To live and eat in NYC

Little Tokyo Street

2009-11-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

This section of the St. Mark's is known as Little Tokyo and has some good Japanese restaurants. East 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd Aves, in particular, is where Sake Bar Decibel, Otofuku,
and Yakiniku West are located. The building at the corner that also houses the St. Mark's bookstore contains Sharaku, Village Yokocho, and Angel's Share.

LUNCH - Sharaku is a reliable place to go for Japanese food. The main draw is their lunch specials, which include sushi and soba lunch combos and a good salmon bento box.

DINNER - Next door to Sharaku on the upper level is Village Yokocho, open from 5 PM to 3 AM. It's in the style of a Japanese pub so instead of ordering one large meal, you sample a little of this and a little of that (which really add up so beware of the large bill at the end of your meal).

Village Yokocho was down-the-stairs out-the-door crowded the two times we went.

No sushi bar here. This is their yakitori bar.

Village Yokocho's menu is extensive, diverse, and kind of all over the map. The menu options are so large that it actually takes a long time to figure out what to order. It's not the standard menu consisting of the typical sushi/donburi options/teriyaki options. This rich, buttery mushroom dish was delicious.

Village Yokocho also has Korean dishes on its menu, like this pajan (a.k.a. Korean Pancake). We love when Pajan is extra crispy on the outer edeges.

We wonder if the Otofuku guys just bring this up to them from their tiny hole-in-the-wall a minute away?

Fresh, healthy chirashi bowl to offset the heaviness of the buttery and greasy dishes above. (Note: These photos were taken about a year ago, so well in advance of my food poisoning incident - it's hard enough for me to just look at photos of Ikura now).

COCKTAILS - And while you're sitting at your table at Village Yokocho, you'll notice people walking in and out of an unmarked door inside the restaurant. You know it's not the restroom. You ask, is it a private room? Nope, much greater than that - it's Angel's Share.

So what was behind this secretive, unmarked door oddly placed inside a bustling, yakitori-smelling Japanese restaurant? When we walked in, we were pleased to find a quiet, small, serene dimly lit elegant parlor. The large mural lit above the bar gave it a dreamy ambiance, and looking around at all the couples, a popular date spot. The two Japanese bartenders looked like they were handling their business efficiently and politely, while wearing their crip white shirts, black ties and black vests.

We somehow lucked out on seats overlooking the East Village street. Angel's Share has a no-standing bar policy, probably in order to maintain a relaxed, quiet environment, which is almost unheard of at other New York City bars and lounges on weekends. There's also a strictly enforced rule where only groups of four or fewer can be seated.

The cocktails were expensive so we sipped our one cocktail each very slowly. The downside was that due to the limited seating space, we felt a bit pressured to order more to keep our seats (since we saw people attempting to enter the bar then being turned). Nevertheless, it's a cool little bar with some interesting drink options (we stuck to beer and sake because the mixed cocktails were buco bucks). They also offer interesting food options (prepared in the Village Yokocho kitchen).

Fish + Milk @ Chelsea Market

2009-11-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

Whenever we walked into Ronnybrook Farm Dairy at Chelsea Market, we had to remind ourselves that we are lactose intolerant. Ronnybrook Farm Dairy's milk bottles are so visually appealing, we almost wanted to forget the aftermath of drinking a straight glass of milk.

For those that have had the phrase "lactose intolerant" handed down to you, Ronnybrook Farm Dairy makes you want to challenge that diagnosis when you're at a milk playground like this.

Ronnybrook is known for their milk shakes and ice creams, but they also sell organic eggs, drinkable yogurts, spreadable cheese, and free range chicken sandwiches. Ronnybrook's other comfort food items include their mac & cheese and their Shakshuk eggs (tomato-vegetable stew over two sunny side up eggs).

The one thing we disliked at Ronnybrook was their extremeley tart atomic green mint with crushed ice drink shown in this photo. Stick to the dairy.

Their sandwiches are healthy so don't expect one of those mindblowing Katz's pastrami experiences, but the food is fresh, it's good for you, the place is clean, the service is usually pretty good, and it's nice to sit at the circular counter eating lunch that won't break your bank like some of the other Meatpacking lunch spots.

Chelsea Market also has a fish playground called The Lobster Place.

