A 6-month Chinese-food festival is bringing authentic and flavor-packed cuisine to New York City's masses (2024)

• At New York's Dragon Festival, authentic Chinese brands and restaurants excite locals' taste buds.
• Its founder shared some of her favorite vendors of soup dumplings and candies at the opening event.
• This article is part of"Community in Focus," a series highlighting Asian and Pacific Islander events.

For Biubiu Xu, dining at any of New York City's modern upscale Chinese restaurants usually ends in disappointment.

These establishments, found in tourist-loved neighborhoods like SoHo and Central Park South, often boast eye-catching decor and tuxedo-clad waitstaff. But the prices are steep, with many dishes costing significantly more than the food at authentic Chinese restaurants in areas such as Chinatown and Flushing.

"This doesn't taste like home," said Xu, a 31-year-old entrepreneur and the creator of New York City's Dragon Festival, the biggest Chinese-food festival in the metropolitan area.

Over the years, Xu has found that pricey Chinese-inspired dishes often lack the nuanced flavors she grew up with. The bites she's tried are either too greasy or dramatically underseasoned, failing to capture the essence of traditional Chinese cooking, she said.

While in college, Xu started a blog on the Chinese social-media platform WeChat to tell others about the genuine Chinese flavors New York City had to offer. She scoured the city for every hidden gem of the Chinese diaspora, including the family-style frozen soup-dumpling pack at Mila, the soul-warming embrace of Haidilao's hot pot, and the satisfying crunch of the sugar-coated hawthorn fruit lollipop from Tang Hulu. Last year, she decided to bring her best food finds together and birthed the Dragon Festival.

The 2023 extravaganza drew over 200,000 hungry folks to bustling neighborhoods such as Koreatown, Union Square, Chelsea, and the area around Washington Square Park. This year, Xu is upping her game with a series of 16 events spread across the city, which run intermittently from April until October.

This year's festival kicked off on April 6, transforming the intersection of Broadway between 12th and 13th streets into a vibrant culinary spectacle. Forget fancy Chinese restaurants with wallet-emptying prices; Xu's vision was to bring authentic and reasonably priced Chinese delicacies to the streets, where families could bond over sesame-chili-oil wontons, sip on Chinese-inspired mocktails, and watch a dragon's beard candy maestro weave edible magic.

Xu said the event reached 50,000 people and that 34 brands showcased Chinese fare, with 16 vendors selling out before dusk.

But for Xu, the Dragon Festival isn't just about tantalizing attendees' taste buds. It's also about fostering understanding and appreciation for Chinese culture in the US.

"What's so special about this year's Dragon Festival is that we have more programmings to honor traditional Chinese holidays like the Dragon Boat Festival in June and the Mid-Autumn Festival in September," Xu told Business Insider. "By focusing on the history of Chinese dishes, not only have I learned so much about our country's diverse food culture in different regions, but I'm also excited to introduce them to the American audience."

On April 6, in the middle of the bustling street where the festival's first event of the year was held, Xu introduced BI to several brands known for their traditional and innovative Chinese dishes.

A sweets maker shares a childhood favorite candy with younger generations

Chinese folk-cuisine brands — like the skewer purveyor Jixiang BBQ and the Henan-cuisine restaurant Bao Bu Tong — are typically sold in NYC enclaves with larger Asian populations, such as Flushing, Queens and Prospect Park, Brooklyn. But at Xu's Dragon Festival, these brands woo the taste buds of a wider audience.

Ivy Chen, for example, is enticing younger generations with her matcha-, raspberry-, and chocolate-flavored candies. As the founder of Dragon Lulu and Tang Hulu, two brands selling traditional Chinese confections, Chen aims to capture the essence of her childhood memories through her creations, namely her dragon's beard candy.

"It's like eating sweet, fluffy clouds," Vivian Cao, a 25-year-old NYC theater producer from Beijing, told BI after tasting Chen's dragon's beard candy. "The outside is super light and just melts in your mouth, and then you get the crunchy bits of peanuts and sesame — it's so cool."

The sweet treat originated in the Han Dynasty (dating to as early as 202 BC) as a royal delicacy. It's meticulously crafted to resemble a dragon's fine beard and has an airy yet crunchy texture.

Chen said that confectioners in her home province of Fujian, China, caught her attention when she was younger. As they made the wispy layers of delicate candy, she felt entranced.

"Years later, as I found myself in a confection class learning to craft French sugar showpieces and treats, a dream of introducing unique Chinese confections to the street of NYC began to form in my mind," Chen said.

The 31-year-old entrepreneur also makes tanghulu, a Chinese lollipop that usually consists of sugar-coated hawthorn on a bamboo skewer.

Tanghulu's origins date to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 to 1279), where it emerged as a remedy for Emperor Guangzong of Song's illness. Now the confection is synonymous with good fortune.

A soup-dumpling restaurant upholds its legacy with a commitment to authenticity

Chinese classics turned American favorites, such as savory and juicy soup dumplings, were also featured at the festival.

Michael Ma, a co-owner of Michelin-recommended Shanghainese restaurant Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, said that it took years of hard work from chefs, restauranteurs, and food creators to bring soup dumplings to a wider audience.

"Nan Xiang's core team — managers, owners, and partners — all grew up enjoying Shanghai-style comfort food, especially handmade soup dumplings," Ma told BI. "As diverse as New York City's culinary landscape is, we saw there was a void to be filled when it came to Shanghai cuisine, especially in the early 2000s."

In 2006, inspired by the soup dumplings made popular by Shanghai's Nanxiang district, Ma opened his first New York City storefront.

Since then, Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao has become a beacon of authenticity for New Yorkers yearning for the genuine taste of Southern Chinese cuisine, particularly Jiangsu and Zhejiang delicacies. These cuisines commonly feature a mild sweetness and favor steaming and braising to preserve the moisture, texture, and subtle flavors of the ingredients.

Ma said it took time to teach customers unfamiliar with steamy soup dumplings the proper way to eat them without burning themselves, but it was all part of the fun.

"One must learn the delicate act of the steps: Puncture the dumpling skin, sip the soup, and enjoy the rest of the dumpling," Ma told BI.

In addition to exposing customers to Nan Xiang's authentic dumpling fillings, such as pork and crabmeat, Ma also embraces innovation with offerings including black-truffle- and scallop-filled dumplings.

Chinese-born brands also had a spotlight

The Dragon Festival also serves as a gateway for Chinese-born brands such as Chi Forest and Haidilao.

Inspired by the traditional Chinese concept of "Chi," which symbolizes liveliness and health, sparkling water brand Chi Forest served up bubbly mocktails inspired by popular Asian fruits including lychee and calamansi.

The brand collaborated with bartenders from the Thai restaurant Bangkok Supper Club to delight attendees with a selection of vibrant and refreshing mocktails. Among the offerings were the PeaChi Coco, a pink concoction blending sweet peach and creamy coconut, and the LyChi Lemon, a bright, citrusy mix with the lush, tropical sweetness of lychee.

Meanwhile, Haidilao, a Sichuan-style hot-pot restaurant with 13 US locations will be setting up a mini-hot-pot stand as part of the Dragon Festival's May event. According to Xibei Yang, the director of brand and communications at Haidilao US, festival attendees will have the chance to try maocai, a simplified version of a hot pot that will be cooked on-site in a flavorful broth.

As the Dragon Festival continues to expand its offerings, it draws both curious and nostalgic New Yorkers who want to savor authentic Chinese food, all while celebrating the cuisine's rich cultural background.