NYC: Embracing our Inner Tourists

For brief spates of time each day, we threw caution to the wind and went full tourist. We visited Macy's Santaland (but did not stay to see Santa). 

 We had coffee near Times Square.

We booked ourselves a matinee performance to see the Radio City Rockettes. I can confirm that there were legs for miles. Miles. But the show was a real feel good.

We hung out in Rockefeller Center and took pictures in front of the NBC Studio window, the one where they film The Today Show.

And we decided to book ourselves on the NBC Studio tour. As far as tourist things to do in New York, the studio tour is one I'd recommend wholeheartedly. I'm not a big SNL watcher but the inner workings of a TV studio are pretty fascinating. 

You're not allowed to take pictures during the tour itself but we got to see where the Nightly News is read, where Saturday Night Live is filmed, where Emmy Award winning sound technicians work. Our final moment on the tour itself involved doing a 'live' broadcast for the upcoming Winter Olympics. We were in front of the Green Screen, using the microphones, doing the voice overs. For lack of a better word, it was fun!

And so. We left New York with a million things still to see. We only scratched the surface of the museums; we only had one D'Agostino salad; we didn't make it into the New York Public Library. So we've put it all on our to-do list for next time. We will be back and this time, we won't wait so long. 

New York's Green Spaces

Perhaps New York's best worst kept secret, the High Line didn't exist when I lived in Manhattan. The concept was simple enough: convert disused railway lines and viaducts into an elevated park. Cities like Paris have done just that. And so in 2005, the idea was sprung; in June 2009, the first section of the park was opened. 

We picked up the trail at its start, just three blocks south of my old school at 14th Street and Gansevoort Street. The path winds its way around buildings, apartment blocks and above lanes of traffic up to 34th Street. This idea charmed Paul immensely. He loves a cityscape and he loves a green space. The High Line does both immense justice. 

We caught glimpses of graffiti.

Communist flags and art:

And fancy touches to remind you that you're in the greatest city in the world.

Buildings loomed up ahead:

And the river opened up to the West. Magnificent.

Central ParkThe city's other big open space loomed large in Paul's imagination too. Because the weather was so good, we took several strolls through various parts of the park. In a final jaunt, we tried to find the ice rink made famous by lots of films. This proved more difficult than we expected but we were greeted with more blue sky views:

Weather earlier in the week wasn't nearly as sunny but that didn't stop us from seeing: a Castle!

On the Upper East Side, we made our way past the Boat Basin, a place I used to sail remote control sailboats in the sunshine. Although the boats were packed up for the season, we took moments to enjoy the many statues that celebrate all things literary.

In the lower part of Central Park, we took our time to enjoy the many buskers singing and dancing their way through the park. Paul doesn't particularly appreciate the sublime beauty of our world travels but every time I caught him looking up, he had that look of confused joy on his face. How could this place be real? How could he have never been here before? 

And not that I needed to be reminded to stop and appreciate my surroundings, but seeing this place through Paul's eyes made you appreciate it that little bit more. This is where I fell in love with city living. How could I ever forget it?

New York Reunionising

Between all the eating and walking, we also carved out some time to visit old haunts and old friends who made my time in New York so special. On day two, we started with our usual Coffee Cart coffee and made friends with the ubiquitous city emigree owner:

We eventually pottered up to East 86th Street and to my Yorkville Neighbourhood. Rumour had it that H&H Bagel had shut down years ago. But a cursory google search rendered it re-opened under new management. And despite the lack of yelling Jewish men behind the counter, the bagel tasted like sunny Saturday mornings. 

We then made our way to my old apartment, built in railroad style, an engineering feat that made a lot of sense at some point in distant history but not to random strangers living together. If you imagine the inside of a railroad car, then you get the gist of what the inside of my apartment looked like. A hallway ran through each room and to get to the bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, you had to walk through someone else's room. It was close quarters but my roommate back then was a successful engineer who took a lot of business trips. Seeing as I was a new teacher barely scraping by, it just about worked. 

Fast forward to 2017 and the City of New York decided to build a new subway line, the Q, to access the Far East side of the UES. Obviously, this has pushed up property prices and people are keen to renovate these mavens of old New York. My building has been bought by a property development agency and the defunct railroads have been 'luxury' flats. Long gone are my ten flights of steep stairs, my tiny bathroom. For no logical reason, a little sadness filled my soul. 

From one 333 to the other, we then made our way to the New York City Museum School, home of my first teaching job. My goodness, the stories I have. It's probably relevant to note that I quit teaching for two years after I finished here but in walking past the building it all came flooding back. And somehow, even the bad memories became hilarious stories of survival.

From place reunions to people reunions, Paul and I began the evenings of seeing people who knew me before he did. First stop, Tobye and Aimee, summer camp friends who were my first lifelines in the city. I hatched the plan of moving to New York from Aimee's parents' Brooklyn Heights brownstone late in the summer of 2005. And I lived in Tobye's halls of residence, very much overstaying my welcome when the apartment search became fruitless. They were still in college when I started teaching and loved to laugh at my horror stories. Zoom forward to 2017 and Aimee is now a teacher herself. Tobye works with school technology and all of a sudden the years between have shrunk. We met in Brooklyn and did that reunion thing, laughing at our old selves, catching up on gossip and updating each other on our present lives. It was wonderful (but also without photographic evidence).

