Nightdreamer’s Guide to New York City: Food and Entertainment

Traveling on an empty stomach is not fun. Monks and Muslims fast because it’s part of their spiritual cultivation, and not because they hate food. Unless you come to NYC to illuminate your being – in which case, what a bizarre choice – I’ll give you D minus rating on your intelligence if you don’t eat anything from NYC, and then I’ll take your lunch money. The rest of you more sensible (and hungrier) human beings may be delighted to know that because NYC is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world – people from all over come here and stay – it has immense varieties of international foods. It’s impossible for anyone not to eat anything here not to his/her liking.

Ok, a few words before I start. I am not a food critic and I don’t want to be one. I don’t ever try to get reservations on haute cuisine restaurants just so I can eat there all alone with fork on one hand and a pen scribbling my “critique” on a pad the other, like that guy from Pixar’s Ratatouille. I could do that, and it helps that I’m ambidextrous, but I don’t coz I’d look silly. For me, eating is just that, eating. Of all the things people write about, the one I least want to hear ratcheted up to a hardcore elite-level of ultra-academic dissertation is food (the second worst is videogames). Throw a bagel to a Somalian and they’d spend a lifetime thanking you kindly and they won’t say, “Oh I appreciate this bagel, but it seems lacking that much-cherished delicate taste of poppy seeds that would’ve made me reach a gustatory nirvana.” Food criticisms do not feed the hungry.

That said, I will still write a brief and practical food guide consisting mostly of what I liked from NYC, except that I won’t go into details and sound like I am meta-judging them like I’m reviewing a movie. Really, you should try any restaurant you find interesting and you think you can afford. First order of business is that you don’t starve; at a distant second, pleasure.

NYC Essentials

In any places in the world there will always be foods associated with it. Italy has its pastas, Japan its sushis, Taiwan its dumplings, Philippines its pan-de-sals, and USA its burgers. Not all part of US is best known for burgers though; foods that seem to be NYC’s specialty are pizzas, bagels, and cheesecakes. You can’t go two blocks in NYC without seeing them sold. Travel guides swear up and down that Brooklyn has the best pizzas and bagels, but those sold in Manhattan aren’t so bad, and they’re often inexpensive (for $2 you can have either).

Raw Fruits and Vegetables

If the place you’re staying at has a kitchen in it and you know how to cook, the best place to buy raw goods is Chinatown. Okay, it should be general knowledge to more than half of the world’s population that Chinese sell at the lowest prices, so it really shouldn’t surprise you that I keep mentioning Chinatown whenever I talk about buying anything. You can even go to the grocery stores to buy local and imported goods for lower prices than they are elsewhere. You wanna know what I was surprised to find? A box of Skyflakes with a “made in the Philippines” written so prominently on it.

And now for the good part…

Restaurants

Like I said a while ago, I’m only going to put in here those that I liked the best. If you really are looking for a comprehensive restaurant guide of New York, you should find a Zagat Food Guide, which is available in bookstores. Also, if the place you’re dining at has a Zagat Survey poster/tag in front of it, that usually means Zagat approves it.

One thing you should be prepared to do when you’re dining in restaurants is to add 10%. Not everyplace where you can eat in NYC requires tips (you don’t need to give them in some of the fastfoods from Grand Central’s dining concourse) but if it has waiters serving you the food, then that pretty much is a sign that you should tip. The only time you should refuse to tip is when you were given an extremely poor service. Expect to have a talk with the management whenever you do that.

Tavern on the Green – I consider myself really lucky to be able to have two lunches here and to be part of someone’s wedding. It’s great since I didn’t have to pay anything, as I don’t even want to imagine how much the foods here cost. Located at the west side of Central Park, Tavern on the Green is an ideal place for wedding, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s like a scene that jumped off the pages of a fairy tale. I think it’s more famous for wine than food, but would you care about that given its setting?

(photo from wikipedia)

Location: Central Park West and West 67th Street

Café Lalo – Don’t you just love how that name rolls off your tongue? Café la-LOOOW. *ahem* As I was told, this is the café where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks met in the movie You’ve Got Mail (I haven’t seen that movie). I’m not sure if Café Lalo was already frequented by tourists before then, but the movie sure made it very well-known. Ten years after the movie and I still hear people ask me if I want to eat at the place where You’ve Got Mail took place. But really, if you’ve been here you’ll see why it became a setting for a romance flick. It looks very posh (I can take pictures of this café all day) and the foods are priced very “posh-edly” too, but they taste great so it’s not all a waste of money. The coffee and desserts here are an absolute must – even if you’re not a cake-fan (as I surely ain’t) I defy you to look at them in the counter and not want to try them out. And did I say that it looks really posh? A pic of you smelling a cup of coffee while feeling all “ooh-la-la I’m so froufrou” euphoric makes for a spectacular Facebook profile photo for your friends to envy. See, what other travel guides cover your Facebook-egocentricity needs?

 Tempted?

