Skipping South Station to explore Chinatown

It's funny, the idea of writing about South Station. Because, when I thought in my dorm room about South Station, sure I thought about trains, buses, and specifically that eight hour disastrous bus ride to NYC that I took last October, but the surrounding areas of dilapidated highways and little to no consumer activity? Not so much. So, while South Station may be the next numerical stop on the red line, this week we're going to head diagonally into the highly cultured niche that is Boston's Chinatown. Unless, that is, you want to hear about Fiduciary Trust Building. You're lucky; I'm not that cruel.



10th Stop: South Station/Chinatown



If you walk straight from the South Station T, tucked between the increasingly prevalent high rises, you will find the eclectic and increasingly steadfast district of Boston's Chinatown. In the past few years, however, a growing controversy has been mounting there. Provoked by the building desires of wealthy corporations and educational institutions, including Tufts' own dental school, the Chinatown debate centers around the abuse of high rollers taking advantage of the traditionally low income housing reserved for immigrants and families. For the moment though, the historic buildings are holding firm; on this crisp weekend morning there were no wrecking balls in sight, just the faint wafting of dim sum brunches coloring the streets.

But, even though Chinatown was not fighting the politics of an ever expanding city this morning, for the past week, Chinatown had been fighting a battle of a different nature: the effects of consumer's fright over the SARS virus which has attacked mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam in recent weeks and subsequently has raised concern toward the mainly Asian immigrant community in Chinatown.

First of all, before I say anything else -- SARS is not in Boston's Chinatown. Secondly, for those of you unaware, SARS is a respiratory illness of unknown nature, which a small percentage of people have died from that currently, has no cure.

The situation concerns Chinatown visitors so much that while I was there, I found myself in the midst of a planned visit by Mayor Menoni while eating at the Emperor's Garden (690-698 Washington Street, 482-8898).

Even while the Mayor walked from table to table and greeted happy eaters under the beautiful, cavernous, ornate old theater balcony, those dim sum carts kept on rolling, the host and hostess smiling widely at its customers. But, the wideness of their smiles and the tenseness of their brow betrayed their nervousness regarding the situation. I was glad to be there in support, even though prior to this morning I was completely unaware that there was even a problem. So, to interject a quick favor, moral plea: go to Chinatown and support the businesses. You'll be doing good and, at the same time, getting a good meal in return.

Speaking of meals, to be honest, I must say with chagrin that I only knew the names of three of the four dishes I ate because, alas, there was no menu for the dim sum (there was for regular meals). Instead, the dim sum carts would pull up next to your table, the server ask if you wanted it, and if you nodded yes they would punch your card (receipt) in a certain way.

For starters, my friend and I tried the barbeque pork bags. Wrapped in a sweet breading, the appetizers had a unique texture unlike that of any other food I've ever eaten, save perhaps a similar brunch I had this summer in San Francisco's Chinatown. We followed it by juicy shrimp dumplings, gooey but delicious sesame balls, and then mystery meat concoction that reminded me of Friday's at my high school cafeteria because it has every kind of meat from sausage to chicken wrapped in a green looking leaf. Basically, at $5 person, this was one filling and delectably satisfying brunch.

After brunch, we walked around a bit, finding such local gems as Vinhkah Trading Company (675 Washington Street, 338-9028) Inside you can get such vital items such as Lover's Tonic for Men with EXXX Ginseng ($6.50). Or, for the more practical, there were lots of colorful inexpensive lights to hang down from the ceiling that would make any dorm room happening. Finally, they had Dried Sweet Potato Slices ($1.15) For this store, describing it as eclectic would be an understatement.

Van's Fabric Discount (14 Beech, 423-6592) also was eclectic, but this time in terms of fabric selection. Every color under the sun, I tell you this place was magical. Red, purple, silver, patterned, embroidered, imprinted, metallic -- I could go on. If you ever need to make a dress, or need fabric for wall paper, anything -- come here and you won't be sorry.

Gradually we weaved in and around a few more streets. We looked in at the East Ocean City (25-29 Beech Street, 542-2504) seafood restaurant, pointing and wrinkling our noses at the colorful and tall fish tanks which housed the majority of the restaurant's made to order menu. We stopped at the Crown Royal Bakery (68 Beech Street, 338-8885) and shared pyramid cakes and chocolate mousse while watching the elusive Chinatown Bus tickets being sold to excited travelers to New York City. And then, without meaning to, we found ourselves in front of the Chinatown Orange line stop. Happy and full, we went home.