Worth the Gamble at Red Kings

Adam Erace takes on the 200+ item menu at Chinatown’s Red Kings. He’s rewarded for weaving his way through the menu with a great feast.

Shaved into long, wavy noodles, the double-cooked pork tangled with tender wok-fried greens. Crisp, greaseless scallion pancakes were addictive Chinese snack food of the highest esteem. Piquant green onions peeked through the translucent layers like flower petals pressed between parchment paper. Double orders of thin-skinned soup buns arrived in stacked bamboo steamers, unveiled by our server with a poof of fragrant vapor. They wobbled like water beds, each cradling a tablespoon or so of heady pork broth released with a well-placed nibble, or unleashed with a carelessly placed one. Anointed with a mouth-puckering dribble of black vinegar, each little orb of pork inside the buns rang like a church bell.

Game of Thrones [City Paper]