Cheaper in Chinatown

It really is a bargain although many question the items sold on the crowded streets. The young coconuts are the same as those sold in health food stores and Whole Foods and are significantly cheaper and tend to be fresher. We paid $2.00 for each one, opened up on the spot, served with a straw...the kids drank the water and saved the rest for home where we scooped out the meat and they wolfed it down. I have on occasion bought a case dirt cheap (I think $12) but then I need to lug it home so there is a downside.

This huge piece of ginger was $1 which is a deal compared to my local health food stores. Exotic fruits are in a similar price range. I usually go for a big bag of bean sprouts and pay about $1 for what seems like an awful lot, probably equal to three bags from Whole Foods.

At the bakery (yes we went to the bakery; no I did not violate the sweets bet), everything we chose was gigantic and $1 which seems cheap, a big bag for $8 but we have never set foot in a basic upper east side bakery, (certainly not Lady M for a $10 piece of cake) for comparison being not a bakery sort of people.

And the best deal of all is the actual dim sum. I ate a gazillion vegetable dumplings, we had two big plates of steamed chinese broccoli, the kids had more dumplings than one can imagine fitting in their small stomachs not to mention the stream of sesame balls, rice noodles, shu mai, steamed pumpkin buns...I am so full I feel sick...not my best nutrimommy exemplary behavior!

The one expensive Chinatown splurge for me is ginseng for tea. I am not sure if I am a sucker or if the ginseng varieties truly vary enough to warrant the price differentials but I do love wholesome ginseng as a soothing health drink that improves memory, promotes energy, decreases stress and overeating (yes, I should have had it before dim sum). Some people use ginseng to treat chronic fatigue syndrome as well because it effects the efficiency of the adrenal glands. So, in the end two $2 subway rides, and not all that many dollars later, we stumbled home full to our sick child (who is feeling better today) at home with the dad...back on the wagon tomorrow.