Zion had a 4 day weekend, and I had been wanting to take a trip to the north side Chinatown (different that the "real", south side Chinatown--more like a little Vietnamese town) for awhile. I had been hankering for some Bao buns, and I thought the new sights and smells would be interesting for the kids. We found our delicious buns, perused all the foreign items in the grocery stores,and explored a plant shop, marveling at their amazing bamboo and bonsai trees.
The highlight of our trip, however, was the store which only sold live animals swimming in tanks. The patrons would point to various fish, crabs, and lobsters and the man behind the counter would snag each one, stun them with a mallet, and gut them and clean them right behind the counter in seconds in full sight of the customers. We were awestruck by a lobster the size of a briefcase (pictured below) and fascinated by a tank of 50-60 large bullfrogs. Do they eat just the legs? I wondered. "No. Whole Thing." was the answer to my query. Good thing it wasn't summer; we might not have resisted the temptation to bring a few home with us just to play with them. All in all, a nice little urban adventure.
