Twenty-Third Week

Monday, June 7, 2010
The experience at Hon Café, 70 Mott Street, is almost the exact opposite of the Lobster Boat Restaurant, where I entered cautiously last week and exited delighted. The front of Hon Café is a busy bakery with cakes, pastries, bread and a large selection of savory buns to rush home with for your own dim sum lunch. In back is the comfortable restaurant with eight booths and three long tables seating two to eight people. Without looking at the menu I ordered combination fried rice and tea, aiming to keep it simple. The bill came to $16.66, tip automatically included. The merely okay portion of fried rice cost $9.95 when $6.95 would have been appropriate, and tea $3.50 when I accepted the waitress’ suggestion that jasmine tea would go good with the rice. Walking slowly past the sticky gooey confections in the front bakery on the way out did only a little to restore my equilibrium.
Looking over the mangoes and cherries at a grocery store on Mulberry Street, I easily spotted durian, the odorific fruit. It looks like a cross between a large coconut and a pine cone. Intact, there was no smell until I put my nose to the stem or stalk when I was able to get a slight unpleasant whiff. It cost $1.60 per pound. The typical durian seemed to weight about three or four pounds. I controlled my curiosity under the circumstances.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010
I spent most of my lunch hour scurrying around trying to add to my backscratcher collection without much success. So, I dropped into Dragon Land Bakery, 125 Walker Street, for a quick bite. This a retail bakery with about 20 stools to perch on. It sells savory items, as well as cakes and pastries. I had a tiny chicken pie and a curry beef bun. The amount of protein in each was very small, but so was the price, about $1.25 per.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
America's Favorite Epidemiologist came over to my world, literally and figuratively, this evening in order to go to Small Claims Court at 111 Centre Street. In spite of the efforts of the arbitrator, a private attorney who eases the burden on the sitting judge, we left after three hours with the matter unresolved and an adjournment date of September 13th. Fortunately, Nha Trang Centre, 148 Centre Street, was nearby on this rainy night, so we had some good Vietnamese food before heading home. The case itself isn't that interesting, a fender-bender with a taxicab, so I'll withhold comment until after the next court date or I think of something funny to say about it.

Friday, June 11, 2010
Max, the pride of Belarus, came by for lunch. We chose Italian over Chinese, but spent a lot of time walking up and down Mulberry Street searching for a restaurant that was cooler inside than the street outside. Although it was a mild day, the humidity was high and I needed to find a comfortable spot to enjoy lunch. Even if the restaurants had their airconditioning on, they had their doors wide open to lure tourists who were very thick on the ground. We found a table near a big floor fan in a pizzeria and shared a pie. Max came to the USA in 1993 and we have attended Mets, Rangers, Knicks and Giants games together. However, he remains a skinny kid, not yet ready for professional eating.