Hing Won’s New “Roast Pig Over Rice” Might Be the Best Pork Dish in Midtown
I’ve always been a huge fan of the roast pork over rice at Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th.) Beautiful strips of Chinatown style red roast pork, laid over rice and bok choy, and topped with their sweet soy sauce, it’s probably one of the most popular dishes served from the right hand side of the counter. (Hing Won has two sides, the left is a steam table of Americanized Chinese food, the right, a bilingual menu of Chinatown style specialities that are made to order.)
But last Friday I noticed a new sign hanging on their already jam packed wall of signs. I don’t know what it said in Chinese, but the English surely got my attention: “Roast Pig over Rice”. Wha!?! Isn’t it funny how changing one word from pork to pig can have such a big impact. Some would probably consider pork and pig the same thing, but those familiar with pork in all its forms know the subtle menu nuances. Deep down in my heart (which is already dangerously clogged with pork fat, I’m sure) I innately knew this was something completely different than the standard roast pork over rice. (And I was hoping it would involve something crispy.)
Despite my hopes and dreams for the dish, I didn’t actually know what the distinction between pork and pig was going to be, but there was only one way to find out.
Oh my. Better than even my wildest imagination. Two giant strips of thickly sliced, perfectly cooked, pork belly- each bite containing exactly what you are looking for in the perfect piece of pork. 3/7 meat + 3/7 fat + 1/7 crispy cracklin on the edge. And my god was it good. Every bite had the perfect 1 to 1 ratio of meat to fat, and that little crunchy bit on the end just takes the whole thing exactly where you are hoping it will go. For $6 you would expect the fat to be the not so good, chewy pieces that you inevitably get at most cheap Americanized Chinese food places. But this pork fat was the melt in your mouth, oh my god I’ve died and gone to heaven kind of pork fat.
Don’t get me wrong, occasionally you’ll get a not so good piece- and we’re not talking Momofuku pork bun quality pork fat- but for $6 this dish may be replacing the Szechuan Gourmet twice cooked pork belly with chili leeks as my new favorite Chinese pork dish in Midtown. And considering that pork is my favorite meat, and Chinese food is my favorite cuisine, you could extrapolate that is my new favorite lunch in Midtown period.
The whole thing gets served over rice and cabbage, topped with the same sauce they put over the other roasted meats offered at Hing Won (chicken, duck, roast pork). If you are a little concerned that it’s too much pork fat to consume in one sitting, they also serve it in sandwich form- at the new “Banh Mi Counter” in the very front of Hing Won.
If you order their “crispy pork belly” banh mi, they end up using the same meat that goes into the roast pig over rice dish. You’re getting far less meat for more money (the sandwich is $6.45), and the crispy bits on the end end up going soggy under all that bread with carrots and daikon… but the sweet hoisin, the veggies, and the fatty meat combine to make a pretty delicious sandwich. Clearly it’s not a traditional banh mi, and the bread is merely adequate, but if you want to try their new roast pig in a less in-your-face format, this is the way to go.
I’ll probably stick with the instant heart attack over rice. (The delicious heavenly heart attack.)
THE + (What somebody who likes this place might say?)
- I love pork, but I’m a complete cheapskate
- It’s a ton of meat for $6
- Every bite has the perfect mix of meat, fat and crunch
- On most of the slices, the pork fat was melt in your mouth delicious
- And for those who don’t want sooo much pork (and fat) it comes in a less offensive sandwich form!
THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place might say)
- I like to know the source of my pork belly, and don’t mind paying more money for it
- I love pork, but the quality from bite to bite is inconsistent. Some bites were great, some- not so much.
- I can’t stand pork fat (even the kind that melts in your mouth)
- I’m a crazy person who Zach would probably never be friends with…
Hing Won, 48 W 48th St, New York 10036, 212-719-1451
Posted: 11:45 am, July 1st, 2009 under Chinese, Hing Won.
30 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
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30 Comments
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Clearly hing won had Zach in mind when crafting this dish.
If there were ever a post that sums up midtownlunch.com, it’s this one.
Now I’m sad for my poor strip-gyro lunch. Poor thing just can’t measure up.
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Roast Pig is siu yook or siu ju, yook meaning meat, ju meaning pig, you can use them interchangably.
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Roast pig is actually suckling pig. Hence the nice crispy skin.
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Not to be all pedantic, but the sign in Chinese is:
烧肉饭 – shāo ròu fànWhich basically means roast pig over rice.
肉-rou – generally means meat, but when the type of meat is unspecified it usually means pork.
http://www.nciku.com/search/all/%E7%83%A7%E8%82%89%E9%A5%AD
The more you know!
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Whenever you mention roast pork or roast pig over rice..i dont see you mentioning the scallion ginger sauce they give you on the side. thats a ‘key’ ingredient whenever I eat chinese BBQ meats. Its quite delicious with the rice..you should ask for it next time.
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@nycfoodie – I’m guessing that’s the sauce they pour on top? (What I described as “sweet soy sauce”)
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@ Yvo: It’s “faw yook” or if it’s (I think) the higher quality cuts it’s “salay dook”.
