I have left NY, but am still catching up on photos.
One of the distinctive things about Manhattan is the way it is divided up. Every big city has its CBD — but Manhattan has a financial district district from the commercial district, an then its neighbourhoods: African-American, Hispanic, a Little Italy, a Chinatown, a theatre district, then areas that seem to specialise in atmosphere — funky, or upmarket, or jazz, or arty.
It doesn’t seem to matter where it is, Chinatown looks pretty much the same. Except for the thickness of the clothing, and the external fire escapes, this could be in Kuala Lumpur…
I saw a programme about Malaysia last night, it was called Cook Abroad and the Malaysia one was the last in the sequence. I was very impressed with a couple of the towers there. The food looked amazing. The young woman visiting was a Malaysian with a Chinese heritage brought up in England. She visited family, but then she went north of KL and even to the jungle looking for "real" Malaysian food. Didn't realise hot spices were such a part of the cuisine. They kept making a very hot sauce, sure you know what it is, which was served with rice and many other things. Looked delicious. Didn't really catch the name. She also visited a temple which was started by her family, Koo, who were quite powerful in the area once upon a time. She went to an island in Penang, I think. Absolutely fascinating.
Only Chinatown I have ever been to was in San Francisco. Didn't get to stay there very long sadly. I was fascinated.
Chinese cooking is usually not very hot, except for Szechuan province, but in Malaysia everyone likes their hot spicy dishes (chillies rather than pepper). It's a culinary paradise, because there are so many common cuisines available so cheaply. All kinds of Indian, Chinese, Malay, Thai, Indonesian…
We used to go for a walk then stop for breakfast — 2 people, eating dhall (lentils) sauce with tosai (aka dosa), tea with lemon, and two newspapers — all for about $3…