Aaah... The Smell of Chinatown in the Morning

A trip to the doctor would rarely be associated with pleasant thoughts. However, having my doctor's appointments scheduled in the morning and when she's in her Chinatown office makes the visit just a tad more tolerable. In the morning, Chinatown feels more like Nersesian's New York--before tourists eclipse its heart and soul. The smells of Chinatown, both pungent and aromatic, bring a sense of melancholy that I can only attribute to a sense of oneness with the city.

And what better way to bond with the city than to make friends with its food. Although I have bought both the brown and the white buns from Mei Lei Wah, I've never actually sat down to eat at the place.

So I walk in this morning and I immediately felt like I was walking into a Wong Kar-Wai film. With its renovated interiors, the bakery now has booths. This morning, almost all the booths were occupied by only one diner each who most likely had a coffee, a brown bun and a Chinese newspaper, all facing the street. All patrons seem to have been transported directly from Hong Kong or Mainland China to NYC and seemed like they were regulars. Taking my own booth, I also get the $1 coffee (which is not bad at all) and the 80-cent brown bun. However, although I was the only female patron at the time, I was to have the biggest meal by also having a wonton noodle soup. I'm forever in search of good noodle places. And I was pleasantly surprised to find one of the best noodle soups I've ever had, in a bakery of all places. Theirs had the thin egg noodles that I prefer; the wontons actually had pork, shrimp, and flavor; and the broth was so good I actually sipped every last drop of it. Although extremely simple and common, this particular meal was much appreciated and carried me through the freezing temperature throughout most of the morning.

This morning, Chinatown felt more like a small town where people stop to chat, have coffee, read a newspaper; rather than the monster that it becomes towards the end of the lunch hour. Never was it so pleasant to have three vials of blood taken out from my veins.

Photo from http://uktv.co.uk