IN PARTNERSHIP WITH 
In the heart of Little Poland– what most of us know as Greenpoint, Brooklyn– is Bakery Rzeszowska, a neighborhood Polish bakery. Large pastries pregnant with fruit and poppy seed filling await beneath a glass case. Plump loaves of babka glow with yellow-brown goodness, ready to fly off their racks as waves of neighborhood regulars quickly come and go.
Some of the best Southern Chinese food in the Northeast can be found north of the border, in the city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. My mom, sister and I took a short trip up to Toronto to visit some relatives. While we were there, we spent one day downtown to explore the city. First stop, Chinatown. As we wandered through the unfamiliar streets, we passed by stalls selling Chinese herbs and vegetables. Unsure of where to go, we stopped by a shopkeeper to ask for a recommendation on for a place to get breakfast, specifically where we could find a good bowl of congee. “Just down the street, House of Gourmet has everything,” was his reply.
So we took his suggestion and started off our early morning with a big bowl of preserved egg and pork loin congee with a side of you tiao, a salty Chinese donut, from House of Gourmet. When he said “they have everything”, he wasn’t lying. The vast menu at House of Gourmet had a total of 426 menu items, and in the congee section alone there were 45 variations. Of the 45 variations of congee offered at the House of Gourmet, the contents mixed into the congee ranged from seafood, such as crab, abalone, and lobster, to more daring options such as pig’s blood pudding and other delectable offals.
Amidst the sleek new condos and worn-in Chinese storefronts along Chrystie Street sits the headquarters and distribution center for SSL Produce, Inc. If you’ve ever explored the aisles of an Asian supermarket, you might wonder how you can always find a steady flow of big, juicy fruits and pounds of fresh green vegetables for affordable prices. Here in this unassuming warehouse in the Lower East Side, you can discover the magic behind it all…
BY-NC, World to Table • A 
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