Right now, the big flap in New York’s trendiest Asian restaurants is over wings. Be it popular Brooklyn eateries or in expensive downtown hotels, a slew of new Asian restaurants is offering variety to a city swimming in Frank’s Red Hot sauce.
“We use every part of the bird,” says Ching-he Huang, the Taiwanese-British TV chef who hosts “Easy Chinese” on the Cooking Channel.
“From the feet to the wing.”
Customers patiently wait two hours for a seat at new Lower East Side hot spot Mission Chinese Food — and a taste of its Chongqing chicken wings. They plunk down $9 for four wings at the new Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya without blanching. And they pack into chef Andy Ricker’s new downtown outpost of Pok Pok Wing for Vietnamese-style wings — as well as his weeks-old Brooklyn sequel Pok Pok.
“The cool thing,” says Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese, “is that each Asian culture does it a little differently.”
So which ones are worth your time and money? We rate six newbies that have spread their wings within the past year.
