Food! Food! Food!

Slice of Margarita Pizza

In my first couple hours in New York I immediately developed the idea “how can anyone ever be fat with so much walking being done?” Within 48 hours of being in New York my thoughts had shifted to “How can anyone ever be thin in a town with so much delicious and diverse food?”

Vietnamese Dumplings

While in New York I ate enough food to satisfy myself for many months. If I were a bear I would need not wake up for at minimum 6 months. I ate Vietnamese Soup, margarita pizzas, artichoke pizzas, homemade pizzas, mouthwatering burgers, eggs and turkey sausages galore, Vietnamese dumplings, superb bagels with Jalapeno cream cheese, Vietnamese ice cream, Vietnamese Sandwiches, and the best darn Pastrami Sandwich I have ever had!  And I topped it all off with enough coffee to keep me awake for at least the next 7 days.

Vietnamese Soup

I got some great recommendations from the locals and am glad I followed their advice. I ate so many places that I left saying to myself “I have to eat there once more before I leave” but then I was provided another recommendation and ventured out to try some new food.

Lots of Bagel spreads at Absolut Bagels.

New York is such a diverse place that there are experts within the city at making so many different food types. There is one food I did not dare to try and will NEVER EVER bother to try (unless I lose a bet someday) while in New York. That food is Mexican food. I saw a few Mexican restaurants but coming from California trying Mexican food would be the equivalent of missing the Super Bowl because I choose to go watch the local Pop Warner football team.

While travelling throughout New York I constantly tried to maintain a “while in Rome…” type of attitude. This meant doing something’s differently with my food then I generally would but this was for the better. Above all else, the food is what I will continue to remember from New York. 

Central Park

Today I walked through Central Park. Much of the novelty of Central Park stems from the fact that it is a massive park in the midst of an even more massive city. Prior to getting to Central Park I went to Absolut Bagels. They had bagels and spreads of so many different types. I opted for an onion bagel with Jalapeno Cream Cheese spread. I also told them I wanted tomato though they forgot to include the tomato. Though I would have liked to see how the tomato would have tasted I was not dissatisfied with my bagel and coffee. In fact, it was delicious. The bagel was a perfect crispness (I had them toast it) and the jalapeno cream cheese was superb. I sat and ate my bagel and drank my coffee as I looked across the Hudson River to New Jersey.

Upon first impression of Central Park my first thought was “this is cool” but as I travelled around it more and more I was very surprised by how well the space is utilized. They had dog parks, children’s parks, numerous monuments, baseball fields, soccer fields, tennis courts, an awesome view of the Hudson river and New Jersey, just to name a few. The more I walked the more encouraged I was to explore as I kept seeing new things.

There were numerous runners throughout the park. It was a nice reprieve from the intensity of the city. For the first time, while in New York I found myself constantly sitting down and just looking around me. Central Park was the perfect place for me to find some quiet and peace after a few intense days of travelling all around the city. 

The Craziest Walk Home Ever!

a shot of the Forests with Ferocious Beasts

My homey Eric and I were feeling pretty brave and courageous after a filling and exciting meal from Katz’s Deli. Eric lives by a park called Morningside Park. During the day Eric routinely passes through the park without any thought of fear. But Eric had heard terrible rumors and tales of people that dared to travel through Morningside Park in the hours when the sun was no longer present.

With a drunken foolishness from our meal at Katz’s Eric said “Should we go through the park?” I also had heard of many horrible rumors of the Morningside Park at dark. Apparently there are ferocious lions that like to use young Jewish males as floss for their teeth. This posed a problem for both Eric and I as we are both Jewish and males. I also had heard wretched rumors of wild free roaming dogs that have teeth as big as a grown mans fist that roam the land of Morningside Park around nightfall. Yet something inside of me urged me on. Without further thought I said “Yes. Let us pass through Morningside Park”.

On the outskirts of Morningside Park

Both Eric and I were clearly heading into a land with much danger but we opted to venture forth as the alternative route (the one with the well lit streets) would have taken us an additional five minutes. As soon as we entered into the dark forests of Morningside Park Eric was attacked by a large bat with a wingspan of 14 feet. At this point in time I pulled out my massive sword and thrust it deep into the wild bats heart.

Both of us would have become fearful but before our emotions got the best of us a dragon that was 150 feet tall presented itself…

Both Eric and I were not sure of what to do as neither of us had ever before been in a battle with a 150 foot dragon.  I yelled out to the Dragon “Dragon! Let us pass”. The Dragon then mentioned some jargon in Chinese. Both Eric and I became utterly confused as our epic battle now consisted of 2 huge challenges: 1) the physical demands of beating a 150 foot dragon and 2) a massive language barrier as neither of us had any background in Chinese.

