How Exotic

So I met D and L at the subway station, and we took a train out to Flushing, Queens, which has a big Chinese community.  For lunch, we ordered some dried, smoked tofu with celery; a salad of bamboo shoots; sliced fish soup with pickled cabbage, some dan dan noodles, and some spicy beef.  It was all pretty delicious, and we couldn’t eat it all.

Then we went to Hong Kong Market, which is a grocery store.  D and L were pretty deliberate; they wanted to see every product in every aisle.  I was happy to accompany them, but I have to admit that after living in the Rainier Valley, Asian supermarket wasn’t that exotic for me… not to mention two years in China.  Nonetheless, it was reassuring to know that stuff is all here, if I need it I know where to find it.  I was tempted to buy a teacup for V, and a mortar and pestle for myself, but ended up walking out with only some dried mangos.

We went to a bubble tea house after that, the kind that has tea and fried snacks… sat around for a couple hours and talked about life.

We took the 7 to Jackson Heights and walked up and down Roosevelt Avenue, which is like a Latin American theme park, lined with Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Colombian, Ecuadoran businesses, shops, and restaurants.   I was tempted to buy some tamales on the street, but we decided to try arepas…  When we got ours, it wasn’t stuffed the Venezuelan way… and they told us they were Colombian, so their arepas got toppings instead of stuffings.  They were good, and the folks at the arepa shop were charming, as Colombians tend to be.

We turned the corner and suddenly everything we saw was Indian.  We ended up at an Indian grocery store, where we ran in to A.

From Jackson Heights I took a train to Canal Street, and walked the rest of the way through Downtown Manhattan.  As I walked through the canyon of mid-rise buildings, with light from empty delis and discount stores spilling into the streets, it occurred to me what a scenic day I was having.  Nothing in Shanghai seemed as interesting.

I got home and hung out for a while, and at 10 pm I went out to the Rattle & Hum to meet M and P to watch the Husky game.  When I go there, M and P had already met, and I met P’s friends A and J.  The game was a heartbreaker; lost it in the last minute.  So then we all said goodbye to M and got corndogs and hotdogs at Papayadog.  Then walked to Japas 38 for some karaoke.  There was a lot of sake going around.  Shared a cab home with A and J, and was home by 4am.

Woke up late this morning, and was able to chat with kiwi J.  Good news is he’ll make it to Cuba; bad news is he won’t make it to New York.  It was a longshot to begin with, but I had been looking forward to showing him around.  That said, it is a relief to know for sure that he’s not coming; I can save my vacation days and make different plans.

Later, met A on the subway platform; we hadn’t coordinated, but she was waiting right at the very spot so that when my train stopped and the door opened, she was right there.  She didn’t believe me when I told her I planned it that way.

We took that F train to Jay Street, and then were told to get off the train and get on a shuttle bus; the rest of the train track was under construction.  I have to say that the New York subway is the most complex system I’ve ever seen; much more complex than the Paris, Mexico City, or Shanghai systems.  On weekends, lines change, close or are cancelled without notice.  It reminds me of the shifting staircases in Hogwarts.

Anyway, we found the Draft Barn on Park Slope, a Hungarian bar with way too big of a beer selection, and some awesome Hungarian food… lots of sausages that were really kick ass, schnitzels, and pub grub.  Made it in time to sing Joyeuse Anniversaire to V, and meet all of her and M’s friends.  Nice folks.