Fun, Fun, Fun in the NYC Sun!

Oh, kids...I can tell you two very definite, for sure facts about New York City. I can, with quite a degree of certainly, inform you that exactly one day ago, New York City was hot. And crowded.

There. Don't you feel better now?

We had originally planned on spending Saturday morning strolling the zoo with BBJ, and then the three "young 'uns" would go play while Grandma watched BBJ in the afternoon.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, however, my little Mommy Gut Intuition kicked into overdrive and I just knew that Today Was The Day to get our little keisters out to Manhattan Island.

I tiptoed downstairs and asked my mother if she could possibly consider...swapping her planned sleeping-in-taking-a-shower-around-noon morning she had planned for herself and maybe, possibly...watch her granddaughter until midnight? Imagine my surprise when she said yes! (Mom, you're a TROOPER.)

The three of us that were headed for the train station got dressed, grabbed a quick breakfast and hit the road. It is a 20 minute drive to the train station and then an 80 minute train to Grand Central Terminal. (Notice I said TERMINAL. Apparently Grand Central STATION is a nearby post office. Who knew!)We arrived on Manhattan Island around 11:30 and then transferred to a subway that took us to the very southern tip, to catch the Staten Island Ferry. For those in-the-know, this is a cheaper, quicker alternative to the ferry that takes you to Ellis and Liberty Islands. The ferry is free (see? so cheap!) and its route takes you past the two islands. With a decent zoom lens (I used my digital point n' shoot) you can get a pretty good shot of Lady Liberty herself!

This is all of us at the Very Beginning of our adventures in New York. See how perky we look? It's the brisk breeze from the ferry crossing.

We took the ferry both ways and then hoofed it over to the South Street Seaport. Aside from having an adorable little collection of cobbled streets, high end shops and cute little bistros, there is a discount ticket counter for Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets. This is the same company that has a kiosk in Times Square...but this place has fewer crowds, and (as of a few months ago) accepts credit cards. (The sister kiosk in Times Square only accepts cash. Even at half price, that's a lot of cash to be toting around Manhattan if you're planning on buying more than one ticket!) We waited in line and got our tickets for Cirque Dreams, Jungle Fantasy. (BTW - the three of us did not realize until INTERMISSION that Cirque Dreams has absolutely no relationship to Cirque du Soleil. If you do see a Cirque Dreams show, judge it as a comedic circus show, not as a French-Canadian Street Circus Gone Huge. More on that later.)

Tickets in hand, we kept our northward tack, passing the beautiful government buildings and beautiful bridges on our way to Chinatown.

I'll be honest - Auntie A wanted to go to NYC to see a Broadway Show. Lo Gung wanted to go to NYC to keep an eye on us and explore and see the Statue of Liberty. I wanted to go to NYC....to go to Chinatown. We all got our wishes!

Chinatown, if you've never been, is AMAZING. I always thought my Chinatown "back home" was pretty good, but also fairly unnecessary. I had two amazing Asian grocers within a 20 minute drive of my home, and more little Asian restaurants than I could shake a stick at...within walking distance! That is not the case here, and I miss it. I miss hearing Chinese while I'm walking down the street, and eavesdropping on conversations.

Once we arrived in Chinatown, it was nearly 4 pm and we had no idea where to go for lunch. I remembered a review at the Amateur Gourmet's website for a great Sichuan restaurant that was supposed to have the best Shanghai Soup Dumplings in New York. I looked up the review on Lo Gung's phone while he ducked into a little Chinese bakery and got us all something to tide us over until we could find the restaurants. (He found really excellent Egg Tarts and Wife Cakes. The Wife Cakes weren't nearly as good as Hang Heung in Yuen Long, but...the Egg Tarts were some of the best I've had!)

We finally found the name of the restaurant, punched it into Live Search and we were off! Off to the far reaches of Chinatown to a little restaurant called Grand Sichuan, at 125 Canal Street. Turns out they do not serve Soup Dumplings. (That Grand Sichuan that DOES, by the way, is apparently located on Lexington. I could not read enough of the review to get an accurate address.) No problems - the food was delicious, if a little spicy. We had a wonderful cabbage, pork and noodle soup, stir fried green bell pepper with green onion and beef (a little spicy), Sichuan style kimchee (Sei Chyun Paau Choi) (not spicy at all) and glass noodles with red peppers and ground pork (ridiculously spicy). We solved the Glass Noodle problem by "washing" our noodles in the leftover broth from the soup. (We couldn't finish our bowl of soup, and it seemed a shame to waste it!) Once rinsed, the flavor of the noodles could come through....and they were delicious!

We stopped at a grocery store and bought some round wonton wrappers (I plan on making my own Soup Dumplings this week - keep an eye out for THAT post!) and two packages of Sweet Chinese Sausages (Tihm Laahp Cheung). (When diced and fried up like bacon, these sausages make THE most amazing fried rice we've ever had in our little home!)

