"Chinatown has always belonged to multiple generations. Young and old share the streets, and it's the same on Doyers, where you'll find a dim sum spot in residence since 1920 right next door to a modern wine bar, Lei. Annie Shi opened Lei in June. Ms. Shi hopes that guests will think Lei as part of a longer visit to Chinatown. You can see the traces of a Chinese American childhood: mahogany walls with this red blush, and red is for luck."
"Annie Shi and her wine director, Matt Turner, have put together a cellar with around 750 wines. It's abundant and generous. For the food, Ms. Shi had a vision of Chinese homestyle cooking. You might start with celtuce, a traditional ingredient here presented raw. Cool green tiles bookending slippery kombu jelly topped with crispy shallots, surrounded by this glossy pool of yongchun red vinegar fruity and mild."
"Shao bing is ostensibly a flatbread. It's really an architecture of layers of laminated dough. It's all puff and shatter, and served right out of the oven with a slab of cold butter tucked in. Cat's ear noodles are little thumbprints of dough that cup and catch the source of this cumin-laced ragu, inspired by the Uyghur lagman at Kashkar Cafe. Beef short rib is made in the Shanghai sweet-and-sour style, cured for a day, braised for another day."
Lei is a warmly welcoming wine bar on Doyers Street in Chinatown that bridges Chinese-American tradition and contemporary wine culture. The space features mahogany walls with a red blush, evoking Chinese-American childhood aesthetics. The cellar holds about 750 wines curated by Annie Shi and wine director Matt Turner, offering abundant choices. The menu focuses on Chinese homestyle cooking with inventive touches: raw celtuce with kombu jelly and yongchun red vinegar; crown daisy salad with fried burdock; flaky shao bing served with cold butter; cumin-laced cat's ear noodles; and Shanghai-style beef short rib cured and braised using strawberry jam for sweetness.
Read at www.nytimes.com
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