OUR VACATION IN NEW YORK - DAY ONE - PART ONE - SUNDAY - CHINATOWN

We landed in Newark Airport around 11:00AM. we quickly went through customs and retrieved our bags. In no time we were outside waiting for our driver to pick us and take up the apartment that our son-in-law had graciously made available to us for the our vacation in New York.

By noon, we were settled in the apartment. We had a quick bite to eat then we were ready to head out to Manhattan. As it turns out, the apartment was minutes away from the Exchange Place station. It was just one stop to the World trade Centre and we were in Manhattan. We walked straight up Broadway towards Chinatown. Cutting through City Hall Park we had a great view of the Woolworth building

and saw the amazing sculptures of  Sol Lewitt, something that I did not expect to see.

Continuing on, we crossed into the complex of courthouses that took us directly into Chinatown. Chinatown is like a city within a city. We have been to many Chinatowns in many different cities but nothing matches the depth and breath of New York's Chinatown. As we walked we saw so many different stores.

We were attracted to one of the bakeries that was exuding the most wonderful fragrances. After buying a bag of Chinese pastries we continued our stroll around Chinatown. At one green grocer we saw a grocer selling fresh Durian. Durian is a fruit that you either love it or hate it. The fragrance or Durian can be off putting but the flavor is wonderful. The fruit itself is hidden inside a gourd that is actually used as a weapon in Asian countries. They fruit is soft and yellow. To make a long story short I bought the fruit of the smallest Durian I could find. The grocer extracted the fruit for me and wrapped it up. I would be looking forward to eating it later in the day.

The grocer who removed the durian fruit

The durian husk after the fruit has been removed

There were many jewelery stores in Chinatown that displayed gold pieces like this cute rabbit. This is the year of the rabbit according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

One of the out of the way side streets in Chinatown

Another side street in Chinatown

We walked to the northern limit of Chinatown that turned around and walked back. It was getting on in the afternoon, we were told about an out of the way noodle shop called Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles. The restaurant is located on Doyers St. between Bowery and Chatham Square. It is a little out of the way and takes a little searching to find it. The restaurant is tiny and the decor reminds me of the restaurants that I ate in on Spadina street in Toronto when I was a student at the University of Toronto. Then, we could buy a dinner in Chinatown for $1.25. The table that was left when we arrived was a tiny table beside the front window. We wedged ourselves into the chairs. There was not much room for anything else once we were sitting down. Anyway, Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles lived up to its name. We were hungry so we ordered a lot. We ordered a bowl of soup with noodles, a plate of dumplings, a plate of fried noodles and a plate of baby Bok Choi. The dumplings were definitely the best dumplings that I have ever eaten in my life and i have eaten great dumplings in Hong Kong and mainland China. The fried noodles were also outstanding. The noodles in soup and the baby bok choi were also very good. There was so much food that we wound up taking the bok choi back to the apartment to have for a meal another day. All the food that we ate at Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles was less than $30!



After eating our fill we spend more time exploring Chinatown as we eventually made our way back to the World Trade Center to take the train back to New Jersey. It was a great first day in New York!