Spent an amazing afternoon recently in the pouring rain, with my brother, in Chinatown, eating forbidden foods, sniffing exotic herbs, and purchasing a supply of my mother's herbal remedies for one third the price I pay uptown. My brother is an amateur gourmet cook/healer and loves Chinatown for the roast pork and duck that hang appetizingly in the windows. He spends hours in conversation with the shopkeepers of the herb shops who've been handing our remedies for over 30 years. By then we were hungry and stopped at his favorite Vietnamese restaurant; he placed an order to take home and I had Jasmine tea while he lapped up "Vietnamese coffee," a rich dark espresso coffee poured over condensed milk.
A couple of weeks ago when the weather began to turn nippy, my sister and I took a long walk downtown mainly to see if I could get my suede leather cowboy hat, too abused to wear anymore, reshaped. J.J.Hat Service, around since 1911, mostly catering to men, is a specialty shop that cleans and reshapes hats (at no cost!!), as a service to keep us wearing hats, Entering the shop took me back to the 1950s, especially when one of the salesmen greeted us wearing a Fedora. Living up to their motto, "Timeless Hats, Classic Service, they only needed a half hour, a perfect opportunity to go in search of a hot bowl of soup.
Just around the corner is Korea town, specialty shops for Korean products and a variety of Korean restaurants. That's where my brother and I feast when I want fish soup, hot steaming broth, with tofu, greens and the head of a fish peeking out from its nourishing waters. Deelicious!
Our walk led us to a buffet Korean restaurant, and our curiosity drew us in to see what foods we would find in a Korean buffet. I love our walks, they're usually, exploratory, educational, fun excursions. What caught my eye were the predominantly Asian clientele and the rather small quantities of foods they were putting on their trays. My sister and I looked at each other as though to say, "If we were to eat so litte, we'd die!" (No we wouldn't die, maybe we'd be healthier - and not always have to be on a diet!)
A hot bowl of soup with lots of noodles later, my hat looked practically new!
FYI: J.J. Hat Service, 310 Fifth Avenue, NY 10001 1-800-622-1911
