Terrific Takeout: Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven Our Coverage Sponsored by Fresh Origins
Nancy Lee's BBQ Roast Pork Spare Ribs, truly phenomenal!
A porcine paradise, Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven impressed us on our inaugural visit and earned many positive oinks from Peachy Deegan
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This post is dedicated to Peachy's friend who collects pigs and her pig, Hamlet.
It's not every day we find a terrific Chinese restaurant to brag about to you, but today we have! Open since 1968, Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven has been paying homage to fine Szechuan Eastern cuisine in a Taiwanese style; Nancy herself joined this venue in 1980 as a host.
In 1984, it became Pig Heaven and in 1987, Nancy herself purchased it and has been the owner ever since. A true delight with a standout positive personality, Nancy Lee is also testament to the fact that good things come in small packages: Peachy Deegan could actually look her in the eye! We personally appreciate her towering height and Movers and Shakers Kym and Malcolm and our pal Mickey will appreciate that Nancy was an ex-professional basketball player in Taiwan before she was a restaurant owner.
If you are personally familiar with Peachy's towering height, you know Nancy played guard.
The culinary pursuits here are tops, and are equaled only by Nancy's perfect people skills! Often Chinese restaurants are known for takeout only and not known as much for their owners that want to give you a hug, have a glass of wine with you (their wine list is great!) and show you all their pigs. Nancy is a total peach and we can't wait to see her again!
Though this venue obviously specializes in PIG, we tried an array of edible endeavors to see how it all measured up. This is our first visit ever to Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven.
We first tried the Jumbo shrimp with ginger and scallions, which is just delicious. It's light enough to be perfection on a hot day and the flavor is sublime.
One of Nancy's favorite dishes is the Spicy Sliced Pork. Served with scallion and leeks, this edition has quite a bit of depth of flavor and the brown sauce you are going to love. This is not something we would have picked out ourselves, however, Nancy is totally right and this is a dish you cannot skip.
Peachy Deegan loves roast pork fried rice and roast pork, period. In Connecticut, it is just called pork fried rice but in New York, you must differentiate the name to make sure you get what you prefer if you prefer Peachy's choice. Peachy ate this pretty often in childhood and it has been a difficult dish to find done well at Manhattan restaurants (and the places she used to go to in Connecticut are now out of business...) This is not at all greasy, believe it, and we were so excited to learn that! It is superb perfection and to tell you the truth, someone we know here dreamed about this and actually got out of bed to eat more of it. Warning: it is so so good, it could be habit-forming.
Nancy also suggested we try another popular dish: pan fried pork dumplings. These deserve a round of applause for their triumphant richness in flavor! Not only delicious, the pan fried pork dumpling also represent beauty with their lovely ruffled edges. Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven is attentive to detail and presentation.
Drumroll please!!!
Culinary dreams do come true and these BBQ Spare Ribs are the best we have ever, ever had in Manhattan for all the years Peachy has been here. What took her so long to meet Nancy? The succulent richness of the pork is going to wow you tremendously, and not a single strand of meat will be left behind when you taste the BBQ sauce it has teamed up with. John Doherty has the best beef ribs at Black Barn but these are the best pork ribs we've had in Manhattan.
You are going to just love them!
Remember how we said Nancy is great at pigs but she goes beyond the pig?
We can't remember seeing a green salad this fantastic at any Chinese restaurant ever before this. If you are also interested in balancing out your meal with fresh vegetables, we believe you will also be impressed by this array of nutrition that had an olive oil and dijon dressing which they thoughtfully put on the side.
Be sure to take an oinky stroll around the premises and enjoy Nancy's enthusiasm for pig!
Also, did you know that PIGS are good luck?
Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven is absolutely Terrific Takeout and we can't wait to see what she does next! Oink oink oink oink.
