Yeehaw. I’m heading to New York City for my first time ever, and I need tips from locals on where to go. Here’s what I like:
I love to cook.
I love food.
I love chinese food. A lot.
I play guitar, and sadly our stores don’t carry much selection. I might be buying a new one.
Music. Any under-21 places I could go and get good, live music?
Just to clarify: Are you going to NYC to live or visit?
Well, there is Chinatown. Chinese food and markets where you can buy ingredients.
There are many guitar places around town.
When are you coming?
There’s a nice wikipedia entry on chinatown giving you the general boundaries of the neighborhood. If you stick to the “old” boundaries they list, you’ll be in the heart of chinatown with more restaurants than you can shake a stick at.
For guitars, there’s a big Sam Ash on 48th St just east of 7th Ave.
You like to cook, check out Broadway Panhandler tons of fun stuff there.
I’m pretty slow on the “get planned” bandwagon. I’m leaving Friday afternoon and coming back the following Thursday.
I plan to spend a full day in Chinatown, wandering around. If only I had nine stomachs.
If you go to 48th St, (Sam Ash, Manny’s, etc.) make sure you check out Rudy’s Music Stop. It has nice separate rooms for each type of instrument and the help is…helpful.
Matt Umanov in the village is nice, if you’re in the village.
One place worth a special trip is Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island. It’s more of a pilgrimmage, since you have to take a train, then a boat, then a bus, then walk, to get there (and back). If you’re seriously in the market you should check it out. If you’re a total guitar freak and you hardly ever get to NYC you’d really be missing out.
I’ve heard they don’t know how to make salsa there.
Don’t listen to them. We’ve just as thriving a Hispanic community as anywhere. Plus, in NYC, they’ll mingle with other ethnic foods and produce some of the most kick-ass stuff you’ll ever taste.
I concur. And if you have a car, it’s still frankly a pain in the ass to get to, but it’s still well worth the trip. Those $50,000 Italian archtops and old D28s are just sitting there on the wall, and you can play them all day without asking permission.
Crap, I’ve managed to lose my notes on NYC. However, you are in for the Killer Chinese food experience (I’ve spent some quality time in San Francisco, grew up in LA, and have been to China). OK, these are the places that will show up on a Google search, but I have been to these places about 2 months ago. New York City is friggin’ expensive for accomodations but a bargain for food, especially Chinese.
Great New York Noodletown
28 Bowery
Cheap awesome noodles, get some with duck!
Fried Dumpling
99 Allen St.
Famous for being the cheapest damn place in town. $1 for 5 dumplings. $1.50 for about a pint of sweet and sour soup or dumpling soup. Classic spot with only 3 tables.
These next 4 are all killer dim sum places. Make sure you are careful about not ordering too much food.
Golden Unicorn
8 E Broadway
This place is upstairs from some funky chinese mall. Classic insane spot with ladies running around with carts. I think some of them actually spoke some english.
Jing Fong
20 Elizabeth St
This place is stunning. Go up the 2 story escalator and hang out in this glorious dim sum palace, huge crystal chandeliers and completely obnoxious screaming locals. Mysterious foodstuffs and pretty much none of the servers speak english.
Dim Sum Go Go
5 E Broadway
This place is pretty much a coffee shop dim sum kinda place. You order from a menu, so the whole mystery factor is not there. Not as great as the other places but pretty good and a lot less intimidating.
Ping’s
22 Mott St
This is my favorite Dim Sum spot, I’m not much of an expert, but my random sampling made for my happiest dim sum experience. Plus, they specialize in seafood. Dim sum and seafood, yum!!!
Joe’s Shanghai
9 Pell St Ste 1
This place is super famous, but I have to say, I didn’t like it as much as some of the other places. They are famous for the Crab dumplings that squirt 1000 degree soup into your face. Also, they are famous for the eels with yellow chives, which is like eating worms, but pretty tasty, if you like worms.
Wong’s Rice & Noodle Shop
86 Mulberry St.
Another classic cheap chinese joint. I think Noodletown is better, but remember, this is NYC and this place would be great in any other town.
Congee Village
100 Allen St
Do you like congee? Shit, I had only the vaguest idea what it was (Rice porridge???) but this place is the shizzle! Plus, it’s only like $3.50 for a huge boiling pot of this killer stew with chicken and pork and ginger and cilantro. Plus the restaurant is classic funky kitsch with cool carved wooden furniture and bizarre cheesy Christmas tree lighting.
You mention that you love to cook, and there is a minor problem in living in NYC. When I lived there, it was sometimes difficult to get some ingredients, like yeast. NYC has some of the best food in the world, but it is so easy to have things prepared for you. The local corner stores are often short on raw ingredients. You can find them, (Fairway at 125th was our source) but it isn’t as easy as you may think.
If you need exotic ingredients, go to Canal Street.
You can get anything on Canal Street.
Yeah, there was this girl named Marianne once… --wistful sigh–
You downtowners. SUCH snobs. Try Empire Schezuan at 100th and Broadway. Now we’re talkin’ Chinese !!!
Manny’s Music on 48th or that fantastic guitar shop on 23rd. Is it Chelsea Guitars? The famous, near famous, infamous and obscure shop there. Good smart guitar folks.
Cartooniverse
Do you really think Steve was planning his trip fifteen months in advance when he wrote the OP? I’m guessing his trip to NYC is long over.
Uuuh. Holy shit. First of all, I didn’t originally subscribe to this thread. I posted into it what, today? Now it looks like I resurrected a long-dead thread. Couldn’t be farther from the truth…
Very weird. Reporting this post and thread so it can be put to rest.
:dubious:
Zombie.