Saturday was grey like most days this week. Add some gusty winds and the temperature felt colder than before. Although there was a washer and dryer in the sublet (taking up valuable storage space), I went to the laundromat nearby. Because I love them and don't want to see them gone. My friend said that D.C. Laundry has been around for decades. A way to keep one in business, according to owner of Angela's Laundry, was to do most of the repairs yourself. And it certainly looked like it inside DC. There were 4 brands of washers and 3 for dryers. There were units in a state of repair or just abandoned. One even required that you pull on a wire to open (hotwire?) the door. But despite its haphazard appearance, DC had the familiar Dexter machines. It was even slightly cheaper than ($0.25) Angela's with $4 for a wash and 30 minutes of tumble dry for $1.50.
Then it was off to Chinatown for some errands. The store turnovers were at a furious pace in this area, so I wouldn't even know what to track. I thought venerable dim-sum restaurant Rol San had shuttered, but they had just moved across the street. Did Hua Sheng Supermarket also closed? No, I mistook some gentrified renovation a block north for its demise. There, I got a small amount of groceries for $7.55. I noticed more non-Asians shopping at Hua Sheng probably for the low prices compared to the chain supermarkets. I crossed over to Nguyen Huong for some fried dough ($2), cha chien ($3.50), and sticky rice ($3.75). Despite having no space at the sublet, I needed a small colander ($3.29) from Tap Phong. I stopped of at Fresca for Toronto-style pizza ($5). It was also packed with people so I ate outside on the picnic bench. No signs of the owner but maybe a new generation of pizza makers meant it will keep going. A streetcar ride to Dufferin Mall for more groceries at No Frills, then a quick hop on the bus to take me back to my sublet. This was all done on a single TTC fare thanks to the 2-hour limit and Toronto's compact neighbourhoods.
The rain returned in the evening when I went to South Pacific. Like modest King's Chef and China Ocean (both defunct),it offered the no longer fashionable "Chinese-Canadian" fare. When I saw the baby-faced folks working alongside some middle-aged people, I assumed this was a family business. But the young man told me that, although South Pacific has been around since the 1970s, the current owner only took over about 13 years ago. The other people including him only worked here but he himself was from the neighbourhood (born in 2001). It's still strange to interact with adults that could be your children in another life.
The beef with chinese greens was $10 all-in. There was enough to split into two meals, so the dish came well under the $10 threshold. It was about what I expected, but tasty enough that I won't have to do any stir-fry at home. Every customer also received a goody bag with 6 fortune cookies! So with a weekly visit to South Pacific, I could have my fortune told every day during my 3-month stay. My first one said that "you may find your horizons suddenly broadened". It's certainly true that with my return to Toronto I have been out and about every day.
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