01 Apr 09 Part 2

Well we made it to Chinatown in the end after a bit of confusion as to where the hell we were when we got off the Subway at Canal St (no, not that Canal St). It turns out that what we thought was a station in the middle of Chinatown was actually on the edge (the one time the guidebook map has let us down) and it was about a 6 or 7 block walk to the restauranty area which is why we'd made the trip.

Eventually we started to come across some restaurants and down a side street (as if there is such a thing here!) M spotted a Vietnamese place that looked pretty full. We made our way inside and were instantly treated to some jasmine tea. After some mulling over the menu S decided on a chicken noodle soup to start followed by "Table Grilled Beef with vegetables". M went for shrimp noodle soup followed by grilled beef with vegetables and angel hair noodles. This combination seemed to give the waiter a bit of a start, which gave us the impression that we had massively over-ordered (nothing new there!).

Upon arrival the soups were rather large (as expected) but extremely tasty, and about half way through the waiter arrived with a camp stove with a grill attachment! Once we'd finished the soups (or half finished in S's case who had decided that it was preferable to leave some room for the main!) a plate of thinly sliced raw beef arrived and was placed in front of S with some vegetables and rice paper. Soon after M's grilled beef arrived with noodles and dipping sauce. The waiter fired up the stove and fun of cooking our own beef wraps began! All in all a very tasty evening.


We had a bit of a wander around Chinatown before trying to find a Subway station to head back to the Y. We are now just finishing off the packing so that we are ready for our bright and early taxi to the airport and off to our next stop, Toronto where we will be writing the next installment of this gripping adventure!