Touristy Thing #44: Day in Chinatown

Mott St

I have a love-hate relationship with NY's Chinatown.  Coming from Seattle, where our humble Chinatown spans over a 3-block radius, it was a shock to see how HUGE Chinatown is here in NY.  If you're in the downtown area for other touristy activities (City Hall, Wall Street, Bowling Green, etc), you're only about a mile away from Chinatown so you really have no excuse not to visit!  I love walking around Chinatown in the winter time.  The cold somewhat suppresses the smell of the fish/meat market and garbage.  Plus, the cold is a great excuse to stop by the stores and look at the cute gloves, hats, and ear muffs.  Oh, great place for cheap souvenirs too!

When one of my friends came to visit earlier this month, we ended up spending almost the entire day in Chinatown.  

Part I: Dimsum 

The Golden Unicorn is a really popular dimsum place in Chinatown.  Apparently the really great, yet affordable dimsum places are in Flushing, but that is a long, long way from downtown NY.  Golden Unicorn spans over 3 floors.  I'm not exactly sure how they coordinate among the different floors and the host in the lobby, but they sure seat people quickly. This place gets PACKED on the weekends.  Unlike other smaller dimsum places, where you'll spend most of your time tracking the lone dimsum cart and waiting for it to make its way to your table, each floor has numerous dimsum carts floating around.  

Nom Wah Tea Parlor is another neat dimsum place in Chinatown.  It's much smaller than Golden Unicorn, but more memorable.  It gets packed too (see a pattern?).  While waiting for a table at Nom Wah, I read an article about the restaurant and the history of Doyer Street.  The current owner is a young business grad who decided to take over the family business instead of getting a job on Wall Street.  How can you not love a restaurant with this much passion and history?  Another thing that I learned about Chinatown in NYC is that the people here speak even LESS English than those in other Chinatown.  One thing I noticed in the restaurants is that if you're Asian, they will speak to you in whatever language they please, supplementing it with gestures and English words as necessary.   

Part II:  Sketchy tui-na/foot massage!

Next on our stop was Foot Heaven.  If you like dive bars, where you drink beer out of styrofoam cups, you will appreciate this place.  This place looks somewhat sketchy, like the other tui-na/reflexology places in Chinatown and all around NY.  I can't quite describe why.  Maybe it's the dim lighting.  Or the "no hanky panky" sign posted at the entrance.  Or the neon signs.  We've been here twice and the ladies are super nice (I think they also have guy masseuses).  For $45, you can get 30 minutes back massage and 30 minutes foot massage.  If you can get past the neon signs, the thin walls/separators, and the semi-clean sheets, the massage is FANTASTIC.  Bonus: they're open late.

Part III:  Hong Kong Tea

From Yelp

To cap off our little trip through Chinatown, we grabbed a cup of tea at Cha Chan Tang. I LOVE the special ice milk tea.  Ok, maybe there's not really anything special about the tea, except that it's just sooo good and it comes in a cute bottle and bucket 'o ice.