some kind of mixture, some kind of gold

Bonnie and I went on a pork bun crawl a couple of weeks ago. This was a large, organized event (somehow full of other NYC residents who had not wandered around Chinatown before... baffling) but we broke into smaller groups for the actual crawling. Small groups aside, we overran the small Chinese bakeries identified on the route. Many places ran out of supplies and some scrambled to make more to meed the demand.

I voted for my favorite along with the rest of the group but I was skeptical. Given that some locations had scrambled to make more pork buns for the group quickly, I gave them the benefit of the doubt: perhaps they would have better quality pork buns when not rushed.

Luckily for me, I work so close to Chinatown that I can test this hypothesis at my leisure. So for the past two weeks I have been taking advantage of our recent warmer weather by walking across the bridge to work, stopping along the way for a pork bun and coffee breakfast at the different locations.

• Lung Moon Bakery - The first stop my group made, decent but hard to judge since it set the bar. On revisiting, the pork buns are good and cheap ($0.70) and I love the tininess of the location but it's not my favorite.
• Taipan Bakery - This was my favorite for the group food crawl vote but revisiting was a very different experience. One of the more expensive buns ($1) and not as good as others.
• Fay Da Bakery - I didn't like it the day of and I don't feel drawn to go back. Not sure why...
• Mei Li Wah Bakery - This was the first and only place I had eaten a pork bun before the food crawl. Sadly, it didn't live up to its competitors during or after the food crawl.
• Golden Fung Wong Bakery - This location ran out of pork buns and didn't make any more. And yet I do want to go back to this place soon.
• Vegetarian Dim Sum House - Vegetarian pork buns? Um no. Not going back.

And my reigning favorite? Nice One Bakery. It wasn't on the crawl map but we stopped in while waiting for Mei Li Wah to make more. On the day of the crawl it was my favorite and on revisiting it is still my absolute favorite pork bun.

If I want to continue my pork bun explorations, I have my work cut out for me. I notice new bakeries every day. Needless to say, I am looking forward to more spring walks across the bridge.