Bok Choi Brooklyn

Fruit, vegetable and fish markets plus dim sum restaurants, pastry shops, music stores and friendly locals make a trip to Brooklyn's Chinatown a sensory immersion.

Quick Tips:

- Try durian, the large hard-shelled fruit covered in short spikes. The Chinese believe it's unique smell and taste is an aphrodisiac.
- Eat DIM SUM! Jade Palace is my favorite pick.
- Stop into one of the fish markets and take a look at all the unique seafood swimming in crowded tanks. It's like taking a trip to an aquarium taht would leave animal lovers reeling!
- Implement the walking in NY tips I recommend in the feature article, Cross the Street, See the World.

Best Way To Get Around:

Brooklyn Chinatown is located on Eighth Avenue between 68th and 52nd Streets (approx.). Take the N to 59th Street or the B9 to Eighth Avenue and 65th Street.

Driving is absolutely NOT recommended. Traffic is heavy, cars are triple parked, parking is non-existant. If you do drive, try to park on Ft. Hamilton Parkway or Ninth Avenue.

Take a number when you walk in on a weekend morning. The restaurant "MC" will call your party in about 20 minutes.

While you wait, watch as families sit at large round tables, pointing at dishes rolled by on carts by waitresses in red dresses and white knee-highs. Conversations will bounce off the ornate dragon sculptures and red velvet walls. Steaming pots and plates will fill the large dining room with the warm aromas of authentic Chinese dim sum.

A quick tip if you're looking to impress your Chinese friends:
When someone pours you a cup of tea, take the index and middle fingers of your right hand and tap them on the table. This is the Chinese way of saying "Thank You" for tea.

This cafe chain could be considered the Chinese equilavent of our Starbucks. Their speciality is an assortment of teas mixed with interesting flavors like taro root, coconut and sesame seed, then topped off with little black tapioca balls you suck though a fat neon green or red straw. Teas come hot or cold and can be enjoyed with Taiwanese appetizers.

Red money envelopes left over from Chinese New Year are strung together in interesting oragami shapes, then hung from the ceiling where they flutter when the door opens and bring good luck to all the chinese tea connoisseurs.

Frogs in a bucket, eels slithering around each other in cloudy fishtanks and rows of fish scales shimmering in the sunlight.

This is what you'll find at any one of the fish markets in Chinatown. Many different varieties of fish, including catfish, eel, and trout are stacked up on top of each other, either in tanks or on beds of crushed ice. PAtrons can point a finger at the fish that looks perfect for that evening's meal and a worker will grab it from the tank with with a net, hit it with a large, flat knife and begin scaling and gutting it right there in front of you!

The vegetable markets are less intense, instead offering a myriad of green, purple and red fruits and vegetables to choose from. You'll also find lesser-known fruits, like Dorian for sale. Be sure to ask how this fruit is eaten- and what it smells like once opened. If not, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise...

As you claim a shopping cart outside of the Hong Kong Supermarket, you'll notice colorful glossy posters advertising Asian Night at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and Tsingtao Beer offered by surprisingly voluptous Chinese women. Once inside, you're in for a treat...

Red paper dragons and lanterns hang above tiny dried fish and oysters (which are re-cooked later, not eaten instead of pretzels while watching Cantonese operas) and rows of imported drinks, vegetables and cookies fill the long aisles.

Light Chinese music plays over the loudspeakers as the many shoppers, who rarely speak English, buy fish, meat, mushrooms, duck eggs and Chinese sodas for the week. For a taste of cuisine alla China, check out Hong Kong Supermarket.

There are many stores on Eighth Avenue that cater to the children and teenagers of the area. In these shops, you'll find an assortment of Hello Kitty products, teen magazines, novels, CD's and toys. These imports help to maintain the traditions and familiar icons of the Chinese culture alive.

Drive or walk down 58th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues and you'll be immediately assaulted by blow-up Easter bunnies, Santa's reindeer or a Halloween ghost.

The owner has been recognized by New York State Senator Vincent Gentile as an avid contributor to the community. His shrine was built in hopes of surviving cancer. Positive mesages like, "Don't do drugs, someone loves you" are writen on styrofoam boards and placed among the saints, prayer cards, angels and decorations fop whatever holiday might be coming up. Whether it be St. Patty's Day or Mother's Day, there's always somehing to see.

John's cancer is in remission.