doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Even more OT: headed to NYC for a long weekend.

1. If you like cooking and can't seem to find the spices, etc. you need while out in the hinterlands, pay a visit to Kalustyan's on Lexington Avenue, about 26th or 27th. https://foodsofnations.com/ (Just up from the Fighting 69th's Armory on the other side of the Avenue) If there's a spice, a curry, a whatever ingredient for cooking, they likely have it. All the foodies in NYC wind up going there at some point or another, as do most chefs. Also, if you like Indian food, that whole neighborhood is chock full of good, cheap (by NYC standards) Indian/South Asian restaurants. It seems every time I wind up in NYC I also make a stop there.
2. Union Square Farmer's Market, Saturday mornings. Pricey and it gets crowded, but if you get there early it's a good place to get a little something to eat.
3. Flying Tiger, a little shop on Broadway about 20th. It's sort of the old Spencer Gifts but with a Danish flair. It's a good place to get tsotschkes for stocking-stuffers and a place kids will get a kick out of.
4. Patisserie Claude. West Village institution, not quite the same since Claude handed it off, but still damn good. https://www.yelp.com/biz/patisserie-claude-new-york
5. If you fly-fish, the Urban Angler. They've moved (again) to 5th Avenue between 35 and 36th streets, the side opposite the Empire State Building. They're on the 2nd floor and it's a bit of a rigamarole to find your way in, but worth the visit.
6. And there's always Central Park. Great for walking.

Wear walking shoes and bundle up - this time of year the wind can really howl and make your life miserable.

Don't take a gun. (It's SOP for hotel people to call the police on you) Don't take a knife. Seriously. When it comes to knives, the police have intramural contests trying to flip them open with one hand and they get really good at it. If they can, then it's considered a switchblade and you're in serious trouble.

being a tourist in manhattan is like swimmin wid da fishes in da ocean...you should be ok if you stay in the middle o de school wid duh utter fishes...however, if you find yourself on the edge o de school or worse, alone...den you are vulnerable to da predators...and above all...do not make eye contact with anyone you do not know...and have a nice time...

and as to the knish...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knish

and as i remember, a nyc knish is like mashed potatoes and onions in fried doe...

All things considered, not a place I want to be.

SRH

stan: visiting manhattan with loved ones in the spring and fall can be a wonderful experience...one just needs to be careful and avoid dangerous situations...lived above there and worked in and around there for almost forty years...never had a problem...

Knock yourself out.

SRH

The house that Teddy built....The American Museum of Natural History.

There are very few, if any, remaining "dangerous" places in Manhattan, especially south of 96th. Quite simply, Manhattan is now a gated community for very rich people and the few of the servant class allowed to live there so they are close to the masters they serve. If you stay out of the few remaining poor neighborhoods, the most dangerous things are getting hit in a crosswalk or falling off a subway platform. You can walk down the Bowery and see fashionably-dressed women pushing expensive Euro-modern-design baby carriages but you will not see bums. You can walk through Times Square on a warm evening and have no one jostle you - the crowds are largely a thing of the past.

BTW, by turning it into this gated community, TPTB have also managed to kill the city's vitality. But, like a great old tree, even though it's already dead it hasn't realized it yet.

dave: your description of today's well to do manhattan neighborhoods could easily be applied to most any other era...

and your tree analogy is spot on...the growth, decline and renewal of manhattan neighborhoods is truly like the branches of an old tree, that may never die...

NYC is a great place to visit. I would not want to live there though. A second vote for the natural history museum, absolutely one of the best I have been to. Only rivaled by the British Museum in London I would say. I hear the Jewish deli's are declining rapidly, what a shame. Hard to beat a hot pastrami on rye.