One of Santa's cute little helpers

 Couldn't resist posting this one.

It turned out to be a family day for the family c. Originally the plan was to have dimsum with Gmom's mom (PP) but PP decided that since she was having dinner with her sons, that's more than enough merriment already. Oh well...

So we dimsum'ed anyway. This time we headed towards 8th avenue, which is a blast from the past for us since we haven't been there in at least 2 years. Even Gmom hasn't been there in a long while. We headed for the restaurant we usually go to for dimsum only to find that it is now a bank. Thankfully another place further away from the 8th avenue hubbub still serves dimsum. As expected it was crowded. There was a line outside the door. Thankfully we got there a little before the crowd really started to come in. g and s like dimsum. The restaurant actually served dishes that we haven't seen ourselves (like durian wrapped with noodle...doesn't even sound like a good idea, does it?)





I am not sure what this stuff is called but it is good and didn't stand a chance with g. It seems to have been made with some sort of tapioca soft shell that has the consistency of fruit snacks and stuffed inside were 3 different kinds of custards (egg, lotus paste and mung bean). It was really delish that we ordered 2.

So this is before:


And this is a picture of g sucking the insides out:


After a hearty meal, we strolled (more like fought) our way to 58th street for a bag of rice. The crowd, the lack of respect of personal space (heck, the lack of personal space) - all remind me of home. It made me a little homesick. I think I will always miss living close or in a chinatown despite the attendant noise and grime associated with it. I know I look back at it with much nostalgia but I do remember distinctly being annoyed at the fact that my brothers and I never really had a place to play. All we had was a little bit of sidewalk.

The kids retired at Gmom's home while G installed a cell repeater. After that we went to dinner. Another Chinese joint, of course. Then again, I love Chinese food.