Egg Rolls & Egg Creams

A couple of weeks ago, Alex and I had the unique pleasure of celebrating the merging of Chinese and Jewish cultures (sort of like looking into a mirror haha) at the Museum at Eldridge Street in Lower East Side/Chinatown.  The Egg Rolls & Egg Creams street festival was really cute and I got to see a little slice of New York City history that normally would be a well-kept secret.

The Museum at Eldridge Street is a beautifully restored synagogue.  The street fair was laid out in the street outside the temple, with booths for face-painting, yarmulke-painting, paper-fan-making, and most importantly, egg-roll-and-egg-cream-eating.  I learned the important craft of making an egg cream today (not as professionally as if I had, say, a soda fountain): chocolate syrup (U-Bets), milk, seltzer, and stir!

The inside of the museum is gorgeous.  It's pretty small, being a building in the cramped LES, but the space is illuminated by beautiful stained glass that, to me, looks out of place in a synagogue, save the Stars of David sprinkled throughout.  I've never been in a synagogue, though, so I guess I'm not the best judge.  Among the pews, there were tables with Chinese crafts (paper ornaments, lanterns, and jade jewelry).  A cantor was talking about the chanting of prayers in temple.  We watched a tea ceremony upstairs.  I had a lot of fun braiding a small loaf of challah bread in the basement (side note: don't let challah dough sit around too long; as it was a hot day outside, my challah dough braid had completely proofed by the time I got home and lost its cute shape). It was fun and enlightening for the both of us to glimpse a few historical and traditional topics of each other's cultures.