Streetwise New York: A New Spin on NYC Tours

Double decker busses, groups of 40, Japanese tourists, matching yellow t-shirts, a leader holding a flag. These are the images I think of when I hear the word tour.

I recently took a tour with Streetwise New York Tours and it was unlike any tour I have taken before. Gone were the iconic images of the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building. Instead, the particular tour I took, the Immigrant NY, Old and New tour started off in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and ended up in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Family owned Economy Candy store since 1937

New York City is rich with history. As a tourist, most people who visit want to see the sights, famous landmarks, and all things glorified in the movies. As a resident, many go on with their daily lives taking their surroundings for granted and never question how things came to be.

Imagine NYC in the 1930's. How about the turn of the century? Difficult? Streetwise helps you envision it. In fact, the tour is like stepping into a time machine. It is easy to picture what life was like back then through the tour guide's vivid storytelling and descriptive facts about the different NYC neighborhoods. It is even more fascinating as connections are made to current events and the state of the city today. Everything is built on a foundation and is a reflection of the past. 

Jarmulowsky Bank Building at Canal and Orchard Street

The tour consists of a lot of walking and is offered in two versions. My group of friends opted for a full day tour. Approximately six hours, our tour stretched even longer as we incorporated an authentic Henan cuisine lunch break at Uncle Zhou in Elmhurst, Queens. Elmhurst is famous for Asian cuisine and since our group consisted of food bloggers and world travelers, we took the opportunity to soak in the neighborhood even more so.

The immigrant tour is meant to take you on a journey of decades and explore the trials and evolvement of life of immigrants in New York. The tour is tailored to each group based on group knowledge of immigrant history and New York urban beginnings. Our group, especially talkative and inquisitive, pushed the envelope further by telling our own stories and personal experiences in regards to family history, living in Queens, and finding our way through New York.

From the Lower East Side tenements, places of worship and the Essex Street Market to street vendors in Corona, housing units in Elmhurst and the Indian demographic in Jackson Heights, the tour explores landmarks, secrets of the city, and all that is relevant in regards to immigrant historical context. I was enlightened to learn about the synagogue on Eldridge Street I always wondered about, intrigued by the underground tunnels in Chinatown, and excited to try a raspado from a street vendor on Roosevelt Avenue.

Museum at Eldridge Street

The immigrant tour was informative, insightful, thought provoking, and interactive. It definitely is of a different pace from a typical NYC tour geared towards tourists. Those familiar with the books "Not For Tourists" would agree this is a tour that is so much more than an all inclusive pass to museums and buildings. This is a tour of the real New York. Don't believe me? I'll ask you how you feel when Streetwise takes you on the Chinatown van into Queens. Those who hang in there until the final hour of the tour will definitely leave with a little more street credibility.

Streetwise Logo Credit: Streetwisenewyork.com

Streetwise New York
Tours@StreetwiseNewYork.com
(347) 327-6063

The Bowery Mission

The Bowery Mission was founded in 1879. It took the homeless off the streets and fed the hungry. Those two things remain the same to this very day.

I recently took a tour of The Bowery Mission and was quite impressed. It's a safe haven, homeless shelter, rehabilitation center, school, and soup kitchen all rolled into one.

The tour started in the Mission's church where service is held. Everyone who chooses to stay at the Mission are required to attend service regardless of their religious beliefs but are not pressured to convert to Christianity.

Next was a tour of the kitchen where three meals are served daily not just to the people who live at the Mission but to the public as well. Many graduates of the Mission program are now on full time staff. The kitchen gets donations from City Harvest, Starbucks, and Whole Foods. The Bowery Mission eats well.

Jesus, a graduate of the program, working in the kitchen.

The Bowery Mission provides a well rounded education to those in the program. Office skills are taught. Computers are available for use and practice. High school diplomas are encouraged and there are several workshops available to help reach that goal.

Career Training & Education Center

Recreational Room

The Recreational Room at The Bowery Mission is used for a variety of activities. Study stations line the walls. There are plenty of tables so games can be played. Televisions hang from the walls for movie and sports game nights.

