After over nine years of living in Paris I finally made it over to ?Chinatown?, thanks to my honey. Being the super chef that he is, he was just itchin? to get over there and check out the goods?and check them out we did.

I?ve read that there are actually three different Chinatown neighborhoods in Paris, but I?m only familiar with two: There?s the traditional one in the 13th (the one I went to), which extends between and around the avenue d'Ivry and avenue de Choisy streets, east of the rue de Tolbiac. The area contains many Chinese, Vietnamese and Laotian merchants. The newer Chinatown is situated at Belleville (my friend Shumin filmed this one).

It was one of these nice and hot sunny days we?re been having recently. We took the metro to Place d'Italie and got off, then walked around the Place d'Italie square admiring the small park and beautiful flowers before heading into the neighborhood. First stop? Tang Freres. (Tang Brothers). Apparently, the Ratanawan brothers aka Tang, came to France from Laos. They have built in this former French railways warehouse, Europe's largest Asian produce market. This is by far Chinatown?s biggest attraction and I counted three Tang locations. The grocery store is filled from top to bottom with almost every Chinese food you can imagine. From ramen noodles, soy sauce and eggrolls to shrimp, candy and Chinese drinks. I was highly impressed.

Also impressive was another large supermarket down the street from Tang's called Paristore where you can buy all kinds of dishes, decorations, and other home furnishings.

It was nice to take in the butcher shops and the Chinese bakeries as well. Turst me, there is much to see (and buy).

If you are in the ?hood at lunch or dinner you have to try out one of the many restaurants. We ate at Pho Hoa and it was fantastic. The servings were so big that we couldn?t finish our plates.

Overall it was a great little adventure. It felt like we had totally stepped outside of Paris and into Asia. Not bad for such a short metro ride.

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