In addition to being New York City's larget purveyor of live lobster, they have one of the city's largest selection of fish, they sell clambakes, smoked fish, and more. This is the place we liked buying our salmon from since the salmon at the grocery stores in our neighborhood looked a bit schpent and unhealthy. Here, we were confident that we were getting the fresh goods. (Perhaps Sakagura should buy their fish from here and learn how to discard old fish).

You can also have a raw bar event at the Lobster Pound. Fresh oysters and hotate - our kind of party. Great idea for a company Christmas party. Think outside the hotel/banquet box people!

The Lobster Place also sells (fairly pricey) prepared food: soups like lobster bisque and Manhattan clam chowder; crab claw cocktail and smoked salmon cocktail (six slices of Norwegian smoked salmon served with their scallion cream cheese, capers and Amy's bread); "Shack-in-the-back" rolls (served on a buttered and grilled top-split bun) like tarragon shrimp roll (sweet shrimp tossed with fresh tarragon, capers, comichons, parsely, chives). Other menu items include seared ahi soba noodles and curried tuna salad wrap (fresh steamed yellowfin tuna mixed with madras curry, golden raisins, red onions, cilantro).

And of course, they sell sushi! The sushi bentos are also expensive but remember they're fresh - prepared right there for you and this place has a high turnaround.

Their lobster roll sushi is delicious but they don't give you very many for the price. It actually leaves you feeling unsatisfied. If you're going to splurge on semi-lobster, spend your money on the Red Hook Lobster Pound lobster roll instead, which we're craving like no one's business right now.

You know you're going to get good bread at Amy's Bread when you watch the workers through the glass in their bakery next to their small store making the bread (it's the area where tourists are taking photos). The bread is made by hand daily, they use organic whole grains and unbleached flour, and they offer an excellent selection. They also offer cookies, muffins, almond brioche toast, chocolate cherry rolls, coffee cakes, lowfat applesauce doughnuts, biscuits, scones, freshly baked pizza, quiche, focaccia diska, a very European looking sandwich menu, and layer cakes. See their complete menu. Their Chelsea Market location is quite small and always crowded so it's better to take their food to go. Grab one of their sandwiches and walk over to the Highline Park (they actually sell picnic sandwich boxes during summer).

Who wouldn't want to receive Sesame Street and burger and fries cakes?

Chelsea market always has photos dislayed on its walls.

And there's music, usually jazz, that's great while you're having lunch.

This is sort of torture thinking about places you can no longer walk over to or call for delivery, like right about now during dinner time we'd be calling Chelsea Thai Wholesale and getting pad thai noodles delievered to our apartment. It's still the best pad thai we've ever tasted and still a great deal at $7.85 (despite the fact that the price has been slightly raised). We don't think you can order a bad thing off of their menu.

We Missed Stevie Wonder

2009-10-31T18:38:00.001-07:00

If we were still living in New York City this year, we would have stayed home a month to pay for two concerts that took place in and around New York. First for us would have been a short flight to Norfolk, VA to see Stevie give a three-hour concert that was described as "a perfect concert." I cry.

Second concert on our list would have been the first night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary show at Madison Square garden. The amount of music legends in one room . . . unfreakinbelievable: Paul Simon, Jerry Lee Lewis, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band, Billy Joel. There were tributes and dedications. John Legend dedicated a song to Marvin Gaye. Stevie Wonder did a "stunning" homage to Michael Jackson with "The Way You Make Me Feel." I cry. Stevie also did duets with Smokey Robinson, John Legend, Sting, and B.B. King. Oh Beejeezus. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band did a version of "New York State of Mind" with Billy Joel. Once in a lifetime event. We should have been there.

Night two of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary show also had some incredible talent. Aretha Franklin paid homage to our favorite city with her version of "New York, New York." Also performing were Annie Lennox, Lenny Kravitz, Jeff Beck, Metallica, Lou Reed, Ozzy Osbourne, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen again, U2 and a surprise appearance by Mick Jagger.

If anyone hears that Stevie Wonder will be performing on the west coast, please let us know ASAP!!!

Party Animals

2009-10-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

If we were celebrating Halloween in New York, these are the people we'd party with - people dressed in creative costumes, not the predictable of-the-moment fad that people our age and younger can't help but wear every Halloween, people who can shake their tooshies to both "Monster Mash" and Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On.