The Bowery Mission has a rooftop where tomatoes and peppers are grown in a small makeshift garden. The top of the building is painted white by white tops, a company that paints roofs white for cooler temperatures.

Self sustainability is what The Bowery Mission shoots for. Residents work a full 40 hour work week. Their jobs range from laundry to kitchen duty to chef. Everyone in the program earns a paycheck. Seventy percent of the paycheck goes into a personal bank account. The goal upon graduation of the program is to have a $3,000 check in savings. This money may be used towards an apartment, food, clothes, anything that will help a graduate back on their feet.

The Bowery Mission aims to provide a safe environment, health and wellness, job training, education, and strength in Christianity. Residents are given proper health care and health screenings. Discipline is enforced with curfews and lights out policies. Drug and alcohol testing is enforced. Residents follow a regimented schedule.

A Bowery Mission resident is given respect, privacy, and space with their own bunk bed and private showers. They have room for their possessions and access to a library and common areas. Counseling is available on site and support is all around.

For more than 130 years, The Bowery Mission has been around and continues to have more success.

The Bowery Mission
227 Bowery
New York, NY 10002

Momofuku Beef 7 Ways Dinner

One Momofuku group meal is epic. Two is a feat. As much as I would have loved to try a third, I don't mind at all leaving the extra calories to a friend. Here is Jocy Chang's take on Momofuku Ma Peche.

At Momofuku Ma Peche they have a beef tasting course menu for a set price of $450.  The size of the party can range anywhere from 4 to 8 persons.  Overall, the perfect number is 6 persons if you don't order any other appetizers or sides.  Our party was a size of 8, so we supplemented. Here was our 7 course dinner.

Tendon (Creekstone, KS) - basil, watercress, plum vinaigrette 

Wagyu (Imperial Beef, NE) - ginger, scallion, radish

Meat Pie (Creekstone, KS) - tongue, potato, and caramelized onions

Ribs (Niman Ranch) - kunz ketchup, masago, and scallion

 Cote de Boeuf (4 Story Hill Farm, PA) - butter, thyme, garlic 

 Brisket (Niman Ranch) - marrow, chili jam, garlic

Oxtail Soup (Pineland Farm, ME) - tamarind, mint, cilantro

If you are looking to partake in a Momofuku group dinner, the Bo Ssam may be your best bet as the fried chicken and beef 7 ways seems to underwhelm. If you are used to meals that really knock your socks off in terms of cooking style, ingredients, and presentation, then you will be slightly disappointed with the beef 7 ways. It sounds like a hit or miss. As Jocy reports, the Tendons, Ribs, Meat Pie, and Cote de Beouf were good but not standouts. The tongue in the Meat Pie was overcooked and the Oxtail Soup was sweet. The Wagyu Beef and Brisket are the must get dishes. All these Momofuku group dinners probably have you wondering about the Momofuku Ko dinner. Momofuku Ko will not have a blog post since they do not allow cameras. Food posts without pictures are just not fun. I know.


Photography Credits: Jocy Chang


Momofuku Ma Peche
15 West 56th St.
New York, NY 10019

Momofuku Fried Chicken Lunch

Wow. My friend wasn't joking when she said it was difficult to get a reservation at Momofuku. My family was in town and I thought it would be a great idea to have the fried chicken dinner at the Momofuku Noodle Bar. I had already tried the bo ssam dinner at the Momofuku Ssam Bar and loved it. I had also been coveting the fried chicken dinner for more than a year. Finally I had an opportunity to try it out.

Momofuku does online reservations direct through their site. You have to register your email address and password. When you log in, you will most likely come across this message:

There are only a few reservations available per day and you must log in at 10 AM to snag a spot. You can reserve seven days in advance but only if you are so lucky to get a reservation within a minute after the spots open. It's like a race and game of tic tac toe. The Os are actually check marks but just pretend they are Os.

                                      DATE DATE DATE DATE DATE DATE DATE 

                            TIME    X       X        X         X          X        O      O

                            TIME    O       O        O         X          X        O      O

                            TIME    O       O        X         X          O        X      X

After a few tries, I finally got a reservation but for lunch and on a date where I had to take off from work. 

