Chinatown Noodle Soup Hopping

             When visiting Montreal back in November, the lady and I started our noodle soup love affair after stumbling into a nice Vietnamese restaurant in the Chinatown area up there and ordering up a few bowls of noodle soup. Upon her return from Haiti, one item we had on our itinerary was visiting the Manhattan version of Chinatown to continue our noodle soup romance.

              Unsure where to really start and with a countless number of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants in the area, we picked one street to walk down and whichever places seemed most appealing, we'd go in. Starting at East Houston we went with Mott Street and went straight down through the Little Italy and Chinatown neighborhoods, although the Little Italy part is all about gone. After passing by some trendy blocks we finally saw Chinese lettering on upcoming stores and knew we were getting closer to the noodles. We began to get a little nervous we wouldn't find a good place to eat because the stores we were encountering at first were all market. The streets were lined up with establishment after establishment offering rice, vegetables, fish, crabs, oysters, and even frogs, swimming the last days of their lives in a cramped bucket. Since it was a bright sunny day, the heat reflecting off the fish wasn't lending to the best of smells. I needed to stop off at a bakery to get a glass of iced tea and cool off a bit, as well as escape the fishy scent in the air for a minute.

             Our goal was to visit at least three places and share one soup each time so our bellies wouldn't get full too fast. I knew we would likely get full after eating at just one restaurant, but I figured if we just kept to soups them maybe we could get two in for sure. The first restaurant we came upon was Big Wing Wang Noodles and I had a good feeling they would make a good bowl of soup when I saw the line of roasted ducks hanging by their necks once we entered. The waiter had us take the table near the entrance and gave us two hot glasses of tea. They do sit-in meals as well as take-out, and since we were in the middle of lunch hour, there were plenty of people on line waiting for their orders. Even though we originally said one soup per place, we both ended up wanting our own soups. So with starting out with a steamed dumpling in oyster sauce appetizer, she ordered a beef tripe (stomach) noodle soup and I went with a less adventurous roast duck noodle soup. I though the dumplings would come out on a plate, it turned out they came out in soup form as well. It was actually shrimp dumpling soup, and when adding the two soups we ordered, it turns out we were going to have to eat three soups in just our first sitting. We thought maybe we were going to have to take the dumpling soup to go, but I felt a burst of adrenaline after finishing off my duck and was able to put away most of the dumplings. The prices were amazing as both large soups and the appetizer all came out to about fifteen dollars total.

             Already stuffed and unlikely to be able to eat anymore that afternoon, we decided to take our time walking and getting too see all the Mott Street restaurants before making any possible next selection. There were a few thin streets with names such as Mosco that I never even heard of before, that gave an excellent view of the Freedom Tower as it continues to make it progress. We also passed by the Transfiguration School, which has a nice brainwashing ring to it, but is actually a religious US Department of Education fusion sort of situation. Once we reached the end of where the restaurants were, we turned around and felt too full to check out any of the other places we saw, so it was decided to just head back to the subway and go home. That was until she spotted charming establishment called the New Bo Ky Restaurant (I'm not sure what happened to the old one). Instead of tea, they gave us complimentary cups of water, but I was in mood for more iced tea so I had a can of Nestea as well. This time we were going to skip any appetizers and go right to the soups. In keeping with her digestive tract theme, she was drawn to the pig intestine while I had the (mystery meat) homemade beef ball. When they brought out her soup first it was perhaps one of the worse things I've smelt in weeks up to that point. The taste wasn't all that bad, but it was certainly something to not put your nose close to. There was nothing extraordinary with my beef ball soup and overall we declared Big Wing Wang Noodles as the champion restaurant for the day, with specifically my roast duck noodle soup the highlight. I was able to finish my second soup, but after only a few bites she needed to take the rest of her pig intestines to go. The bill again was a very modest twelve dollars for both soups, and combining everything for the afternoon, our Chinatown adventure of five soups cost less than thirty bucks.

              If I wasn't so full of noodles and mystery meat, I might've considered helping those frogs escape....

The Terracotta Warriors of the Pond

            The Discovery Times Square Museum is a favorite of mine because it regularly borrows famous attractions from all of the world, and instead of having to fly for ten hours to see them, I could take a thirty-minute subway ride. My past visits have included the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Tomb of King Tut, and the Lost City of Pompeii, the next showing I had my eye on was the Terracotta Warriors. The first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang Ling, had an army of eight-thousand clay soldiers, plus chariots and horses, created to serve the purpose of "guarding" his tomb once he was dead and buried. Back in 1974, some farmers in China were innocently digging in the fields and came upon one of the figures, then after some more digging the entire ancient Chinese legend was unearthed. The only downer about the museum is that they don't allow picture-taking inside, but its still a worthwhile visit all the time.

