It has such a unique flavor I have been craving it ever since our tour! The bean paste baby moon cake was filled with sticky red bean paste. The winter melon cake has just a subtle sweetness and a chewy texture. They were delicious! These pastries are not very sweet. I have never had either of these pastries before. Here, we sampled bean paste baby moon cake and winter melon cake. Delicious traditional Chinese pastries and fancy cakes. The statues in the temple were very ornate Bakery Timeīack outside again, we headed to a bakery, Chiu Quin, which serves traditional baked goods and dim sum. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the customs and practices of Buddhism, explaining some of the faith’s beliefs and guiding principles. Once inside, after removing our shoes, we were able to enter the temple to look at the altars, with intricate statues, and food offerings. The Buddhist Friendship Association was very welcoming. The entrance is nondescript, and although there is a large sign out front I would not have realized it was a place open to the public. Next up on the tour was a location I would never have thought to enter if I was walking around Chinatown on my own, the International Buddhism Friendship Association. Buddhist TempleĪfter finishing our dim sum we put our raincoats back on and headed out into the driving rain. Pui Tak Center is now a church-based community center. I won’t spoil the tour for you by providing all the details but suffice it to say, it was very interesting. While we tasted the different dishes our guide explained the history of Chinatown, specifically of the Pui Tak Center. We had steamed pork buns, deep fried taro, and shrimp dumplings. Several different dim sum selections were chosen for us and presented for tasting. She also explained how traditional dim sum is ordered so that if we were to order dim sum again on our own we would know what to do. We learned about the traditional Chinese tea service at the Triple Crown complete with appropriate hand gestures. Here our guide explained the customs of the Chinese tea service (while serving us some delicious tea). We were greeted and taken to an upstairs table alongside the window, overlooking Chinatown with a direct view of the Pui Tak Center. Unlike other food tours in other cities that I have been on, this tour has a sit-down stop at several points. The first stop was the Triple Crown Restaurant, a top-rated Cantonese restaurant right near the Chinatown gate. We headed out with our umbrellas and rain ponchos and started our tour. Our guide did not let that bother her, continuing as enthusiastically as if she had a group of ten along for the tour. As it turned out, the weather had scared everyone away and we were the only two people on our tour that day. We had booked our tour of Chinatown with Chicago Food Planet Tours and were provided with a meeting spot near the entrance of Chinatown- just a quick Uber away from the hotel. We woke up to a gloomy, rainy day the next morning, as predicted, but we did not let that stop us from enjoying the city. Arriving at the Hyatt Place Chicago/River North the evening before our tour, we had time to relax and enjoy a delicious dinner at Ema, the on-property Mediterranean-style restaurant created by celebrity chef CJ Jacobson. It turned out to be a good call, as we were able to take our time and leisurely make our way to the hotel in the afternoon. With our tour beginning early the next day, we decided to head into the city the night before and stay at a hotel to avoid taking the train during the morning commute. The day before our tour was scheduled, the weather turned, and it was predicted to be rainy for the next several days. I enjoy organized food tours when visiting a new city because they often highlight the best food stops that the city has to offer. Since this was my first visit to Chicago’s Chinatown, we decided to book a tour. This allowed us to avoid paying for valet parking at the hotel and kept us from having to look for parking in busy Chinatown. In keeping with my policy of not driving cars into major cities when on vacation, we took the Metra train. During a visit with my extended family in a suburb of Chicago, my sister and I decided to head downtown to explore Chinatown.
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