Brunch is big In New York. This iconic mash-up of breakfast and lunch is, as New Yorkers claim, a NYC invention.
Did you ever ask yourself why people drink alcohol – mostly in the form of Mimosa and Bloody Mary – at brunch? I have always believed that this behavior was reserved for special occasions, just like it is in Quebec. But I recently learned that for New Yorkers it is traditionally a hangover cure!
As you may know, I am determined to become a real New Yorker; I therefore intend to make this very pleasant practice that is brunch part of my new life in the City. I gave it a first try last weekend.
The neighborhood of
TriBeCa, especially around Downtown, shows an interesting mix of old and
modern buildings. I see these apartments everyday on my way back from
school and I always admire the charm they bring to the area.
Color has been modified with Instagram – sorry if I can’t remember the exact filter.
No filter; Only the City and the stunning colors of a nice Sunday morning.
Elevated parkings are for me a kind of signature of New York. They are not always good looking but I found that this one, that I caught from the High Line Park around 18th street, was beautiful covered with snow.
I took a ride on a MTA’s vintage subway this winter and it was an amazing experience for the public transit fan that I am. As vintage clothing is fashion here, I was lucky enough to catch an exterior picture of the train while a gentleman with a nice hat was standing in front of it – and if you look closer there is another one inside the subway. This, paired with the Instagram’s filter Amaro, gives a little 1930 feels to the scene…
This advertisement has been painted on the side of a building in Soho. I found the colors were charming. “Look better naked” is an omnipresent slogan in NYC; the fancy David Barton Gym in Chelsea has the same one.
The picture has been modified with Pixlr-o-Matic, most speficically the filter Anne.
New York, I find, is even more attractive in pictures than in words. Because of that, and because of my endless love story with photography, I decided to begin publishing daily pictures that will allow you to follow my footsteps in the Big Apple.
The first photo of this series has been taken on my beloved High Line Park; everyone who knows me knows how I like this place, which I find is the perfect example of New York creativity and eccentricity.
The elaborate architectural sculpture that you see is Still life with landscape (Model for a habitat) by the artist Sarah Sze. The artwork is situated close to the 23rd Street exit and will be in the park until June 2012. In the background, we can see the London Terrace, a famous huge residential building.
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Last week, Martin and I went to see Sleep no more, an immersive theatrical production created by the British site-specific theater company Punchdrunk. The show has been playing for almost a year now in the McKittrick Hotel – a nod to Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” –, a deserted luxury 1930’s hotel situated on West 27th Street, in Chelsea’s gallery district.
A complicated story; an even more complicated experience
Sleep No More tells the very dark and shocking story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a creative and unique way: welcomed in a beautifully decorated 1930’s bar, the masked audience – all “guests” are required to wear and keep on a Venetian carnival-style mask to stay anonymous – has for two hours an almost unlimited access to the amazing decor of the six stories pleasure palace, having the great freedom to explore any of the one hundred rooms and chase up the silent characters, choosing where to go and what to see.
Your options are quite simple but might be disconcerting: you can follow one character all evening as they run and dance around the different bedrooms, bathrooms and ballrooms – there is even a hospital room and an outdoor forest – or you can stay in one area, waiting for something meaningful to happen. You can read letters left on desks, take a look in bookcases and get as close as you want to Macbeth and his lady, Macduff and his wife, King Duncan and various witches and hotel employees - as long as you don’t touch them. Half actors half dancers, Sleep no more’s protagonists have certainly the power to make you feel sometimes in an intense and disturbing horror movie, sometimes in a wordless murder mystery evening.
Chinatown becomes a very crazy area during Chinese lunar New Year; there is no better place to make a quiet and peaceful girl like me feel like I’m on another continent, not to say in a completely different world.
On January 23rd, I participated with excitement in the Firecracker Ceremony, risking my life walking through the frenzied crowds. People go to this famous celebration to welcome local politicians and other community leaders but above all to watch the renowned cultural performances and animals - mostly dragons this year – dancing in the neighborhood’s main streets and parks. Even if it was raining that day, thousands of people were celebrating, bursting firecrackers everywhere to ward off evil spirits – believe me some people are dangerous with these firecracker - , and squabbling for a place to contemplate the numerous beautiful dragons coming out of houses in almost every corner of Chinatown.
Winter is officially arrived in New York and cold weather, among other things, means comfort food. Martin and I are huge fans of Indian cuisine: this amazing mix of rich flavors and fire that goes perfectly with the month of January. As cooking Indian meals requires numerous “exotic” ingredients, and as temporary housing doesn’t usually go with a well stocked pantry, we haven’t had the chance to cook with cumin, coriander and fenugreek these past months. This has given us a major curry craving!
When one of my English teachers told me about “Curry Hill” – what a creative name– the little India of Murray Hill in Manhattan, I was kind of relieved to confirm that there is a place in New York where we can access great Indian restaurants and grocery stores for reasonable prices - because you can get almost anything you want in the City but you can easily shell out.
A few weeks ago, we decided to give ourselves a treat: We tried Dhaba, a restaurant situated on Lexington Avenue that seemed well rated.
Brunch is big In New York. This iconic mash-up of breakfast and lunch is, as New Yorkers claim, a NYC invention.
