The Single Shot

Jul 31, 2012 By Smith & Ratliff in New York 3 Comments Tags: chinatown, photos, summer

As cliché as it sounds, New York City moves fast. At any given moment you’re bound to see something strange or wonderful that will stick with you for quite a while. Sometimes this could be one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments. Sometimes you have to be ready for it.

During our walk back from Chinatown on Sunday, we happened across this surreal scene quickly unfolding in front of us.

A woman, carrying a large cluster of bright pink balloons, walking against an expanse of blue sky and buildings framed perfectly by the columns of the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge and buildings on each side. The jovial bright pink balloons, contrasted with the grittiness of the city. I quickly threw my camera up and had time enough to change only one setting before taking a single shot.

Luckily, one was all I needed, and after that, she was gone.

- Ryan

A Taste of Chinatown

Jul 30, 2012 By Smith & Ratliff in Food, New York No Comments Tags: cheap eats, chinatown, dumplings, summer

After a particularly delicious plate of mapo tofu from our favorite Chinese delivery place on Saturday night, we were both inspired to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon wandering around Chinatown.

Whenever we go to Chinatown, we skip the tourists and the crowds of Canal Street and head west of the Bowery, where the jam-packed shops and overly Americanized Chinese restaurants give way to seedy storefronts with nary a letter of English in sight.

Unlike the crowded streets near Canal, this little cranny of the neighborhood actually has room on the sidewalk to stop and look at the beautiful old buildings surrounding you.

You’ll be able to discover (sans a Zagat guide) which stores have great food or fun things to play with. And if you happen to wander into a building and ascend its stairs, you just might discover that it’s not a specialty food store, but in fact a video game parlor or even a gambling den.

Ryan has written about the great market under the Manhattan Bridge, so after exploring the streets for a bit, we headed toward the market, where we stocked up on Chinese candies and fermented black beans at the market before grabbing a boba tea at one of the shops inside.

Ryan usually opts for a green tea with tapioca bubbles, but this time, at the urging of a friendly counter girl, he tried a strawberry slush with bubbles, which had the same fruity taste as the green tea, but better blended and perfect for summer weather. Boba teas in hand, we grabbed a skewer of fish balls ($1!) from a street vendor and went on our way.

While not as tucked away as some of our other favorite Chinatown spots, the famous Prosperity Dumpling on Eldridge Street is certainly one of the best values. The fried pork and chive dumplings are just $1 for five large dumplings, a tasty treat that can easily serve as a meal.

After enjoying our dumplings, we were even too full to visit one of our other favorite spots, Mei Li Wah Bakery, where a steaming hot pork bun will set you back just 80 cents. Even with just a little bit of change in your pocket, you’ll never go hungry in Chinatown.

- Laura and Ryan

A Nip of New York History

Jul 27, 2012 By Smith & Ratliff in Living, New York 4 Comments Tags: antiques, flea markets, gin, hotels, waldorf astoria

Last month, when we visited the massive Rose Bowl Flea Market in Los Angeles, we had no idea that we would bring home a little piece of New York. Among our finds at the flea—a perfectly broken-in pair of vintage Sperry Top-Siders, a silver track-and-field trophy from the 1950s, and a delicate mirrored tray—we came home with a petite bottle of gin from New York’s famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Other than thinking it was a cool trinket (and inexpensive too, at just $2), we put it on our bathroom’s new tray and didn’t think much of it. Until this week. I was quite surprised to open up the website for the magazine I work for and discover this blog post, written by our assistant web editor: The Waldorf Astoria Wants Its Stuff Back.

The hotel is searching for anything and everything from the hotel since its opening in 1893. So far, they’ve amassed restaurant menus, photographs, and coffee pots, all of which will join hotel’s historical archives.

Matt Zolbe, the hotel’s marketing director, said the items don’t even need to be valuable. “We are not necessarily looking for items that others would think are of great value—an old hanger or an ashtray or even old kitchen equipment,” he explained.

As for our little bottle, I haven’t yet decided whether or not to part with it. I do like it in our apartment, but at the same time, it’s fun to know that we’ve contributed to a hotel’s historical archives through something we bought thousands of miles away! What would you do?