On the penultimate night of the trip, Paul and I made our way to NYU stomping grounds to visit my cousin, Steven. He was still in high school when I lived here but time is a great leveller and he's all grown up now. We met at a little Thai hole in the wall near Washington Square Park before wandering to the Stonewall Monument, a project he helped see through when he worked for the Obama Administration. He rarely gets visitors and since I can understand that feeling, we found kindred spirits in one another.

 

And for one final reunion, on our last night in New York, Paul and I ventured to the Upper West Side and took a 45-minute walk through the American Museum of Natural History. I taught here twice a week so it became a place I associated with madness and chaos but we had some time to burn before meeting Leila, my charming Cuban former colleague. She was a lifeline to my first year of teaching and her candid, non-conformist, wonderful humour carried my world-weary 23-year-old self through.

We met at La Unica Caridad Restaurant, a Cuban Chinese favourite of her parents. This concept in of itself is one to meditate upon. Lots of Chinese people left their home country in the 19th and 20th century in search of better opportunities, a better life. And the politics of post-revolutionary China aligned well with Cuba. But as Castro took a stronghold over the country, many Chinese immigrants made their way to the USA, New York in particular. And in this, a unique fusion was born. This video explains the concept well.

We were greeted first in Spanish, then in Chinese and finally in English as we walked through the door. The menu featured both Cuban AND Chinese food as well as some mashed up classics incorporating both.

So whilst we chowed down on plantains and lo mein, Leila and I caught up on the years. It turns out we're kind of the same people, just older. She's left teaching to enjoy the shhhhh! of librarianship. She's got an apartment in Harlem. She's loving the city all the same. Our dinner was a long, warm hug. We laughed and swapped stories of ski trips, late night drinks, crazy classroom antics.

I love friends you don't see but pick right up where you left off. I love New York.

The Many Foods of Metropolis

I'm fairly convinced that most of the reason that Paul dates me is because of his love for all things Americana. We put this love to the test straight away; after seeking a recommendation from our hotel front desk, we found ourselves in front of Sarge's Diner, a delight of all things Jewish on 37th Street and 3rd Avenue in the heart of Murray Hill. 

The diner boasted a food contest, award winning pastrami sandwiches and 24-hours of gigantic portions. As we walked in, two men behind the front counter argued about gefilte fish. The couple across the aisle were digging into matzah ball soup. And so we opened the menu to a world of delights. Paul was in heaven.

The next morning, we stumbled into 7-11 for a pre-walk coffee and Paul was confronted with an array of options for coffees, flavoured creamers and types of milk. He practically burst into tears.

And then we found the iconic New York coffee cart and he actually did shed a small tear. Harvey Spectered up, we made our way for 'brunch' with friends. 

Brunch turned out to be my surprise Christmas gift to Paul, Famous Fat Dave's walking tour, a four-hour food jaunt through Lower Manhattan with Dave, a New York native and food enthusiast extraordinaire. Along with a retired couple from South Carolina, we strolled from the West Village to Chinatown to the East Village and back. First stop Faicco's Italian Deli, home of some fine cuts of meat (or so I've been told):

A short walk away, Rocco's Pasticerria greeted us with some freshly made cannolis:

After making another sweet stop in the Heart of Little Italy, we made our way to a hole in the wall known fondly as the 'Pakistani Big Mac Shop.' The name comes from its origins as a bathroom and food pitstop for the city's taxi drivers. No photographic evidence but this might have been Paul's favourite stop. 

We eventually made our way to the world-famous Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, a place I frequented in my early NYC days. It's heartening to know some good things never change:

And from there, it was on to the hole in the wall, New York Noodle Town. It looked like a proper Chinese noodle establishment and as we were walking in, Aziz Ansari was walking out. The shrimp wonton were so good that Paul used his spidey senses to navigate us back here a day later.

No NYC food tour would be complete without a proper city slice. Scarr's Pizza on Orchard Street turned out to be a hipster's delight. It's relatively new and I hope they manage enough business because the slice was serious quality.

Fully laden with food, we made our way to our final eating stop, Vanessa's Dumpling House, another city institution. We watched as some gently fried potstickers made their way over the counter. And I must admit, they gave proper Chinese dumplings a run for their money.

As we wandered to our last stop for a drink, we passed by Katz's deli, made famous by Meg Ryan's orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally. Unfortunately the queue wrapped around the door and so we continued on.

Final stop, McSorley's Pub, an Irish stronghold from the early days of tenement living. Inside, the pub's sawdust floors and charming proper Irishmen behind the bar made the experience all the more exciting. Established in 1854, the pub holds the award of the city's oldest continually operated saloon.

Thus ended the food tour. You'd think we couldn't possibly be hungry again. And yet, we found ways to wander, walk and then find our stomachs once again. In an attempt to find A Salt and Battery, the West Village's answer to Fish and Chips, we found Porto Rico Importing Company on Bleecker Street. Inside, a world of coffees unveiled themselves.

And later in the week, after an epic walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, we found ourselves at a pizza place just under the bridge. The queue for Grimaldi's wrapped around the building so we had the tasty next door neighbour pizza:

This isn't even all our meals. But to round things off nicely, we ended where we started, sort of. Making our way to the Flatiron Building, we found Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, another iconic NYC diner. This time, seeing as it was breakfast time, we paid homage to all those who'd gone past with pancakes and Matzah Ball soup.

Paul geeked out by allowing a mini photo shoot.

And as we wandered our 35,000 steps a day, we wished to eat as diversely and as wonderfully as possible. De-lic-ious.