In the grocery store, we had our first of several "interesting" NYC encounters. At the crowded cashier stand, I was watching carefully to see how I could possibly NOT embarrass myself and hold anyone up. I noticed that they accepted credit, so I pulled out my MasterCard. I thought this would save time - no change counting on either side! As I stepped up to pay, the cashier (without looking up) gave me my total in Chinese. I handed her my MasterCard, and she handed it back, explaining (in Chinese) that my total was under $10 so I needed to pay cash. (So much for saving time!) At that point, she looked up and realized I was White. She tried to explain herself in English, saying, "No Credit." Another nearby cashier, who presumably spoke more English, tried to help. "Under 10. Cash-y Cash-y!" Still trying to make this go as smooth as possible, I put my hand on the second cashier's arm and assured her, in Chinese, that it was alright- I understood Chinese. I pulled out my money and handed it to the Cashier. This is where the staring started. (The dialect that I speak, Cantonese, is not taught in many schools, so it is extremely rare for a White Girl to speak it. Mandarin would be much more common.) The cashier immediately starting exclaiming, and complimenting me. Trying to deflect her, I explained, "Oh! I lived in Hong Kong for two years. How would I have survived if I didn't understand?!" My plan backfired. Now there are four women staring at me. Still trying to extricate myself from the line, I explained that my HUSBAND taught me everything I know. (A lie, but he has definitely pushed my Chinese to new levels!) I finally found my "punch line" when I pointed over to the stairs where Lo Gung was waiting for me, with Auntie A, and said, "See? That pretty boy over there is my husband. He taught me everything!" Lo Gung looked up when I pointed at him. I'm sure he was very surprised to see (now) 6 women staring at him...and all giggling. I thanked the ladies and ran. (Lo Gung could see straight through me, though. He knew I was loving it. I love being complimented on the Chinese I worked so hard to learn, but...I hate holding up lines and crowds to get my compliments!)

From there, we went into a little specialty shop. These shops are ALL OVER Hong Kong, but it's hard to explain what they sell. Everything inside is dry. A lot of the items are for making soups, or healing teas. There are dried fish flotation parts (anyone know what I'm talking about?), dried ginseng, dried mushrooms, dried herbs...everything dry. We bought some Chinese red beans and some Chinese green beans (both for making dessert soups). We also bought some Glutinous Rice Powder for making glutinous rice balls and some dried, sweetened squid jerky (Yauh Yuh Si). (The jerky is just for snacking.) As we were poking around, a man behind the counter commented to one of his friends (in Chinese), "Look! We have a ghost!" At that moment, a man had just come out of the back room. I assumed he was talking about the door that had just opened by itself. As we exited the shop, a thought struck me. "Honey, was that man talking about me?" Umm...yeah. (It doesn't sound that bad in English, but good Chinese Mommies teach their sons to never call Caucasians "ghost." It's an old derogatory term, coined when the White People first showed up in China from Europe.) I'm sure I'm the first White Girl that man has seen in that shoppe this year! (Seriously - do any of you know what to do with any of the ingredients I listed?!)

That was Encounter #2.

From there we wandered through Little Italy, snacking on a strawberry gelato ($6 for a medium?!). By this point, it was time to make our way back to Times Square. We caught another subway and took a few touristy pictures in Times Square.

(Oh, I have to interject here. The subway was the scene of Encounter #3. You and I both know that Lo Gung, Auntie A and I had been trolling the streets of Manhattan for well over 6 hours at this point. We also know Lo Gung was in an accident on Monday, from which he is still recovering. The woman he sat next to on the subway? I can only assume she didn't know any of these things. The LOOK she gave Lo Gung when he sat down - it was so hard not to laugh out loud. It's like she thought she could WILL him out of his seat, simply by grimacing at him from behind. As if to prove her point, she then took her packages and wedged them between herself and the wall, shoving herself more firmly towards Lo Gung's seat. Perhaps she didn't approve of men sitting on subways? Perhaps she thought his HUGE frame would overtake her seat. Whatever the case, she had either a serious case of the grumps OR gravity had worked a number on her face and she was simply checking out his lovely back and neck. Take your pick.)

We stopped in a small bakery to grab a VERY small dinner (it was only an hour and a half since lunch!) and then we took off to find our theatre. We had Orchestra Seats, underneath the overhanging Balcony Seating. The show was beautiful, if not what we expected. Our first clue ought to have been the soloist that sang in English the entire time. Either that, or a program full of circus performers from the Ukraine School of Circus Acting. The acts they performed brought a WHOLE new meaning to the term "death defying acts"! The trapeze artists had me on the edge of my seat, ready to scream. The show had beautiful costumes, slapstick humor and very talented circus performers and contortionists. I'm not sure I'd have bought the tickets if I'd realized they weren't for Cirque du Soleil, but the show was good, nonetheless.

At the close of the show, we made our way through the press to a subway, and finally to our train which would take us home. It was in Grand Central Terminal that we had our fourth, and final, NYC Encounter. As I headed down the steps to our platform with Lo Gung and Auntie A, we passed two women resting on the steps. As part of the story, I'll tell you each woman took up nearly half of the step she was sitting on. As I descended past them, I heard one say to the other, "See? I could never be a pregnant lady. I just could never do that." I'm not sure if she meant to give me kudos, but at that moment, all I could think was, "Sweetie...it's midnight. I'm tired and hot and sticky and not PARTICULARLY enjoying my enlarged status right now. Let's save your comments about your desires to NEVER BE PREGNANT and big like me until after I leave, yeah?"

We caught our train and catnapped all the way home. By the time we got off I was so tired I was dizzy - I could hardly keep a straight line. Pathetic, yes...but I was proud of us for making it through a day in New York! The weather here, at home, was about 95, so I can only imagine NYC's asphalt heated it up to at LEAST a balmy (read: humid) 100 degrees. (When we got off the train it was about 75 degrees...and foggy. Can you say eww?)