As his employees stir giant vats of dough, Richard Eng, manager of the Canton Noodle Corporation, tells me that he and his employees are too busy to step out and join the human chain planned down the block just after noon today.
"We have too many noodle orders," he says. This company on Mott Street in New York City supplies lo mein and wontons to local restaurants -- all of which are open today.
Across the street at the Grand Harmony Restaurant, the geese and duck are roasting. It's business as usual, with management expecting a large lunchtime and dinner crowd.
Of the several dozen people I've spoken to on the street today, none of them are boycotting work. Many people are simply unaware of the demonstrations planned as part of "A Day Without Immigrants."
Organizers say they're expecting between 600 and 700 people to link up as part of the human chain that is to span down New York's Canal Street and East Broadway. El Diario, the city's top Spanish newspaper, has a front page that is half-blank, in order to symbolize the day without immigrants.
This day may be a significant event in the Latino community, but here in Chinatown, where nearly everyone is either an immigrant or a child or grandchild of an immigrant, it is business as usual.
