14/02/2022
New York, from a Layman Writer's Perspective.
My experience with New York is summed up about as well as it can be in the quote,
“I was fu***ng disgusted, but I couldn't look away.”
- - Controversial Comedian, Dave Chappelle
The fu***ng disgust eventually gave way to enduring retrospective charm and nostalgia for a city so old and dirty that several ancient buildings and myriad architecture feel like eldritch portals and places not meant to be inhabited by humans.
The subway, my first time ever riding on a subway car, hurdling through a tunnel dug more than a hundred years ago feels to a “virgin of many things” like taking an unknowable system of machinery built by an ancient civilization to an unknowable destination where one might be sacrificed like in
The Midnight Meat Train. It feels as though homo-sapiens have adopted and long since forgotten the origins of this city built for giants and gods. There's a sense of out-of-placeness that comes from looking at the locals, like they don't have time to see what's in front of them, but they've lived in a city of the gods for long enough that the novelty has worn off.
Grand Central Station, a location seen in countless movies and is infamous as it is also more than a hundred years old now, has in it's midst a blasphemous Apple store. It also has a large food market in another area, but the stylistic and time period separation between the shops and the very walls of the building make it seem as though nothing human belongs there, and what once lived there either died or will come back one day and easily reclaim its space.
Regardless of it's eldritch appeal for me, the city had a grand charm that I still reminisce over.
And one of the things about New York that I was and still am most excited for, was the food.
I could only list one poor meal experience whilst there, and I mark that up to me not knowing how to order hot pot or speak Chinese. In sincerity, this article is about four of the places I ate, a food article.
Let's run through some of my food recommendations for what I got to eat while there with my partner and our friend:
Day one, fresh out of the JFK airport, my party and I walked with bags slumped over our shoulders to a place near Madison Square Garden called,
“Lenwich”
202 W 40th St, New York, NY 10018
CHIMICHURRI STEAK
Grilled steak, jack cheese, roasted garlic, pico de gallo & chimichurri sauce
THE BIG DADDY
Grilled steak, avocado, fresh mozzarella, crispy onion, roasted red peppers & sriracha
I would be remiss if I didn't start with our first and likely most memorable food experience in New York. This is what we ate whilst shaking and starving in the cold while a homeless man screamed at me from a few yards away to suck his dick. 10/10. We wanted so badly to go back and try more on their menu but never got around to it, highly recommend. No chairs, which is why we ate out in the cold, but we visited NYC early December 2021, so there were a lot of 'vid restrictions in place before we ever got there.
Later on during our trip I engaged in a love affair with Margherita pizza and ordered it several times in the different places we went. One of which was a bar called,
“Sean's Bar + Kitchen”
42 W 48th St, New York, NY, United States
SHEPARD'S PIE
Ground beef and lamb, vegetables, gravy, mashed potatoes
BANGERS & MASH
Irish sausage, mashed potatoes, Guinness caramelized onion gravy
MARGHERITA PIZZA
Crushed tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil
SEAN'S IRISH RED
Red Ale American Amber
NEW YORK ALE
We were drawn in by the title and the giant fake pint of beer hanging over the door.
It was a cool little bar that you could tell had a lot of longstanding patrons and fathers who brought their sons there to congratulate them on their first smooth gig for the Irish mafia. I ate an entire pizza by myself and my companions supped away at their bangers and pie with pleasure. Our drinks were the Red Ale and New York Ale. Our party's Beer Cicerone said the Red was a rich amber, balanced, and tasty, all things you want from a good amber. The New York Ale was light, crisp, and refreshing. 8/10.
The atmosphere was cozy and warm and we got to sit inside away from the cold.
Strangely enough we only really went to one Italian restaurant during our week-long stay in Manhattan, much to the chagrin of our Scotch/Italian party member. We had him pick the place this time and lead us to the sumptuos feast that was,
"Osteria Cotta"
513 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10024
MEATBALLS
San Marzano tomato & parmigiano
HOUSE-MADE GNOCCHI
Tomato sauce & cherry tomatoes
SPAGHETTI POMODERO
San Marzano tomato, garlic, basil, parmigiano
ORECCHIETTE
Pork & fennel sausage, broccoli rabe, basil pesto
DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE
AFFOGATO
Vanilla ice cream, Disaronno Amaretto
After a long day exploring the Museum of Natural History, and strolling Central Park in the early evening, we gorged ourselves on meatballs and pasta and gnocchi and sweet delights under a heat lamp like 3 stuffed lizards. 10/10. We sat outside in one of those lean-to building additions that stretched into the street since they were full on the inside, hence the heat lamp. And though I described us as lizards I would hazard to say the duo that sat aside from us held a strange, emotionless, affluent, and lizard-like conversation that would more properly label us fat roasting lizards, and them lizard-like.
In the spirit of keeping this from being novel length, I'll list one more food experience before perhaps splitting my other recommendations into a second edition since there were so many, and I've only spoken briefly about the different bars we went to and enjoyed. This last one was simple and comforting and the name may be hard for me to find considering so many of the food shop names in Chinatown are just yellow and red and some variation of “Chinese Food”, and had several dead peking ducks in the window. This was a little ice cream place with no ducks, that had just what we needed called,
“Chinatown Ice Cream Factory”
65 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013
BLACK SESAME
TARO
VIETNAMESE COFFEE
We had a hefty scoop of ice cream each, and they were individually phenomenal. They were rich, and flavorful, and earthy. I got the taro, which is one of my favorite flavors, and I mooched some black sesame and Vietnamese coffee off my party. For context, I love coffee and can't drink it because of how hard I crash, but I still had a couple bites of the ice cream. The black sesame was almost like peanut butter but with that sesame nuttiness, and the Vietnamese coffee fed my coffee itch like a former smoker breathing in the second hand goodness. The taro was absolutely wonderful and earthy, subtle and sweet. 10/10
I have many more food picks to recommend, I'll keep it to 4 for now, and I have plenty of bars to talk about too. I'd love to go back to New York and continue devouring what the city has to offer. For now I hope these picks help steer you towards more fantastic national and international food, and safe and healthy travels to all.
Cheers, "B" of Bean Press.