             The exhibition made a trip to New York and will be around till late August, but I didn't want to delay in seeing these two thousand year-old warriors any further. Usually when I go to the Discovery Times Square Museum the place is an absolute mob scene, and even with buying a ticket online ahead of time, the line is extremely long and it takes at least an hour of waiting. Its the perfect tourist magnet and with many tourists around the city on weekends, I decided it would be best to go on a lazy Wednesday afternoon. Admission cost was a pricey twenty-five dollars and I purchased my ticket at home before heading down to Manhattan. The weather was warm, but the skies were grey and I was hoping the threat of rain would keep the tourists in their hotels. Times Square was rather full as usual when I got out of the subway, but it wasn't unbearable to walk around as it could be most of the time. I saw an ad for the Terracotta Warriors on a garbage can and knew I was well on my way. With the giant neon signs of Times Square a great back drop behind me, I made several unsuccessful attempts to take a good picture of myself. A Chinese lady saw my predicament and offered to take a picture of me. Perhaps she was a descendant the Terracotta Warriors.

             Once I was inside the Discovery Times Square Museum I was shocked to see there were only about four or five people on line before me. In my previous experiences there would be several hundred patrons in front of me and I would have to wait about an hour as they would bring groups of people in at a time. This time the wait was only a few minutes and they let us begin; they first take you to a small theater to watch a short video, then the wall lifts open and you walk into the exhibit. Actually, very little is known about Qin Shihuang Ling and his giant tomb was only a myth until a farmer whacked it with a shovel in the 1970's. Qin became leader of the Qin state by the age of thirteen and by the time he was twenty-two, he conquered the surrounding states and formed what became known as China. He had work started of the Great Wall of China as well as the Grand Canal in the south (still the biggest canal in the world). Qin brought modern forms of government and law into effect which are still present in Chinese culture. Infatuated with immortality, Qin spent alot of time looking for magic elixirs and wanted his terracotta warriors built to stand guard at his tomb in case he did die eventually. At age forty-nine, the First Emperor, the title he took, did pass away around 209 BC and its suspected it was from mercury poisoning that we thought was one of those immortal magical potions.

             Rebellions in the years after the Emperor's death did cause destruction and dis-colorment to the warriors in his tomb, as only a very few had color. In addition to those nearly six foot statues, the exhibit included alot of other artifacts from that time period from weaponry to currency to even cookware. Towards the end of the walk-through there's even a sizable section dedicated to the Han Dynasty, which came later on in Chinese history. I learned a few different items while there, such as having pigs was a sign of prosperity, and hair worn loosely in those days was reserved for the criminal culture. Without the hundreds of other annoying people in the way, I was able to get through the exhibit in roughly under an hour. Once I was out, I only had to look a few yards for my next stop, Carmine's restaurant, just a few doors down. It was still during lunch hours and the place wasn't crowded at all either. I didn't want to eat a heavy meal, so I just started out with a dozen oysters and a glass of pinot grigio. As a passing waiter cleaned my table before the food came out, he complimented me on my grey sweater (which has been a compliment magnet in recent months) and was excited to hear when I told him the Terracotta Warriors were down the block.

            Those dozen oysters were nice and went down smoothly, but I was still a tad bit hungry. The food options at Carmine's, even from the lunch options, are always heavy, so I had no choice but to order more items from the raw bar. With a refill of my wine glass, I went with only a half-dozen of cherrystone clams to complete my "light" lunch. By this time the grey skies had disappeared and the sun was out in a full bloom. This gave me no choice but to head over to Central Park for a nice stroll in perfect weather. I decided to walk it from Times Square, and knowing I was going to need a shot of energy for the long hike, I stopped off at Edible Arrangements for a large strawberry-banana smoothie. The lady behind the counter was somewhat sassy as she made it seem I was taking too long to make up my mind, but I was seeking something more than the typical strawberry-banana combo. She offered me a chocolate-covered strawberry sample while she made the smoothie, but I had no interest in that.

            The park was looking as wonderful as ever and I couldn't wait to check out some of the animals inside such as the ducks, geese, squirrels, robins, and amazingly so, turtles, which I saw sun bathing the last time I was there. I was passing by a small pond and when I looked down I saw a number of ducks cleaning themselves with their beaks. There was a couple (humans) sitting on a rock not too far away from the pond, but other than that nobody had taken notice of these ducks, I could have them all to myself. As I paced closer towards them I was expecting them to flee into the water, but just the opposite happened, they acted as if I didn't even exist. I know, especially in that park, the animals are used to the millions of visitors, but I never had ducks provide this time of unprecedented access before. Other than trying to touch them, which I tried a few times, they would let you do anything else and take all the pictures you wanted. I can't recall ever being so up close and personal to a duck like that without it being stuffed in a museum or served on a plate with a side of rice. I spent a good fifteen minutes there at the edge of the pond and probably could've stayed for the day, but my legs were getting tired from all the walking I had done. Unfortunately, I had to carry on and after passing the Central Park Zoo (with a self-promise of visiting this summer) I did get to meet up with a robin and a squirrel.

           The photogenic ducks had left a big impression on me, even bigger than the two-thousand year old warriors, and they didn't cost a dime.....