Little chewy bundles of treasure. A lifetime of memories, wrapped, crimped, shaped, fried, steamed, and boiled, whatever your method it’s gonna be good.
I’m reminded of my grandmother’s kreplach when I was ten years old. Nothing better, anywhere. Or the “dumplings” I had recently; baked crispy-crunchy pâte brisée with apple puree and Stilton cheese.
No matter what, we’ve all got a warm & fuzzy “feel-good” connection to one type or more of excellent dumplings. It’s the less-than-excellent dumplings ya gotta watch-out for.
Which brings me to today. Woke up before 7am; easy to do when you’ve just flown eastbound, crossing 6 time zones. With my trusty (and never-used, by the way) Epi-Pen in tow, we made our way down the bleary-eyed elevator ride to the ground floor to dig-in and get the day started.
I tried a bit of everything, starting gently with some steaming-hot strong coffee, cottage cheese 
(who really eats cottage cheese on vacation? I mean, really! Me, I guess), eggs, way too many sausages, juices, anything I wished. Like a kid in a candy store. Ok, like a kid at a breakfast buffet. I digress.
Today would be a multiple-mile walkabout throughout the Little Italy and Chinatown districts for a food-forward Friday, gearing-up for the big deal food market in Williamsburg Brooklyn the following day with our dear friend Elissa. More on that in next post… oh dear, there’ll be some SPOILERS there!
First off, the cannoli, perhaps even more than gelato, the penultimate Italian sweet treat, right? The best ones, hands-down, in New York City, are at La Bella Ferrara (not at the famous “Ferrara’s” – be sure you get the ones at the one down the street – with the “La Bella” in front of it.
Who can turn down a whipped, creamy, sweet and cheesy filling, piped inside a crunchy cookie tube, with a few mini chocolate chips hiding inside, and dusted with pistachio nuts and powdered sugar? Oh, the Italian (American?) cone of love!
A little while later I see a group, looking strangely-familiar to me. I said to Lin, “Looks like a food tour!” And it was. Run by a nice guy named Bruce (http://walkingtoursmanhattan.com).
I asked Lin to walk up to Bruce and brag (I mean, “inform”) Bruce who we represent, and he said, “C’mon, follow our group, it’ll be fun.” So, in a way, we crashed another guy’s food tour. So, let’s see how they do it here in New York’s Chinatown, shall we?
Bruce introduced us to his guests as “the Hawaii Food Tours people” and that was that. We tagged along like a couple with a wicked case of the munchies. We made our way to “Fried Dumpling” on Mosco Street, complete with a funny story about the lady who runs the shop.
Bruce interjects, That was all I needed to hear. Wound up eating about 10 of these all to myself. *Burping in Chinese* {That’s a compliment, right?}
Anyway, I was fortunate enough to shoot a few moments of video inside the shop for you to look at below…
Big, *Explosive* Day Tomorrow… stand by…