Unusual food of the day

Rind of the watermelon.

I was at the microwave warming up my lunch when I noticed an unusual vegetable in my colleague's lunchbox. It looked like small slivers of peach, an inch long, 1/8'' thick, yellow with a red tinge on the inner curve. I was pretty certain that it wasn't peach though, so I asked him.

He told me that it was watermelon. After scooping out the delicious red part, you are left with the rind which is normally discarded. If you took off the hard green exterior though, you have that white/red transition part that is usually hard and not very tasty. She sliced that part up and probably just stirfried it.

I'm going to have to look this up when I have a little more time. They are Chinese, so I assume it might be a Chinese dish even though I've never heard of it.

Best mango bubble drink is in Chinatown

I usually go to Chinatown for a meal if I'm downtown catching a movie, simply because I don't know where else to go. I've recently decided on my favorite drink to sneak into the theaters: the mango bubble from a shop simply named "Vietnamese sandwich and bubble tea" located on ~50 Harrison Ave in Chinatown.

The mango bubble comes with mango juice, mango chunks and a scoop of mango ice cream blended together and poured over tapioca pearls with a good chewy consistency. At $3.50, it's the same price as most places, but it's way more value for money. This is the only place I've found (so far), that doesn't give me a fruity syrup and ice and calls it a mango bubble.

If you know any other place that serves real fruit and stuff in their bubble teas, let me know. Thanks!

PS. I do not recommend the bubble tea in the Porter Exchange Mall -- the pearls are squashy, not chewy. They probably used the instant version, which is just wrong.