Saturday Feb 27- Little Italy

What happened to me you wonder? Was I so blown away by Chinatown I had a Chinese Adventure Hangover? Nah, family issues. Can pick your friends but not your family, but I pick my nose quite often so what exactly does it all mean huh? Actually, my family rocks and I'm glad we got together when we needed to, but that's a personal issue that I am not going to share on here. This Saturday I will tour Little Italy starting at 2 p.m. The walk begins at the heart of Chinatown and takes you up Mulberry Street. Too bad I wasn't doing this walk during the San Genaro feast but I may go back there for it depending on how this walk goes. The card recommends a stop at Farra's on Grand Street just west of Mulberry for pastry and cappuccino. Then to stop at Forano's at 128 Mulberrry and check their selection of books and housewares. I must pick up some fresh homemade ricotta and mozzarella at Alleva's and Di Pala's. Then there's Umberto's Clam House at the end. It doesn't say if this is a place to eat or not, but I'll give it a peek.

This will be a one tour week-end as that Saturday night I plan to go and see a local rock band play at Woodhaven House on Woodhaven Blvd. Their name is Black Ice and a good night of beers and heavy metal is just what the doctor ordered and I plan to attend and endulge. If you wish to join me for both or one or the other, let me know. Until then, hope to see you there.

WOW!!! CHINATOWN TOUR RULED!!!

Talk about a night and day experience. This tour was the most amazing I've been on. I had accidentally picked the week of Chinese New Year to go which made it all the more amazing! The only down side was the heavy duty glare going on. In fact, most of the pictures and even the video come up a little short because of it. Also, my paleness dissipated and a little color crept onto my face and stings to the extent that I am now applying aloe vera to it. Outside of that it was a total party atmosphere with confetti flying and people gathering, laughing, smiling and having a really good time. The card started us at the corner of Canal and Centre Street. I was waiting for my cousin's fiance Joe to arrive when I heard this loud drumming coming from around the corner. So around the corner I went and shot some video of men dressed up in what I would call a dragon costume and doing a traditional dance. Check out the video:

As I was taking the video a really nice older woman began asking me to take photo's with her camera phone but to make for a very entertaining exchange, neither her or I truly knew how to use her phone. I got her one picture as I continued to take the video. You can actually hear us talking about taking photo's with her phone in the background during the video. I took her daughter's phone number so I can get an email for my pictures and video to be sent to her. Shortly after this, Joe arrived and the dragon dancers repeated their performance a bit and Joe and I gave it a look. The dance Joe got to see was much shorter but was a great kick off to the rest of the day. We funneled through the crowds and followed the traditional parade route for the Chinese New Year as the card recommended. We walked Canal and turned on Mott Street and through the crowd around Bayard Street and around Mulberry Street. Now, I used to be in the Navy on a submarine so claustrophobia shouldn't be a problem for me right? WRONG! Maybe because I've heard of crowds smooshing themselves to death in places with crowd gatherings on top of truly being one of hundreds of thousands of people slowly moving through a people current which was hard to keep up with or not be controlled by and physically forced in a direction I had to be sure I wanted to go, I had developed a true sense of this phobia today. Several times I had to find a way to get to a people shoreline and catch my breath a little. We walked all over Chinatown and though lots of alley ways admiring the location.

After walking around the first four streets we kind of just ventured around blindly walking up one alley after another. Eventually we decided it was time to eat. We were really hoping somehow against the odds we'd find a Chinese Food restaurant in this locale! As luck would have it we somehow found one in Chinatown. Now (I'm speaking to stupid people right now and they can't read inside of parenthesis) if you go to this location and want to know where to go for Chinese food, don't ask me. I'd like to keep the stupid in this location to a minimum so if you need to plan ahead for a good Chinese food place to eat in Chinatown, I'm not gonna tell you and hope this detours you from coming and ruining the place with your stupid.
Now there is this one restaurant I had been to before in Chinatown that I had to go back to. Outside of calling it "69" I don't truly know it's name or exactly what street it is on. But, this location has money all over the entire restaurant. Literally it is covered in money. It's somewhat a traditional thing to do here is sign a bill and hang it like a "Mark and Joe was here". We of course did that before we left. We had a fantastic meal and paid very little for it. As we started walking around the crowds were gathered for the parade which had not started. As soon as we exited the restaurant, the parade was underway. I snapped a short video of it as it was hard to see and wasn't sure the camera would capture it as well as we were experiencing it. So check the video and I will post as many pictures I can below it that are of good enough quality to see.




You may not be getting the full effect here about the confetti. It was everywhere. All throughout the locale, store were selling these large tubes full of confetti which every float seemed to be loaded with and each float shot them out over the crowd. Inside of each tube, beside the confetti and streamers, is a parachuted saying in Chinese writing that comes floating down that the kids went crazy to grab. I didn't know the significance so if anyone can share that with me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I had to get down on the ground and get a pic of me holding some with it littered all over the street so the camera would capture the magnitude of it.
OH WOW! There I is! I think this may be one of the few photo's I actually took of me and the only one on the site beside my profile photo actually. Well, there's proof I go and actually exist.

