We decided to take advantage of our proximity to the city and really explore this year. So, we signed up for three “food” tours. Our first one was on Sunday and we dragged Steph along. The tour covered about 4 blocks in Greenwich Village (Steph’s neighborhood). We ate the entire time . We started with fresh filled cannoli from Rocco’s, to NY style pizza (thin crispy crust) from Joe’s Pizza. More pizza , cheese from Murray’s Cheese, opera cake from Bruno’s Pastries, cookies from Milk and Cookies. We learned about the color of the street signs designating historic districts (brownish red in color). The guide was a bit of a lightweight, but the food tasting was fun. After the tour, we were so full that a walk was in order.
Steph took us though Washington Park where we watched the dogs playing in the dog walk areas. Then, we walked to the Lower East Side to find the Pickle Guys. With 2 bags full of pickles, pickled mushrooms and veggies, we took a cab back to SoHo and had a drink (or two) at one of the oldest bars in SoHo, the White Horse Tavern.On Monday, we met Steph and her friends in Chelsea at the West Side Tavern for drinks. For dinner, we went to a wonderful Chinese restaurant - great food with fresh off the boat staff.
We spent several days at the NYC Library doing research on the Harlows and Spencers, searching city directories. Kate met us for a visit to the Baptist Church- where Edna and Frank were married. We got a tour of the church (now Black Baptist).
Our second food tour of Central Greenwich Village and SoHo on Wednesday had a much better guide and even better food. Tasting of aloo kathi roll, Israeli pressed sandwiches, Jamaican beef patties, fresh mozzarella and Italian sausage, Greek yogurt, and homemade Halva with pistachios.
On Thursday, we met Steph for drinks and dinner at Chumley’s, a wonderful neighborhood bar/restaurant – formerly an old NY speakeasy.
On Friday, the third of our tours- this time in Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. We spent most of the tour in the Chelsea Market. This old factory (built in 1898) was owned by Nabisco and was the place where the Oreo cookie was invented. When Nabisco moved out, it was bought by a visionary who saw it as a place for both retail and wholesale operation. He brought in breadmakers, meat packers, produce vendors, flower vendors – offering them the ability to operate their wholesale operations on the exterior of the building- pulling their trucks in for shipments, and operating a retail operation on the inside. He kept the interior intact – so it has the feeling of an old factory. He encouraged the shops to have glassed in frontage to allow the shoppers to see their operations – baking bread, cutting meat… He had his son-in-law, an artist, create comfortable places for people to sit –resulting in huge Fred Flintstone like benches – that are now filled with people eating and drinking. On the upper floors are the TV studios for NY’s local channel, The Food Network and The Oxygen Network. On our tour, we had decadent chocolate almond croissants from the French Oven, chocolate and coffee milk from Ronnybrook Dairy, bread from Amy’s bread, lobster bisque from The Lobster Place, gelato from L’Arte del Gelato, and an antipasto selection from Buon Italia. After eating our way through the Market, we walked through the Meatpacking District seeing the renaissance of this once prostitute/drug ridden area. Today it’s the new hip place for 20/30 somethings to live and play. New restaurants are popping up everywhere and designers are showing their latest clothes in former meat packing spaces. The city is trying to keep what’s left of the original meatpacking operations in the area – tough with rising rents. 50 years ago, there were 150 meat packers, today there are only about 22.
On Saturday, we spent the night with Kate and Mike. We ate at a local Summit Indian restaurant with K&M and their neighbors, Ellen and Bob. The food was OK, and with Mike doing the ordering, we had food to feed 20 on our table. After too much wine, we stumbled up to Janie’s bedroom for the night. On Sunday, Mike made a huge breakfast- eggs, bagels, and smoked salmon.
Feeling like we’d mastered the PATH, we decided to try a tour to the Bronx on Monday. Meeting in Grand Central and taking the train to the Bronx was a new transportation adventure. The rail service was far superior to the crowded, dingy roller-ball ride on the PATH. The Bronx tour focused on Arthur Avenue, “Little Italy”. We were beginning to get suspicious that all of the fun, food tours always come down to some piece of a “Little Italy” neighborhood. More bread, cheese, olives, pizza. We picked up some pasta sauce from Mike’s Deli inside the Arthur Avenue market. Dinner that night was a shrimp fra diavlo – heavenly.
