One New Thing: Congee in Chinatown and Zeppolis in Little Italy

Today I snuck out of the apartment and escaped downtown to try congee for the first time. And what better place to try congee, outside of China or Hong Kong anyway, than Chinatown? Congee is a chinese comfort food, a type of savory rice porridge that people yearn for when they miss their mom. After hearing so much about how good it is, I had to taste it.

I met up with Kim and we went to Big Wong. Everybody raves about this place because of the excellent food and because it is really cheap. And it really is both of those things! A big window full of hanging barbequed ducks and strips of pork greets you when you walk in, and almost as soon as you place your order the food starts piling up on your table. We tried roast duck, roast pork in rice crepes, and seafood congee. Everything was really good. The congee was a little hard to get used to. I'm used to porridge being paired with sweet things, like brown sugar and and raisins... so the peanuts, cilantro, and seafood were a little different, but also really good. I could see myself starting to love it.

We also lucked out because it happened to be the feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy. So after pigging out at Big Wong, we headed over there to get Zeppolis--which I had never had, but Kim said were delicious. And they were! They are big, puffy, fried pieces of dough coated in powder sugar. Yum. Elephant ears will always be my favorite, but my heart is big enough for Zeppolis too.

So two new and delicious things today--congee and zeppolis. It was a good Sunday!

-Kristin