One man brought two heart shaped almond cookie cakes from us as a way of asking his girlfriend to marry him. He told me that she loved our ice cream more than anything in the world! I was very touched. I definitely took a lot of extra time and TLC to prepare their cakes. I’m sure that she said “yes” to his proposal. How could you turn down a guy who buys you almond cookie ice cream from CICF?

We have many other customers who insist that our ice cream is part of their holiday and family tradition. One customer commented that “the holidays would just not be the same without our lychee ice cream”.

There are also those occasions where people need some cheering up. It could be a breakup with an old beau or a death of a loved one where some sort of comfort food is definitely needed. I noticed that because we are situated a few blocks away from one of the city’s busiest funeral parlors that many people come in after services. It’s really nice to know that our product can help ease some of the solace of losing someone.

And lastly, there are people like me who need no reason at all to eat our ultra premium ice cream. I seriously eat it all day. It’s my 6th food group. (That’s probably why I need to run 12 miles a week to keep it off!) Ice cream makes everyone happy!

We had a relatively warm winter here in NYC, but today it was snowing and hailing cats and dogs!

Yes, business was bad for us, but it was bad for all of Chinatown and for everyone else in the city. I remember as a little girl, I would really worry when business was bad because I could see that no money was coming in. One time I asked my dad how he could be so calm about not having much business and not stressing out about the snow. He said to me, “If everyone else has no business, how can you expect to have business? You don’t control the weather and I don’t control the weather so we can’t worry about what we have no control over.” That really put things into perspective for me.

George Bodarky from NPR commented on how small businesses like ourselves really have to still do a lot of work even though we aren’t generating much revenue. Small businesses have many struggles that people just don’t see. In spite of not making money and the bad weather, businesses have to still open up and pay their workers and pay their bills. We still have to shovel the snow and do all of our daily tasks although we know that we will be taking a loss for the day.

Working here at CICF, I have really grown an appreciation and understanding of how other businesses struggle as well as our own. I also teach our workers to have respect for others in service jobs and for other business owners (especially in Chinatown).

The Chen Dancers are an organization that is based in Chinatown that we at CICF regularly try to support. We usually do things like donate coupons for free ice cream and such for their volunteers.

Excitingly, they are having a free performance at the Winter Garden in the World Financial Center of lower Manhattan on March 23& 24th (Friday and Saturday). The Chen Dancers are AWESOME so I’m sure that after one show, you’ll be hooked. They are based in Chinatown, so I think that this free performance will give them a lot of great exposure. Good luck to them and I will try my best to be there!

They will be putting on their performance of Apple Dreams which uses the refuge of palm trees as the setting for a spiritual journey to find meaning and beauty within the cracks of an urban world.

For more information www.htchendance.org
212-349-0126

Yesterday night after partying, I headed back to Chinatown (my favorite place in the world!) with my friends. It really is the best place to satisfy your late night munchies.

We went to 69 Restaurant (69 Bayard Street) for some beef chow fun and chicken wings. I don’t think that the chicken wings are on the menu because they aren’t very Chinese but you can request them. This establishment is open till 4 am so it’s a great place to hit up on a saturday night.

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