After the parade we made our way over to Confucius Plaza. There is a plaque below which the picture is extremely grainy. I realize I usually post the plaques but they are hard to read on the site so I decided to transcribe it for your pleasure: "When the Great Principle prevails the world is a Common-wealth in which Rulers are selected according to their wisdom and ability. Mutual confidence is promoted and good neighbourliness cultivated. Hence men do not regard as parents only their own parents nor do they treat as, children only their own children. Provision is secured for the aged is secured for the aged till death employment for the able bodied and the means of growing up for the young. Helpless widows and widowers orphans and the lonely as well as the sick and the disabled are well cared for. Men have their respective occupations and women their homes. They do not like to see wealth lying idle. Yet they do not keep it for their own gratification. They dispise indolence, yet they do not use their energies for their own benefit, in this way selfish schemings are repressed and robbers, thieves and other lawless men no longer exist and there is no need for people to shut their outer doors. this is the Great Harmony(Ta Tung)"
Following Confucius Plaza we made our way down to Chatham Square.
The archway reads the following: "In memory of the Americans of Chinese Ancestory who lost their lives in defense of freedom and democracy".




Due to the crowds, this was as close as I could get as I snapped a shot of the Mariner's Temple Baptist Church. This church has been here since 1795 and is now the gathering place for a thriving African-American congregation. After this photo, Joe and I tried to locate the Pearl River Mart. We couldn't find our way to it but I did take a nice photo of the entrance/exit to the Manhattan Bridge on the Manhattan side(for the stupid to be involved).

For anyone that follows, Joe owes me a wallet. I happen to have an ancient looking decrepit wallet and Joe felt moved to both laughter and sorrow over the fact I have this thing that I keep my money and cards and pictures and stuff in. I would have photo'd the old and new wallet but Joe couldn't find a place that had one. Your mission, DON'T LET JOE WELCH! I write that because I love him so! Till next time, hope to see you on tour!

The Booring Tribeca Tour

Ugh...I looked forward to this tour all week and I felt a little let down. The company that came with me was the best part. Without my friends Mike, Tony and Tony's wife Maricel I'd have been completely let down. Unfortunately, Joe did not make it due to train issues on Staten Island, but he promises to meet me for tomorrow's tour of Chinatown.
The tour started promising with these fascinating little statuettes in the subway station for the L and A, C and E trains at 8th Ave.and 14th Street. They covered the station in all kinds of nooks and corners throughout the station. Here are just two but there were a bunch I took pictures of.
Apparently the artist had a thing for pennies and subway tokens and this was a common theme among these little guys. Most of the subway riders passed them with absolutely no care or attention as I was snapping shot after shot as if I were in a museum. To give you a sense of their size, they each stood no more than 2 to 3 feet in height and depending on what they were depicted as doing the range from a foot in width to a couple of yards. The platform actually had larger layouts of these characters but our train came to the platform as soon as we came down so I missed taking shots of them. The platform ones were a bit more grand and even more interesting.
The tour begins with Bouley Bakery. Without some assistance from Maricel, I would have missed this location completely. I had expected more interesting building designs or buildings with a more historical look or value. This along with the rest of the pointed out stops fell short on my expectations in a big way. Most of these places did not even seem inviting for a look inside so I didn't get to go. In fact, two of them that I wanted to see the inside of were actually closed. I will show what the card pointed out and hopefully not turn any of you off to the idea of coming as I assure you, usually there are far more interesting stops and scenery as experienced on previous tours.
About a block away is the Odeon. It was an early Bistro hit for it's time. Oooooh, aaaaah. Next....







Here is how much I stink as a reporter...any pictures of the actual park? No! Well, to be fair, there wasn't much park to see. Duane Park was less than a standard city block in length with an even shorter width. This is the first dedicated public park in New York City's history. History wise, this would be the only significant stop.
Anyone who goes to this area, if you are hungry, you'll find something to meet your pallet desires. We stopped at Dino's for their brunch special. This was located on Greenwich Street just before reaching The Tribeca Grill. For $12.95 per person you had a nice selection of choices of which three were pizzas and it came with a choice of four alcoholic beverages to accompany the meal of which I chose a mimosa. The rest of my group skipped the alcoholic beverage option and went with soda's. The irony, they drank several glasses of soda which ran up the bill a bit, but with the tax and gratuity we added divided evenly it came to just around $20 per person when it was time to settle up. It was very filling and included a bread and olive oil basket while we waited. I could not finish my entire pie. By the way the pie you are seeing had spinach, eggs, bacon, sauce and cheese and was brick oven cooked to perfection. It was a real sit down experience and very pleasant.
CLOSED!!!
What the hell? The city that doesn't sleep seems to fall out on me every Saturday. Guess what....






