My last indoor dining experience of 2020 was in early March. I had crispy roast duck, watercress and assorted dumplings at Wu’s Wonton King, at the junction of Chinatown and the historic Jewish Lower East Side. Located at the foot of the Forward Building, Wu’s occupies the site of the old Garden Cafeteria, what used to be the center of New York Jewish intellectual life. Where tanks of jostling Alaskan king crabs are found today, Forward writers and Yiddish literati once kibitzed over kreplach and kugel.
Wu’s wasn’t a random dinner choice. The day before, I heard Wellington Chen, executive director of Chinatown Partnership, and James Beard Award-Winning chef Grace Young on public radio, urging New Yorkers to eat and shop in Chinatown. Chinatown was New York’s first coronavirus victim even before the first diagnosis. News of the virus from Wuhan spurred many Chinese immigrants to start social-distancing early. skipping their Lunar New Year family banquets.