The fried chicken lunch was similar to the bo ssam in a few ways. It was served with sauces (hoisin, ginger scallion, soy garlic jalapeno, and sriracha) and bibb lettuce. The fried chicken lunch also came with radishes, baby carrots, and mu shu pancakes.

The veggies taste incredibly fresh. I'm not a fan of raw carrots but I loved the baby ones they served. They were sweet, snappy, and were the perfect palate cleanser in between servings of chicken. There is a giant chalkboard in the restaurant that tells you exactly where the veggies came from.

Here is the chicken cooked two ways: Korean and southern fried. It was quite impressive the way it was presented. Tastewise, not so much. After the bo ssam, it is a tough act to follow.

Here is a sample of my open faced fried chicken taco. Momofuku definitely puts a new spin on fusion style cooking. Try the fried chicken but only once for the novelty. Try the bo ssam and try it again. 

Momofuku Noodle Bar

171 1st Avenue

New York, NY 10003

Momofuku Bo Ssam Dinner

The bo ssam dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar was the first non a la carte meal I had at the Momofuku empire. I did not know what to expect. Momofuku limits this dinner to a party of 10. In actuality, it can feed a party of 15.

No meal at Momofuku should ever go without the steamed buns. It's unlike any other pork bun you have had elsewhere. Ippudo runs a close second but there is nothing like the Momofuku one. I've had it a few times now and it has come down to being a hit or miss. I still hold on to the memory of the first time I had it when it was amazing with a huge slab of pork belly slathered with hoisin sauce, a slice of cucumber and slivers of scallions for bite. The bun was fluffy and soaked up all the fatty goodness and salt of the hoisin sauce and pork.

Pork Belly Steamed Bun

Here is the kitchen hard at work. Our table had picnic benches and was right beside it behind the Momofuku Milk Bar. The Milk Bar has since moved across the street and Ssam Bar now has extra seating and party room space.

The kitchen hard at work.

The bo ssam comes with bibb lettuce, oysters, rice, kimchi, sriracha, and ginger scallions. You can eat the bo ssam solely with the rice or you can assemble everything together to make a taco like concoction.

Bibb lettuce with sauces

When the oysters reached our table, we immediately reached out for them. The server told us not to eat them on their own for the proper way was to put an oyster into our bo ssam taco. Dinner foul!

Oysters

Here is the bo ssam fresh out of the oven. It is a whole pork shoulder slow cooked. The meat just fell apart. The portion probably weighed about 5 pounds.

Bo Ssam

And this is how we ate it. The whole thing just works. I highly recommend the bo ssam dinner. I would just go with a full party of 10. We had nine people with us and walked out with leftovers good enough for 3 more meals. The meal is definitely an experience and the ambiance makes for a fun casual night out with the gang or family. And then you can tell everyone you had a bo ssam taco.

A bo ssam taco

Momofuku Ssam Bar
207 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Rat Is Better Fried

No, this is not a food post.

It's 1:57 AM. Do you know where your rat is?

I came across a mouse recently in my apartment. If you live in New York City, you will inevitably encounter some sort of creepy crawler such as a cockroach, a mouse, or even worse, a bed bug. Thankfully, this post is not about bloodsucking inhabitants. It is, however, about a mouse (or shall I call it a rat?) that no longer exists.

I once heard a rumor that vermin outnumber the people in New York City. I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. For every one human being born, a hundred vermin are let loose. Don't quote me on that.

Here are a few things I have learned in the past few weeks from my own mousy visitor(s).

1. You Are Not Alone

Very Scary

No, this is not about Michael Jackson even if the squeaky voice you hear makes you do the moonwalk.

I marched into Home Depot looking for mouse traps. One whole shelf was sold out and every time I returned there was already someone in the aisle buying an armful of poison and traps. I took comfort in knowing that I was not the only one with a vermin problem.

2. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Yes, this is about goals. The goal? Catch the mouse!

