"The folks at Nice Day—a new Chinese American pop-up by Junzi Kitchen, which has been running out of its Bleecker Street location since August—handled this conundrum expertly. In addition to my very unsubtle pleas for mapo tofu, kung pao chicken, and beef chow mein (“Ha ha, oh, truly, whatever you recommend though!”), they added a surprise to my ticket: shake shake shrimp, a.k.a. an excellent take on the Chinese American classic orange shrimp. Executive chef Lucas Sin’s goal is for the restaurant to carry on the legacies and techniques—like velveting and egg drop—developed by Chinese people living and cooking in the United States for over 150 years. In his mind, that is authentic. “It’s just authentic to a community and to a culture that isn’t in China itself,” he says. “Our job, opening a restaurant like this, is to stay faithful to our understanding of this regional cuisine.” While conceived before the pandemic, Nice Day is certainly a child of our current crisis. According to Sin, many of the Chinese takeout joints across the U.S. lost business not just because of COVID-19 closures but because of the associated anti-Asian and anti-Chinese sentiments. Combine this with a wave of Chinese restaurant owners retiring and you have another crisis on your hands—a whole cuisine in mass decline. Sin hopes to “double-down” on making and serving Chinese American food “the way it’s supposed to be.” To the chef, that means a menu full of fresh takes on old favorites, perfected for this new era of takeout and delivery." - ByAli Francis
