I am about to give away the best-kept secret in town. It’s as if the gods decided to answer my prayers: For the past 15 years, I have complained about the poor quality of Chinese food in New York City. While there are some restaurants where the food may be decent, the lack of service and atmosphere are a turnoff. Then, two months ago, Carma opened right in my neighborhood, on Carmine Street. I would pass it all the time but didn’t bother checking it out, mainly because the name “Carma” was cheesy, but also because it advertised itself as a “fusion” restaurant serving “Asian tapas,” so I assumed it was fake Asian food. I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, because the restaurant is mostly empty, even though the decor is quite elegant. However, one day I decided to check out the menu and immediately realized that this is a Taiwanese restaurant. If only it presented itself as such, I have a feeling it would be doing better business. With $12 bowls of beef noodle soup and six soup dumplings for a mere $10, I had a hunch this place had promise. My hunch was right — Carma is the real deal, though it’s definitely misrepresenting itself. There are some fusion dishes on the menu, which I steer far away from, but most of the menu is authentic homestyle Taiwanese small plates. The soup dumplings are good enough to preclude a trip to Chinatown, and the beef noodle soup is a delight; the beef tender, the broth so good I didn’t want to stop drinking it. The tofu-skin spring rolls — a traditional dish that rarely appears on menus here — are a knockout, and the sautéed spinach with yuba and black-eyed peas (only at lunch) is simple, clean and delicious. Both the chef and the dim sum chef come from Taiwan. The dim sum chef has worked at Din Tai Fung, and while the dumplings are not as delicate as you would find back home, they are an absolute steal at $10 for six. There’s also Taiwanese pork chops and braised pork belly bao. My only criticism is that I wish there were more leafy green vegetables on the dinner menu, since most of the other dishes are rich or fatty, even though they are tapas. That said, the prices are reasonable and the food has been thoughtfully made — I can’t say that for most of what you’d find in Chinatown — plus the dining experience is pleasant. Finally, I’ve found a local Chinese eatery I can frequent that feels like a neighborhood Taipei joint. Hooray!