Cappuccino Thoughts 70: On Chinatown [Neighborhood Guide]
+ best bag sale week ever, a Challengers-inspired outfit, and reading Dopamine Nation
New York’s Chinatown is a special neighborhood. My friend K., who works with a Chinatown nonprofit, once said that you can live your whole life in the neighborhood—there are preschools, medical care, community centers, libraries, a panoply of restaurants, and retirement homes, all packed into under a square mile. I feel like I’m still discovering Chinatown, but I’ve been lucky to have had a few days exploring with Mandarin and Cantonese speakers, which also helps unlock more experiences. I recently spent a wonderful day in the neighborhood with my current friends/former coworkers, which this day has been slightly adapted from.
A Day in Chinatown:
Start at Kam Hing Coffee Shop for warm sponge cake in flavors like green tea, ube, and pandan, for about $1.50 each. Pair it with a cappuccino from The Granddaddy. This is also a good spot at which to work (good wifi) or hang with friends.
Walk over to Yu & Me Books. This is one of my favorite bookstores in Manhattan. They have a great selection of books, mostly from the Asian diaspora, and the community vibe is so warm. They also host a number of author events. I was so pleased to see their reopened location following their fire last year.
Catch a yoga class at Sky Ting, a beautiful loft space that can only be described as vibey. Or, if art’s more your thing, step into Happy Medium, an “art cafe for casual artists.” I’ve spent many a lovely evening here with special people, and they have open studio time during the day. It’s very low stress and is one of the few places where people seem totally immersed, without a phone in sight. They also just opened a Greenpoint location.
My current favorite is to grab a pineapple-crusted roast pork bun at Mei Lei Wah. Being from San Francisco, which actually has the largest Chinatown in North America (!), I admit that I find SF’s Chinese food far superior. But this is the best pork bun I’ve ever had.
If you’re still hungry, grab a snack of sweet tofu with sweet red beans at Fong On, a family-run restaurant. Give it a try!
Walk around a bit more and peek into all the little stores. There are also a few small parks that are nice for taking a break and reading for a moment. Then head over to Yan May Foot Spa for a respite. You’ve earned it!
For dinner, hit XO Taste, a classic Chinese spot with a broad selection. Noodle Village is also a great, quite cheap spot serving—noodles! On the higher end of the price spectrum, Dr. Clark is a very lovely and elegant Japanese restaurant, but it’s a bit $$$.
Finally, end the night at The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I really like the lychee and taro.
And that’s it! Any Chinatown spots I missed? Reply back to this email.
Updates on the bag brand
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Last week my wonderful and talented friend L. photographed the latest batch of bags!
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The vibe was iconic New York.
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The bags have never looked better! This week was also my best sales week ever :). Lots going on at Bag HQ. If you want to shop the new collection, it’s available now.
Look of the week
This outfit of the week was sent in by reader L. in San Francisco. She posits that this outfit was influenced by the new movie, Challengers and its tennis aesthetic. I love that the navy Converse and oversized sweater give the demure pleated navy skirt a bit of edge. A very nice look for an early morning coffee run.
What’s on the bedside table
For a book club, I read Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke. I was initially skeptical as I generally prefer fiction to nonfiction but this was a real page-turner. Lembke’s thesis is that people today are overwhelmed with access to quick dopamine hits that can devolve into addiction. They can come in the form of alcohol, drugs, sex, but also phones, work, and even things that are meant to be good for us, like ice plunges. I found this to be a pretty eye-opening read about everything from parenting (shielding kids from hard things is doing them no favors) to pain (pain and pleasure come from the same place in the brain and have to find equilibrium) to anxiety (you have to run even harder towards the things that scare you the most). I would highly recommend for everyone to better understand the role of distraction and dopamine in your life and in society.
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