This was my first time in New York City to not *gasp* stay in Manhattan. Instead, I stayed in a 1940’s highrise in Riverdale (a flat owned by a friend), a Jewish community in the northwest Bronx. Old, Great Gatsby-like houses with cast-iron gates perch atop tree-lined cliffs in turn-of-the-century grandeur. From here, the Hudson actually looks beautiful. At the edge of town, near the bagel shop and Starbucks, rows of newer multi-story apartments stand guard. It reminded me nothing of Manhattan, more like a typical old school East Coast town – a mix of upper middle class (I’m assuming) and working class. And not a tourist in sight.
After being picked up at LaGuardia Airport, we headed straight to the Bagel Corner (581 W 235th St) for coffee and bagels. $14 later, we had 2 coffees and 2 bagels — one with lox and cream cheese, one plain and buttered. The ladies running the place were no-nonsense in a typical New-Yorker-with-an-accent way. When one of the surly ladies asked if I wanted sugar and milk, in went two heaping lumps of plain sugar, and a quarter cup of cream. I didn’t dare explain that I was hoping for 1 packet of splenda and a bit of soy milk. Gulp. Here’s your damn coffee, and you better like it!
From the Bronx to Little Italy took about 35-45 minutes by car, given traffic and rain. We lunched at Red Egg (202 Centre St), which supposedly featured a menu of fusion Chinese-Peruvian food. We only tried the dim sum, which was, for the most part, Chinese without the Peruvian.
Some items were delicious:
Other’s were not so delicious:
The best part was the strange disco Asian decor, complete with Johnny Chang the doorman with a slicked back hair, a sinister smile, and who looked like an Asian Johnny Cash. We half expected him to say, “we have been expecting you,” when we arrived.
From Battery Park, we took a free ferry to Governer’s Island.Chances are, you’ve never heard of Governor’s Island, and neither had I. Ellis Island, Staten Island, Long Island, I know all those. Governor’s Island? What’s that?The short story is that this island was a military outpost since Revolutionary days. As most places of this sort go, there was a brief revitalization effort that included important opera singers, followed by transitioning buildings to use for prisoners. Ultimately, the US military operated on this base until 1996, when the Coast Guard closed shop, and handed over everything to the state of New York, who is in the process of determining what to do with this island.
Continue reading “Another New York- Part 1: Governor’s Island”
brown bag travel 