Posts Tagged “NYC”

This might be the beginning of a new post-thanksgiving tradition. On this year’s black Friday, I met N for dim sum at Dim Sum Go Go near City Hall. DSGG has a funky mod color scheme, cartless service and quality generally a cut above that on offer at the giant hot & loud dim sum emporia I usually go for.

Full of thankful excess, we kept it light with pea pod stem dumplings, the enigmatically named “green dumplings”, steamed shrimp and duck dumplings. But one item in the fried column called out to me.  As you may recall, I have a thing for fried turnip cake, but given the season, it seemed a good idea to try #6, “Fried Pumkin Cakes”

I can’t say they were anywhere as amazing as good turnip cake can be, but they were sweet and satisfying.  I wouldn’t be entirely shocked to find that the chef had dumped a can of pumpkin pie filling onto the griddle, with just the barest dash of salt, but there was still something homey and appealing about them, reminiscent of that delicious afghan pumpkin preparation, kaddo.

I first discovered kaddo at Helmand, in Cambridge, where it comes vegetarian as a slab of candied pumpkin, or with a delicious meat sauce on top.  When dining with vegetarian friends, I often scheme to get the meaty version so I don’t have to share.  If you want to attempt making your own, here’s a recipe from a site with a name too good not to link to: kaddo at Habeas Brulee.

So I was walking along West 72nd street, very possibly the one street I know better than any other in the world, when I came upon this sign, which stopped me in my tracks.

The sign is at the corner of Broadway, on the Eastbound side of 72nd, near the 1-2-3 train stop, over a mile from either 7th avenue or Times Square. Is this a typo? Do they mean “shuttle” rather than “shuffle”? Could this possibly be the least helpful traffic sign I’ve ever seen?

I guess if you were driving East on 72nd with the intent of turning right on to Broadway, you might have in mind that you could eventually find yourself on 7th avenue. But no, that’s no longer possible! According to this turgid bit of reportage in the NY Post, the powers that be have decreed an end to Times Square fraternizing between 7th ave and Broadway. Max Becher may need to re-carve his chocolate bar. And some well-meaning functionary at the DOT thought it would be cute to call this the “Times Square Shuffle.”

As of this writing, Google Maps had not yet caught up with the times - or the Post. You truly do learn something new every day.

This seemingly innocent bit in the New York Times today set me off on a strange journey. It’s about the (long-overdue, IMO) installation of some compass rose directional signs on the sidewalk outside of subway stations in New York, to help people orient themselves.

I thought this was pretty much unambiguously a good idea and didn’t think much more about it.  But in a related piece on the CityRom Blog, the question is posed, How Do You Find Your Way in the Big City? I started looking through the responses while pondering mine.

It turns out I use a variety of methods, depending on where I am and how familiar I am with that area and what clues are or are not available. I know some of the tricks, I have a decent spatial memory, and I know some landmarks. But then I remembered my stand-by trick for navigating lower Manhattan – find the World Trade Centers, they’re pretty much at the southwest end of everything, and work out your position and heading from there. Turns out I was not alone.

Before 9/11, one of the best ways to orient myself when exiting a subway station in the Village was to look for the World Trade Center towers, because I’d know that way was south. Day or night, they were the perfect compass, and that’s one of the things I miss about them.

It’s a great idea. I was born and raised in Manhattan and am usually diaoriented when I leave a subway. I look for famous skyscrapers for direction. Sadly, the Trade Centers are not there for help in lower Manhattan.

Apart from that, there were always the Trade Center towers to mark the trail…like hills in the distance.

And most eloquently,

97.
October 17th, 2007
9:00 am

I landed into a hot-summer-day-New-York-City in June 1998, completely disoriented. My French accent and male pride did not help me overcome the shame of asking around for directions. Popping out of the subway quickly became a game of “I spy”, with my little eye circling in search for the two friendly towers. The world Trade Center eternally pointed to the South and was visible from everywhere downtown and up to at least 46 street. This regular twisting of the neck did the trick.
Now my illusions are gone and eternity exists only in destruction. Powerful landmarks have been replaced by ubiquitous devices. I don’t look up to the skies but down to my iPhone screen and google maps. As long as I have my neck bowed to the ground, like a mourner of times gone-by, I sticker showing North is very welcome to cross paths with my little eye.

