Chinatown

She's my daughter. (smack)
She's my sister. (smack)
She's my daughter. (smack)
She's my sister. (smack)

No, but seriously folks, I just flew in from Chicago and boy are my arms tired.
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Jon and I did indeed meet in Chinatown for our tour but there was no one there to give us a tour. So we did our own tour of Chinatown or more so a Val turn of Chinatown.

First, I showed Jon my favorite store in the world Pearl River as promised in this morning's posting. I was sad to discover that Pearl River has been named THE GREAT MALL of CHINA or CHINA MALL or something like that and once inside I could see that the store has been tampered with. The pharmacy I liked so much was gone. They still had the stuff and junk that makes shopping in that store fun but not as much as they used to. The food section of the store had a very elegant selection of POCKY. For those of you who don't know, POCKY is a thin cookie dipped in a variety of different flavors mostly chocolate. My POCKY choice here (there will be one later) was Chocolate Coconut POCKY which I bought for at least 1 dollar cheaper than adverised in the above link.

I also bought some INSTANT GINGER HONEY CRYSTALS tea to help soothe my chronic heartburn, a couple of instant UDON soups, a box of RED PANAX GINSENT EXTRACTUM for my general well being at much less than the prices advertised on line, and for Jon some Almond Caramel Corn.

Then, after satisfying my need to buy stuff, Jon and I went to satisfy our appetites. He introduced me to an absolutely wonderful restaurant on Doyer's Street formerly called Viet-nom. He had the shrimp squid curry while I had the duck and taro root dish. Both were wonderful, both were delicious and we both enjoyed some wonderful hot banana pudding for dessert. I know the duck and taro dish sounds wierd but it was pretty good and weird. The restaurant serves the duck with this wonderful pepper sauce and when I asked our waiter where I could buy some he rattled off the recipe quickly and with his accent I completely missed it. If you know of this pepper sauce or how I can make it please write me immediately at goodmanval@aol.com.

I then introduced to Jon to my favorite grocery store in Chinatown, KAM-MAN on Canal Street. We were overpowered by the stench of dried fish products the moment we walked in but I don't mind. I've been shopping there on and off for the 14 years or so I've lived in New York City so I was already used to it before we walked in. There I bought some lavendar scented incense, and yet another kind of POCKY, POCKY Extra-Chocolat. I have long enjoyed their foods but no more so than POCKY. Some friends introduced POCKY to me over the summer. I didn't have the heart to tell them I've known about POCKY for more than half my life. If you haven't had it or you can't find it in your neighborhood, go to one of the above links and order some soon. It really is a delightful treat.

That was two hours of our day well spent. I am home now. I just finished up some work for my office and blogged about our adventure. When the weather is nicer, I'd like to take Jon on the tour I give my relatives when they visit France. We start out in Chinatown, make our way up to SOHO via Little Italy, walk through the East Village and finish by walking up Fifth Avenue after going through Washington Square Park.

I still have my headache, but at least I accomplished some stuff today. A quick turn of Chinatown and that spreadsheet I needed to get done.

I think I'll have some of that GINGER HONEY tea now.