in a new country. She was traveling to a new place she had not visited before. Twenty-three years ago, a courageous young woman boarded a TAROM Airlines flight from Bucharest bound for New York’s JFK Airport. This brings me finally to what makes this smallish and utterly indistinct restaurant special and for me, so deeply sentimental. Look for red suede-leather booths and white Formica tables, populated with an odd mix of clientele - from police officers on breaks to other working Asians, from Park Avenue types to construction workers and taxi drivers. For dessert, I was given half an orange and the traditional fortune cookie.īe warned. I also sipped from a large pot of fresh hot Chinese tea. My starter was a steaming bowl of hot won ton soup, with noodles made fresh (not rubbery). For that reason, it doesn’t taste nearly as good anywhere else as here. Most of the places outside of New York don’t douse the rice with soy until after it’s fried. Oh, and it’s drenched in soy sauce and then wok-fried, one of the signature techniques of cooking this staple food in this way. Anticipate a steamy mountain of rice piled high on a plate cooked to perfection, with generous portions of sliced beef, onions, shallots, carrots, sprouts, and a fried egg. Tonight, I order exactly what I order just about every other time I’ve come in, and that’s the beef fried rice. A third thing is - the food never changes. No worries about if it’s moved or under new management. Indeed, one wonderful thing about Wo Hop is you know it’s always going to be there. That calls for yet another culinary pilgrimage. But now I’m getting ahead of myself.Īfter a night spent in the West Village, by 2 am I’m hungry again. Speaking of someone else, that’s your first (and only) hint as to why Wo Hop will always be special. My bill always tallies less than twenty dollars - whether I dine solo or with someone else. Even the prices don’t seem to have increased much over the past two decades. I’ve dined at Wo Hop perhaps 30 to 40 times ever since my first visit back in 1986. Expect classic Cantonese cuisine suited to conventional American tastes, although plenty of Asians seem to enjoy the food, as well. Located at 15 Mott Street towards the far southern end of New York City’s famous Chinatown, Wop Hop is one of the hundreds of similar ridiculously cheap Chinese restaurants seemingly wedged next to and seemingly stacked atop one another, almost all of which serve outstanding food and provide quick and efficient service. It’s a love affair that’s lasted 25 years. has been, and shall forever be, far more than just a Chinese restaurant. A Sentimental Journey to New York Chinatown’s Wo Hop Restaurant
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