Eating pork buns (cha siu baau) is an excellent way to get a taste of New York's Chinatown. These warm buns -- either steamed or baked -- are full of savory barbecue meats, sometimes with scallions.

Last weekend, a friend and I decided we would eat our way through Chinatown by trying pork buns at various bakeries. And, what started out as a "pork bun journey" turned into an exploration of both savory and sweet buns, ranging from pork to red bean.

Fay Da Bakery, at 83 Mott St., has a variety of buns that you can select yourself with tongs when you enter the shop. While being underwhelmed by their pork buns, we were blown away with their sweet topping red-bean bun. The outside of the red-bean bun is coated in a flaky layer of sugar that balances marvelously with the doughy bun and the creamy red-bean paste.

Head directly to the Golden Fung Wong Bakery, at 41 Mott St., to try some of the best pork buns in Manhattan's Chinatown. Chunks of pork are flavored with a delicious mix of soy and oyster sauce. This bakery also sells an assortment of rice cakes and melon cakes that are worth trying.

I'm not a huge tour person generally -- I get antsy and like to explore new cities on my own (or maybe just go shopping). But a food tour is something I definitely think that I could handle. I've been hearing about them a lot lately, as many cities now offer them. More recently, I've come across City Food Tours, which offers both walking and coach tours in Philadelphia and New York City. This company has gotten a bit of press, and they even offer personalized group packages. Philadelphia also offers tours of Reading Terminal Market, one of my favorite spots in the city, and Chinatown tours with some foodie destinations.

I've never taken a food tour, but I'd love to hear accounts from those of you have had -- especially tours that you found especially great or awful.

(Thanks, Marisa for the great picture!)

Well, this just about ruined my appetite.

We went through seeing those videos of the rats running around some of New York City's eateries, and now we have tonight's Inside Edition showing video that exposes the little monsters having fun at night in some of Boston's restaurants. It's part of a regular feature they do now called "Rat Patrol."

Some of the restaurants include Ruth's Chris Steak House, near downtown crossing if you know the area, McCormick & Schmick's, and The China Pearl. Ruth's Chris is working with the health inspector on a regular basis, and the other restaurants have regular checkups as well.

The owner of The China Pearl says that the Big Dig construction over the past few years has displaced many of the rodents.

A while back I experienced a dim sum epiphany in the form of pear-shaped dumplings at a spot in Manhattan's Chinatown. I'm pleased to report that the same place, Jing Fong, has provided yet another surprise.

When my yum cha buddies and I saw this dish rolling by,  we wiped the drool off our chins and waved down the lady. At first glance, it looked like a large open-faced dumpling. Digging into it revealed that it was a taro cake flecked with bits of meat (perhaps Chinese ham) crowned with a mixture of  ground meat, bits of lop chong, pieces of mushroom and other goodies. As with all good taro cake, the interplay of the sweet, soft taro with the salty, savory ingredients was spot on. But this version was exquisite: a taro cake fit for a king.