With the Bronx under our belt, we found one last tour- this time in Queens – Flushing. Another transportation challenge- taking the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) to Flushing. We got out of the train and felt that we’d been transported to Shanghai or Beijing. All of the signs were in Chinese- as we fought our way down the sidewalks (with sounds of hawking and spitting), we had a sense of deja-vu. With a bit of time before the tour started, John decided to get his hair cut at the local Chinese/Malaysian beauty shop. What a sight to see a blonde in the middle of all that black hair.
The guide was running late and as the group was waiting, we noticed a familiar couple—it was Sue and Ben, Mike’s sister and brother-in-law from Brooklyn. As surprised as we were to see them, they did a double take to see us. The group was too big- but we all headed down the street with Myra, our “guide”. Myra wasn’t the most knowledgeable or the most organized guide, but as John reminded me, it did get us off our butts and exploring another part of the city.
Flushing was chartered in 1665 and was a haven for people seeking religious freedom. The Quakers still have a meeting house here and in 1811 the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church was established. It’s hosted two World Fairs and today has a Sikh Center, a Jewish Temple, the largest Hindu temple in the NE, a Muslim Center and a number of Buddhist Temples. 55% of it’s 80,000 residents are Asian (Chinese, Korean and Indian), Latinos make up 22%. We were obviously in the Chinese section. We stopped at a huge Indian grocer and tried fig and rose ice cream, a huge indoor Chinese food court where we watched them making noodles and had a great bowl of noodle soup, and finished our tour in Korea town. The huge Korean market was like an Asian Sam’s Club. The place was paced with Koreans buying in bulk. Vendor had set up tables offering free samples of things like squid, baby octopus, seaweed, soy candies. We tried quite a few – confirming our experience that we really are 3 dish Korean eaters- bim en bap, jae yuk bokum and Korean pancakes (oh, and of course, kim chi). The other offerings just tasted like spiced rubber. They did have a Korean bed vendor – the beds had normal headboards, but the actual bed was a sheet of marble or granite with dual heaters. Evidently, the Koreans sleep on these with just a thin blanket on top. The salesman claimed that it was great for the back pain.
Steph dared to invite us to her office to meet her co-workers. It was quite impressive-she has a large office and a good size staff. She’s really got a great group of co-workers – interesting, well traveled. We had a great evening with Steph, Nicole and her boss, Ray at Kennedy’s, their local Irish bar and hangout. When Ray offered to drive us home, we could feel Steph cringe. 
We spent election night at Kate and Mike’s – pizza, wine and a bit of shouting at the TV. Kate got Mike an early XMAS present of a Persian kitten. The new kitten is absolutely adorable - fluffy white, light blue eyes and only 9 weeks old. I was in love and had thoughts of getting a kitten- so much easier than a dog.... But, after about 3 hours in their house with little "Nigel" or "Spike" in my lap (we're voting for Spike as his name, but we're in the minority), my eyes started to water, my nose started to run. John got this look of sheer joy on his face--no cats in his future. Even the next day, I spent the day without eye makeup and itchy, watery eyes.
We were elated to wake up Wednesday morning to find that the Democrats had actually taken over the majority in the House – and may actually take the Senate (two seats still in contention- with recounts happening). Can it possibly be true that not all Americans have drunk the Bush kool-aid?
With only a few more days left in the city, we met Steph for dinner at her favorite Thai restaurant – excellent food and cheap – and on Saturday night for drinks at The Wine Bar. The bar served only NY State wines and they were surprisingly good. The menu paired the wines with appetizers (cheese plates, chocolate soufflés).
It was time to leave and we reluctantly left the City. We smartly left early on Sunday, avoiding the afternoon city traffic and the upcoming bad weather, arriving in D.C. in early afternoon.
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