On the corner of Henry and Madison, a Fuzhounese supermarket once anchored the neighborhood – stocking the shelves with Chinese snacks and treats that neighborhood kids grew up on. All of my childhood memories end the day at that supermarket, grabbing snacks for the park nearby. Today that space has transformed into a ceramics studio, where creativity is free to roam and the power is in your own hands with what you create. 

From a basement on Mott Street to a beloved Chinatown institution, Fong On's story is one of roots, reinvention, and the quiet power of knowing where you come from. We sat down with Paul Eng, the third-generation owner of New York City's oldest tofu shop, to hear how a 90-year-old legacy got a second life (and why the best is still yet to come).

Food is never merely food, it is a distillation of culture and history, a communication satellite through which love is given and received. That was what I felt every time I walked into Kitchen Cô Út, tucked along 85 Chrystie Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown – a small room that somehow carried the scent of my mother’s kitchen all the way from Vietnam.