Last Saturday we drove into the city for the Chinatown Food & Culture Tour. This makes the third tour that we have taken with Foods of New York Tours. We did the Greenwich Village tour last year around this same time, and when my sister was here visiting in June we did the Chelsea Market tour. This time we invited neighbor Kim’s mom, Bea, to join us as she loves Chinese food and Kim does not! Of course, it was one of the hottest days in the heat wave that we’d been having.

We left early since our tickets said they did not recommend driving because the area was very busy and congested. It took us exactly one hour from our door to pulling into the parking garage. So much for leaving plenty of time! I think going on a Saturday was helpful because we encountered no problems.

Right from the start it was obvious we were in Chinatown. Everything was in Chinese! Of course it was in English as well, but the English was very tiny.

We were to meet our guide in Chatham Square (now also known as Kimlau Square) which turned out to be a short walk from our parking garage. It’s a very busy intersection with roads branching off from every aspect.

This statue of Lin Zexu stands in the square.

photo by Rick

Our first stop was Dim Sum Go Go just off the square.

At first look it appeared to be a fast food place as the name sort of implies. When I walked up to the window to look at the menu I saw lots of Michelin awards—one from every year for excellence. Once inside our guide directed upstairs to a large table overlooking the street and square. Air conditioning, yes!

I didn’t know that literally translated Dim Sum means “from the heart.” I also didn’t know that the first Dim Sum were created as a packet to hold medicinal remedies by a village doctor as an easy way to dispense medication to the sick. It later became popular in tea houses as a way to serve food to bring more people in.

Here was our first round: steamed Dim Sum. The white one that is crimped on top like a clutch purse is a duck dumpling; the pink one is a chicken dumpling (and my favorite of this group!); the round white one was a chive and shrimp dumpling and eaten last as a palette cleanser—very fresh and bright.

Are they not tiny works of art? Everything here is made to order. Nothing is ever frozen.

Our second round was a fried pork dumpling (in the back) and the very delicious steamed roast pork bun (the very white one). Yummy! (The dumpling in front half eaten is my chive and shrimp from the last round. I was slow eating.) Our guide described the wrapper for the roast pork bun as being a kind of extremely dense Wonder bread, so it was not a dough like the others were.

After this I was pretty full but I knew there was quite a bit more food to come. From here we did a short walking tour to help digest our food.

Chinatown was apparently a very seedy area of town at one time. Gang wars, opium dens, bordellos, gaming dens, saloons, etc. Doyers Street was famous for gang wars because of it’s abrupt turn. Anyone hiding around the bend could not be seen from the street creating a great place for an ambush. I love the streetlights here—they are shaped like lanterns.

There are also lots of underground tunnels in this part of town, now most of them blocked off and unused, that were used as quick and dirty exits from all the nefarious activities that once took place. We went down in one that is now taken over by businesses and shops in what is pretty cheap real estate.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor has been around since the 1920’s. Our guide told us that Woody Allen loves to come here every Wednesday.

We also learned that not everything is as it appears to be in Chinatown. This “restaurant,” The Gold Flower, is right next door to the tea parlor. However, it is not a restaurant at all. Behind those doors lies one of the trendiest bars in New York City: Apotheke!

According to our guide who has been there, all the staff members wear white lab coats and they claim to “serve prescriptions daily.” Prescriptions in this case being cocktails to match the mood you want to be in. The drink menu is creative and varied and the cocktails are listed under these categories: Health & Beauty, Stimulants, Stress Relievers, Pain Killers, Aphrodisiacs, Pharmaceuticals, Euphoric Enhancers, Therapeutic Treatments and House Remedies. Sounds like a fun time to me!

Another building masquerading as something it is not is this one at 37 Mott Street, “Mei Dick Barber Shop.” Don’t go here to get your hair cut. This is really a poker den.

Our next stop was Elite Health Products, a shop selling all kinds of Chinese herbs, teas,  and a colorful array of all things ceramic for tea. There were many strange things in large clear glass jars. Abalone, dried sea cucumbers, swallow nest, ginseng from Wisconsin (of all places). It turns out that Wisconsin has better ginseng than China does! Imagine that!

