Tuesday, February 23, 2010

G = Graffiti

This week’s letter was definitely not what I’d planned but turned out to be an interesting little experience nonetheless. After much discussion I decided that illegally tagging a few walls around NYC with my 26 Weeks logo then writing about it on a public blog was probably not the best idea. I enjoy my legal residency in this fine country too much.

So I thought I pay a visit to 5Points www.5ptz.com an outdoor art exhibit in Long Island City, considered to be the world’s premiere “graffiti Mecca,” where aerosol artists from around the world are able to legally paint on the walls of a huge factory building. Sadly it was closed for the season but will open again in the summer to visit but you’re only permitted to paint if you’re an aerosol artist, hmm might have to work on that a bit. Whatever happens I will be visiting it in July when it reopens to coincide with the parties at PS1 – in my humble opinion one of the best experiences you can have dancing in the sunshine in NYC. I recommend you check it out or even better…join me! Oh and if you’re an artist and fancy helping me get a permit to paint my logo at 5Points I will take you to PS1 afterwards and be your beck and call beer girl all day.

So the next plan was to do the Graffiti walking tour of Brooklyn. To kick it off we went to a fabulous little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Graffiti in the East Village http://www.graffitinyc.com/ and this is where the story begins and ends…

Graffiti is a kooky shoebox-size (us Manhattan dwellers are used to living in shoeboxes so this was just like home from home) delicious restaurant by Jehagnir Mehta, who was on the last Iron Chef don’t you know, where you're served ridiculously delish spicy sharing plates, very reasonably priced and the wine is all $25 a bottle, you could easily impress a date here on the cheap boys, just saying.

Cosy doesn’t even cover how it is in there, you share a table with other guests, well you have one tiny side of a table between two of you and the tables are really on top of each other, everyone gets into the spirit of it though and is mindful of each other’s space whilst making friends at the same time. All was going swimmingly until in walked a group of loud and sadly stereotypical frat boys. You could see the look on everyone’s faces, including the Manager’s, the “you’re in the wrong place” look, however a paying customer is just that so they were seated behind us and we didn’t spare them another thought. That was until Simon was shoved in the back, apparently one of them had been asking Simon to move so he could squeeze into his seat but it’s so loud in there and we were nattering away that we didn’t hear him, a simple tap and excuse me would’ve sufficed but no, a shove was what we got.

What ensued was definitely a new experience for me in New York. In the four and a bit years I’ve lived here I’ve found everyone here to be LOVELY. Kind, generous, warm and friendly. However, this guy was an Italian-American who clearly wanted to be one of the Goodfellas but unfortunately would be more likely to give “The Situation” a run for his money on MTV’s delightful reality show “Jersey Shore”. If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, google it. So, after asking him why he shoved us out the way we got a torrent of abuse back which we responded to pretty disdainfully, keeping in mind we’re sitting in effectively one tiny room with 12 other people so now everyone’s listening, suddenly “The Shame” as I’ll call him jumps up and asks Simon if he wants to “take it outside”. Honestly, not lying, the whole restaurant bursts out laughing, we tell him to sit down and after a few more choice words, me calling him a little kid and him calling me an old woman (not the best for a girls moral when she’s just invested too much to mention in a new fantabulous face cream that has promised to restore that youthful glow) he sits back down and we continue with our meal while trying to tune out their puffed up on testosterone and beer fuelled egos mouthing off about us. Our table was incredibly gracious and sympathised with us for our encounter with what they describe as a real-life fraternity party, the Manager is wonderful and apologises profusely and brings us complimentary cheese and excellent pinot noir at the end of our meal to make up for it all.

Now, for those who don’t know me that well I’m not the best at keeping my opinion to myself (maybe working on that can be next year’s New Year’s resolution) so for those that do know me this won’t come as much of a surprise. As we leave a sudden urge to put the “The Shame” in his place comes over me and I bend down and whisper quickly in his ear on my way out the door “your mother would be ashamed of you”. Woops. He follows us out with his friend in tow and tries to take a swing at Simon who has no idea what just happened until he realises I’ve put my big old foot in it. After a rather heated argument, including us being told that we should go back to our own country and everyone hates Europeans, hilarious coming from a guy who was clearly proud of his Italian heritage, we decide that this week’s letter has well and truly run it’s course and we toddle off leaving him ranting in the street giggling to ourselves about the crazy unexpected experience that just unfolded out of nowhere. Graffiti had turned out to be full of the drama I’d been avoiding. Lets hope next week’s H = happy!

Monday, February 15, 2010

F = Firecracker

February 14th, V-Day, a day for romance with one’s own “firecracker”, or a day to spend welcoming in the 2010 Lunar New Year in Chinatown at the traditional Firecracker Celebration.

Asian cultures all over the world light firecrackers to create a wall of smoke and fire to scare away evil spirits of the past year. Mayor Giuliani had banned firecrackers in NYC as a safety precaution but in the aftermath of 9/11 he lifted the ban and allowed the Firecracker Celebration to once again become a central part of the Lunar New Year festivities in 2002.