Me Hiding from the ferocious 150 foot dragon.

Both Eric and I thought our lives had come to an end. I dropped my bag and was ready to see the other side with dignity. Through an incredible twist of fate I dropped my subway map as the bag dropped to the ground. The Ferocious 150 foot dragon reached towards me. I closed my eyes ready to be taken in. Yet, he never grabbed me. When I opened my eyes the dragon was looking at the subway map.

After some extensive gestures between Eric, myself, and the dragon (as we couldn’t use English because this was a Chinese speaking dragon) we were able to pull out some key facts. Apparently, the dragon had taken the A subway uptown when he should have taken it downtown. The dragon had spent the last 24 years trying to find his way back to Chinatown. Eric used his super human ability of providing the best directions in the entire universe and soon we were left alone.

The rest of our trudge through Morningside Park was pretty mundane. We made it home to safety at Eric’s place.  

After I made it home safely I still felt nervous...

Katz's Deli

Tonight I had the awesome experience of being at Katz's Deli. Katz's Deli is world famous. They claim to have developed Pastrami. I don’t know if they created the Pastrami but Katz has definitely developed a Pastrami like none I have ever tried.

At the strong recommendation of my friend Eric, I decided to go with a straight Pastrami on rye. No cheese, no sauerkraut, just straight up Pastrami. The meat was so tender and moist. I have never had Pastrami like this.

The vibe in Katz is lively and energetic. It is a huge hall of tables, lines, and constant dodging of people going left and right. As soon as you walk into Katz we were handed a ticket and informed by a man yelling to all that came in “Don’t lose your ticket! Nothing is more important than your ticket!” From there we headed to the counter where there are numerous individuals behind the counter making the food. Each Sandwich making expert (as they should be rightfully called) has his own line. I got in line and watched them dice and slice the pastrami for the sandwiches.

As soon as I got to the front of the line the man diced a little bit of extra pastrami and put it on a plate for me to try. SO GOOD! It was so tender, moist and fresh. The meat had this incredible perfect red coloring to it… I really want to eat another one RIGHT NOW!

A Day of Adventures in Cold Weather that was REALLY Cold

From the recommendation of my good friend Eric I headed out on a day to hit up a foray of different sites. Here is the list of items I was going to hit up in one day. I would see the Hudson river, Columbia Univesity, Grants Tombs, the Chelsea Market, Highline Park, walk over to Madison Square, eat at Shakey Shack, then head down to the Brooklyn Bridge… All between the hours of 11 am and 6pm.

How did it all turn out? Well, to my shock, it worked out virtually flawlessly except for one flaw, which almost lead to my complete demise…

I explored the Columbia campus for a little bit with Eric where he showed me a massively large building which was the former library. Apparently this massive building had become too small to house all of the books at Columbia. He then pointed out the excessively super massive building in the other direction and informed me that was one (of the many) locations where the books were moved to.

This is the Massive building that was too small to house all the books.

Eric and I soon parted ways and I made my way to Grants Tomb. I read somethings that were interesting that would probably be boring to write on this blog.

I then got onto the 1 subway and headed downtown. I got off at 14^th street and slowly made my way to Chelsea Market. Chelsea Market is an interesting intertwining of an indoor mall/food court/really fresh good food/interesting little shops/other stuff. At the same time I struggle to give it any one of those labels because it has pieces of each of those but there are pieces to each of those labels that do the Market a total injustice. Just let it be said it was very unique.

From there I went to Highline park. Highline Park is basically an above ground park/walkway. It isn’t wide in the sense of most parks. It was about as wide as a large sidewalk. In the middle of it was a paved walkway for people to walk on while on the side of it were spots for plants. I want to emphasize that because it is still rather cold there were very few plants at Highline park though the signs were adamant in demanding that people stay on the paved areas to prevent any damage to plants.

A shot of Highline Park. It is above the city. 

From there I made my way to the Shake Shack (check out my blog on New York Foods to get more details about this). Let me just say, the shake shack was awesome and I hope that I have the opportunity to go there once more (before I leave New York).

This is the Shake Shack. It is outdoors. 

Eventually I found my way on the 6 subway towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Here is where nearly all was lost. As I exited the subway I became extremely aware of two things: 1. The biting cold and 2. My totally inappropriate dress for cold weather. I had a thin jacket and some pants. Ideally in this weather, multiple long sleeved layers plus some type of headwarming gear is critical. Being from California and having spent most of my life under the false guise of “I am immune to cold” I was severely underdressed for the occasion. I spent the next 30 minutes wandering around the area in hopes of purchasing a beanie…

How could I solve this problem? Easy, I’ll just text my friends for some advice. Well, this would require I have a fully working phone. Around this exact time my phones batter decided to become severely low. I was forced to turn my phone off.