Lost in the Wilderness

2009-10-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

This great quote on the exterior wall of the Rubin Museum has new meaning in our lives. At this moment in time, we are very lost. I suppose this means we will be finding ourselves soon.

Living Large in New York

2009-10-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

You haven't seen rich people until you've lived in Manhattan. They're a separate breed from other "wealthies" in the rest of the United States. Just walk into Bergdorf and observe the folks with personal shoppers. It's actually quite startling if it's your first looksie in Bergdorf, then quite amusing. Or walk down Madison Ave or walk by Columbus Circle and see the long lines of personal drivers waiting in shiny black Mercedes for hours until their bosses wearing Tom Ford suits are ready to be driven just one block away. So where do these wealthies live? They live in the Dakota-esque buildings with doormen wearing suits nicer than your nicest suit. They live in the big fat large condos - in the West Village, the lofts in SoHo, the large condos on the Upper West side overlooking Central Park.

It's always insane when we see real balconies in Manhattan. Our balcony was the glamorous fire escape with a view right into someone's messy bedroom in the opposite building.

Not big fans of the expensive, trendy SoHo neighborhood, but we'd love to live in any of the spacious lofts there.

There's so many elegant as Cary Grant apartments on the Upper West Side, especially the buildings closest to Central Park. You can lick the sidewalks there. It'd be a great place to raise a family.

The coveted top units. We'd always look up at apartments like this and wonder what the rent must be like and how great it'd be to have some margaritas on top outside during the warm months. And we'd wonder if the people living in these gorgeous apartment appreciate living there, just as Andie asked Duckie in Pretty in Pink.

This apartment was one block from our apartment. We always passed this apartment on the way to the Chelsea Market. We like the look and charm of the older buildings in New York, but hell we were ready to pack our bags and roll our stuff across the street here. It didn't matter that it's right across from the hospital.

This multilevel top story apartment with the spiral staircase in the LES stood out since it was the only one with a modern design on a street, and area, consisting of mostly older buildings. The people who built this definitely wanted to be "seen."

We once went to an open house in the West Village to torture ourselves. Sometimes we're sick like that. It just looked like a typical New York apartment from the outside but when we went in, we fell in love. It was two bedrooms (gasp), had its own separate kitchen (almost fainted), had a huge living room and dining space, had gorgeous brick walls throughout the apartment. The apartment was also the only apartment on the third floor so there were windows on all sides. It was love until the realtor told us the rent was $4,000/mo. Don't get us started on apartments in DUMBO right by the Brooklyn Bridge or the ones at the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade.

Restaurant Advertising

2009-10-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

Jekyll and Hyde Club might not be the kind of place we'd go to drop money for a meal, but we have to give it to them for their eye-catching advertising gimmick.

I'm sure the boss didn't mind that the driver was parked here illegally while getting his pastrami sandwich if he saw how many people were taking photos of the car, which includes their web address as well.

Ruben's Empanadas

2009-10-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

Sigiri Sri Lanka Restaurant was closed so we decided to lunch it at a small empanada take-out joint Ruben's Empanadas in the East Village (122 First Ave., near 7th Street). Ruben's Empanadas has been hand wrapping and baking empanadas out of their Brooklyn Factory since 1975. All empanads are about $4. We ordered their lunch special - $7.38 for one empanada, rice and beans, cup of coffee, and a bottled water.

We were starving so we very pleased when we saw the huge plate of rice and beans included in our empanada lunch special. Unfortunately, the rice and beans were too dry and turned out to be too much to finish.

We were equally pleased when we saw the size of the empanada.

However, the taste was lack luster. Although the spinach tofu empanada was proportionately stuffed and tasted decent, the other empanadas tasted flat. My ham and cheese empanada (not pictured) was very disappointing. It looked nicely stuffed from the outside, but when I broke it in half, there was hardly any filling. Did it evaporate? Where did my filling go?

The empanadas were so flavorless and dry that even madly dipping them into the hot sauce didn't help. There are so many places to eat in the East Village that we wouldn't go back even if they offered $1 lunch specials.

The $3 Lusso Sangria

2009-10-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

We miss unplanned, relaxing 3 pm Sangria happy hours. We miss dirt cheap $3 Sangrias that taste like 15 bucks and that are served all day even more. We miss Lusso's Sangrias! And don't ever call it fruit punch for adults.