A crowd of over 500,000 was expected, I wouldn’t say it reached that number, perhaps the cold was to blame but a good number developed none the less, a few children were dressed in traditional attire, guys on the street were selling bangers which you could hear going off everywhere and a few Lion dancers jiggled their big heads and wiggled their brightly coloured tails.

We (this week Simon and I had some 26 Weeks joiners, lovely friends Ben and Will) found a perch on the top of a wall and watched as 600,000 small firecrackers were set off creating a very loud display that lasted five minutes with a few fireworks thrown in.

F also stands for freezing which is what we were after waiting over an hour to see the evil spirits scurry away so we decided that F should end with Freemans www.freemansrestaurant.com where we toasted the New Year whilst defrosting over a superb artichoke dip and other tasty delights fit for St Valentine himself.

Next week: G = Graffiti

Monday, February 8, 2010

E = Ellis Island

Three words for this week's experience....ticked.the.box.

Not much to report this week. A very cold but fun ferry ride over to Ellis Island - a place I felt I should visit as I live in New York - followed by a short and sweet trip around the Museum. A lot of interesting facts to be found, including one quote that stood out to me from a lady that travelled through Ellis Island, she described the place as a Maternity Dept / Mental Asylum due to the sheer number of babies, kids and mental patients held there while trying to travel through, not the best combination some might say.

My own personal takeaway was that Immigration has, of course, improved a LOT, however U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services if you're out there, waiting for what seems like a lifetime in an incredibly overheated Immigration Hall and then being grilled by a gruff dude behind the desk every time I return to this country on a British visa could perhaps be improved a wee bit? Just saying.

Next week F = Firecracker Display in Chinatown. 500,000 people apparently and a lot of noise.



Monday, February 1, 2010

D = 3D

As the world’s gone crazy for Avatar in 3D, I thought this week I’d try New York in 3D:

1) D = Diner
2) D = Dumbo
3) D = Doughnuts

My wonderful friends Greg and Sian were in town this weekend so “D” became a group expedition, so much fun.

First stop, Diner. The idea was to find a classic, old diner in New York to line our tummies with an old fashioned, hearty American breakfast before walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to Dumbo (best walk in town) in -9C weather. First thought was Moondance, it opened in the 1930s and was the scene in Friends where Monica worked for a while to earn some cash, the one where she had to wear the fake boobs. Due to its Soho location and rising rent it sadly had to shut down in 2007. Next stop Cheyenne Diner, opened in the early 1940s, on 11th Avenue, formerly known as Death Avenue because until the late 1930s a railroad ran down the centre probably ploughing into those who’d had a few too many pancakes at the diner and were a little slow moving across the street. This one sadly popped its clogs in 2008.

So, we found Remedy Diner, by brothers Peter and Anastasios Giannopoulos who worked in their father’s 45-year-old Upper West Side diner, 3 Stars, before opening up this place. Good old nostalgia with homebaked pies and the hugest plates of delicious breakfast fodder you could ever imagine. What I loved the most was the amuse bouche of fresh fruit with biscuits and gravy. To explain to my non-American friends, this was soft dough bready-biscuits with a thick white sauce, made from cooked pork sausage, white flour and milk, flavored with black pepper. Not very appetising.
Stuffed to the gills and many mugs of coffee later we get our sausages to go and head off through Chinatown to the Brooklyn Bridge. Chinatown provided some interesting and very disturbing scenes, including fresh fish being hauled out of tanks, thrown intro plastic bags, weighed, bought and freshly killed. Let’s say fish was firmly taken off our menu for the rest of the day.

Over the Bridge we go to DUMBO (again for my non-American friends this stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), love it here, great views and great old warehouse buildings. We stopped in to the newish Dumbo General Store to refuel on hot chocolate and Pinot Noir, good place, lovely friendly people.
Our third D was going to be Dough in Dumbo at the institution Grimaldi’s, serving coal-fired brick oven pizza just like it was cooked in the first pizzeria in America around 1905. However, at -9C, with a one hour wait OUTSIDE with arctic winds whipping up off the Hudson we decided it was a bit chilly on the willy and better saved for summer. So the grand finale D morphed into the NYPD’s fave….doughnuts.

Donut Pub is the oldest stand-alone mom and pop shop left in the City serving real doughnuts. It’s been going for 45 years and 2 years ago a Dunkin Donuts literally moved in next door, there was a wave of fear in the neighbourhood that it would go the way of the diners, but no! Donut Pub is going strong and I can see why. OMG they’re good. Light and crispy, a mere whisp of sweet sugariness. We went for the most popular Boston Crème – amazing vanilla crème, Sugar Jelly, ie: old school sugar and strawberry jam and the Honey Dip as we’d heard the restaurant won “Best Glazed Goodness in New York” in 2006 for the latter. At 3 bucks for 3 they’re a fabulous sweet treat and after telling myself repeatedly that I can’t stop by the legendary Manalo Blahnik sale this week, Donut Pub satisfied my sugar and bargain craving all in one go.

D = Delicious.

ps: a special thanks to Greg and Sian this week for a legendary laughter filled weekend and your dedication to the “D” cause. Love you lots xx