Day 1.2 - Food and drink

There re an awful lot of restaurants and eateries in new York. I'm not surprised that some apartments have kitchenettes at best, on the assumption that you'd almost always eat out. Even the apartment where I'm staying, owned by a chef, has an itty-bitty teeny-weeny kitchen.

With a significant and visible Jewish population, I wasn't surprised to see many places declaring themselves to serve kosher food, although I did chuckle at the juxtapositions this generated.




I found myself downtown, and wandered into the Westside Market at 14th St and 7th Ave. Oh, my. A cheese counter to put the ones at Queen Vic Market to shame. A selection of cured and processed meats to have you salivating for weeks. But what really drew my eye was the massive (and I mean extraordinarily huge) selection of ready made foods available. Salads of every kind you could think of, served into lunch-size portions. A huge chilled display cabinet of dips and spreads. A selection of pastries and cakes and coffees and and and.

And an area where you could pick from thirty different items to be made up into a bento box. Lasagne, quiches, pies, stews, kebabs, salads, roast vegetables of all sorts. I couldn't not, but I had a hard time choosing. I ended up going for roasted asparagus, sautéed broccoli and spinach, and a mix of roast vegies with brussel sprouts, cauli, broccoli, roast garlic and baby roma tomatoes.

I took my bag of goodies with me as I walked back up towards 42nd St, to get to the Circle Line ticket office at Pier 83. I had been told I needed to be there 30-45 mins before the sailing time to get my ticket. (I ended up jumping on the subway to cover the last ten blocks). I clearly was not the only person with that idea.

Long version short: by the time I'd moved three-quarters of the way up the long, barely moving queue, the 12:30 sailing had not only sold out, but also left. I got a ticket for the 3pm sailing, and heeded the instructions to be back by 2:15 to queue to get on the boat.

I'd snarfled my vegie bento box (using my spork) while waiting in line, and decided I really needed a cup of tea. Given the extraordinarily long queue to get onto the Intrepid (a huge aircraft carrier, which is now a museum, at Pier 86), I scratched that off my list of things I might do today. But there was an Au Bon Pain eatery upstairs that I could access without queuing. Inside, there was a very encouraging sign directing me to the self-serve tea and coffee. Where there was no tea. On asking, I was directed to another self-serve area where there was tea. If I wanted, chai, green, decaf, chamomile or Earl Grey. No, thanks. I just want some real tea.

I wandered back out, and across the overbridge, spotting a bagel shop. Inside I had a choice of a dozen different kinds of bagels, and went for a cinnamon and raisin one. (It's like a fairly dense bread roll, with a sticky surface. Meh.) I also asked the lady there if she knew where I might be able to get a cup of tea.

She looked at me blankly.
You know, hot tea. Like coffee, but tea, I explained.
She still looked perplexed, but helpfully pointed me to the cold drinks cabinet.
Never mind.

I walked back towards town, along 46th St (or something) and eventually found a little convenience store (is this a bodega?) which had an array of tea bags (including English Breakfast) above the coffee machine. Hurrah!

With a large cup of tea in hand, I then wandered up whatever Ave I was on, and found the Hell's Kitchen playground (no grass, but some play equipment, a couple of basketball courts, and some seating), and gratefully sat down.

Next hurdle: finding a public toilet. Hah. I ended up getting the woman an the servo to let me use their toilets, even though they were for customers' use only. (A bloke held out $30, and said I should use it to pay for his fuel, thereby making me a customer, and eligible to use the loos, but I was too slow off the mark.)

By then, I figured I might as well go and line up for the boat cruise, given it was coming up for 2pm. And the queue was already quite long, so I think that was the right decision. With a cuppa in my belly, an empty bladder and a podcast on my iphone, I was happy enough to stand in line with them.

PS: I've worked out how to change the time zone. I'm now posting in New York time, and yes it's 6:30 in the morning. Despite being utterly knackered, and not going to bed until after 11pm, I was still awake at 5am, and started writing this around 6am,.