china town

Today we took the kids into Chinatown in NYC. It's their school break and we decided to go explore the city. We had a lot of fun, the weather was perfect and we didn't get lost! That last is a pretty amazing fact for people who don't usually venture into "The Big City".

We started out at



Tasty Dumpling on Mulberry Street. Sat in the park eating our yummy dumplings and admiring the astroturf on the playground while looking at all the tall buildings around us.

After that we headed over towards Broadway in search of Pearl Paint which bills itself as the World's Largest Discount Art Supplier. 6 floors worth! They certainly have a lot of art supplies. We had fun browsing around, spent money, of course, and decided that you could get good exercise running up and down all those flights of stairs each day.

Next on the agenda was Pearl River Market. A fun place with lots of neat imports. We came home with dishware. Luckily we were limited to what we could carry or we might have gotten more. This was such a neat store to explore we browsed for quite a while.

Then it was off to food shopping at the





Po Wing Hong Food Market on Elizabeth Street. This is apparently one of the oldest food markets in Chinatown and they have some great deals. The kids go straight for the Pocky, Koala Treats, etc while the adults go for the different teas, spices, sauces and anything we think we can read or figure out the use for. Their prices on green tea and white tea cannot be beat.

After all this wandering and shopping (I'm not sure how many blocks we covered but it was a lot) we decided we were tired. But instead of eating Chinese the kids decided they wanted to go into Little Italy. So we did! We stopped in at



Caffe Napoli where we enjoyed some excellent Italian food. Their marinara sauce was amazing! So fresh and delicious. We sat at tables on the sidewalk and had lots of fun people watching. Something that we certainly can't do in our little rural town. For dessert we enjoyed a selection of Napoleon, Blueberry Cheesecake, Black Forest Cake and Chocolate Mousse. We all shared tastes and it was all wonderful. On our way back to Chinatown we passed La Bella Ferrara where we have had dessert before. Their desserts are truly amazing; we made a note to stop there for dessert next time no matter where we have dinner.

On the way back to the car we stopped for some amazing deals on produce from the street vendors. The plumpest, nicest-looking ginger root for $1.00 per pound? Amazing. Gorgeous, delicious grapes for $1.00 per pound. Heavenly smelling tomatoes, $1.00 per pound. We bought a LOT of produce for $5.50. Not sure why they can sell it so cheaply on the street but we suspect it has something to do with volume and lack of overhead.

Also on the way back to the car we stopped at the Dragon Land Bakery to pick up some yummy treats like Cocoanut Buns, Steamed Pork Buns, and Bean Paste cakes to bring home. We love these things, they are truly delicious and not to be found at home.

Back to the car, full-tummied, arms sore from carrying packages we settled in for a pleasant drive home. It was a fun day, with perfect weather and we had such a wonderful time all together; what a marvelous way to spend a day off.