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Chinatown’s Deluxe Food Market squeezes a grocery store and food court into a slim corridor that stretches from Mott to Elizabeth Street. A butcher counter, cases of frozen dumplings and seafood, and a few cashiers line the perimeter while assertive shoppers fill every inch of the interior. Customers in need of prepared food don’t need to maneuver through the masses; instead they enter on the east side where the doors opens directly onto individual stations serving bubble tea, pastries, and lacquered ducks and ribs. You can sit at the pool of tables off to the right if you can wrangle one—or simply grab and go. The roast pork is outstanding; slabs of tender meat are hacked into thick slices crowned with a strip of crackly skin. Sweet hoisin sauce is served alongside for dipping. Meals from the bustling steam table can be bought by the pound or in combinations of two-to-four items. Options range from pedestrian beef with broccoli to shredded pig’s ears. Despite labels that aren’t always accurate and a lingua franca that is definitely not English, there’s little harm in a point-and-pick approach. With prices so reasonable, customers can afford to take chances. — Krista Garcia

Roast pork, $6.50/lb