There are a variety of traps available to get the job done. I had received an array of advice from friends on how to deal with this problem. Good old fashioned wooden traps are best but if you want to be cruel (so I've heard) glue traps ensure a slow and tortuous death. As I stood in the aisle of Home Depot, I near fainted at the thought of picking up a trapped mouse. I ended up getting a variety of traps- glue, mouse houses, and a slightly upscale plastic trap which my friends describe as looking like a miniature Japanese toilet for Barbie.

3. There will be signs.

Sure enough, the next morning I found my kitchen counter sprinkled with mouse droppings. Mice will also sometimes leave marks from the oil on their feet.

4. Mice are creatures of habit.

I thought back to sophomore year of college. We tried to lead a mouse through a maze in Biology. Mice have poor eyesight. That is why they crawl along walls. They will also scurry away or freeze if they get startled.

I knew my mouse would be afraid of me. For sure it would hide or run away into one of my traps. The complete opposite happened. The mouse ran towards me and darted in a zig zag motion. Eeek! Everything I had learned in school was wrong! This mouse was fearless. It then ran away into the dark and onto the glue trap. I heard it wrestle with the trap. I was relieved that I caught it. I gave it a few minutes before I went to dispose of it. I was so puzzled when I looked and the mouse was nowhere to be found.

Some mice are strong enough to fight off a trap. I gave up on the glue traps and invested in more fancy plastic traps. Ortho makes inexpensive 2-packs of traps that are convenient for disposal. Once a mouse is trapped, you can lift by the trap's tab and never even touch the mouse. I am a big fan of this style of trap.

5. They don't die, they multiply.

Did you think Bebe's Kids were cute? I didn't. I thought they were annoying and I feel the same way about mice. My first catch snowballed into a pattern of catching one mouse daily with a break on the weekends. Where did the mice go? The Hamptons? I pinpointed the origin of the problem. There is construction on the building next door. When the construction stops on the weekends, the mice do not disperse.

I am now in the process of professional extermination. As a renter in New York, this service is provided by my building. I am comforted by the belief that this problem is only temporary.

Mouse or Rat?

The $26 Burger at Minetta Tavern

Let's play a game. Finish this sentence. This burger is so good it ___________. 

Minetta Tavern's Black Label Burger w/caramelized onions and fries

Just fill in the blank to describe how the best burger you have ever tasted in your life changed your life. Yes, I know it is a bit silly to proclaim food revelations but sometimes food can make a statement or at least make you stop for a minute to really enjoy the presence of life. I went over the fill in the blank sentence a few different ways just to stress how good Minetta Tavern's Black Label Burger is. Folks, I am talking about the $26 Pat La Frieda burger. It's worth every dollar and is the best burger I have ever tasted so far. I thought it was so good that I promised my friend's husband that I would forgo all cheap meat burgers for a year just to justify the cost and to prove to him that it was a burger worth waiting for. 


THE PROMISE: No meat burgers until December 2011


THE REWARD: Dinner at Minetta Tavern in December


GUESS WHAT?: I failed. I lasted 7 months. I hadn't had a meat burger since November 2010. I don't crave red meat so this was not particularly hard for me to do. But my friends were in town last month and we had stopped in at Mark to kill some time before dinner. This bar's specialty was sliders. Everyone ordered sliders and there were no meat substitutes. Fries, which were on the menu, would not be a stand in for my burger. I caved. I am weak. I realized how hard it is to be a vegetarian in NYC. I am a whiner. Sue me.


So before I continue rambling on, here is the burger that broke my streak and it was PRETTY DAMN GOOD.

Slider w/bacon, cheese, onions, jalapeno/chipotle/barbeque sauce

Juicy, charred, and topped with bacon, onions and cheese. The bun had grease on it. I added jalapeno, chipotle, and barbeque sauce to it for some spice. GAME OVER. Heaven is all about now.


Photography Credits: The Outdoor New Yorker, Roxwriting
Gluttony Link: Sampling Dishes Along St. Mark's Street


Minetta Tavern
113 MacDougal St.
New York, NY 10012


Mark's Sliders 
33 St. Mark's Place
New York, NY 10003