Dim Sum!

Yesterday we needed to get takeout before picking up daftnewt. We also wanted a teapot and a kettle, so I steered us for Chinatown, despite it being past 7pm when we got there.

The supermarket was closed, so we went past and got take-out from Mandarin Garden As befit my evil plan, Mandarin Garden serves a (limited) dim sum menu at all hours--which when we cracked it 3 hours later, was still quite nice. Har Gow (shrmp in rice dumpling), lotus paste bun, roast pork bun (steamed buns, as we disvoerred, microwave quite nicely), etc.

Of course, we still didn't have a kettle, so I suggested we do dim sum today as well. Grand Harmony's dim sum still kicks all kinds of ass, even at 2pm -- rice noodle shrimp and har how, of course, but also taro roast chicken dumplings (cold, but nice), a bizarre but good turnip and fennel dumpling, a superb rice dumpling with spinach and shrimp, a lovely triangle pastry with sweet roast pork inside (more a desert, regardless of the fact that it had meat), a large spinach dish, and coconut gellatin with beans in it. Mostly didn't even have to go hunting wayward carts.

Mostly.

We got a kettle, too, but that's another story.

Alice's Tea Cup

Oh, my.

daftnewtwas unimpressed by Edgars, particularly since he was in a tea mood (and J. So I did a little bit of googling on my phone, and sent us careening toward Alice's Tea Cup -- on 102 West 73rd, near Columbus (and over half a mile away).

It was worth the walk, and then some (a fine thing, as it also set the three of us back a good $90, including tip). What I'm told, by our tea-drinking guest, was an excellent selection of teas (and having sampled all three, I'm inclined to agree, but I've not a fine palate in the matter; I certainly enjoyed them). The sandwiches, scones and melted chocolate cake we ordered were also quite extraordinary. The hot hot chocolate wasn't bad, but wasn't as good as the tea by a long shot and only had a hint of the spice that was promised, if that (otoh, it was cheaper than the tea).

We'll be back.

After a lovely looking nighttime walk through central park, we're in the Mac Store, where I'm buying a macbook 13" foam case for my Lenovo x300 (the "air-killer", whose adverts now talk about "the others are all full of hot air", and which is quite lovely, though I can't deny that the Macbook Air's a sexier-looking machine).

I had the image of, when I pulled out the X300, of a customer staring at me in horror, and saying "you brought -that- in this holy temple? Sacrilege!" and having to flee the store in a death defying chase up the glass staircase from an angry mob of macaddicts, fending off thrown I-pods with the case of the Thinkpad, and eventually have a fending duel with mac ninjas wielding razor-sharp Airs. If I did a webcomic, this image would probably wind up there -- but as it is, you'll have to imagine it.