This was closed too!!! So as punishment, no other pictures. The Bazzini's Grocery and Tribeca Grill were the main two places toted by the card and supposed to be frequented by Robert De Niro. Especially the Tribeca Grill which is owned by Mr. De Niro. With both being closed there would be no elbow rubbing for sure. In fact, the Tribeca Grill had a private party going on inside. I was actually going to walk in and ask to see the artwork on the wall that Robert De Niro's father was supposed to have created, but I didn't want to be rude and when I peeked inside I was not all that blown away so I moseyed along. The Tribeca Film Center was also not a to go out of your way place to see and I took no photos.
Bubby's is the pic to the left....okay, next.












I saw this store front with these pretty dresses through the window so I had to snap a picture.








Puffy's Tavern. Now, my friends were not going to indulge in an alcoholic drink and I wasn't going to force anyone to wait for me to have a beer by myself so we did not stop in. It actually looked inviting, but it was on to see Nobu. Nobu restaurant smelled amazing on the outside and had absolutely no aesthetic appeal on the outside. I took a picture of the sign and to avoid the yawning noises you might make, I didn't put it up here...nyeh!
This is the Square Diner. This is actually a very cute little diner. They are supposed to be a great place to have a cheeseburger but we had already eaten lunch. Mike and I felt a major urge for milk shakes so we stopped inside. It was really, really cute. However, in a diner in Manhattan the unthinkable happened. They had only enough Vanilla ice cream for One Vanilla ice cream milk shake and both Mike and I wanted Vanilla.. So I gave in an had chocolate and unfortunately it wasn't that great.

On the way home we saw three street performers. Two on the moving train so I did not video them. The one in the station I snapped a short video. If you have a second give it a look. Until tomorrow then...

I'm So Excited and I Just Don't Hide It

Tomorrow now has a total of 4 people pledged to join me. It will hopefully be me, my friends Mike, Tony and his wife Maricel, and my cousin's fiance Joe. I know that there are some of you following this blog from the phone calls and questions I've been asked in person. If you want to join the group on a tour, just send me and email or give me a call if you have an interest to meet up. If you'd like my number, please send me an email and if I already know you I'll give it to you and if I don't I'm sure after a few emails we can work it out. Hope to see you there!

Chinatown February 21st

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Officially my first Sunday tour will be covering Chinatown. The tour will begin at Canal and Centre Street. Plenty of trains to get you to the starting point. Take the J, M, N, Q, R, W, Z or 6 to Canal Street. This tour will include Chatham Square, the route of the Chinese New Year Parade, the First Shearith Israel Graveyard, the Mariners' Temple Baptist Church, Confucius Plaza and the Pearl River Mart. I think while I'm there I might just have...wait for it, wait for it...Chinese Food! Hopefully, the fortune cookies will bring really good fortune being so surrounded by Chinese heritage. Hope to see you there!

TRIBECA February 18th

TRIBECA actually is short for Triangle-below-Canal. Thank you Joe and the Cards for the insight on where Tribeca gets it's name. This tour is supposed to be great for the food and possibility of running into celebrities, especially Robert De Niro who owns a few of the establishments in the area as well as being a resident there. Places of interest include Bazzini's grocery, the Tribeca Grill, Odeon, Bouley Bakery, Duane Park, Washington market, the Tribeca Film Center, Bubby's, Nobu, Puffy's Tavern, Chanterelle and Square Diner. Most of these places of interest are food oriented. The card boasts that walking this location makes walking Park Avenue less rewarding. To be honest, I've never truly walked Park Avenue either so I'll have to thank the Cards for potentially ruining walking Park Avenue for me. Now, Joe and my friend Mike have pledged to join me this time. Will Mike's wife tag along again? Hope so, as she knows where the food is, even though it'll be all around us. However, Joe may have to battle Brenda on this topic as he claims he knows the best place to dine. I say we go to Chinatown and let them beat each other with wet noodles, except for the fact I'm going to Chinatown the next day and don't want to get ahead of myself. To get to the starting point of Chambers and Church the cards recommend taking the A or C to Chambers St. As always, hope to see you there.

Two Tour Weekend Coming

This weekend will cover Tribeca on Saturday February 20th and Chinatown on Sunday February 21st. I'll update an itinerary for each on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. This will be my first two tour week-end and I can't wait.

I wanted to put this blog up yesterday but had a serious Migraine and off to beddy-bye I went. Fortunately I don't get them often, but when I do I become a total wimp and need my blanky and pillow ready to curl up in the fetal position. My wife gets them at least once a month so her life really SUCKS! Better her than me.

Just to vent though, what is with weathermen? I wish I could make the number of mistakes and wrong guesses they do and still get overpaid and be on television. Either they predict too much or too little snow. All the predictions up to today varied from we would get rain, to a dusting, to a foot of snow. Fortunately, depending on where in New York you live, you either got rain, a dusting or a foot of snow. However, no broadcaster specified a region with their predictions so I count that as another blown prediction. Since this weekend is expected to be dry and sunny, I'll make sure to stock up on salt. Till tomorrow people.