Chinatown: A stellar Chinese dessert discovery: “Flaky green pastries that resembled caterpillars” flavored with durian fruit “came to the table piping hot filled with a bright yellow pudding.” Find them at Chatham Square (6 Chatham Square). [Gothamist]

Andrew O'Hagan has great piece in today's Daily Telegraph about the latest bottled water flap....

It must be very confusing to people who lived through the real threat of doodlebugs: Britons now appear to live in a greater state of fear than at any time in our history. The times are relatively peaceful, infant mortality is negligible, most people have too much to eat, yet people all over the country seem to wake up every day to a heightened sense of dread.

Relieved that bird flu didn't carry them off in the middle of the night, they're worried that they might yet fall victim, at least by lunchtime, to the bad effects of red meat or the brain-frying properties of mobile phones. And then there's the planet on the edge of extinction. As if they didn't have enough to worry about, this week the scaremongers are fretting about drinking bottled water.

It seems people now need to panic in order to feel properly alive. A little bit of what you fancy is no longer deemed to be a good idea, mainly because people appear to get more enjoyment from feeling there must be a brutal cost accompanying any normal desire.

Lives seem emptier since we stopped having lives and starting having lifestyles: we feel that each of our choices describes us, fulfils us and that there's nothing more fulfilling than self-denial.

For article go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/