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.