 

 

Now that we had digested our dim sum we were ready for our next food stop:

Once we were seated in this lovely little restaurant our guide proceeded to tell us the behind the scenes story of how they prepare the duck from start to finish. I won’t go into the whole thing here, but I was unaware of all the special preparation that went into making Peking Duck, Peking Duck. The quick and dirty explanation is: “First, air is first pumped into the duck to stretch and loosen the skin, and then boiled water is repeatedly spread over the bird, which is then carefully dried. The dried skin is rubbed all over with maltose and the duck is then roasted in a hot oven for a period of time until the meat is tender and the skin crispy.” I think there is a lot of controversy about how the birds are raised, like there is with foie gras. If you want to know more about what happens before it arrives at your table looking like the photo below of ours, follow this link.

Don’t be put off by the head and neck still being on the bird. As it turns out there was some sort of law in New York years ago that fowl could not be frozen with the head on, so leaving the head and neck on the bird was one way to prove your bird was fresh. The law is no longer in place but the tradition goes on.

It was carved table-side. First the crispy prized skin, then the meat.

 

He then folded the duck (crispy skin on top) along with cucumbers, scallions and a hoisin-based sauce into homemade pancakes. Delicious! I am getting hungry just telling you about it!

Then it was a walk around the streets to just look and observe.

 

 

 

 

Next stop was the ABC Restaurant where once again we sat down in a lovely air-conditioned dining room and more delicious food: a traditional Cantonese Roasted Eggplant dish and the yummiest fried rice I have ever had. By this time I was getting very full and wishing I could have eaten more but space was limited!

We sampled some iced plum tea at Ten Ren’s Tea Time and browsed the tea selection. Some were very pricey!

 

Our one and only sidewalk tasting was dessert. While our guide Burt ran across the road to Hon Cafe to pick up our Tiger Roll, we stayed in the shade under the awning of Ten Ren’s.

And so, with the consumption of our final tasting, our delightful tour of Chinatown was complete.

I hope I’ve inspired you to visit on your own or take the tour yourselves some day! I know we are going back very soon!

 

It’s hot! Temperatures in the 90’s with heat indexes well into the 100’s. Whew! Here are just a few ways some of us are coping.

Sam’s idea is to stretch out his body as far as he can for maximum cooling.

Alex’s advice is to stick your head under the tablecloth while eating outside to shield your face from the sun. Also lay with your back legs spread in frog-style to keep the belly cool.

And here is the best way to cope that I know of. Stay inside in the air conditioning until the sun goes down. Jump in.

The Panama Canal is a must-see for anyone visiting Panama City.  I even went twice: once with Rick on our first day there since he would not get another chance to go with full day meetings; and once with the wives as part of a sightseeing tour. Each time I learned something more about this amazing feat of construction and engineering. Alas, somehow I got home without my little pamphlet with all the facts. Boo hoo! Now I’ll just have to go on memory and whatever facts I can find online to fill in the gaps. However, much of the information online does not include what I learned about it! Kind of strange ...

The Panama Canal opened in 1914 after many grueling years of construction. Laborers arrived from all over the Caribbean islands to work on the canal, and today you can see that “melting pot” in all the faces of the people of Panama. Not an easy task whacking your way through mosquito infested jungle and dredging out all that land. Thousands of people died during those years, and mostly from mosquito borne diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. The poor French (who started construction of the canal before it was turned over to the Americans to finish) made their situation much worse by assuming that the deaths were coming from disease-ridden rodents instead of the mosquitoes, and put the legs of their beds in buckets of water to keep the rodents away. Instead, they were creating a breeding ground for the very thing that was killing them.

From the balcony of our room at the Playa Bonita Resort we could see the ships lined up and waiting for entry into the canal each morning. By early afternoon they would all be gone and the next group of ships would start queuing up for the following day. I later learned that as each ship arrived it was given a number in the queue.

The Miraflores Locks are the best place to see the locks in action. They have a tourist center there complete with a viewing deck, informative museum, a short film about the history of the canal, and a restaurant.

From the viewing deck you have a bird’s eye view of the locks. There are two sets of locks, side by side to allow two large ships passage through at the same time. Here is a container ship in the far first lock.

And another ship preparing to move into the other lock.

The container ship has the help of a “mule” (heavy duty small trains that run on a track next to the locks) to keep it centered in the narrow space so it doesn’t hit the sides. See the guide wires running from the mule to the ship? I really wanted the job of driving one these mules. It looks like fun! You know me—Ms. Heavy-Equipment-Operator-Wannabe.

