Neither Rene or I have Christmas day traditions with our families so we decided to take December 25th to be tourists in our own city. We resurfaced from the train station in Times Square and made our way to Rockefeller Center to see the tree – the streets were surprisingly congested for Christmas day. We walked on aimlessly and it wasn’t long until we grew hungry and cold, and decided to duck into Grand Central and try to find a snack at the Dining Concourse. Unfortunately, most of the little kiosks were closed and we walked back out into the cold, feeling hungry and slightly dejected. We were walking down Lexington avenue, and just as we were about ready to settle for Subway sandwiches, we passed by this little Chinese restaurant. It looked so cozy inside, and the Michelin recommendation taped to the inside of the window peaked my interest even more.

Choosing what to order was unusually tough. Soups, spring rolls, seared duck and sizzling steaks – umm, “I’ll take one of each, please!” In the end we settled on the safe choice, pork. Steamed buns and sauteed pork in plum sauce, to be exact. The buns were perfect little chewy bites filled with ground pork, while the sauteed pork was melt-in-your-mouth tender. This kind of food is what Chinese take-out strives to be but never quite achieves.

We left satisfied and look forward to going back to this place soon. Although we did not have the traditional eggnog-cookies-pajamas day, it was a merry Christmas after all. And we just may have started a new tradition.