Being Chinese, every time I went on a trip somewhere, it was a requirement that you go to Chinatown whenever it was available. Especially since Memphis had no Chinatown, only a handful of Asian grocery stores, one or two places to get really greasy dim sum, and one “decent” place to eat “real” Chinese food.
Whenever I would go visit Jay in St. Louis for a weekend, we would always have to make a trip to St. Louis’ small little “Chinatown” and buy my dad some Chinese sweet buns; which he would then complain about being too expensive and not tasting that good. But, if I did NOT stop and get him any I was a bad daughter and just plain inconsiderate for not getting him anything at all. Once when I went to Atlanta with Jay to visit some friends and we did NOT go to Chinatown. I thought that my parents were going to have a stroke when I did not come home with a roast duck or roast pork or a measly bun.
So when I moved to NYC, the most important thing for my parents was when I would make it to Chinatown. TWO days after we got here (and remember our stuff still hadn’t arrived so I only had what I brought on the plane) my parents call to check on me and the first thing out of my dad’s mouth was if I’d made it to Chinatown. Not, has your stuff arrived? Nope. He wanted to know if I’d found any good dim sum …
OK, to be fair, we did end up in Chinatown the following day … I mean, I am STILL Chinese! Jay
and I took the train to Chinatown and ate lunch at this place called Big Wong, which is set up like a Hong Kong café. It was actually pretty good, food-wise. But since I don’t speak a lick of Chinese AND I was with a non-Chinese guy I was given the evil eye by the waiters (the ones that would even look in our general direction). Granted it could have been for my lack of language skills that I was given the evil eye, but I like to think that Jay had something to do with it too (I can’t shoulder all the dirty looks alone!)
So because I am a good Chinese girl and keeping in touch with my roots, I have been to Chinatown at LEAST once a week ever week that we’ve been here. To be fair, normally it’s to meet people for lunch/dinner, and once we got unpacked and more settled I had to go get my Chinese cooking staples – sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dried noodles etc … And OMG, the groceries in Chinatown are SO much cheaper than the groceries in the UWS (Upper West Side). I got 3 lbs of cherries for $3! Oh, and I totally bought 3 lbs of chicken and 1.5 lbs of pork loin for ONLY $6 and carted that meat back uptown (oh you read that right). I mean seriously??? I would have paid at least twice that amount in the UWS
Bless Jay’s heart, he just doesn’t understand why we have to keep going back to Chinatown. I tried to explain to him, that’s just what Chinese people do they go to Chinatown, but I guess growing up not being Chinese he just doesn’t get it. But I’ll learn him good, don’t you worry about that.
I promised him that I wouldn’t make him go this weekend, but I may have to make a little trip out there myself …
Whenever I would go visit Jay in St. Louis for a weekend, we would always have to make a trip to St. Louis’ small little “Chinatown” and buy my dad some Chinese sweet buns; which he would then complain about being too expensive and not tasting that good. But, if I did NOT stop and get him any I was a bad daughter and just plain inconsiderate for not getting him anything at all. Once when I went to Atlanta with Jay to visit some friends and we did NOT go to Chinatown. I thought that my parents were going to have a stroke when I did not come home with a roast duck or roast pork or a measly bun.
So when I moved to NYC, the most important thing for my parents was when I would make it to Chinatown. TWO days after we got here (and remember our stuff still hadn’t arrived so I only had what I brought on the plane) my parents call to check on me and the first thing out of my dad’s mouth was if I’d made it to Chinatown. Not, has your stuff arrived? Nope. He wanted to know if I’d found any good dim sum …
OK, to be fair, we did end up in Chinatown the following day … I mean, I am STILL Chinese! Jay
and I took the train to Chinatown and ate lunch at this place called Big Wong, which is set up like a Hong Kong café. It was actually pretty good, food-wise. But since I don’t speak a lick of Chinese AND I was with a non-Chinese guy I was given the evil eye by the waiters (the ones that would even look in our general direction). Granted it could have been for my lack of language skills that I was given the evil eye, but I like to think that Jay had something to do with it too (I can’t shoulder all the dirty looks alone!)So because I am a good Chinese girl and keeping in touch with my roots, I have been to Chinatown at LEAST once a week ever week that we’ve been here. To be fair, normally it’s to meet people for lunch/dinner, and once we got unpacked and more settled I had to go get my Chinese cooking staples – sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dried noodles etc … And OMG, the groceries in Chinatown are SO much cheaper than the groceries in the UWS (Upper West Side). I got 3 lbs of cherries for $3! Oh, and I totally bought 3 lbs of chicken and 1.5 lbs of pork loin for ONLY $6 and carted that meat back uptown (oh you read that right). I mean seriously??? I would have paid at least twice that amount in the UWS
Bless Jay’s heart, he just doesn’t understand why we have to keep going back to Chinatown. I tried to explain to him, that’s just what Chinese people do they go to Chinatown, but I guess growing up not being Chinese he just doesn’t get it. But I’ll learn him good, don’t you worry about that.
I promised him that I wouldn’t make him go this weekend, but I may have to make a little trip out there myself …
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I wish I could have seen you trekking back uptown with pounds of meat.
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