Meanwhile, while the container ship is in the second lock, the other ship makes its approach to the first lock with the help of a tug. Can you imagine trying to line up a huge ship to fit into a space just wide enough to hold it? I have a great deal of difficulty just trying to parallel park for pete’s sake!

And here is the container ship in the second and final lock along with its tug, and then leaving the lock on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Here are some more shots of the tanker as it comes into the first lock.

Almost in the first lock completely.

It takes about 12 minutes or so for the water level come up to completely. That is incredible considering there is no pumping done—it all works magically by gravity alone! Think of all that water! They rely on the plentiful rainfall they get to replenish the man-made lakes that they made to “run” the water for the canals. Trust me. They get plenty of rain!

Here’s a photo just to show you the scale and how big these ships really are.

Rick made this short video of the tanker coming into the lock.

Traffic is one-way through the canal. Usually in the mornings the ships move from South to North, or from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side. The locks close for several hours midday to allow the passage of the ships through the narrow Gaillard Cut which is only wide enough for one ship to pass through. Then the locks are opened back up and the ships are let through going the opposite direction. Only about 12 or so large ships go through each way, each day. 24 ships is not really a lot when you consider how popular the Canal is! When they can they put other smaller boats in with the big ones. I don’t really want to be on one of those small boats in there with some big ship!

It takes about eight hours for a ship to make the complete transit through the canal. Here is a map so you can see the route.

Transit through the canal may save a ton (no pun intended) of money in fuel (compared to going around the whole continent of South America), but it doesn’t come cheap either. A typical toll for the average container/tanker is around $200,000 per transit. The highest toll ever paid goes to a Norwegian cruise ship that paid $450,000 one-way. The lowest toll ever collected was in 1928 from a man named Richard Halliburton when he swam the canal for 36 cents.

Let’s face it, the canal is showing its age. What the average size of ships was in 1914 is no longer true today. Many of the bigger ships being built today simply do not fit. Work is underway to complete a new set of bigger locks and is due for completion around 2014 or 2015. This will allow more ships—and bigger ships—to pass through.

Now you just might be wondering how skilled a pilot you have to be to navigate your ship through the locks? Every ship that passes through the locks has a certified Panama Canal boat captain board their ship prior to their approach of the locks and pilot it through. Pretty cool, huh? With an annual salary of $85,000 it’s a coveted career in Panama. Here is a class of young pilots taking a break from their studies.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your transit through the Panama Canal! I’ve tried to tell you everything I learned or remember about the canal from my two visits there. I’m sure I’m forgetting something but I didn’t want to weigh you down in details. I hope that you learned some things today that you didn’t know before!

I found this great time lapse video of a complete transit through the canal.  Take a few minutes and watch it. Enjoy!

 

Or here is the link.

Those my thoughts yesterday as I bobbed around the pool. What a perfect day for it! Blue sky, hot and slightly humid, cicadas starting up. The pool temperature was perfection! Here is Rick before I nabbed his hat.

We did get up early though and go into the Warwick Farmer’s Market. It’s a great drive in Mia over all the back roads.

 

The rest of the day was spent around the pool. Here’s to lazy summer days!

Side note: I know it’s not the Panama Canal but at least it’s something!

Really, I do. I need something or someone to kick start me back to blogging on a more regular basis. Every time I sit down to compose the entry on the Panama Canal I end up staring at my brand new HD computer screen. No words come. I end up playing one of my “hidden object” games instead and zone out for an hour or so. What is wrong with me? Summertime blues? Sheer laziness? Maybe a little of both. To quote one of the blogs I read every now and then, her excuse for not blogging was that “I guess I am living the life instead of blogging about it.” That about sums it up for me, but mine is pretty boring.

My camera is gathering dust. I did go to the Botanical Gardens a week or so ago and what you see in this entry is the result of that visit. But there wasn’t much to aim the camera at and I threw away all but a few of the photos that I did take. I am in a rut there too.

Yesterday I read a book. One whole book in one whole day. (It was a light read.)

Let’s see ... what else have I done?

Last week Rick and I went to a “gala” reception at the Lincoln Center in New York City. We got dressed up, had a nice dinner and then went to the event. A lovely night! Going in to the city is always exciting and fun. Such energy in those sidewalks filled with people!

At home we’ve been enjoying the pool which is now above 80 degrees and very comfortable. It’s not even the weather that is making me lazy as the days have been sunny and warm. Delightful. Our last rain/thunderstorm was a week ago.

