Eating My Way Thought NYC Chinatown.......

A few weeks ago, I took a food related walking tour in New York’s Chinatown. It was hosted by Foods of New York http://www.foodsofny.com/ I have taken two other tours with them, all are good but this tour was very good. Our guide was fun, personable and very knowledgeable. He also hosts a Central Greenwich Village / SoHo Food and Culture Walking Tour through Foods of New York. I plan to walk with him again.

Welcome to Chinatown.......

The visitor’s center on Canal near Mulberry.......

My tour started here......The subway is near by.....

From here a short walk to Mott St,turn right,continue on crossing Pell and Bayard  to Chatham Square….
Mott, Pell, and Bayard were the original three streets that formed the core of Chinatown in the mid to late 1800s.

Our tour started here..........Lots of history.....

The arch below at Chatham/ Kimlau Square was erected in memory to all Chinese Americans who fought and gave their lives in defense of freedom and democracy. The arch/square was named for 2nd Lt. Benjamin Ralph Kimlau, a World War II aircraft commander of the 530th Squadron.
He was shot down near New Guinea.

Located  nearby on a tiny triangle of land, is the First Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Shearith Israel. Consecrated 1656.

The statue above is Lin Ze Xu (Lin Tse-hsu), the Qing Dynasty official who was sent to Canton to stop imperialists from forcing opium onto China in 1839 . Events of which led to the Opium War, the Treaty of Nanjing, and the ceding of Hong Kong to Britain. He was from Fuzhou, China and the statue faces East Broadway. East Broadway is sometimes called "Little Fuzhou" because of the recent influx immigrants from Fuzhou, China. He watches over his people.

Our first stop....

Dumplings have an interesting history. They were invented by an herbalist as an easy way to deliver “medicine.” Dim Sum, which translate “to touch the heart” were also a popular food on the silk route. They were originally steamed over a pot of tea. There are two styles: push cart and Hong Kong. The latter are made fresh to order. Dim Sum a GoGo focuses on fresh low starch dumpling. They do not have a refrigerator a freezer.

The only Michelin rated restaurant in Chinatown........

Our first course.......

Steamed dumplings…counter clockwise....

The green dumpling is filled with crab, shrimp, chive and jicama.

The next is veggie, filled with asparagus, ginger and soy bean. Note the crescent shape.

The pink dumpling is coloured with beet juice and filled with chicken thigh and jicama.

The round one is shrimp and chive.

And lastly the best duck dumpling I have had. Also crescent shaped but with a top fold.
Each dumpling type has its own unique shape.

The condiments…….

Scallion with ginger

Sweet and sour- oil with vinegar and chili

Reconstituted dehydrated shrimp and scallion with ham and chili

Next stop "the bloody angel.....

Doyers Street….just a block long but with a long history.

Half way down this one block street it makes an abrupt 90̊ turn. It was also the location of many bloody tong and gang wars. Where the post office is located was the home to a Chinese opera house. It was connected to the actor’s residence in the Bowery by a series of tunnels. Apparently they ran home to change costumes. The tunnels were also used as escape routes for the tongs and the gangs. Today they house the homeless.

Today the street is lined with hair salons and barber shops and is known as hair alley.

It is also home to Nom Wah Tea Parlor a 88-year-old icon of Doyers Street.

I went there years ago...... Ok dim sum old chinatown decor...

Good soup dumplings.......

It is all they serve and they do it very well......

The decor is sleek and modern.....

Duck, scallions, sauce and pancakes......

Ready for folding.......yummmmm

Just lots of fun....

They also have a resident herbalist/doctor and

cats. The fine is less for cats then rats…

Dried abalone……

Ginseng………. Much of it from Wisconsin….

Shark fin and ginseng…..

One of the oldest family owned bakeries in Chinatown………..

Chopstick educate.....

 If you are eating from a communal plate, use the butt end to serve, the thin end to eat…..

We stopped here for warm scallion pancakes…..

Roast pork anyone ......It was really good

Our last stop.....

For tea and dragon cake from a bakery across the street....

Day of the dead chocolate shop.......

Todos Santos Chocolates and Confections in Santa Fe NM is just too much fun. The shop’s name means “All Saints” was inspired by owner Hayward Simoneaux’s love of Mexico’s Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos).

Mexican cut-paper hangs and a plethora of goodies hang from the ceiling, total kitsch hangs from the branches of a tree, Muertos (Day of the Dead figures) are in full force, as are many other truly fun items. Just scroll down and have fun…….

Did I mention they sell chocolate......

They are tucked away in a garden plaza in the Sena Plaza just off the Plaza and near The Shed. The garden is worth a visit also....

Todos Santos Chocolates and Confections

125 East Palace Avenue #31, (505) 982-3855

Bandelier National Monument........Home to the Original Hole In The Wall Gang.......

Another must do while in Sata Fe, MN is visit to Bandelier National Monument, named for Adolph F. A. Bandelier. It was created by volcanic eruptions over a million years ago. Its human history dates back over 10,000 years to nomadic times. But in approximately 1150 Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) people began to build more permanent agrarian settlements above and along what became know as Frijoles Creek. (The same happed in Europe; hunter gathers built agrarian settlements next to sources of water.) The caves and ruins of the dwellings have survived.

