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Published: October 26th 2013
Columbus park - Chinatown Started the day off with some window shopping at the local mall - Manhattan Mall - a couple of blocks from the hostel and right next to the subway station. We saw a few items in Macy's but decided to go back and make our purchases after our sightseeing was finished - that turned out to be a mistake - more about that later.
Chinatown was our next destination. We met our tour guide Meredith at Canal Street for a food tour of Chinatown. About 10 or so others joined us for the tour. The places we ate during today's tour were:
Tasty dumpling - delicious deep fried pork and chive dumplings 5 for$ 1.25. This tiny place was packed with people..the building would certainly never meet standards In Australia but hey the food was excellent.
Xi'an famous foods - made famous by TV shows - Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern. The dish to try is the spicy lamb burger $3.25 and is their signature meal.
The original Chinatown ice cream factory - tried the famous Lychee ice cream $3.99 for a large scoop.
Mei lai wah coffee - sampled the steamed and baked pork buns
The Tasty Dumpling store- at 90 cents each you can't go wrong.
Lung Moon Bakery - apparently the best bakery in Chinatown - famous for their egg custard pies 80 cents each.
Everyone was totally full by the end of the tour. Chinatown is a large area in lower Manhattan - packed with all types of tiny stores. Many of the Chinese still live the way they did when they a first arrived in the mid 1800's - families sharing small apartments - paying very little in rent. I doubt the living conditions of some of these people meet any standards at all.
We are visited a Buddhist Temple in Chinatown that was just near the Manhattan Bridge (a fine looking bridge) - Manahana Buddhist Temple in Canal Street. It was interesting to go inside and see locals praying and bringing gifts to the Buddha. Geoff and I bought a fortune reading - $1 each - both were good readings so we are hanging onto them for later reference.
Also went to Doyers Street in the centre of Chinatown Early in the century, the bend in the street became known as "the Bloody Angle" because of numerous shootings among
Statue in Columbus Parkthe Tong Gangs of Chinatown that lasted into the 1930s. In 1994, law enforcement officials said that more people died violently at the "Bloody Angle" than at any other street intersection in the United States. The Nom Wah Tea Parlor opened at 13 Doyers Street in 1927, and is still in operation today - this shop has seen more murders than any other shop in the USA.
After the tour took continued our walk along to Little Italy which is right next door to Chinatown - actually one minute you are in Chinatown - blink and your in Little Italy - which is loaded with many alfresco restaurants lining the streets. We have spent time in Little Italy when we visited in 2011 so we just had a walk around before heading back to the subway.
Next we took the train to Coney Island - at the bottom of Brooklyn. It is quite a long ride - long enough for both of us to grab a quick nap. Coney Island is home to Luna Park and also the New York Aquarium (which was extensively damaged during Hurricane Sandy and is still rebuilding). We had a walk along the
Chinatown boardwalk - sun was out but the wind was freezing cold. Coney Island is looking rather tired - I'm sure it was good in the day - The area is heavily dominated by high rise urban apartments.
The weather is significantly colder here in the last few days - temperatures down to around 2 degrees C overnight and maximums of around 12 - 13 degrees during the day. Some of the streets in NYC act as wind tunnels - it's freezing cold!
Took the train back to the hostel to do our shopping in Macy's...I finally found the ideal pair of boots at 60% off - just about to pay for them when the whole building was evacuated due to a fire in the basement. This can't be happening - the biggest department store in the world - and I have to leave the boots on the counter and quickly evacuate!
Outside and about a dozen fire trucks arrive at the store. Not sure about the fire. All we know is that the store is now closed by the fire department and my boots are still inside!
Hopefully the boots will still be there in the
Xi'an famous foods morning!
Forgot to mention - the last few nights roadworks have been happening on W31st street - right outside our hostel - they start after midnight - towing cars from the streets and then laying bitumen all through the night! Makes it a bit hard to sleep but this is NYC - when else would you do roadworks?
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