Soup Dumplings

Andrew's back in Australia now. He had a big family and friend sendoff on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, as are big families.

Now that I've finished my Harvard application, I can finally enjoy being back in New Jersey. So, one of the first things that we did was head to NY on Sunday to see Mike, Jeffrey, Regina, my brother. Michael Roston stopped by and met us for a bit too. Jeff has been in NYC for a week now for a conference for the American Symphony Orchestra League. He's been going to all sorts of concerts and events, like a concert with the Met Orchestra conducted by James Levine at Carnegie Hall. They got to talk with the conducter after the concert.

Meanwhile, Rich, Regina, Jeffrey and I were enjoying soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown. Soup dumplings have been the rage in NY for a while. Shaped like regular circular based dumplings, they are instead filled with hot broth in addition to the pork filling. To eat, you must carefully remove your dumpling from the plate, and place on your soup spoon. Wait for it to cool down, and take a small nibble into the dumpling skin; simultaneously, sucking up the soup inside the dumpling before it dribbles all over it. Try it!

Afterwards, we walked around, visited the gigantic Whole Foods that Michael Roston calls the Whole Mahal after the Taj Mahal for its size. We headed back to Mike Vea's place to watch old Sex in the City episodes and order Papa John's pizza. My brother brought back some dessert, and we headed back to New Jersey. It was a nice day to just hang out with friends.