(Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine)

The thing to get at Lucky King Bakery, on Grand Street in Chinatown, is the sesame ball, an orb of glutinous rice stuffed with sweet bean paste, coated with sesame seeds, and deep-fried. All the food sensations are represented: crispy, crunchy, chewy, creamy. On first bite, it’s hard to imagine why it hasn’t been elevated to doughnut levels of fetishization. On second bite, you think, “Oh, my countrymen must be scared off by the bean paste.” On third bite, you reckon that bean paste follows the same unctuous principles as peanut butter but with a more rewarding flavor. Why is a smushed bean inherently any weirder than a creamed nut? Anyhow, another thing: You must eat them hot. This can be tricky to engineer, because the balls emerge from the fryer at mystical intervals. If you get a cold one, go home and reanimate it in a pan. Eat it with your hands. Obviously.­