Another home adventure, seeking food in the cold
Jan 16-23, 2023
Back to New York. Unfortunately, weather meant that a couple of meetings I had hoped for were cancelled, but also managed to catch up with one friend I haven’t seen in a while and spontaneously joined a hot chocolate tour. There was also lots of other food.
This trip happened to coincide with my brother visiting from South America, where he’s been teaching English for several years. It also overlapped with a pretty awful cold front moving through, though thankfully not much snow.
I arrived in cold weather after an uneventful but full flight. JetBlue happened to offer the best deal this time, even after the cost of the extra legroom seating so that’s how I went. Griffith tagged along and was somehow not his usual complaining self, at least for that leg of the trip. Arrived at JFK a bit early, took the Airtrain to Jamaica and then the E. All went reasonably smoothly.
Woke up Wednesday (October 17) to cold weather and a threat of snow that would never materialize. Got something warm to drink and wandered downtown to replace my missing gloves, then to B&H for a couple of accessories I’ve been wanting. With the gloves covering my hands, I was far more comfortable walking and did quite a bit. Streets were less busy than usual, but to be expected given the weather.
The next day remained cold, and my brother and I decided on dumplings. B train downtown to 50th, then a change for the local to get us to 14th and 6th. Long Island Dumplings is less than a block south. Warm soup and spicy dumplings made for the perfect meal, after which we wandered up 6th, stopped at Fairway for some beans and other necessities, then through the Flower District where cats remain posted to guard against any possible mouse/rat invasion. Some of them are sleeping on the job, but it doesn’t seem to matter.
Caught the 1 train (my usual) uptown at 28th.
Friday brought snow, but warmer temps. We decided to wander downtown for a bit and I dressed for snow. Checked out the fish and chips at A Salt and Battery on Greenwich Ave, but I have to admit that the best thing about the place was the name. The fish and chips were OK, but hardly spectacular. It’s the only fish and chips place I’ve ever been to that didn’t have any lemon, which is my preferred flavoring, but we did OK. It worked fine for a day of light snow.
Walking east, we passed an exhibition with a weirdly self-destructive name, and ended up at Lafayette Bakery for a warm drink. Somewhere along the way, I had scanned through my social media and discovered two things:
- A hot chocolate tour on Sunday evening, for which I immediately signed up.
- There’s some kind of a Zoetrope in the subway, on the B/Q north of DeKalb Ave in Brooklyn. We were pretty close to Broadway/Lafayette, so we decided to ride a few stops on the train and check it out.
The Zoetrope (called Masstransitscope) has existed since 1980 and was refreshed in 2008. Somehow I missed it before. It’s visible only on the B/Q northbound out of DeKalb Ave. I have to be honest in that it was kind of underwhelming. I think it requires the train to be moving at a decent clip and ours was barely crawling. We were also dealing with dirtier-than-usual windows due to all the crappy weather. I can’t say you should rush out to see it, but you might have a much better experience on a different day.
We did a couple of loops between Manhattan and Brooklyn using both the B and Q in both directions to try to get a better look it, but mostly managed to get nice snowy-day views from both sides of the Manhattan Bridge. Nothing to complain about.
Here’s a better view of what it should look like:
The weekend brought a brunch with a friend and cooking dinner on Saturday. Sunday, I wandered out and got lunch, but avoided eating too much ahead of the hot chocolate tour I had signed up for. Run by Rachel Brotman, New York’s hot chocolate expert, we would wander the best spots on the upper east side.
I took Griffith for a chilly walk through Central Park. The cold didn’t seem to be stopping anybody. Even a small group of roller-dancers were out as they are every weekend near the bandshell. Some sections, of course are closed off this time of year, but where it was open, there were people.
Made it all the way to the Mark Hotel, our first stop. The Mark has a hot-dog stand outside that also serves hot chocolate this time of year. A beautiful concoction of 7 different single-source chocolates with a brownie dunked in it. A fun start while the sun was still out. From there, off to Maison du Chocolate for a brief talk about making chocolate and a small but very intense cup of sipping chocolate with whipped cream. From there, on to Angelina’s and 78th and Lex, then a walk uptown to the Butterfield Market at 85th and Madison. (Sorry no photos from either, but the chocolate was amazing and Angelina’s also included a few desserts for us to share.) Wrapped up at Glace by Noglu, who this time of year pivot from ice cream to chocolate, serving an amazing chocolate topped with some kind of toasted marshmellow thing, and whipped cream. To say it became a mess would be an understatement. Griffith can usually figure out how to eat anything and even he was confused.
My last day (Monday, October 22) brought an impromptu pizza expedition to Brooklyn. We had originally thought of going out to Jersey City or Hoboken, but it was cold again and didn’t want to deal with the ferries in this weather. Brooklyn was easier than the PATH train too.
Started at Best Pizza, which is the least google-able name on the internet. Just try searching for “Best Pizza Brooklyn” and see how many thousands of hits you get for hundreds of different places. But this one is original and old school. Had a regular slice and a grandmother slice. The sauce for the grandmother slice was just incredible, and really took this one up a notch above even the best of the “classic” New York slices I’ve had. For that, we’d have to make another stop.
Williamsburg pizza isn’t far away, just a short walk down Union Ave. The slice is as classic as they come. No big productions, but solid and about as good as it gets.
A quick walk from there took us to the elevated M train, to Broadway-Lafayette, and a D train home. There have been a lot of subways this trip. I’ve been a bit less inclined to walk than I might be if the weather was just a bit above freezing. Still got around a lot.
Had a neighborhood Chinese dinner before retiring early. JetBlue leaves early and I had to be up before the sun. Possibly should not have bothered. It’s now the second time in a row I have been delayed on departure with them. The flight was unremarkable and I had a whole row to myself because I guess nobody else wants to be up at 5am on a Tuesday either.
Now back in Seattle. It’s raining. My next trip should be more adventurous. Jasper in Winter!