Year of the Pig

I was down in Philadelphia for a gig last Saturday, and walked around for a while in Philly’s Chinatown. It had all of the standard Chinatown fare that you would have in New York, but a decidedly mellow flavor by comparison. You can actually stroll around at leisurely pace and not get trampled, and I like that. We walked into a Chinese Bakery because my friend Dave wanted to get one of those weirdo tapioca tea drinks with the super straw that my mom loved when I made her try one in Chinatown NYC a couple years ago:

Anyway, while I was waiting I perused the assortment of Chinese baked goods, you know, pork buns and bean doughnut thingies, etc, when what caught my eye? The PORKIN DOG! Certainly a great name and one damn fancy Chinese Hot Dog. Yowzers! Hmmm, most definitely a bargain at the low, low price of 60¢. Dave sported me the money, and we walked out with our very own Porkin Dog. When Dave had sucked down his last tapioca ball with an abrubt sloink, we tried our fancy dog. It had that unmistakable ultra-sweet Chinese dough with those nice little hotdoggers all arranged in that fun little clover, and topped with little soft onion bits and scallions. Hey, what can I say, it was a pretty good fancy hot dog.

We walked around a little more, enjoying the pleasant mild Summer Solstice weather. There was a dinky street carnival going on. While we looked around a bit I looked up to see a window with some (presumably clean) red, white and blue briefs hanging out to dry. I thought that
would make a nice image. And ain’t it nice to know that the residents of Chinatown, Philly are so patriotic!

PS–Can I just say from my limited times visiting Philadelphia, I think its a great city. Go Philly! Don’t forget to get a Philly Porkin Dog when you visit.