vip in the city

Just Green Bo

We set out this afternoon to investigate the mystery of Nice Green Bo to find the restaurant virtually unchanged from when it went by the name of New Green Bo.

The reason for the update then? After a decade in business, the owner changed the “New” to “Nice” to pay tribute to all the “nice customers” the place has hosted over the years. And in fact, it seems that the printed menus, emblazoned simply with “Green Bo Restaurant“, will be usable through any adjective changes to come.

The Department of Health is already conducting its inspections under the new official name, granting Nice Green Bo a low pass on April 4, 2008: 24 violation points, just under the 27-point threshold. Well, a pass is a pass, right?

We had the vegetables with Shanghai-style rice cakes, or nian gao — stir-fried cross sections of chewy, white, glutinous rice flour logs. Not to be confused with the Cantonese-style nin go, which is a sweet, steamed (and occasionally pan-fried), sticky, glutinous rice pudding, often served during Lunar New Year to usher in future success: “nin” for “year” and “go” for “high”.

Elsewhere on Bayard Street: Farewell, Mei Lai Wah Coffee House. My favorite roast pork bun place was eulogized by Eric Asimov of The Times after it closed for good last month.

Or did it? Stay tuned…

Tags: Chinatown, DOH, Mei Lai Wah Coffee House, New Green Bo, Nice Green Bo

Nice is the new New

How to keep track of these ever-morphing Chinatown restaurant names? New York Noodletown on Bowery begat Great N.Y. Noodletown, Big Wong on Mott begat New Big Wong which begat Big Wong King… all while management and menus seemed to remain staunchly constant. And now…

On Bayard Street, I noticed a new sign being tacked up over this restaurant, which for years has been dishing up delicious dumplings (both soup and fried varieties) under the name “New Green Bo“:

Curious indeed.

Tags: Chinatown, dumplings, Nice Green Bo