Walking through New York's Chinatown, I was fascinated with all the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs and banners. I turned a corner and saw a building on Mott Street with a sign which read -- "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry."

"Moishe Plotnik?" I wondered. "How does that fit in Chinatown?"

So I walked into the shop and saw a fairly standard-looking Chinese laundry. I could see that the proprietors were clearly aware of the uniqueness of the name as there were baseball hats, T-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the logo "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry." There was also a fair selection of Chinatown souvenirs, indicating that the name alone had brought many tourists into the shop. I selected a coffee mug as a conversation piece to take back home with me.

Behind the counter was a smiling old Chinese gentleman who thanked me for my purchase in English, thickly accented with Chinese.

I asked, "Can you tell me how this place got a name "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry?"

The old man answered, "Ahh... Everybody ask that. Is name of owner."

Looking around, I asked, "Is he here now?"

"He is right here," replied the old man. "He is me."

"Really? How did you ever get a name like Moishe Plotnik?"

"Is simple," said the old man. "Many, many year ago when come to this country, was stand in line at Documentation Center. Man in front is Jewish gentleman from Poland. Lady look at him and say, 'What your name?' He say 'Moishe Plotnik.' Then she look at me and say, 'What your name?' I say, Sam Ting

Thats reaaly good.