Above: Dining room at La Chine

New York loves Asian food. But I remember a time when you could pretty much count the number of sushi places on one hand, but now every grocery store and corner market in the city offers sushi to go. And since David Chang opened his Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2004, noodles of all sort, especially Japanese ramen, have become the object of almost cultlike interest. For the most part, the places purveying Asian foods have been relatively modest in size and scope, Chang’s restaurant, found in the East Village, being a perfect example. But that has changed in the past year or so, with the opening of ambitious upscale places.

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Above: Dining room at La Chine

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