You know you’re crushing on a dude when you find yourself stopping to buy Chinese New Year nut crisp candies during the summer, to try to show him a tiny piece of your culture. NY Tung Ren Tang is a mid sized Chinese Herbal Store in bustling Flushing. It’s stocked full of products such as face-wash, soaps, candies, dried fruits, teas, medicine and of course, the Chinese«cure all» — Ginseng. Black sesame seed nut candies were displayed in plastic boxed shelves at $ 3.49 a pound and I stopped in my tracks– I had to buy some. Amazingly, the smell of rose and jasmine wafted by, from a neighboring plastic box shelf and immediately reminded me of my poa poa. As I peered in, I realized that it was filled with Bee & Flower company soaps(traditional Chinese soap from the old generation) and I became so nostalgic that I knew that I had to buy a bunch. I bought the Jasmine, Rose and Sandlewood. My poa poa used the Rose for herself and Jasmine to wash me when I was a child. The beauty of these soaps are that they’re incredibly fragrant and long lasting(even though they are a tad smaller, compared to regular Western bars). I was glad to see that they were 80 cents per bar, even though you can buy them at 45– 50 cents a bar in other Chinese shops if you looked hard enough. To me, this was a good enough deal, especially since it brought back such wonderful memories of my grandmother and doubles as a perfume after usage. When I paid for the items, the nice woman at the counter smiled and commented, «Fragrant isn’t it? One never forgets… « No… one never does.
Linda C.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Queens, NY
came in to buy my chinese new year candy. I brought a pound of various hard candy for $ 2.99 a pound – lychee, strawberry, lemon, pineapple, guava, etc. I brought a pound of various nuts candy for $ 3.50 a pound – sesame, peanut, almond, coconut, walnut, etc.
Hank C.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Manhattan, NY
A local Chinese herbal medicine store. They have tons of dried anything, basically, in their shelves. Come prepared to speak Chinese, though, English won’t get you very far. It’s also primarily cash for the transactions, unless you’re buying a lot of the very expensive($ 140+/lb) ginseng!