The fireflies are far and few between now but the cicadas have started up ever so slowly. In fact, as I type there are two going out there now. Ah, the sound of summer.

We have at least three bats in our winnowed-down bat population. They swoop and dip over our heads when we take our nighttime swims. It’s good to see them.

The turkeys bring their cute little babies around almost every day—the end result of all that turkey sex in my front yard this spring. Sometimes just one of the hens with her brood will show up, while other times it looks more like a turkey day care center and all ten or so of the babies.

I also went with neighbor Kim this week to see a litter of six week old Irish Terrier puppies that they will getting a new puppy from. The breeder was halfway out on Long Island and I have to tell you that it’s a nasty drive! Yikes, I won’t be going out there again anytime soon. The traffic! The puppies were adorable though and it was nice to breathe in puppy breath and talk dogs again.

We also had a six o’clock a.m. visitor yesterday. We were still asleep when Alex started barking downstairs. It is not his norm to bark for no reason, so I got out of bed and looked out the front window. Nothing. Rick got up and took a look around too but he also didn’t see anything. After laying there for a fitful twenty minutes more I got up and went down to feed the dogs and cats. I looked out on the back deck and saw that one of the planter boxes that was on our deck railing had been knocked down and the poor petunias were out of their pots, the nearly indestructible Squirrel Buster Plus bird feeder pulled around in an abnormal position, the iron hanger it was on slightly bent. Okay, a bear for sure. A pretty brazen one too to come onto our high deck. It’s only happened twice before in our five years here that we’ve had bears on the deck. It’s not a good feeling. I have to say that I am more than impressed with this bird feeder. Not only do the squirrels not bother it but it held up to the bear mauling with not a scratch!

So, I go to feed the cats and eBay is nowhere to be found. I call her, searching high and low but I can’t find her. She is always ready to to eat so I figure something must be wrong. Finally I hear a tiny mew coming from the laundry room. When I pull out the washer, there she is. She ventures out very tentatively into the kitchen. She peeks around the corner into the sun room and out to the deck where the bear was with her eyes wide and her tail all puffed up. Aha! She saw the bear too and it scared her so badly she was hiding from it. Poor kitty! So, the bird feeder comes in at night and when I am not at home.

One of my daily routines is to water all the outside plants before taking a shower, check on the pool temperature and add chlorine every other day. I slip on a pair of shorts and t-shirt and head out with the watering can. It’s a nice way to start the day, especially with the weather we’ve been having. I don’t even mind if the humidity is high that time of the day. Bella usually helps me with this particular job. Every other day or so I’ll tip all the water out of her wading pool and refresh it. She loves this! The minute I start adding fresh water she’s in there wading around, scooping up mouthfuls of the cold water straight from the well.  I’ve also gotten into the habit of letting one of the dogs come with me out in the front as a special treat for them. No leash, just hanging out with mom while she waters. I check on the progress of the figs daily and I have to say I can’t wait until we can eat them.

You never know what you might see while watering. The little clearwing hummingbird moths have started hovering around as I water. I just love them! While I was watering the deck flowers the other day I found this moth clinging to the petunias. Isn’t it pretty? I have never seen this particular kind of moth before so I looked him up. I think it’s some kind of Sphinx moth—possibly a Virginia (hog) Creeper Sphinx Moth. No matter what it’s name is, it’s beautiful.

For those of you that I’ve talked to over the past week, I apologize for re-hashing all this boring, trivial stuff about my life again. Ho hum. Which brings me to another topic of conversation. I have no idea who is reading this blog anymore other than family members and a few close friends and those of you that comment from time to time (thank you Debra, Maggie & Joyce!). I get numerous “junk” comments every single day that I have to delete which is very disheartening. You should read some of them! They always include a link to whatever website selling some garbage. I am so very tired of them. It’s long been in my mind to make this blog private and if Rick can figure out how to do that without too much trouble on the part of anyone then we will do so. If you still want to read all you will have to do is sign up to be a member. You don’t have to comment, you can still continue to read as you’ve always done. The only change will be that not all those crazies out there will be able to read things about my private life anymore. Because this blog really is about my daily life. But, that’s all in the future and hopefully we can make it happen.

Okay, so I’ve sat here long enough this morning filling this entry up with boring tidbits, neglecting my watering duties which are calling me, so I will close this entry now. If you are still awake after reading this, bless you. Hopefully this will kick start me to finish my vacation blogging. Check back in a day or so to find out!