Chinatown is the best town

I had a rare free day last Friday and decided to make the best of the warmth and celebrate the new year (Chinese new year that is, hi rats!) with a trip over to Chinatown. I love Chinatown. I think its the closest you can get in New York to being in Europe. Yes, even over the green markets. Chinatown is raw and involves cash only and pushing and yelling and really, really making sure that that baby bok choy is the one you want.

I'm a big Grand St. person. It might just be because it is close to my favorite dumpling place (Dumpling House, which has, sadly in my mind, newly remodeled itself so that now there's seating and therefore more ...well....white people. And it's clean, which is so not fun. But still delicious none-the-less) or maybe it's because it has better fish markets than Mott st, etc. And less people selling things to you. It's much more authentic in my opinion.

One of my favorite ways to pass time is by staring at all the different sea items and trying to guess what the heck they are and what you would ever do with them. I tend to stick to the basics, though one day I'm sure a gooey duck will catch my eye and I'll be adventurous.

On Friday I got this:

Groceries!

Blurry Shrimpy Close-up

All for about seven dollars. There's a pound of head-on shrimp (I couldn't tell you exactly what kind, there were many), a pound of my new favorite green (again, I don't know what it is but it's kind of broccoli rabe ish but not quite), some sort of mushrooms (it's becoming clear to me that I really don't ask many questions), around a pound of grapes (there was a deal on cherries, two pounds for three dollars, but I couldn't justify two pounds of cherries so I went with grapes instead), a tomato (not a great one, but they're insanely out of season), and a can of coconut milk.

Awesome.

Here's something I made with some of the stuff:


It's inspired by a recipe I saw while flipping through an old Saveur but with some of those green things added. I overcooked the shrimp a bit, but over all still good. And if you're wondering, I ate it all. That includes the heads and the shells. I like the shells. I don't know why. Just call me a human garbage disposal or really, really eco-friendly. I like that better.