an open cupboard

Wandering around Chinatown one evening, I happened upon the Feast of San Genarro, a noisy street fair on the cusp of Chinatown and Little Italy. I’d heard that the Feast of San Gennaro was once a charming event celebrating the Neopolitan heritage of the residents of Little Italy. Sadly, the festival is now a kitschy spoof of its former self. Throngs of people wander from one identical street to the next, surrounded by a mass of vendors all noisily hocking the same cannolis, calzones, and irritating pop music. It all looked so commercial, I didn’t even feel like eating a cannoli. Who knows, the cannolis might have been good. On the other hand, they may have been just as bastardized as the Feast.

On I went, away from Little Italy and into Chinatown. A lot of stores were shut, but many restaurants and some markets were still open. I walked into what I thought was a hole-in-the-wall food shop, which, like Mary Poppins’ bag, turned out to be a quite an extensive Chinese market that was much bigger on the inside that it looked on the outside.

The market is basically a long, wide aisle, stretching from one street all the way through to its parallel. Either end has a take-out section with food rivaling that of any local restaurant. The left aisle has a series of meat, seafood, and confectionary counters, while the right aisle is filled with cured meats and fresh and frozen produce, meat, and seafood. Naturally, I couldn’t resist photographing as much as I could. There’s something satisfying about capturing on flashdisk the smoked duck legs for which you’re lusting. Though not quite as satisfying as actually consuming said foods.

Fresh bao at the deli counter. I believe these are stuffed with shrimp.

The deli section between the fish and meat counters offers “beef tendon balls,” meatballs, “fishballs,” and “fish meat bean curd” balls.

Dainty fresh fish fillets and steaks at the fish counter (I wonder what the “silver fish” tastes like?).

Prawns, shrimp, and very large fish.

Raw and fried chicken feet.

Honeycomb tripe. According to Wikipedia, this might be steamed and served with spring onions and garlic sauce, for example.

These preserved duck feet bunches are in the cured meat section of the store.

Preserved quail in the cured meat section with butchers hanging out behind the meat counter.

Smoked duck legs, smoked bacon, and Chinese sausages.

The sign says “Preserved Duck Head” but they look more like duck necks.

Scrumptious looking goodies ready for take-out.

I’m really curious as to what exactly a turnip cake tastes like. Is it savory? Sweet? I probably should’ve just bought one and put it in my carry-on.

Lotus seed buns, red bean buns, and muffin-looking rice cakes in the bakery section.