Wandering in Central Park

perfect fall scene in NYC

This morning, I read my New York Times by The Lake in Central Park – look how amazingly gorgeous it is in the fall. As international tourists (many of whom are in for the NYC Marathon in the park tomorrow) stroll by and snap photos, I’m reminded how lucky I am to have all this in walking distance from my doorstep.

And speaking of the New York Times, there was a GREAT piece in the Travel section today, advising visitors to rely on word of mouth (and wanderlust) to truly make the most of this city. Couldn’t agree more.

p.s. Couldn’t figure out who the Asian woman in the purple jacket below was, but she had a swarm of Japanese (or whichever ethnicity she was) paparrazi following her around. Interesting!

famous foreign woman?

 

Fall Festival @ Brooklyn’s The Yard

butternut squash soup, mm mm good

You may have noticed my beloved New York Times chose “Frugal New York” as its main travel feature this weekend. Had I written the article, I wouldn’t have considered a $29 burger & beer meal at the Parker Meredian ”frugal” traveling (instead, try beer with FREE pizza at the Crocodile Lounge on 14th St.!). But whatev, that’s why you have Rachel and I to share all the cheap secrets with you.

On Saturday, our friend Sammy (of awkwardiswawesome.com) and I took a tip from Time Out New York and checked out Brooklyn’s fall festival at the Yard. It was a benefit for Just Food, a non-profit that aims to develop a sustainable food system in New York City. Admission was only $12…kids 5 and under were free, which explained the stroller derby, but hey, they gave us something to awwwwat. The event also attracted twentysomething Brooklyn hipsters, who sat on bales of hay and sipped their seasonal beers.

For $4, we snacked on honeycrisp apples from upstate New York and each devoured the creamiest bowl of butternut squash soup we’ve ever had.

But what we REALLY wanted was pumpkin pie. How can you celebrate fall without it? With none to be found at the Yard, we walked back to the Carrol St. subway stop (take the F from Manhattan) and from there, wandered down Smith St. It was less congested than Manhattan and tourist-free, lined with trendy clothing boutiques and cozy restaurants representing all types of cuisines, from Latin to Indian and Thai. I spotted the Fall Cafe and our eyes lit up — they must have pumpkin pie, right? Wrong. The wanderlust-deprived dude running shop couldn’t even tell us where there would be a nearby bakery! Ah well, the cafe still had a nice, intellectual vibe, making you want to pen your novel or read The New York Times there. 

Second try: a French bakery, where they didn’t seem familiar with the glory that is pumpkin pie, but they tried to sell us on a porcupine ball of chocolate mousse (yes, the chocolate ball had quills…do the French eat that?). No thank you. Pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie only.

my my miss American pie

We were almost ready to give up, taking our hunt just one block further. Sammy spotted a graphic novel shop and suggested we browse, but then she grabbed my arm and started pulling me in the opposite direction — she’d spotted a beacon of hope: a Met Foods grocery store. And there, right by the deli, we found the selection of packaged Entemanns’ desserts…which included, lo and behold, a pumpkin pie for $5.49. Score, third time’s a charm.

We left Met with our pie, realizing we had no “cutlery,” as Sammy put it. So we revisit our French bakery buddies. We showed them our pie, flashed bright smiles, and asked if they knew where we could find some plastic knives and forks with which to enjoy it. They gave us some and assured us that they’ll be carrying pumpkin pie by the end of October.

Mission accomplished, we met up with our LES friend Leah at the Gowanus Yacht Club and Beer Garden, which wasn’t the least bit as pretentious as it sounds…it felt like hanging out in someone’s backyard at a barbecue. Lights were strung overhead, a Tom Petty CD played, and the menu of beer, hot dogs, and burgers is chalked on hanging boards (even the bathrooms have chalkboards encouraging you to be a graffiti artist). It was so laid-back, even a beagle sat on a bar stool to order. Hey, come to think of it, Matt Gross, the New York Times’ Frugal Traveler, is from Brooklyn. Wonder if he’s been?

Walk like a Drusian (or at least, eat like one).

I had actually already eaten dinner when I passed Gazala Place on Ninth Ave. I was actually strolling along with my vegan tofu soft serve from Kyotofu, ambling slowly enough to eat and walk at the same time. So the New York Times article posted in the window was the perfect reason to stop, and then convince me that I needed a snack.

And I’m glad I did. Gazala Place specializes in Drusian food, the cuisine of a religious tribe in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. The regional influence is there (hummus, grape leaves, etc.) but there are also some dishes I’ve never tried, like burekas, big fluffy phyllo pastries stuffed with goat cheese and roasted peppers. I picked two up, along with some hummus. They were good enough that I had to introduce Tammy to Drusian food the very next night.

Go Drusian. It’s just enough off the Mediterranean beaten path that you’ll feel cool, while still being familiar enough for cautious eaters. And you can add a new ‘Have you ever…’ to your ethnic food list. Betcha no one else you know has gone Drusian.

unidentifiable but delicious Drusian food

Lessons from TurkFest ‘08

On a whim, I wandered to the NY Turkish Festival in Central Park today. Lessons learned:

1. Should you ever try Turkish coffee, do not drink the cup empty …you will end up with a mouthful of coffee grains, which settle on the bottom. It’s served with little gummy/sugary confections called “Turkish delight,” which are delish.

