41. New York | Travelogue Part I

I first went to New York in May and instantly fell in love with a city I felt I already knew, having familiarized myself with its fictional counterparts in movies, Sex and the City, and the novels of Jonathan Lethem. It was hard to walk around Manhattan and not constantly feel like I was on a giant set, and that at any moment the store fronts would be removed to reveal teamsters eating sandwiches. My first trip introduced me to hiphop karaoke at the Knitting Factory, triple burgers at the Shake Shack, and the joys of Uniqlo. It was, in many ways, the perfect trip.

With the Canadian dollar surging it seemed like the right time to revisit the city, especially since my friend Kari was offering her Brooklyn apartment to us as a base of operations. With such a wonderful introduction to the city on our first trip, would our return prove just as good, if not better?

In a word - no. First of all, New York in the late days of Spring is a very different city than in the midst of the holiday season. Trying to shop in New York the week after Christmas is like trying to swim backwards up a river during salmon spawning season. I have never seen that many people fighting over Tommy Hilfiger jeans - I wasn't even aware anyone wore Hilfiger jeans. Areas that had been wonderful to walk in during the late light hours of Spring morphed into seething masses of humanity, the tight corners of SoHo complete impasses, the calming halls of MoMa a crush of crying babies and snapping photo-ops. At the end of each day I felt drained and tired.

Part of the problem was the heavy retail focus of our trip. The dollar was riding high and we went to New York to SHOP. And based on my credit card bill, and the $400 lens on my camera, shop I did. And whereas before we had walked with awe through a retail wonderland, this time we went with lists that, surprisingly, were remaining unchecked.

Having said all that, there was a lot that was good and, although by the end we were vowing never to return, after some time we realized that New York still held a certain allure for us.

Any good trip to New York starts with a trip to the venerable Joe's Shanghai for several trays of xiǎolóngbāo, Shanghainese soup dumplings. If you've never had them the dish is all in the eating. Take the dumpling in a spoon and make a small hole with your chopstick. Drain the soup into the spoon. Eat the dumpling. Now, add some of the vinegar and chives to the spoon and finish the rest. Perfection.

Since we were staying in Brooklyn we spent our first two days walking around Williamsburg and Park Slope. If I ever do manage a move out east I would try and live in either of these two areas; Williamsburg, while nearing critical levels of hipness, is a nice balance of artist collectives, restaurants, and thrift stores, while Park Slope is quickly becoming the neighbourhood in New York to raise a family.

Gate to a house for sale.

Royal Tennenbaums...?

Just a red door.

Hard to resist a sign like this.

Both areas are also home to Beacon's Closet, a somewhat hipper than thou consignment store that nevertheless always yields up terrific finds. Last time I found a vintage Givenchy tie, and this time a pair of Ferragamo oxfords which were slightly too small for me. But I decided that I was unlikely to find a pair for $34.99 in Vancouver, and that I could overcome my aversion to wearing shoes without socks for shoes that are this sublime.

Part II: MoMa, Berkshire pork, and waiting in airports.

Comments

[Indigo16]

My visit to Prague this Christmas was similarly spoilt buy teeming masses, making a relaxing walk into a high stress march, our views constantly blocked by the tourist guides umberella held high. Previous winter trips to Scandanavia had left us alone to wander so we were shocked by the crowds and like you vowed never to return, unlike you we even lacked cheap good food to oil the memory.

[Suzanna]

Wonderful post, Thom, so loaded with imagery!

Love the Shanghai dumplings, a treat I first encountered in San Francisco back in the early nineties. Except they were only served at lunch and were not on the menu. An in-the-know item if ever there were one.

The rhythms of New York are what make it special--it's going full bore from Thanksgiving on out, as if it must squeeze every molecule out of the holiday season and leave it gasping for breath for the month of January.

The shoes are cool.

[Jones]

dang, those are nice shoes. good find. reminds me of a pair of Church's two-tones I found at Century 21. Unfortunately, they weren't really a pair as one had not been tooled yet, but merely drawn on where the tooling would go. Still, at 200 dollars off, it was tempting.

[evie]

those really are terrific shoes!

you know, i never realised that THAT was the right was to consume those soup dumplings! i simply bite into them and errr.... well, you know... draw the broth into my mouth and then i put the vinegar and ginger onto the dumpling. so uncouth! why has no one told me that i was doing it wrong?

[Thom Wong]

Indigo16 - They should offer tours where you have blockers like Britney following you around. Or maybe that would be ridiculous...hard to say.

Suzanna - off the item ordering is so very, now I want to do it. So very...delicious.

Jones - if I didn't have to eat or buy socks, I would wear nothing but Church's (that is a blatant lie, but they are very nice shoes).

evie - I have no idea if that is the "correct" way to eat it. I only found this out when the waiter was showing another couple. Prior to that I pretty much did whatever felt right.