@ Zach: nycfoodie’s talking about the green or brown dipping sauce that comes with it.
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@Gordoneats: It’s not a dipping sauce, it a sauce you get several containers of and pour all over your rice, mix it up a little, and it’s a party in your mouth and everyone’s invited.
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the scallion ginger sauce is typically accompanied with the white chicken “bbq meat” in Chinatown and not all BBQ meats unless a special request I guess.
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@ AL@1PP: you mix it in your rice?? Hmm, might be worth trying. But that makes it kinda salty doesn’t it? (This coming from someone who can eat the sauce straight.)
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@ZACH: its actually a green sauce without soy. looks like the below. you have to try it. they dont give it to you unless you ask. and you have to do what AL@1PP says.. pour it all over your rice dish and enjoy!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rWcpIGw4V4w/SFKHjWVoZXI/AAAAAAAABjI/yWL5jssJsBg/s400/108x.jpg
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I had that a few weeks ago when they first put the sign up and wasn’t overly impressed. I didn’t get nearly 1/7th crackling. I’ll have to give it another shot because it looks like it’s gotten much better.
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That article read like a kid who’d just got what he wanted for christmas! must try this, I love pork belly.
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Ginger scallion sauce is great in fried rice! Btw, it’s just grated ginger, finely chopped scallions, salt, and hot oil. I make at home. So good!
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@tom – maybe 1/7th was a bit of an overstatement. I ain’t so good at math.
Hope I’m not building this one up too much…
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**BREAKING PORK BELLY UPDATE**
Dejected that Hing Won was too far from my office (55th and Park) for lunch today, I consoled myself by walking up to Kar Won (60th btwn Lex and Park).
And what do I find but a newly-minted sign advertising “roast pig over rice,” for $5.76 plus tax.
My container looked almost identical to Zach’s, but it came with a heaping portion of garlicky sauteed bok choy/cabbage. While the belly was great, and the skin crispy, there were a few pieces that had a bit too much inedible bone or cartilage. That said, still awesome.
This latest roast pig development leads me to believe that Kar Won and Hing Won are not only related (as I’ve long suspected), but largely identical.
Very interesting.
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you might be. some will be disappointed, but it is delicious dish. i’m still going to go try it even though this is like the equivalent of chicken noodle soup for me since i sort of grew up in Chinatown.
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THE PIG TAKES OVER MIDTOWN
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@Gordoneats: Since the comments are getting pretty technical, you should further specify your Chinese phonetic spelling as Cantonese.
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@ JustNancy: Oops! True.
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Sadly, when I got there at ~1:30 to retry the roast pig, they were out. It’s the ML effect!
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Oh, I forgot to ask about the sauce – I usually get this and it comes with a dark brown sauce, like hoisin sauce almost but slightly thinner?
And thank you to everyone for reminding me, my mom alternates and calls this fau yuk (fire meat) or siu yuk (burn? meat). My Chinese isn’t that great, haha… I’m just a jhuk sing :P
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My coworker got this today after I e-mailed this post around. He said that the portion was much smaller than pictured here and the experience fell short of what Zach described.
Is it possible Hing Won knew it was Zach when they prepared his portion?
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Maybe Zach can send Mrs Zach in next time to obtain the lunch
Or somebody less well known and unimportant, like maybe Wayne
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For now, I’ll stick to my earlier comments:
Tom
June 15th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
It is good, but not great. There was a little bit of crispy skin on some of the pieces, but not enough. It was a little tough too, they should have cooked it a lot longer. It can’t compete with szechuan gourmet’s pork belly, but it is a little cheaper and a lot closer so I may get it again.
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So I have been a big fan of Hing Won for some time, but hot damn- this roast pig dish is a whole new level of AWESOMENESS. The skin was perfect, the meat was succulent, and I could not stop sighing with satisfaction. I used to live in Taipei so am well versed in Asian lunchtime street food, and that rivaled some of my bestest meat memories.
Another underappreciated gem at Hing Won- the baby chives with pork (also a handwritten sign). Beware of the GI consequences, but its worth it.
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I had the roast pig on the Thursday before the long weekend and had a portion twice the size as the pic. I also was there at 11:30. It was beyond my expectations, very moist, crispy, and definately a one to one meat to fat ratio. The sauce was delicious. I recommend going early.
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1:1 meat to fat? Did I get some lean pork from Kar Won? I separated out some of the fat when I was eating to see if I was nuts. Mine had maybe an 1/8th inch layer of fat on the edge 9including the skin, and maybe a 16th inch layer in between the lighter meat and the darker meat sections of the meat. And, it looked a lot like above.
(unless you mean 1:1 meat/fat calorie wise)
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[...] Zach at Midtown Lunch posted about the “Roast Pig over Rice” I knew that was the type of dish I would like and [...]
lol @ the last minus!!!
Roast pork = char siu
Roast pig = I don’t know the Chinese name for it… just ‘crispy pork’ … mmm damn that ish is goooooood. That’s real deal close to Chinatown goodness right there :)
PS The pea shoots over rice – also on the same sign – sound really good too. Maybe get both for a balanced meal lol