2. Turkish oil wrestling is a very odd sport. The Turkish are avid supporters of it — just as the Spanish are of bull fights. The men come out on the field with glistening torsos, to the delight of the women onlookers. But then, to win the match, they must stick their hand down their opponent’s pants!! I kid you not! See my quick video for a demo.

3. A performance of marionettes, those puppets with the strings, draws a crowd like you wouldn’t believe.

Subway wisdom

There was the most putrid smell underground as I was waiting for the 1 at 14th St. Much as I love New York, at times like that, I have to ask myself why?  But lo and behold, when the train finally arrived, the subway gods answered my question. I looked up to where there are normally ads for community college or abogados and saw this e.b. white quote:

“There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. […] Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.”

Cheers to those of us who are #3.

Claim to Fame: Bagels and Pizza

Whenever I travel outside of NYC — which used to be rare, but then I hit up the mid-west and West Coast for the first time in back-to-back weekends — I find it comforting to see a nod to NYC. See below in the Embarcadero district of San Francisco, a place called Noah’s boasting of New York bagels. A week earlier, while driving through Minnesota, I spotted a sign for “New York style pizza.” Having stepped outside the box, I now realize that despite having the best restaurants and chefs in the world in our city, our culinary fame all comes down to carbalicious bagels and pizza.

So, when I was wandering through the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, which I nicknamed “Hippieville” because it’s where the ’60s counterculture thrived, I saw this sign and chuckled to myself. Of course this place would rebel. After all, what you don’t see are the three men who were stoned on the sidewalk. That’s when I knew I had wandered a little too far.

Escape from New York Pizza

Hello Kitty Lives on 53rd & Lex

I was strolling along 53rd St. this weekend when I caught the reflection of Hello Kitty in a window. I gasped and turned round the corner, to find a plaza with four giant statues of Hello Kitty and friends. It was the same day I went to the Met to admire works of Van Gough, Picasso, and Vermeer. And that, dear readers, is why I love NYC — any given day, you can find this awe-inspiring balance between the world-famous and the whimsical.

Instead of buying gas, I buy shoes

Have you noticed the amazing evolution of Keds over the years?  Once plain white sneakers like Kelly Kapowski wore on Saved by the Bell, they now make really cute, comfortable NYC walking shoes. To reconnect with teens and twentysomethings, Keds hired Misha Barton as their model several years ago, and I think their smartest move was teaming up with designer Nanette Lepore. Her collection is now in its second year, but in my UWS wanderings today, I snagged my favorite pair from her first. Best part is, they were cheaper than a tank of gas would be if I was still driving around Jersey. Walking is so much better!

 

p.s. Be wary of flip-flops.

Another Reason to Love Housing Works Used Books Cafe

Even though I live so closely to Barnes & Noble, and it was my bookstore of choice in Jersey, I can’t bring myself to buy anything there these days…I’m too devoted to The Strand and the Housing Works Used Books Cafe. Not only are the books cheaper, but the stores also have originality. Take the Strand, which features the top 80 favorite books as voted by customers at the front of the store (see the Strand 80 here). But my favorite is the Housing Works Used Books Cafe, which I stumbled upon a couple years ago in SoHo.

 

I love the bookstore’s spiral staircase to a second level, the cafe where you can read with a coffee and muffin in the back corner…it’s straight out of a movie. And wouldn’t you know, mega movie stars like Gwyneth Paltrow frequent the place and donate their books. (All books are donated and 100% of the proceeds go to Housing Works, the non-profit that provides support and advocacy for New Yorkers living with AIDS and HIV. The staff is unpaid.) Check out Time Out New York’s article on the bookstore’s little-known celeb secret.

Not Your Grandma’s Craft Fair

Thanks to a tip from Sammy, I spent Sunday afternoon wandering around Williamsburg, Brooklyn toward the annual Renegade Craft Fair. Craft fairs usually make me think of old grannies sitting behind tables, pawning off their crocheted tissue box covers or stained glass ornaments. Not this craft fair — it brought etsy.com to life before my eyes.

McCarren Pool Park was filled with tents of vendors who crafted the most ingenious pieces of jewelry. I had to talk myself out of several potential purchases, like earrings fashioned out of pennies or rings made from old buttons. I admired the creativity of whoever thought to construct lamps from upside down tea cups, necklaces from old typewritter keys, and magnets from old bottlecaps.  

My favorite stops were:

1.  Venuszine’s booth — a quarterly women’s magazine that seems to carry on JANE magazine’s quest to find the coolest, most creative women on the planet.

2. A blog/documentary project called 1 Bite 7 Days, which preaches the Japanese proverb “To every new taste, you gain 7 days of life,” and gives free taste testing of unusual dishes. I sampled the vinegar pie, which tasted like pudding and was served with a Vanilla wafer. I haven’t eaten those since snacktime in elementary school! After tasting, we stepped in a camera booth and said how we’d spend our 7 extra days, the proverb’s promised reward. Any guesses for what I said?

3. Not exactly at the fair, but on the walk back to the subway (before a quick stop at Buffalo Exchange), Shelley and I got deliciously refreshing frozen yogurt from /eks/. Much as I love Pinkberry, /eks/ won me over. It was plain without being bland.

Add on my first lunch in Brooklyn at Ella Cafe (I know, have to explore the other boroughs more) and a Rooney concert, and you see I tried LOTS of new things — which means I’ve got plenty of extra living to try even more.