Day 13: An Evening in Chinatown

I traveled to Chinatown with my international student buddies for dinner and touring. I don't have much footage because I forgot to charge my camera and its battery was dying, but I still think I did a decent job. First, we had Vietnamese cuisine at a restaurant called "Yummy Viet", I think the name was. My student and buddy got caught in a traffic jam while riding the bus to Chinatown, so we got there late and we were very hungry. One of the students let me eat her beef pho noodles while she ordered something else. The broth was sweeter than what I'm used to, but I enjoyed the dish. The beef was tender and tasty, unlike another soup I've eaten that had beef that resembled shoe leather in both taste and toughness.

Afterwards, we toured around Chinatown. We passed by numerous bars (though we didn't drink) and explored the night market. Gosh, that place was packed! There were so many people that I was bumping into someone else constantly. Even so, it was fun to see all the stuff people had for sale. Chinatown was also lit up like Christmas Eve because the Lunar New Year is next week. There were tons of horse decorations and lanterns that lit up the streets. For the Chinese, the Lunar New Year basically is Christmas, so that makes sense.

We stopped for dessert at a tiny little restaurant that specializes in local desserts. We got to try dessert soup, yam pudding, and some sort of jelly cake. I didn't like any of those, but I did like what I ordered: mango snow ice. Snow ice is made by freezing milk and other ingredients and then slicing the blocks into thin shavings. It kind of reminded me of a smoothie or slushie, but colder, and you eat it with a spoon. Mine also had chunks of mango on top. The dessert basically solidified mango as one of my new favorite fruits.

Once dessert was done, we headed back. I kind of wish I could have filmed more, but that was my own fault.