Chinatown, Little Italy and the Phantom makes - 3

After must technical difficulties, we decided to head out. Breakfast was sushi, fruit and hard boiled eggs. The breakfast of champions!

We had much fun taking the subway to Grand Central station. There is a gourmet market with all sorts of things there. Remember in the movie National Treasure where the gal jumps behind the counter to hide? It was one of those.

We tried some balsamic aged 7 years. Very raisiny in taste, kinda sweet. The other was only 2 years and bitter. We were thinking something in between would have been nice but there was none to be found.

From Grand Central we took the subway to Chinatown. We walked around there a bit looking at all the goods before we stopped in Little Italy for lunch.
It is very typical of all Italian restaurants to serve bread with olive oil. However, this restaurant served their olive oil with Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper. It was the best I've ever had!

Lunch was anti pasta. Lettus covered in mozzarella, prosciutto, salami, sticks of Parmesan cheese, olives, it was good! And since I was in Little Italy, I HAD to have the cannoli. Talk about good! It was the best ever! Every bite was full of flavor and delicious. Wonder if I can sneak that on the plane.

After lunch, we went back to Chinatown. You know, they eat some interesting things in Chinatown. We stopped by many open fish markets and I'm wondering...how can they be allowed to just have this food out here without any covering? There were flies landing in the food and people were buying it.
Squid, octopus, lives crabs, prawns, fish, big shrimp with the heads still on...they had it all. Just out of curiosity, I tried to pick up one of the crabs...this old woman is still spry... that fellow tried to pinch me!!!!

That reads, "Sea Cucumber, Pork Intestine, Fried Chicken Feet, Fried Duck Feet, Pork Uterus"
(dinner served)

That was interesting, but the grocery stores were more interesting. You know a pound of dried scallops is worth $70? They have these little tiny fishes, salted eye yolks, sea weed, whole duck with the head and eyes, pig stomach, duck feet - lots of duck feet, and fish balls. Go figure.

Looks like a neat house eh? It's a bank!

We went into a candy shop down there. You won't believe what these people call candy!!! We found some good stuff like rose petals, chocolate covered ginger (VERY strong), and dried fruits. Then there was the not so good stuff. Dried squid, dried, spicy cuttle fish, and the absolute worst was the dried crabs the size of your thumbnail. They might have been small in size but they pack a mighty punch to the gullet that almost made me share my cannoli with everyone there.

There is a traveling chef that said it best:
"It makes you want to cut off your tongue, rip out your eyeballs, dip your face in a bucket of lye and throw yourself off a cliff."
From there we went to the flower district. Orchids as far as the eye can see and in a rainbow of colors.
Tonight we went to see the Phantom of the Opera. Unfortunately Hughe Panero is now performing in Las Vegas so there was no melting in my seat. In fact, there was alot different.
Need to keep in mind these people have some pretty big shoes to fill. My opinion...it wasn't bad, but it wasn't as magical as before.

Inside the theatre. See that chandelier? It's going to fall right above the heads of the people sitting underneath.