May May

Profile

This venue is closed.

Since 1965, May May has been a Chinatown source of ready-made, reheatable dim sum and Asian snacks. The heart of May May's business is wholesale, but retail customers happily benefit from the huge variety of dumplings, rolls, buns, and dim-sum favorites on display in a retail space about the size of a studio apartment—and just as crammed, with refrigerator cases, shelves of condiments, platters of pastries, and a ginger juice bar. The ample to-go selection could be why, according to owner John Hung, "Chinatown wives don't have to cook." You'll find the expected (spring rolls, pork dumplings) and the unusual. May May does an even brisker business during Chinese festivals, supplying what Hung calls "Chinese tamales"—string-tied, pyramidal bamboo-leaf bundles of spiced sticky rice. The "Column A, Column B" method to ordering may have disappeared from Chinese restaurant menus, but at May May, the impulse is to try everything. — Karen Tina Harrison