Drinking a happy hour priced drink without the loud happy crowd in New York City is priceless.

Painting of Lusso in Lusso.

Fond memories of walking around the NYC streets and seeing bargain drink signs everywhere will never fade.

Housing Works Thrift Shops

2009-10-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

There's many things to like about Housing Works thrift shops: chic eye-catching window displays, great bargains (although it can be hit and miss depending on the day), high-end fashion merchandise at greatly discounted prices, 40 to 50% off sales on already slashed prices, and an absolutely fantastic mix of unique furniture pieces, most at affordable prices. Because New Yorkers are such savvy, quick shoppers, the best furniture pieces always have a "sold" on them.

But the best thing about shopping at Housing Works is that purchases help their efforts with AIDS and homelessness. Housing Works is the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the U.S. and since 1990 has been providing housing, medical and mental health care, meals, job training, drug treatment, HIV prevention education, and social supports to thousands of homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS.

Although Housing Works has seven locations in New York City (and one in Haiti), we've only been to our neighborhood Chelsea location on West 17th Street and the store in Brooklyn. We're not sure what the other stores are like, but we have a feeling the West 17th store is the best (the Brooklyn store, for example, was much smaller and carried a less diverse merchandise).

If we were staying in New York for the long haul, we would have absolutely bought this shelf/storage unit. This swiveled around 360 and has a full-length mirror on the back as well as coat hangers on one side. A good looking functional piece and a good deal for $50.

In any other state, a man wearing this jacket might look a bit special or even criminal. But we're pretty sure a man in New York could style this and pull this off any time of day to any place.

This barber's chair was expensive at almost a thousand dollars but if you have the money, like many people in New York do, then what a great buy.

And even if you walk out of the store empty, it's always a fun visit - listening to workers singing to an old Madonna hit or watching customers furniture battle or observing girls stalk other girls for boots and dresses. Housing Works also has some great events. I really wish I could be at their Bride on a Buck 2 event. I'm sure the event will be nutty and the dresses will be sold out in under an hour. Someone should definitely tape the scene of women at the fiercest moment - bargain shopping competition.

After a Housing Works visit, walk across the street to Angel Street Thrift Shop. That's where I scored my Phillip Lim coat. Fun times shopping in New York in the fall!

Manganaro's Hero Boy

2009-10-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

As we mentioned in our older post before we left New York, we have a few more food-related posts that we just didn't have any time to do while we were in a frenzied pace to see and visit every crack and crevice in New York while we still lived there. We'll start with a place and its sandwiches we're craving right now: Manganaro's Hero Boy in Hell's Kitchen (at 494 9th Avenue).

Manganaro's Hero Boy is a working person's place and has been in business for over 50 years. When we went during lunch on a weekday, we saw a steady mix of white collar and blue collar folks. The restaurant serves the sandwiches cafeteria style and has a large seat-yourself dining section to the right. The portions are huge, the prices are reasonable, and the food is satisfying. Our kind of place. Most people will recommend their chicken parmigiana hero and their traditional lasagna, but we decided to order their meatball hero and the prosciutto, mozzarella & tomato hero, which turned out to be very good choices. The large meatballs were very moist, the traditional style tomato sauce was mellow, and the nicely melted cheese was plentiful.

Just check out the size of this heartburn-inducing hero. The only downer was the soggy bottom caused by the tomato sauce. They should serve the sauce on the side so you can spread and dip at your digestive pace without turning the bread "prematurely wet."

The prosciutto was simply stunning. How can one not love prosciutto? More importantly, how can a place screw up a prosciutto sandwich? Yes, odd, but many surprisingly do (too little meat, too dry, too much unnecessary sauce barfed on it). Thankfully, Manganaro's gives you a simple prosciutto sandwich done right. The meat tasted fresh and the portion was perfect.

The size of the heros are enormous, but not disgustingly tiresome the way a Carnegie sandwich is. So yes, you can actually eat the whole thing as long as you pace yourself right. The sandwiches were pretty good deals for $8 and $9 considering the portions. We were surprised that some rather large men could only finish half their hero. Tackling Manganaro's famous six-foot heros would probably be not so easy. One thing to know about Manganaro's besides their food is that they're located next to Manganaro's Grosseria and Ristorante. It's the same name, same family from the same blood line, but completely separate entities.