As a result of a severe drought (approx.1550) the Anasazi slowly moved from the Frijoles to the Rio Grande to establish new separate pueblos. (Cochiti, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, and Santo Domingo) Some moved north, others south along the Rio Grande. But as a result of split their languages and traditions developed differently.

What caused the split? My guess is people move with social networks, similar/like people and establish core groups.

In 1880 Jose Montoya of Cochiti Pueblo brought Adolph F. A. Bandelier to Frijoles Canyon, (named by Bandelier) to show Bandelier his people's ancestral homelands. He spent most of his life researching the area to a point of annoyance to the locals.

President Woodrow Wilson officially named Bandelier a National Monument in 1916. Most of the work (much of it by the Civilian Conservation Corp) to create the park's infrastructure was finished by 1941. During World War II the park was closed to the public to house Manhattan Project scientists. Los Alamos National Lab is near by.

Bandelier National Monument rests on the slopes of the Jemez Mountains, with an altitude range of 5,000 feet at the Rio Grande to 10,000 feet at the peak of Cerro Grande.

Again our tour was with Great Southwest Adventures
http://swadventures.com/index.html

Our first stop was Black Mesa. It rises one thousand feet above the plateau and dominates the area. It is a major geographic feature of the Colorado Plateau. This extensive plateau rises to about 8,000 feet at its highest point.

Above and below, the Rio Grande. It originates in Colorado and flows through the San Luis Valley, south into New Mexico and passes through Espanola, Albuquerque and Las Cruces to El Paso, Texas, where it begins to form the natural border between the United States and Mexico.

 

Note the cactus, some of which are in bloom

Layers of Colour....

Sandstone cliffs.......

The cliffs, above surrounding Bandelier and in the Monument are volcanic tuff. Tuff is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption.

Cave dwillings along the rode to Bandelier National Monument.......

http://www.nps.gov/band/index.htm

The Main Loop Trail provides access to the main archaeological sites in Bandelier National Monument. There is evidence of people being in Bandelier National Monument area that dates back 10,000 years.

Frijoles Creek (El Rito de los Frijoles or “the little river of beans,” is a permanent stream. It is one of the few places on the Plateau where water flows year round. The stream provided water for drinking and cooking, and also encouraged the wide range of plant life and diversity of wildlife. The Ancestral Pueblo people settled in Frijoles Canyon and built stone dwelling.

The canyon walls are volcanic tuff formed by two eruptions of the Jemez Volcano........

Lichen…….. The lichen fungi cultivate partners that manufacture food by photosynthesis. Sometimes the partners are algae, other times cyanobacteria formerly called blue-green algae. Some enterprising fungi exploit both at once. Some glow in the dark.

One of many petroglyph..........

These cave rooms, classified as cavates (CAVE-eights) by Edgar Lee Hewett, an early archeologist, were dug out of the cliff wall. Even though the tuff is soft it would have been quite a task to carve them using only stone tools.

Cane Cholla , a cactus found thought the area.....

In flower, this one has gone to seed; it is even lovelier.......

More Cave Kiva

The averadge hight of men was 5'6'', women 5 ft.  Still a tight fit for a family.

The bat cave......Until recently migratory bats from Mexico returned here.

 Most cavates had stone rooms built in front of them.  The foundations are seen here.  They used the the clif as a supporting wall.

Rows of viga holes indicate the level of the roofs of the structures built in front of the cavates. These small dwellings would have had mud-plastered walls and floors

This cavate would have had narrow beams jutting from the ceiling for loom supports. Small depressions in the floor indicate the location of anchors used to keep the weaving straight. Although today both men and women weave, traditionally ceremonial weaving was done by men.

Homes of the Ancestral Pueblo people were not confined to Frijoles Canyon. These walls belong to the village of Tyuonyi (chew-OHN-yee) located on the canyon floor. It is only one of several large pueblos located within Bandelier National Monument. Ancestral Pueblo people lived across the Pajarito Plateau and had cultural links with the people of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. Certain building construction techniques suggest knowledge brought from those distant places.

The remaining walls of Tyuonyi....... One to two stories high, Tyuonyi contained about four hundred rooms and housed approximately 100 people. A central plaza contained three kivas. Access to the village was through a single ground-level opening for easy defence.

I just happened to like this out cropping..........

The canyon wall, as seen from the valley floor..............

This underground structure, called a kiva (KEE-vah), was an important part of the ceremonial cycle and culture. It was a center of the community, not only for religious activities, but also for education and decision-making. Unlike our secular world, there was no separation of church and state in Ancestral Pueblo culture. Religious belief was a thread woven throughout their daily lives. The essential passing of knowledge and faith from parent to child occurred within the stone walls of a kiva.

A plant bed, the rocks were used to hold in the water…..

Yucca, a member of the lily family, was an extremely important native plant. It supplied food in the form of blossoms, fruits, and roots; fiber for weaving sandals and rope; soap and shampoo from the roots; and the ends of the sharp, pointed leaves made excellent needles for sewing. Onions are also in the lily family......interesting......

At the end of this day we went to Sleeping Dog for a munch and a brew.....
Went back for lunch..............
American Kobe Beef Burger on brioche roll............
And a microbrew......
http://www.sleepingdogtavern.com/