Chef Simone Tong’s two-unit contemporary Chinese restaurant in New York City, Little Tong Noodle Shop, is rebranding its East Village location to Little Tong. The shift reflects Tong’s desire to create a wider variety of dishes that celebrate regional Chinese cuisine. Along with the concept change, the rebranded unit is offering a new menu with items such as tea-smoked duck breast with XO fried rice, salted duck yolk and apricot sauce. The duck is smoked with a smoking gun packed with tea leaves, as seen in the restaurant’s Instagram post. The XO fried rice features Little Tong’s house-made XO sauce — made with shallots, onions, ginger, garlic, dried scallops and shrimp, fermented chiles, sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce and a few secret ingredients. Once the sauce is stir-fried with rice, it’s topped with grated salted duck yolk.
Availability: Through early June
Price: $26