Hey all,

About a year ago I had won a trip to NY City and in a week or so we are
off to check out the Big Apple. My time is fairly limited, but I plan
on spending a day in Chinatown and Little Italy. I want to pick up a
bunch of wares and tea from Chinatown, and I know many of you on this
NG are from or know about NY. Can anyone help guide me to a few "must
stops" and what to buy there?

My main goals to purchase:

Pu-Erh
Green Tea (Sencha, Gyokuro, Kukicha)
Oolong (a variety)
a few black teas
A glass gawain
Some clothing/sandals (male and female)
I'd like to go to a chinese herb shop and have them ask me some
questions and make me a custom brew (I saw this on TV once)
The best place for real Peking Duck
The best place for a big bowl of real ramen soup
I'd like to find an Italy soccer jersey
and I'm sure my fiance will want a knock-off Gucci or Prada purse

....Other than that, anyone who has any suggestions or things/places to
go and see please feel free to offer them up.

Thanks,
Dominic
Drinking - going right now to make my morning cuppa.

questions and make me a custom brew (I saw this on TV once)

Custom brew of what? Like medicinal tea or something? I could
probably get you a recipe or something if that's what you are
interested in. It mostly involves different types of plants/grasses,
maybe some bones or something, and fresh ginger. This type of tea is
called "liang cha" (凉茶), and it sorta a special thing in Guangdong
and HK.

I don't know about the viability of the medicine, but if you consume
large amounts of ginger, it will do well for your health.

Mydnight wrote:
questions and make me a custom brew (I saw this on TV once)

Custom brew of what? Like medicinal tea or something? I could
probably get you a recipe or something if that's what you are
interested in. It mostly involves different types of plants/grasses,
maybe some bones or something, and fresh ginger. This type of tea is
called "liang cha" (凉茶), and it sorta a special thing in Guangdong
and HK.

I don't know about the viability of the medicine, but if you consume
large amounts of ginger, it will do well for your health.

Hello Mydnight,

Actually I am pretty well-versed in edible plants and herbs. I have
seen in NY's Chinatown where they have Chinese herb shops that are like
visiting a doctor. The "doctor" asks some questions to find out what
you are trying to achieve/heal and then brews a small teapot of a
number of herbs distilled down to a pretty potent and strong concotion.
And then they include all of the herbs used in a bundle for you to
continue it on your own for like a week.

I have seen this in Guangzhou, and we have Chinese herb shops where I
live, but not with any consultation/explaination involved. I do not
really believe that I will have some miraculous benefits, it is more
just the experience and also to see what they end up deciding on and
why. I do believe that very long standing herbal remedies that have
endured the test of time do have some credibility, such as many ancient
Chinese remedies as well as Native American cures. And I love ginger
and make a "tea" of sorts of fresh ginger root when I am sick.

Thanks for the info though, I will research "Liang Cha" further.

- Dominic

I'd be interested to hear if the place that you end up in has any
Ling_2 zhi_1. My mother-in-law tells me that it's very good for
allergies and colds, both of which I suffer from on occassion. It
looks like a big, dark brown platelet mushroom, and is often dried such
that it sounds like plastic if tapped.


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

Alex, thanks for the post - I didn't realise it had an alias!

I am grateful for your warning, and that seems to match my experience.
There are cases of "black wood ear" fungus being dyed black with toxic
dye in my wife's province, and I know that aggressive (and toxic)
bleaching of "white" flour is not uncommon. I don't think that I'll
ever understand someone who can directly inflict suffering on someone
else just to make a little more money. Is that wide-screen TV really
worth poisoning people?


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

I have seen this in Guangzhou, and we have Chinese herb shops where I
live, but not with any consultation/explaination involved. I do not
really believe that I will have some miraculous benefits, it is more
just the experience and also to see what they end up deciding on and
why. I do believe that very long standing herbal remedies that have
endured the test of time do have some credibility, such as many ancient
Chinese remedies as well as Native American cures. And I love ginger
and make a "tea" of sorts of fresh ginger root when I am sick.

Thanks for the info though, I will research "Liang Cha" further.

- Dominic

Ya, Liang Cha is sort of a Guangdong speciality. It goes along with
the CTM idea of hot and cold foods and their effects on the body.
Because the weather in Guangdong is so hot in the summer, and some
people say that the Zhujiang River's water is also hot (太çƒ*æ°”...too
hot), they usually drink the "cool tea" (liang cha 凉茶) to "cool
down". This is one thing that I always found strange about Guangdong
and HK: the other parts of China don't drink the liang cha like they
do here. They have several chain stores that sell quick cups of the
stuff in case you need to "cool down" on the road. The other parts of
China sell the tea concoction only in medicine shops and is only
imbibed when the person is ill. Matter of fact, I seldom heard
"çƒ*æ°”" (re qi...blood too hot) in other parts.

Just sorta an oddity, I guess.

Mydnight wrote:
Ya, Liang Cha is sort of a Guangdong speciality. It goes along with
the CTM idea of hot and cold foods and their effects on the body.
Because the weather in Guangdong is so hot in the summer, and some
people say that the Zhujiang River's water is also hot (太çƒ*æ°”...too
hot), they usually drink the "cool tea" (liang cha 凉茶) to "cool
down". This is one thing that I always found strange about Guangdong
and HK: the other parts of China don't drink the liang cha like they
do here. They have several chain stores that sell quick cups of the
stuff in case you need to "cool down" on the road. The other parts of
China sell the tea concoction only in medicine shops and is only
imbibed when the person is ill. Matter of fact, I seldom heard
"çƒ*æ°”" (re qi...blood too hot) in other parts.

Just sorta an oddity, I guess.

Thanks for all the info. I actually found one of the TV shows I had
watched about it on on my TiVo the other night. It was Martin Yan's
cooking show (either from his Chinatown series or the new Quick and
Easy series). He was born in Guangzhou, and he takes a trip back there
and goes to a really old looking herb shop where he gets a consultation
and the herb brew custom made for him and for his jet lag. It is from
an episode on tea which is why I Tivoed it, the tea portion is pretty
cool too. But it is light on specifics. You can see some really nice
Pu-Erh cakes in the background and some tourists drinking tea for over
$100 a cup.

I also had seen another travel type show where they were in NY's
Chinatown and did the same thing... ever since it has been a goal of
mine. It is an oddity and kinda cool in my opinion.

I'll see what I can find... my luck I'll get some lead-based spray
painted mushroom and die. Thanks for adding the element of danger and
worry to my dream

- Dominic

Mydnight wrote:
maybe some bones or something,

It wouldn't be medicinal unless it had bones in it. You know when
Shang dynasty oracle bones started turning up in fields in Henan, the
farmers who found them thought they were dragon bones, so they ground
them up and drank them as tea.

I'd actually really like to see a recipe for Guangdong liangcha if you
can get one. I shy away from drinking stuff like that off the street
because of the sanitation aspect. I'd also be interested to hear more
about the idea that water from different sources has different qi
qualities. What waters are considered good for brewing tea, and how
can you tell what a water's qi is like?