Roast Pig Over Rice is Available at Kar Won and Hop Won
The sign at Kar Won (on 60th btw. Park+Lex)
Great news for those pig lovers who work too far North or East to take advantage of the new “roast pig over rice” from Hing Won (on 48th btw. 5+6th) that I raved about yesterday. Both Kar Won (on 60th btw. Park+Lex) and Hop Won (on 45th btw. Lex+3rd), which are owned by the same company as Hing Won, are also serving the roast pig over rice for $6.
Thanks to Lunch’er “Dylan” for passing along the tip in the comments. He hit up Kar Won for the special and had this to say:
“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.”
But is the pork all I made it out to be? Some say no.
From Lunch’er “Bank Bank”:
“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?”
Actually it’s not just possible, it’s probable. A few of the people at Hing Won know what I look like ever since I named them one of my 10 favorite lunches for that NYT article. In fact they even offered me my crispy pork belly sandwich for free on one visit (I declined of course.) I can’t say for sure if they jerry-rigged my pork, or even made me when I ordered (nobody said anything), but considering how much meat there was, and how good it tasted, the thought did cross my mind.
And if that is the case, they should be shamed- just like we threatened to do with Certe. If you order the roast pig over rice from Hing Won, and don’t get something that resembles the dish I got– snap a picture and email it in. I want to make sure that everybody gets the same portion they gave me.
I’ve written this before, but it is worth repeating: “Let this to be a lesson to all Midtown Lunch spots. Now that my photo is out there, if you give me special treatment, or give me a larger portion, or put more care than normal in preparing what you serve to me- the readers of this site will be able to tell. And when that happens, they will do what they can to shame you into making the same good food for every single customer! And they’ll do it with my full support.”
They did run out of pig yesterday, according to Lunch’er “Tom” (who actually tried the dish before and was unimpressed) so I could imagine a situation where they decided to ration out smaller portions as the day went on. Of course that wouldn’t account for taste.
I actually had the same inedible pieces of bone/cartilage in a lot of the pieces I got, just like Luncher “Dylan” described above. I totally forgot to mention it in my excitement. I hope I didn’t build this one up too much. Nothing kills the enjoyment of lunch more than high expectations. (I really did enjoy it.)
Related:
Hing Won’s New “Roast Pig Over Rice” Might Be the Best Pork Dish in Midtown
Hing Won Has a Twin Sister, Serving Best Cheap Chinese Food to Midtown East
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:15 am, July 2nd, 2009 under Hing Won, Hop Won, Kar Won.
13 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
13 Comments
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I just tell people I work for Midtownlunch then I use Zach’s “dont give me special treatment” line and wink twice.
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Highly doubtful they gave you special treatment. They’re Asian. (I’m Asian too)
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Can you please explain that comment chris?
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Hahahahahahahah Chris I would normally agree with you except Zach/Midtown Lunch has been proven time and again to really help (and maybe hurt, but I haven’t seen those instances as much) businesses in the midtown area.
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PS D – I’m pretty sure Chris is saying Asian people are cheap.
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and racist. don’t forget racist.
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no no no
Asians are simply the Jews of the orient
let’s just say customer service is not their strong suit
“You pay me now!”
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Yeah they definitely knew you, so they gave you a good portion. The roast pig rice I got from Kar Wong just now was plenty – but the quality got a big thumbs down. While I’m coming from pretty high standards (it’s my favorite dish while I lived in Shanghai)… the first bite of the crispy part of the pork nearly took my tooth off. It was so incredibly overdone that it was impossible to chew. Sigh.
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I too decided to trek out to Kar Won today. I got a HUGE portion and was very satisfied. I agree that the cracklin was a LITTLE too toothsome, but for under $7, I found it pretty hard to complain too much.
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I had a date with the pig today.
For starters, I now know not to trust Zach with measurements (bet his wife could have warned us about that *ZING*). Theres nowhere near a “7th” of fat on this thing (unless he meant maybe calorie wise…). My pig is a band of darkmeat, a small layer of fat, a band of lighter meat (I checked a few times, its meat not fat), a small layer of fat, and an awesomely crispy layer of skin. Next time I think I’ll cut off all the skin and save it for last.
I did also get a few pieces of cartilege, but nothing my god-given molars couldn’t dispatch with.
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I had a date with the pig today.
For starters, I now know not to trust Zach with measurements (bet his wife could have warned us about that *ZING*). Theres nowhere near a “7th” of fat on this thing (unless he meant maybe calorie wise…). My pig is a band of darkmeat, a small layer of fat, a band of lighter meat (I checked a few times, its meat not fat), a small layer of fat, and an awesomely crispy layer of skin. Next time I think I’ll cut off all the skin and save it for last.
I did also get a few pieces of cartilege, but nothing my god-given molars couldn’t dispatch with. I routinely clean off ribs or wings where theres nothing left but bone (the crunch nibs of cartilege at the end are the other best part!)
Kar Won is great. I didn’t think they made chinese food like this in midtown. I thought you had to go to chinatown for this. It reminds me of the chinese food I had at my friends’ houses growing up.
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… how did two posts happen. weird. I blame firefox 3.5
We need to make Zach Masks so we can get special treatment when dining in midtown.