All the Food in China Town

For several months I have been familiarizing myself with China Town.  Were it not for its proximity to DNA and my nit-picky diet (nondairy, low/no gluten, pescatarian) necessitated by an irascible stomach, I may never have made the pilgrimage.  Asian food is easier for me to eat, hands down.  So back in August I started wandering up and down Canal Street after Sunday dance classes.  Then I gradually learned to forage down Elizabeth Street to Grand.  I marvelled at the beautiful fish on display:  The hunks of tuna five inches thick!  The salmon fresher, fattier, and cheaper than anywhere else in the city! The lobster priced at 3 for $28!   The tiger shrimp meatier than my fist!  Oh, if  only I could learn how to cook the blue crabs!  If only I could figure out the whole fish!  These days I yearn for a bamboo steamer.

And then there is the rice (no gluten!):  jasmine rice, sweet glutinous rice, sushi rice, black rice, red rice, multi-colored confetti rice.  So many choices and I can only try one kind at a time, multiple bags being too heavy to carry on the  subway back to Wash Hei'.

And have I mentioned the sauces:  soy sauce (most of which I shouldn't eat due to the wheat involved, but I salivate nonetheless:  dark, sweet, light, black, premium, and my favorite, eaten sparingly, thick soy sauce paste), oyster sauce, scallop sauce, Hoisin sauce, Japanese ginger dressing, white miso, red miso, yellow miso, and whole aisles I'm just beginning to discover. Today, I must have looked at all the soy sauce labels in Chinatown until I discovered Nuoc Tuong Thu'o'ng Hang Seasoning Soya Sauce made without wheat (go Vietnamese cuisine!)

And finally the bakeries:  fried sesame balls, need I say more?  Forget dairy-laiden desserts like cheesecake and icecream, one fried sesame ball and I'm satisfied.

Sometimes life's challenges lead us down roads we would otherwise never have known, where unexpected joys await.  Today, China town was decorated for the lunar New Year.  Red and gold lanterns, fish, dragons, gold coins, and red envelopes waiting to be filled with money hung in the stores and cheered up the cold wintry evening.  And I thought, this is an experience I would never have enjoyed had I not needed a different way.  The anger that had sometimes plagued me dissipated. The present moment gently hugged my shoulders.  This moment was not fearful, not worrisome, but simply existed along with the other moments that had preceded it, and the ones that would follow.