Location: 201 W. 83rd Street

Asia Grill – At last here’s something more affordable (what, you expected Café Lalo to be cheap?). Just thinking about this restaurant alone makes me drool. I hope my keyboard doesn’t mind. Paradise is eating Vietnamese foods.

Location: 1239 2nd Avenue, Corner of 65 St

Lombardi’s – America’s very first pizzeria. Price is surprisingly inexpensive for a restaurant with a long history. As this is a world-famous pizzeria, expect to wait a bit before you get seated, but it’s worth it. There aren’t many other places where you can eat coal-oven pizzas.

(photo from wikipedia)

Location: 32 Spring Street

Vegetarian Dim Sum House – I’m sorry I couldn’t type Chinese characters in my PC. It serves Cantonese cuisine, and I recommend crispy noodles. Tea is free and bottomless, like how it should be in Chinese restaurants.

(photo from nychinatown website)

Location: 24 Pell Street

Entertainments

Man, I really wish I were done talking about NYC. The .doc file this guide is originally written is already on its 13^th page, and I still have a few things to talk about. I’m exhausted; I now feel like I have a jetlag again. But because I love you (and because every person who’s tired from writing needs to say he/she loves his/her reader so as to stay motivated) I’ll keep cracking.

NYC is a massive entertainment extravaganza. All year round there are new shows to watch and new concerts to attend. Since New Yorkers have a wide variety of choices of entertainment to choose from, it’s not a wonder that they can become very passionate critics of anything that less than satisfies them, while the rest of the world just kinda suck it up. It’s like what I was saying about food; the rest of us would be really thankful when we’re given food, but to New Yorkers eating isn’t simply a necessity, but also a work of fine art. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as New Yorkers will know much about any field of interest because of over-abundance of forms of entertainment, and be able to discern quality from garbage. The rest of us, well, we just wait years and years for the one big concert like the Eraserheads reunion tour, get ecstatic for about a week or so (and write blog posts about them), and then get bored for the next two months wondering when we’re gonna see another musician, solo or group, give an epic performance live. And so we settle to going to bars and clubs instead, partying, getting drunk or stoned, until the downer comes when we realize how rambunctious yet monotonous, thrill-less and meaningless these activities are.

If you’re feeling really thrifty you could also go to parks like Washington Square or Union Square and watch street performers do impossible stunts or hear soapbox preachers (sometimes cracked, admittedly) lash out against the system with the same passion as The Clash. They’re all a lot of fun. Sometimes you might want to attend to shows or concerts or speeches that are professionally organized. If you want to know when these events happen so you could plan accordingly, I suggest buying a copy of Time Out New York, or visiting event websites.

To further extend the point, I encourage that you have an internet access. With the internet you can find out about upcoming events. You can also use it to get the addresses of the various places you want to visit. It’s also useful for knowing what time any establishments open and close (this is vital if you’re planning your travel route).

Didn’t bring your laptop? Find the Wi-fi service of your hotel too expensive? No problem. Go to New York Public Library and you can use the internet without paying anything. Just present a valid ID and you’re all set.

The best time of the year to come for all these events is between June to August (summertime in America, that is) because there are all kinds of festivals happening. I dunno, is there ever a time in New York when there isn’t a festival? Anyway during these festivals you can visit various parks and you’ll be treated with open-air concerts from musicians of all stripes. Or notes or something.

Jazz – you’re crazy to not watch a jazz concert in NYC. When I talk to some Americans they tell me that jazz is America’s greatest invention. Some would even contend that it’s America’s only invention. Okay, I understand that not everyone understands jazz. Johnny hates jazz. Tunnel-minded rock listeners hate jazz (they hate everything that doesn’t have screaming anyway). But you know what, I don’t think you’ve truly experienced New York City if you haven’t attended any jazz concert. There, I finally said my version of that NYC experience tripe. If you’re in doubt, if you’re not willing to spend $30 to hear music that you might not like, then no problem. Just go to the free ones that occur all throughout the year (but mostly on summer jazz festivals). Check the event schedules of all the parks from NYC for more information on that, and they’re not only limited to jazz concerts.

If you’re going to jazz clubs, however, there are a few to choose from. The most popular one is Village Vanguard, the bar where the late Bill Evans (my all time fave jazz pianist) recorded his legendary Sunday at Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby albums. Other places to see jazz concerts: Blue Note, Smoke, Jazz at Lincoln Center, or, sometimes, Carnegie Hall.

Village Vanguard

Broadway Plays – this is another part of New Yorker’s way of life.  I won’t go into elaborate description of this one. Tickets to Broadway shows often cost more than a hundred dollar, so you might want to find ways to get discount tickets. One way is to go online and find discount codes for the show you want to see, and enter the code when you’re purchasing the ticket. This way you’d get around 40-60% off. Know that shows with discount codes are usually scheduled at least a week after. Another way, and this is more recognized, is to go to TKTS and buy the same day tickets. There’s a famous TKTS booth in Times Square, but because the line goes for very long it may take you hours to buy tickets. Instead, go to the TKTS booth in South Street Seaport where you only have to wait minutes.

Next: Miscellaneous