The decades long bitter family feud between Manganaro's Grosseria and Ristorante directly next door to Manganaro's Hero Boy is widely known. There's even a sign at the Grosseria that states "Manganaro's Foods is not affiliated with Hero Boy." The two separate Manganaros are owned and operated by feuding brothers. I'm sure their uncle James Manganaro who started working at the Grosseria as a young boy at the turn of the century and who gave the boys the business wouldn't be pleased with the War of the Manganaros. While the Hero Boy is more modern and has the larger scale cafeteria feel, the Grosseria, which is an old world Italian specialty food store and small restaurant in the back, make you feel like you've stepped back in time, like you walked in a scene of The Godfather. The Grosseria looked like the kind of place we'd want to eat at . . . with charm and history . . . BUT . . .

Both Manganaros were featured in Anthony Bourdina's No Reservations (separately, of course). We didn't have enough time to eat at the Grosseria, but we've read many unhappy reviews of bad treatment by the Grosseria proprietors. And we can also attest to a slightly rude treatment there. If you're in a nasty competition with your family members that run a food place next door that sells similar old school Italian food, why would you treat your customers like shit? Because when you make them feel unwelcome, they're going to go next door to Hero Boy instead where the service is quick and straightforward but certainly not rude or mean. As much as we wanted to try Grosseria, there's just too many places in New York City to discover and go back to, and a place that can't respect its customers on a basic level is just not worth the time (which is why we skipped Kebab Cafe).

Spike Jonze Retrospective at MoMA

2009-10-14T17:28:00.001-07:00

Another thing we missed in NYC was the first-ever film retrospective of Spike Jonze at MoMA, one of our favorite New York museums. Jonze even participated in an opening night discussion with Maurice Sendak on October 8th. Sigh. MoMa had asked Jonze ten years ago if they could do a retrospective on him and he declined saying he thought it was too early for a retrospective at that time and asked them to ask him ten years later if they still wanted him.

Although he doesn't have many film credits under his belt (obviously a man of quality over quantity when it comes to film work), he certainly has many fans, like us, of his earlier music videos. This list has a few of his video work, although the list is astonishingly missing Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. And we also loved Sky's the Limit by Notorious B.I.G.

We're looking forward to seeing Where the Wild Things Are and how Jonze tackled the difficult task of adapting this beautiful childrens' classic picture book with so few words.

Stevie Wonder Concerts this Month - New York

2009-10-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

We keep missing Stevie. For crying out loud, we have a wonderful framed Stevie concert poster and we've never been able to see him perform live.

He'll be one of the performers at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 25th Anniversary concerts on October 29th and 30th at the Madison Square Garden. Other performers will include Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, U2, Paul Simon, Metallica, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Friends, and Simon Garfunkel.

In addition to the the anniversary concert this month, Stevie has lined up concerts in neighboring cities. We would have gladly taken a quick 1 hour 15 min flight to Norfolk, VA.

No news of him ever coming this way.

New York City Wine & Food Festival

2009-10-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

Wish we could be there. The second annual New York City Wine & Food Festival from October 8-11. Locations include some of our favorite areas like DUMBO and our neighborhood haunt - the Meatpacking District/Chelsea Market. The multitude of events look really impressive, although expensive. Then again, 100% of the net proceeds benefit hunger relief via the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength. What really bums us out about this one is that Anthony Bourdain will be take part in this year's festivities. Really wished we could have ate some grub and talked some smack with him.

Missing New York

2009-09-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

We're missing New York City so badly. We should be back to doing more posts once we move into our new apartment in a few days.

Bronze Subway Creatures

2009-09-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

This is why we loved our subway stop - these whimsical and cartoon-like Bronze sculptures depicting the "impossibility of understanding life in New York" called Life Underground by Tom Otterness (2001). It was like Fraggle Rock at 14th Street and 8th Ave. Hopefully these guys helped to ease the pains of a hard day for many New Yorkers as it did for us.

Washington Square Park

2009-09-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

A crowded and hot summer at Washington Square Park.

There's always great free jazz all over the city. We saw this red head bassist all over, mostly at subway stops.