— Posted by Regis Zaleman

All these New Yorkers commenting on the blog about their private navigation rituals and all the thoughts of the World Trade Centers on this fall day with a perfect empty blue sky made me think of the odd habit of Bostonians to navigate by landmarks that no longer exist. While New Yorkers talk wistfully of the WTC as a way to find your way around, Bostonians refer to renamed, rebuilt, and just plain vanished landmarks in the present tense.

Mostly the obsolescence of the landmark correlates with the age of the person using it, but these directions are inherited and some people continue to refer to places like Scollay Square and the Necco Wafer Factory. Several people I know refer to a Whole Foods Markets as “Bread & Circus” which they were called before being taken over years ago. Some refer to new Whole Foods stores as B&C even though they were built after the acquisition. I pity the newcomers and tourists who get directions from these urban historians.

In fact, just now I got an instant message asking “where are you?” to which I had to reply “at the place that used to be Ras Cafe” because I could not recall the current name of the place providing my blogging wifi signal for the evening.  And a really really good hummus plate, too.  For the record, it’s Andala Coffee House.

I call this conflation of past and present geography navistalgia – a portmanteau of navigation and nostalgia. The Boston version I described is more or less a caricature of Bostonian provincialism, but every time I look south in lower Manhattan, I’m finding my way by the empty spaces in the sky and experiencing bittersweet navistalgia.

There’s always a little nervousness around a trip, especially at packing time. Do I have enough underwear? Do I have the right underwear? And for the past few years, can I put this in my carry-on bag? Can I put this in my checked luggage?

I think I have the underwear thing under control. There’s always washing in the hotel sink or going to the eurogap to buy more. I have the carry-on liquids thing under control. I have my official EU 1 litre baggie containing the essentials: mouthwash, hand sanitizer, hydrating spray, moisturizing lotion, and a bottle containing a few of each of the critical in-flight drugs and supplements: benadryl, nyquil, melatonin, famotidine and lomotil. Electronics will be easy. This is a vacation, so no laptop and no beard trimmer. I’m traveling light, so no noise canceling headphones, ipod or digital camera. All I need is cell phone, charger and adapter. Check.

Now I get to the tough part: camera and film. You can’t put film in your checked luggage, they zap it with serious industrial x-rays that are said to fog your film to heck. The carry-on luggage scanner says it’s safe up to 400 speed but I don’t trust them. I use a lead-lined bag rated to 1600 ISO for my precious Tri-X. Here’s the ambitious plan: ten rolls for ten days plus the partial roll that’s in the camera already. I’m unlikely to shoot it all, but it would really suck to run out at an inconvenient time or place.

I know from past experience that whatever kind of scanner they use, it can see right through the bag. One time they asked me if I had a camera in there along with the film (I did) and another time, I could see the monitor and the film canisters were clearly visible. So far, I’ve experienced no damaging fogging, and I’ve dragged some film through four or five airports worth of scanners in this bag. So maybe the bag manufacturer is full of it or maybe the scanners really are film safe. I feel better using the bag.

As traveling with film becomes less common among the general public - it’s probably almost extinct already - I expect more and more raised eyebrows and scrutiny at security. Not the kind I’d get if I had different genes, but the kind you get when you have strange, meticulously-wrapped packages.

Undue scrutiny of photographers brings up the news that New York City is considering rule changes that would require a permit to photograph and film in public places , recently brought to my attention by by a local ace photographologist, who deserves a special shout-out on her b-day, the party for which I lamely missed by spending the evening folding socks and zip-loc’ing film.

I don’t know if this is really the thin end of the wedge against free expression or just some misguided legal CYA maneuver, but I don’t like the sound of it. If you like to make pictures in NYC, you might want to look into it. Follow LKB’s link for more info and a petition you can sign.