It's a place that we visit every month to get our much needed groceries because it's where the main Asian grocery store is located. The district is known for its wholesalers, restaurants and other shops but we have stopped only at the Asian store in our previous trips there. Over the last weekend, we spent a little more time there to walk along the streets so that we can browse in the other shops too! And we had interesting finds :)
A melting pot of shops representing the various ethnic groups in Pittsburgh... we see street vendors selling food like Asian snacks and Italian breads (akin to our "pasar malam" vendors), a fresh fruits and vegetable market, Mexican home-made sweaters, a large Italian grocery... with lots of pasta varieties, herbs, preserved olives and cheeses... giving the place a cheesy smell of fermentation we're not quite accustomed to, I guess. We also ventured into Wholely's, one of the region's largest seafood wholesalers and butcher-shop... and guess what?!? We found a variety of "exotic" stuff... whole fish (good for chinese-style steam fish and fish head... yum), fresh chicken (but I didn't see any chicken feet though... hee), 
beef parts, pork parts (even pork liver!), and... frozen whole rabbits. The experience was like walking into an enclosed wet market cum supermarket. I think we'll head back for the fresh meats and fish for our Chinese New Year "reunion" dinner.It would be fun to stay a little more to see the other stores but it was a cold, cold day... and we felt our toes and fingers freeze even in their woolen coverings so we had to go seek warmth in the car after 1 1/2 hours. Perhaps, we could head back on a warmer day to explore the other stores along the Strip.
We were told that the Strip is one of the favorite weekend destinations for Pittsburghers and it was crowded, by the Pittsburgh standard, even on that cold day. The temperature actually dipped to -15'C on the next day! Thankfully, we didn't choose that day to explore the Strip ;p
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