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If your resolution this New Year is to save more money, and eat a healthier diet, there's a neighborhood in Manhattan that can help. Chinatown sells some of the cheapest fruits and vegetables in the city. Like Europeans, Chinese cooks shop daily for ripe produce they will use that day. Ripe produce means cheap produce and WNYC's Lisa Chow found one vendor from Sicily who's made a living — and a reputation — selling some of the cheapest fruits and vegetables in Chinatown.

REPORTER: In Chinatown, even people who don’t know his name, know Pauli Romano.

CHAN: Originally there was one gentleman. I’m not sure if he’s Italian. He’s the one who pretty much corners the market on this street.

REPORTER: Joe Chan walks on Forsyth Street, near the Manhattan Bridge. He works at a nonprofit that counsels some of the vendors on the street.

CHAN: Everybody’s busting their chops in the morning. He’s setting up shop at a quarter of 4. You know why? Cause they’re waiting on line just for his produce. Look at them!

REPORTER: Several Chinese women have lined up in front of one particular stand.

CHAN: There he is. That’s him right there.

REPORTER: Pauli Romano stands behind a truck. He’s short and wiry and has puffs of white hair and a beard. Imagine a skinny Santa Claus. As soon as he arrives, he starts managing the workers at his stand.

ROMANO: I want 2 beans up there. Then we’re going to put tomatoes after the bean. Then we’re going to start working right away.

REPORTER: He says 99 percent of his customers are Chinese.

ROMANO: Romano speaking Chinese

REPORTER: He can identify his produce and name their prices in four different Chinese dialects. He runs his stand efficiently and carefully. He checks every 50 and 100 dollar bill to make sure they’re not fake. He bags the produce himself - to move the lines along and get rid of stuff that’s about to go bad. On this day, a woman and her husband point out a few spotted apples he’s placed in their bags.

ROMANO: Don’t buy it. You don’t want it. I’m not forcing you. Don’t buy it. Come on, don’t worry about it. I’m not going to get bad at you if you don’t buy it.

REPORTER: He says, for HIS prices, they either have to accept what he’s given them or leave. Most stay, because for 16 dollars, you can get a lot of food.

ROMANO: 6 pounds of grapes, 9 pounds of tomatoes, 10 pounds of potatoes, 1 box of persimmons, 6 pounds of white grape.

REPORTER: Romano’s been working in Chinatown as a street vendor for 28 years. He knew he was in the right place when he found himself one day caught in a rainstorm on Mott Street with a bunch of watermelons.

ROMANO: I got out of my truck and started to sell watermelons. And in a half hour I sold 350 watermelons. The next day I went back and I whacked them out. This is the spot.

REPORTER: It’s also where he met his wife, Linda, who’s Chinese American. Romano says he buys half his produce from Chinese wholesalers. The rest comes from the Hunts Point Terminal market in the Bronx. Hunts Point supplies half of all New York’s produce. It houses 50 or so wholesale distributors. I meet Romano at the market to see HOW buys his produce to get such cheap prices.

ROMANO: I get here at 7. I leave by 2.

REPORTER: 2 in the afternoon, when the market closes, and Romano gets his best deals. He moves through the market 4 times, walking with a cane. He says he’s got bad feet from years of standing for so many hours at a time. Romano often examines produce that other stores reject for size, appearance, or quality. He knows when to buy and where to buy.

ROMANO: It’s very difficult to buy out of here. Their prices are steep. Steep. I very rarely get anything out of here unless it’s rejected. But you try. You never know what you’re going to get by coming here. This whole market is based on that. You have to try, you have to look, you gotta walk, you gotta wait. You can’t be anxious. See what comes out of it. George did you find anything for me George?

REPORTER: Romano talks to George Vagelatos, a salesman at Nathel and Nathel, a distributor.

VAGELATOS: Pauli, I got some Florida squash.

ROMANO: How much are they?

VAGELATOS: I got 20 boxes of those. 6 dollars.

ROMANO: I paid 3 dollars yesterday.

REPORTER: They walk out to the refrigerated warehouse.

VAGELATOS: Shorty! Suncoast squash.

Vagelatos runs ahead to find the boxes.

ROMANO: Where are you? Yeah, fix them up before I come around the corner. You know, you think I was blind man. I’m stupid but I, they’re all half boxes! 19 boxes I’ll charge you 2 dollars.

REPORTER: Romano walks over and examines the squash. The salesman watches him from 10 feet away.

VAGELATOS: He’s going to offer me a dollar.

ROMANO: That’s it then right? George what about them honeydews?

REPORTER: This time Romano accepts the offer of 2 dollars, down from 6 dollars a box. Unlike most street vendors, who staff their stands in the morning, Romano spends most of his day HERE, trying to get the lowest possible price. And over the course of a day, he shows many sides of his personality. One minute he’s taking care of you, the next minute he’s making a deal with you. Then, he’s insulting your produce.

ROMANO: Your tomatoes were bad yesterday. You know that. Don’t look at me like that?

REPORTER: But he’s got a lot of friends here.

SALESMAN: Pauli!

ROMANO: Bobby.

SALESMAN: You’re going to Hollywood, Pauli.

ROMANO: I’m in Hollywood now.

SALESMAN: Can I be your chauffeur?

ROMANO: What ever you want to do baby. Yeah, but it’s got to be a limo.

SALESMAN: I’ve known Pauli about 30 years. I was the first man to deliver one of his trucks. And there was a big 5 dollar tip that I appreciated

SALESMAN: I don’t want to say anything good about him. For the record. I don’t want it to go to his head. He’s a good man. He’s a good man. I’ve known him a lot of years.

REPORTER: Romano’s built these relationships over the 40 years he’s been buying at the Hunts Point market.

ROMANO: They know I’m a cheap buyer. I don’t have to have anything. I’ll walk away from anything. Now he gave me a skid of tomatoes for free yesterday. Have you ever hear of heirloom tomatoes? I couldn’t move them in Chinatown. They were not for me. Chinese people looked at them like they were some sort of an animal. And he’s going to get upset that I’m going to return them but I really don’t care.

REPORTER: Trust, tough bargaining, and good timing – it’s all part of Romano’s buying strategy. Romano won’t say his age … or how much he makes a year … but he’s doing okay. He owns his home in Queens. He owns rental property in Brooklyn and he’s sent his three daughters to private school.

ROMANO: That’s the end of the market for today.

REPORTER: But not the end of HIS day. On the truck-ride down to Chinatown, Romano’s on the phone bargaining with Chinese wholesalers who will meet him at his stand.

ROMANO: How much for persimmon. 4 dollar. I paid 2 dollars yesterday. Why 4 dollars today?

REPORTER: Romano is at his stand until 9:30 in the evening. He sells to customers who want his fruits and vegetables to take home to eat that night. He works seven days a week, 51 weeks a year.

ROMANO: They call me the crazy white man.

REPORTER: What does he think about being the only white vendor on the street? He says …

ROMANO: I don’t like it, but I like it.

REPORTER: Then he smiles. And why not? He’s got some of the cheapest produce in Chinatown … and he knows it. For WNYC, I’m Lisa Chow.