9/23/04 Natalie and I walk through the Feast of San Gennaro:

Natalie works in SOHO near Chinatown and Little Italy. We looked for a place to eat, and found ourselves mixed into the festival of San Gennaro that consumes Mulberry Street in September of every year (Except 2001).

Here was a hit the target dunk the clown booth. And the clown had a loud microphone and he would really egg on the people near buy, really get on their nerves, in a playful kidding way, to get them to want to throw the ball. One guy got up there and just started pounding away. He must have spent a fortune on balls, and after a few near-misses that made the crowd groan with anticipation, he hit the target and the clown went down!!! And everyone cheered. And it was like it must have been in the street fairs of yore. And then the crowd dissipated some, and the clown was lonely once again.

Some people in the crowd occasionally shouted back at the clown. It was great.

The farther south one walked, the more packed it got.

I have long lamented my allergy to Apples, not only because they are great by themselves, or with Honey on the Jewish New Year, but also because of my inability to have caramel or candied apples. But we found a booth that was making fresh candied jumbo grapes! And they were pretty darned satisfying!

And HARD.

Then we saw a Clam/Oyster bar, and I had to give it a try. I've NEVER had raw shellfish on the streets of NYC before.

I had to wait until I finished my candied grapes.

O.k. so it took a while. They were really hard and gooey. I had to chew slowly so as not to pull out all of my fillings!

Then it was Oyster time. A half dozen was a cool $8.

They were ok. A few of them had shell in them. The flavor was mediocre. The texture was good. The experience... priceless.