Chris and I switched our usual drop-off/pick-up routine today because I have a 4-6pm work meeting scheduled. So I got up earlier to use the gym, shower, and get ready to take Pookster to school this morning. The plus side of this is that I was able to make a couple stops for food/grocery in Chinatown without having to take Kaia back with me. So I went to my favorite fresh tofu/noodle shop to buy some pressed five-spiced tofu (they’re usually closed by 4:30-5pm when I arrive downtown for pickup), stopped by a popular street cart for some freshly steamed rice noodle rolls with cha siu and egg, picked up some just-churned soy milk from Yi Ji Shi Mo, and also went to Hong Kong Supermarket for some ginger, cilantro, and scallions.

Hong Kong Supermarket’s sign says they open at 9, but I thought I’d stop by while waiting for my fresh noodles to be made at the cart right outside its doors. They were actually open, but all their fresh produce trucks had not yet loaded. I asked one worker if we’d have fresh scallions today, and he asked me to wait a minute so he could grab some for me right off the truck. He delivered on his promise; it was in my hands in minutes. The next funny thing that happened was when I asked for cilantro, and another worker said he’d (once again) get it for me right off the truck. A few minutes later, he came back with the largest, fluffiest, freshest bunch of cilantro I’d seen in New York in ages.

“This is the freshest bunch,” he said with a huge grin on his face. “Take this one!”

I thanked him and headed to the cash register to pay. As soon as I got there, the cashier looked at my cilantro bunch oddly and said it was too big. I didn’t initially understand: what did she mean? I just took what the worker gave to me. She asked for her boss to come, and he took the bunch, split it in two, and asked me if I wanted both of them. So I took one, paid, and left.

I really like being in Chinatown in the mornings. It’s a bit quieter in general, but there’s endless fresh food being made, as well as endless fresh produce just getting off the trucks. The mornings are when all this fun action like this happens that I rarely get exposed to!