An Afternoon Market in Chinatown, Jake

Perhaps nowhere in the city are produce vendors more prevalent than in Chinatown. The bustling neighborhood, whose heart lies at Canal Street and Bowery, is riddled with small stands selling parishable goods at absurdly low prices. On a stretch of Forsyth Street just south of Canal, starting at 3 p.m. seven days a week, vendors sell goods brought down from the Bronx that they've purchased in large quantity. This bulk-buying is why the price tags are so low, and the droves make their way as soon as the trucks roll in. We stopped by recently to check it out.

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Joe's Red Shanghai Farm

It wasn't so long ago when Chinatown was the best option for Xiao Long Bao, aka soup dumplings.  You would turn off Canal onto Mott Street and then walk until you came to that movie-set, ripped-right-from-Hong Kong street named Pell.  You turn left and find Joe's Shanghai halfway down the block.

Restaurateur Ed Schoenfeld and chef Joe Ng have introduced a detour to that Chinatown route.  You'll find their soup dumplings a bit further north at RedFarm in the West Village.  The newish restaurant on Hudson Street has "green market sensabilities" and two stars from Pete Wells.  Their dumplings are like the ones at Joe's, but with a suit jacket on.  Here's a slideshow of how they're made.