Little Tong Noodle Shop

"Little Tong Noodle Shop is collaborating with dumpling project, Crispy Bottoms, on a one-week-only Dumplings For Change delivery care package full of dumplings and Little Tong’s famous, cheesy “JB melt” pancakes filled with mala-spiced beef meatballs or spicy red cabbage, as well as to-go cocktails and instructions on how to cook all the food. Each package is available for preorder until midnight on Sunday, April 11th - and 5% of the sales will benefit Heart Of Dinner, an organization delivering meals and connection to Asian elders in NYC. Place your order here." - Hannah Albertine

"When it opened four years ago this month on a First Avenue corner, Little Tong Noodle Shop was among a host of new restaurants popularizing mixian rice noodles from Yunnan. In its excellence and accessibility, it was also one of the places that made the East Village a principal destination for Chinese food. Chef Simone Tong was born in Sichuan, studied at the University of North Carolina and the Culinary Institute of America, and worked under science-focused chef Wylie Dufresne before spending a summer in Yunnan prior to opening Little Tong. Eater critic Ryan Sutton particularly admired the mala chicken noodles, with a balance of sour and spicy flavors, and the kick of Sichuan peppercorns. In addition to noodles, the menu explored the Yunnan province in a deeper and more thoughtful way, via dishes like steak tartare served with a flaky Southeast Asian roti. While Tong’s more ambitious Silver Apricot remains intermittently open, both the East Village and Midtown Little Tong locations shuttered just as the pandemic was ramping up, depriving both neighborhoods of fun and insightful places to eat." - Eater Staff

"This is not the first time one of the chef’s restaurants has been closed by the pandemic. One of last year’s earliest casualties was Little Tong, which shut down in mid-March. This casual East Village cafe focused on Yunnan mixian, but added other fascinating dishes to its rice-noodle agenda from a mountainous province on China’s Southeast Asian border. It featured, for example, the seemingly incongruous steak tartare, flavored with pickled mustard seed and served with a flaky roti. Steak tartare in Yunnan? Well, yes, because that’s where this French-identified dish actually originated, according to Reay Tannahill’s Food in History (1973), which you may choose to believe or not." - Robert Sietsema

"Rethink Food built its name on taking millions of pounds of excess food from grocery stores and restaurants and repurposing it for meals for New York City families at low or no cost. In light of the coronavirus crisis, the nonprofit launched a restaurant response program — separate from Eleven Madison Park’s efforts — that gives up to 30 restaurants up to $40,000 to re-open their doors as a food distribution center. Little Tong Noodle Shop in the East Village was the first recipient of the grant." - Erika Adams

"Serving kung pao chicken breasts, marinated cucumber, and jasmine rice as well as dan dan ground pork ragu, roasted vegetables couscous, and a creamy lemon herb sauce." - Caroline Shin