All Good Plans…

We had planned to go down to the Essex Street Market today.  Buy the makings for dinner, taste all the goodies and check it out.  I checked out the website this morning to find out that the Essex Street Market is only open Mon-Sat.  Alas, Plan B? 

Plan B was a romp through Chinatown.  First stop, Joe’s Shanghai.  Known for their soup dumplings.  The key to really enjoying Chinatown, is trying different places for what they specialize in.  Just because their soup dumplings are unbelievable doesn’t mean that their whole fish is good.  The soup dumplings at Joes are fantastic.  We went with the pork and the crab/pork, the only two options.  Dipped into a combination of soy, vinegar and shaved fresh ginger and mixed with chile sauce ( if you want).  Liquid gushes out of the dumpling when you bite in.  The filling is a perfect combination of spices.  All good.  We also had an order of pea shoots.  I believe they are in this season.  Cooked in a wok and probably with a bit of soy and chicken broth.  Simple and delicious.  Josh described is as eating vegetable pasta.  That was it, we left to find the best barbecued pork buns.

We stopped at May May Gourmet Bakery on our hunt to find the pork buns.  What a find.  This bakery carries
everything, frozen to make your own dim sum feast at home.  You can buy it on line too! We bought dumplings, pork buns, pot stickers and a few other goodies.  Nice thing to have in your freezer. 

We got out our handy blackberry and discovered that the best pork buns were at Mei Lai Wah Coffeehouse.  We called them and the communication wasn’t so good.  We were bummed and figured we’d find something else.  We didn’t have the address on line at this point and every one was getting frustrated.  Then, we literally looked up and there is was.  Perfect timing.  They didn’t have any steamed pork buns available only the roasted pork buns so we opted for that.  Literally, the best pork buns I have ever had.  Sweet and savory at the same time.  A delicious mixture of pork inside and filled to the brim surrounding by a warm crispy sweet bread.  We will most certainly be returning to this

place.  This is a picture of my Mom enjoying her bun. 

Our next stop was the vegetable store on the corner of Chrystie and Grand.  Everything you can imagine and well priced.  Across the way is the fish market.  The girls picked up two striped sea bass, cleaned for $24 and enough to feed 6.  You can’t beat it.

As always, I love an afternoon exploring Chinatown.