I’m a man who loves himself a good picture. I also don’t have a great memory. Therefore, I knew if I could find a way to get across the bridge with some good pictures my memory would eventually reformulate the Brooklyn Bridge crossing experience into a “funny story” rather than “The coldest I have ever been IN MY LIFE”. After a few encouraging lies from my own inner voice I ventured across the bridge.

Well, let me tell you I am glad I did it! My mind was constantly alternating between these two basic thoughts “What a cool view” and “Mother F$@! It is cold!”. But eventually I did make it across and I did in fact live. All said and done, I wouldn’t change a thing. But in my future experiences I will change A LOT OF THINGS!

I got to the other side of the bridge and needed to contact Eric because I was going to meet up with him.  Here was my conundrum: 1. My phone may die at anytime and 2. I had no idea where Eric and I were to meet.  I turned on my phone called Eric and started the conversation with “my phone is low on battery email me directions if I lose you, I will find an internet café if need  be.”. I got to give Eric mad props! Eric quickly responded with immediate directions. Even more to his credit he intentionally said nothing else about anything (so I didn’t get anything confused and to save battery life). I hung up the phone and then turned it off. We met up at 14^th street and 7^th avenue back in Manhattan and all was well

They want us to protect which plants...

Trying to Save the World... One Dance Move at a Time

Ha tried to suck in all of the air in the entire place!

Ha has somehow managed to become part of virtually every single club in New York. One of them happened to be an organization called UNICEF. I don’t know what it stands for. I think that when organizations give themselves an acronym as a name they should keep it to 3 or 4 letters (but that is another story).

What is UNICEF? They are an organization that is committed to providing clean water (and the necessary resources to sustain clean water) to children in severely impoverished countries.

Some interesting facts: One dollar provides clean water for 4 days for a child in the three countries that UNICEF is currently supporting. Another crazy fact: I used to throw up when my friends would get haircuts (this was when I was like 4 years old).

At one point this dude busted out some crazy rap and Ha and I had to bust out our dancing shoes. We would have pop locked and dropped it (like it’s hot!!!) but Ha pulled a muscle and I became distracted by the excessive amounts of free pirates booty (it’s a type of popcorn that is very delicious). See below for a quick video of the dude rapping.

I also met an artist while I was there. She was a humorous mix of an insanely stereotypical artist while at the same time being interesting and actually a really great artist. It was an awesome event and I had a great time.

This is me and the artist. She drew that picture between us. 

A Visit to KIPP

Today I had the awesome opportunity to check out an outstanding Charter School Organization called KIPP. KIPP stands for Knowledge is Power Program”. I was put in contact with this organization through Teach For America.

I had the opportunity to observe KIPP elementary and KIPP Middle School in the Bronx. It was really incredible to observe not only outstanding teachers but a system that strongly supports that success.

The amazing thing about these particular school sites (I have not been at other KIPP sites so I cannot speak about them) is that it not only has extremely high expectations for everyone in the organization (from students to the administrators) but it also provides the necessary support to make it happen.

I loved going from classroom to classroom to observe the teachers. The cutest thing is that each classroom at the elementary had a “greeter”. This was one of the kids in the classroom that came up to guests that are observing. The “greeter” introduces himself and helps the visitor find a seat in the classroom. Some of the kids are excellent greeters. Some of the kids need to be “paper monitors” instead.

This is a picture of the road I took to get to KIPP

When I went into one classroom a small kindergartener with long brown hair came over to me. She just stared at me with her big brown eyes. I waited for the opening greeting but the small child simply looked at me. She was not awkward or weird, she just simply appeared to think her job was solely to stand next to me and stare at me. Eventually I said “Hello. I am Izzy. What is your name”. She looked at me and said “adkfjakaldj Karen”. I had no idea what she said but I heard a name at the end of it. Eventually I asked the child “should I sit here?” After waiting for a while the child finally stated “adfadk akdfja;d akdfa;j”. Once again, I had no idea what the child was saying… Moral of the story: Some children are great greeters, some children should pass out papers, some adults are good presenters, some adults are great at managing behind the scenes… But the beauty of these classrooms is that it gives children the opportunity to explore these types of opportunities in a child friendly way.

Attending and observing KIPP was such a positive experience. I have read theories and research on “best practices” for teaching children. It always sounds great on paper but to see it happening in action is so motivating. To me, it is analogous to weight lifting and a protein shake. Protein shakes are great and very beneficial if complimented by a great workout. Without the workout the Protein shakes still taste great it just doesn’t make any true difference.  Just as books on “Great Teaching” are awesome but without people actually doing it the books are irrelevant.  My experience at KIPP was exciting, inspiring, igniting, enlightening and a whole lot more of “ings” that I just can’t quite recall right now.