Best of New York 2007 • Eating

• Chinatown Brasserie

  380 Lafayette St.; 212-533-7000

  With good Chinese chefs forever leaving town, and more and more of the potentially good ones staying in their homeland in the first place, the city’s Chinese-food aficionados are a beleaguered bunch these days. But mention the work of Mr. Joe Ng, the Hong Kong�born dim sum prodigy at Chinatown Brasserie, and their eyes light up, just like in the old days. Ng has more than a hundred varieties of dim sum in his impressive repertoire; many of the best seem to involve some form of shrimp. The perfect shrimp-themed feast begins with a platter or two of the steamy, delicate-skinned pork-and-shrimp dumplings, followed by a taste of shrimp dumplings stuffed with roast duck. After that, order the yellow-skinned, triangular shrimp-and-snow-pea�leaf dumplings, and then the little pouches of translucent wheat-and-potato skin stuffed with shrimp and Chinese chives. Get it while you can, before Joe Ng decides to skip town himself.

From the