NYC Chinatown, home away from home

NYC has a real chinatown. None of that DC, 4 blocks of white folks, bed baths and beyonds, and sports bars. Chinatown in nyc is full of chinese people and chinese businesses. In the way that in DC i think i'm at least 40 miles from a roast duck in NYC there's at least 100 in chinatown at any one time and it does my heart well. It makes me happy to hear mandarin, which a surprisingly large amount of people there spoke. In LA there were just so many chinese people that even if i didn't go to SGV for over a month i knew it was there whenever i needed it to be. DC feels isolating in that respect.

Anyways I was gonna go to Lombardi's pizza for a slice. It's supposed to be the 1st pizzaria maybe ever, like in the entire history of the world. You'd think it'd be in italy but maybe pizza in the way we think of it is essentially an american thing in the way that what most ppl think is chow mein which was invented in SF. But alas it's not sold by the slice so i'll be back.

I actually wandered into chinatown on accident and just sort of strolled marveling at all the things i'd missed. Like quickly's. Roast ducks everywhere, Chinese people, lolz. But in all honesty it felt really good. I made plans to meet up with Karri at this place called the NY great noodle house which seems like it'd be a total guai lo place but they have duck tongue by the pound so despite the complexion of some of the patrons they know what's up. Though i did get more suspicious when a young white kid told me it was the best chinese food in dc. not to make assumptions but i question his qualifications and breadth of experience to make that call. Anyways Karri said she'd meet me at 6:30 but ended up not really being able to get there till 7:50 ish. So around 7 when i wasn't sure if she was coming I ordered some frog porridge to go. (legit cause it has frog btw) and started to go look for a quickly's that would let me eat inside After 10 minutes Karri called me saying she got held up at work but that she could meet me there. I wasn't sure how long it would take so i went back and watied outside for about 50 min and in my boredom I ate my porridge. It was pretty damn cold out but the porridge, which i filled with prodigeous amounts of pepper (how i like it!) kept me more less warm. I felt sorta hardcore standing in 30 degree weather eating porridge, which wasn't that easy cause i had to hold the bowl the whole time. I def looked at least semi-vagrant but i'm still wearing jordans so i figure ppl didn't tihnk i was totally homeless. Anyways i felt like a fuckin triad spitting the frog bones into the trashcan on the corner.

Eventually Karri did show so I ate a bowl of noodles also. They used egg wrappers for the wontons so they were a strange yellow but were overall pretty decent, though not the best i've had by a longshot. I've been craving duck since i left home so it really made my day to have some. I might buy one and take it to dc with me. Haven't decided yet because it would be pretty bad for me to eat a whole duck. But hey ducks are rare bidness in the district.

So in other news the Jordan XI Space Jams come out tonight. If you know me you know I like shoes but with jordans i'm really only into IVs and XIs so the space jams are my fav XI's. Luckily in NYC there's a lot of places that carry them. First I went to a footlocker where the line was mad disorganized. I knew there was a footaction on the next block (i swear they're the same store) so I got a guy to hold my place so i could check it out. I got his phone number and went to the foot action where you just got a number and didn't have to wait out till 11pm for the midnight release. This was clearly the better option since you dont' have to wait as long and your spot in line is guranteed as opposed to the disorganized line at footlocker where sneaky/scary ppl could easily cut you. Now i'm chilling in borders across the street till 11 then I'll only have to wait an hour. Well met Foot Action, well met.