Pizza Land

2009-09-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

You know you aint in New York anymore when you don't walk past a dozen pizza signs during a ten-minute walk.

Goodbye New York

2009-08-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

In less than three hours we leave New York City. We feel confident in saying that we did as much as any humans could possibly do in one year in this city. We're very sleep deprived right now so we'll hold off on writing about what made us fall in love with New York City this year for another post after we've caught up on some sleep and rest. We had the best time of our lives. This is not our final post (we have dozens and dozens of food and miscellaneous photos to share) so please continue to check in the next few months.

We'll see you soon!

Last Day

2009-08-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

We started off the day by turning in the keys to our apartment, a walk around our neighborhood and a stop at Chelsea Market, then our usual Sunday brunch. We spent the remainder of our day at Central Park, of course.

As we were making our way out of the park, we saw a group of 50 to 60-something-year-old dancing machines grooving away to techno music. Some of them were dancing on their roller blades. Most of them seemed like they were ex-Soul Train dancers or Studio 54 regulars back in their day and they were showing off their moves. It was a fun way to end the day.

The Moon and New York City

2009-08-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

We told you we're feeling sentimental, so of course we have to listen to one of the best New York songs Arthur's Theme by Christopher Cross.

Here is New York by E.B. White

2009-08-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

E.B. White wrote this essay during a hot summer of 1948. Everyone that has lived in New York should have a copy of this essay.

Some highlights from the essay:

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, 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 New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last--the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.

It is by all odds the loftiest of cities. It even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression.

Mass hysteria is a terrible force, yet New Yorkers seem always to escape it by some tiny margin: they sit in stalled subways without claustrophobia, they extricate themselves from panic situations by some lucky wisecrack, they meet confusion and congestion with patience and grit-a sort of perpetual muddling through. But the city makes up for its hazards and deficiencies by supplying its citizens with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin-the sense of belonging to something unique, cosmopolitan, mighty and unparalleled.

The oft-quoted thumbnail sketch of New York is, of course: "It's a wonderful place, but I'd hate to live there." I have an idea that people from villages and small towns, people accustomed to the convenience and the friendliness of the neighborhood over-the-fence living, are unaware that life in New York follows the neighborhood pattern. The city is literally a composite of tens of thousands of tiny neighborhood units. Each neighborhood is virtually self sufficient. Thus, no matter where you live in New York, you will find within a block or two a grocery store, a barber shop, a newsstand and shoeshine shack, an ice-coal-and-wood cellar (where you write your order on a pad outside as you walk by ), a dry cleaner, a laundry, a delicatessen (beer and sandwiches delivered at any hour to your door, a flower shop, an undertaker's parlor, a movie house, a radio-repair shop, a stationer, a haberdasher, a tailor, a drugstore, a garage, a tearoom, a saloon, a hardware store, a liquor store, a shoe-repair shop.

The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.

First New York Apartment

2009-08-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Filmore Place, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Our first (temporary) New York apartment. This is where we lived out of a suitcase for about a month. It was such a nice apartment with brick walls, fireplace, two bedrooms, lots of windows and light. But it kind of ruined us during our apartment hunting period since it was all downhill from there.

Radio Days

2009-08-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

We'll miss turning on our radio and listening to our favorite radio station, NPR. We listened to NPR as we got ready in the morning, with our morning cup of coffee, with our afternoon wine, and pretty much every time we were home. Some of our favorite shows included Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson, The Brian Lehrer Show, Morning Edition with Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne, music with Jonathan Schwartz, All Things Considered, and last but not least Car Talk with brothers Tom and Ray Maliozzi. We loved how the Car Talk brothers cracked themselves up and we, in turn, would crack up. It won't be quite the same hearing it online.

Another radio station on regular rotation has been 98.7 Kiss fm. We could do without some of the crappy R&B songs they play on heavy rotation, but we loved the mix of their old school songs that most other radio stations don't play. Thanks to Kiss fm, Saturdays from 7 to 9 pm was always fun time at our apartment.

New York Kids

2009-08-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

We were waiting to cross the street on the Upper East side near Central Park when we heard the following conversation take place:

A female child standing next to her mom says to another female child in her stroller (yes, a stroller), "I'll have my mom call your mom and we'll get something set up for a play date." And she said it like a sassy business woman. She'll probably get an iPhone when she turns six.