- Laura

The Queens Park Swizzle

Jul 24, 2012 By Smith & Ratliff in Drink 5 Comments Tags: cocktails, mint, rum, summer

When we first moved to the West Village a couple of years ago, we were both thrilled to discover that we now lived right across the street from one of our favorite bars in the city, Little Branch.

We’ve spent many a night in the subterranean speakeasy, enjoying the live jazz and watching some of the city’s most talented bartenders work their magic. Nights at Little Branch typically come with a bit of discovery, as we’ve routinely discovered incredible new cocktails and spirits we otherwise would have never found. (The Harvest Sour was one such drink we first tasted on a chilly fall night at Little Branch.)

This drink, the Queens Park Swizzle, was one of the very first drinks we ever had at Little Branch and it’s one that has stuck with us since that balmy summer night. Quite similar to a mojito, the Swizzle has its roots in Trinidad and is traditionally made with Demerara rum and a healthy dose of angostura bitters, Trinidad’s largest export. The drink itself was created at Port of Spain’s Queens Park Hotel, which opened in 1895 and was sadly later torn down.

To make our Swizzle (based on same recipe that is served at Little Branch) take the leaves from four mint sprigs and put them in a cocktail shaker. Add an ounce of simple syrup and lime juice, respectively, and then gently bruise the mint with a muddler. Next, pour in 2 oz. of Demerara rum (we are partial to El Dorado, for a traditional but inexpensive Guyanese rum) and swirl the shaker to combine the rum and the mint. Pour the shaker’s contents in a Collins glass. Add crushed ice almost to the top, then add six dashes of angostura bitters.

Next is the tricky part. The drink gets its name from the method in which it’s made—it’s swizzled rather than stirred or shaken. Real swizzle sticks are hard to come by in the U.S., so a bar spoon has to suffice for most of us, unless you have lots of friends in the West Indies! (In which case, send us a swizzle stick.)

Slide the bar spoon into the glass, stopping just before the mint leaves at the bottom. Rub your palms together, gently rotating the bar spoon and thus “swizzling” your drink. Ideally, the bitters will remain at the top, while the mint remains at the bottom, leaving a beautiful, three-layered libation. Top with more ice and garnish with a mint spring.

Out of all the cocktails we enjoy, the Queens Park Swizzle is one that is not only tasty, but also gives me a healthy dose of nostalgia every time I drink one. It reminds me of summer and new beginnings in the city I was just beginning to discover myself.

- Laura

Summertime in Montauk

Jul 23, 2012 By Smith & Ratliff in Food, Travel 4 Comments Tags: beaches, lobster rolls, long island, momofuku, montauk, summer, tacos

On Saturday we took a day trip across Long Island to Montauk to eat lobster rolls, relax on the beach and stroll around the village.

We got our rental car as early as we could stand and, after fighting a bit of traffic on the Long Island Expressway, made it out of Manhattan and Queens towards Long Island.

Our first stop was La Fondita in Amagansett, where we paused for some lunch. La Fondita features traditional Mexican cooking, with obviously amazing fish tacos; it’s a must-visit nearly every time we go to Montauk. After getting full on tacos and micheladas, we finished the drive into town.

Our first order of business was to stock up cookies for beach lounging from the new Momofuku Milk Bar stand, adjacent to Cynthia Rowley’s cute surf-shack boutique. Armed with a box of six cookies, we hit the beach and proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the next couple of hours.

The highlight of our day was dinner at Duryea’s Lobster Deck. Not so much a restaurant as it is a fish market, Duryea’s has just a few tables where they serve the day’s catch (and of course, lobsters). Duryea’s is one the biggest seafood wholesalers in the New York area, and their restaurant—situated right on the docks—is something of a cult favorite. With a no-frills menu of fish and shellfish, cash-only and BYOB, Duryea’s is simple perfection—watching the sun set over the water while cracking open a freshly steamed lobster and sipping wine from a paper cup.

As we finished eating up our lobster roll and broiled flounder, we could hardly believe it was time to head back to the city. For the rest of the summer, every time we see one of their wholesale trucks driving through the city, we’ll immediately be transported back to those docks.

- Ryan and Laura

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