in New York's Chinatown you see change you also see continuity Chinese people tend to
be very communal Chinese food is not about just eating to fill up the stomach it is
about the location where people share that joy aid the memories the stories it's a place
where people keep that connection there really isn't a particular dish you can
use to describe Chinatown because Chinatown is so diverse in many many dishes I have in mind
I came here off from Hong Kong 1966 we so mostly in multi cultural a product Philippines
Thailand Indonesian quite a bit and a little bit of from China the people in Chinatown
they're smart they're witty the lifestyle he is really high so fast go go go go I like
Cantonese food Cantonese food is one less straightforward no gravys less gravy let's
put it that way in the very very beginning decades ago chop suey egg foo young was something
that was actually imagined when you ask Chinese people they actually never try these dishI
never tried one! This restaurant has been around since the twenties in the early part
of the century we were a hard for people coming in from China talk about the old times and
taking packages here my uncle while you start working here as a dishwasher in nineteen seventy
four he became the owner of it it takes a dim sum chef decades to really master all
the dumpling making all the marinades all the steaming and the buns in Cantonese dim
sum tradition the whole notion of Yum Cha It means drinking tea when you go to a dim
sum restaurant you don't eat those teeny little dishes you sit there for a period of
time to savor the tea reading the newspapers sharing stories in the neighborhood it is
a conduit for people to hang out with one another
Chinatown has changed a lot there were a lot of gang wars back in the 70s they ran through
the streets with guns and at one point Chinatown was very quiet because of that nobody want
to walk through Chinatown at night in the years after nine 9/11Chinatown Palais got
closed off from the outside world because we're so close to ground zero Chinatown is
always ever-changing I think Chinatown has adapted over the years I love Chinatown it's
my home China town remains China town for very good reason if I have to describe China
time we've only just one word resilience