It may seem like all I did in New York was eat eat eat. Admittedly we did spend a lot of our time doing that but we also found plenty of time to indulge in some sight-seeing and general other non-eating pursuits. There were:

Dinners with the family (yes, technically eating but I’m focusing more on the spending time with the family and general catching up)

Playing in the snow (a blizzard took us by surprise on boxing day evening which effectively kept us indoors for a bit. I did ask for a White Christmas but this was just ridiculous) …

… this sadly meant there was no visit to Woodbury Common for us this year. Instead Pat and I had a day out at Jersey Gardens Outlet. Its not as good as Woodbury Common by any stretch of the imagination but it was the best substitute for the littlest effort with a bus departing from the Port Authority Bus Terminal that wasn’t hours and hours away. As an added plus on quite a brisk day the outlets are also all indoors so no bad weather to contend with. One tip for the return trip is that if you don’t want to end up standing all the way back into Manhattan with your shopping (its about a 40 minute ride without traffic) so get to bus stop well before its supposed to arrive.

Food of a more minor note was also indulged in at Ess-A-Bagel. Okay – I couldn’t help going back to food for a moment. I just remembered Ess-A-Bagel more as an experience than as a dining destination. When we got there at about 10 in the morning it was total chaos and that certainly didn’t stop the hordes of crowds lining up to get what is supposedly one of the best bagels you can get anywhere… in the world. Ess-A-Bagel kind of actually reminds me a bit of Wong Kei here in London – where the reputation of the place is not great to the point of what seems like rudeness, orders can get mixed up, and the focus is on getting people through the line as quickly as possible and out of the shop! Well, that is, unless the guy behind the counter is trying to flirt with you, like my guy was with me! The choice of bagel, fillings, size, sides, etc. etc. can be totally overwhelming and once you’re up you better be prepared to snap out your order quick smart or your server is going to get mad at you and start shouting at you. I’m sure its all part of the theatre and experience. The pro of the queue being so long is that you do have time to look at what is on offer and to work out exactly what you want. Be prepared to eat you bagel on the run as well as there is only limited space inside to sit down and eat.

I’m sure queues at Ess-A-Bagel are long at any time, but being the holiday season queues and crowds were ridiculous all over the place, including at Times Square

and M&M World. M&M World was busy to the point that they were actually limiting the number of people in the store. I have never had to wait in a queue to get into the place! I knew exactly how this guy felt:

A couple of museums were on my hit list including a long awaited visit to the MoMA. I’ve always wanted to visit but have been put off by the price ($20) if I’m honest. Thought it was time to bite the bullet and pay the price … but on a positive note our ticket also got us free entry to PS1 (normally $10), kind of a little baby brother/sister to the MoMA and located over in Long Island. I think PS1 does more edgy less mainstream stuff than that featured at the MoMA. If you’re visiting the MoMA my advice would be to time your visit with one of the free guided tours which comes with price of admission – I got infinitely more value out of the tour than just going around on my own and every tour is likely to be different depending on the tour guide that you get.

Many people don’t quite understand modern art and admittedly sometimes I too scratch my head in confusion but often it is entertaining to me in a way classic art isn’t. For example, “Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano” is a piece by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla which basically involves a grand piano with a hole cut out of the middle where the artist stands and plays Beethoven’s Ode to Joy upside down and in reverse whilst walking around the floor. I really didn’t understand it but I did enjoy watching the crowds following the piano around.

Some other pieces that caught my attention were the following:

PS1 had very contemporary art. By far and away the most interesting exhibit on our visit was Feng Mengbo’s “Long March: Restart (2008)”. Basically a large installation of an interactive video game on two long walls, it featured some old school classics such as Mario Bros and Street Fighter merged with propaganda motifs from Communist China. Very cool.

Another interactive feature was Peter Campus’ Shadow Projection. This video installation basically projected your shadow but at the same time projected your features on to the shadow. Weird but it worked.

PS1 isn’t that huge but pieces are often challenging – definitely worth a paired visit with the MoMA. No photos allowed though 🙁

Oh, these books were in the bookshop. Interesting …

Indulging our kiddie side, okay, my kiddie side, we also visited the Lego store (I swear the parents were crazier than the kids)

FDNY Firezone. Very disappointing – was hoping to see some hot fire men. I have a feeling it was aimed more at the little ones than us big uns! Heh heh. And whilst we were in the Rockefeller Centre area we hopped over to the Nintendo Store to check out the latest games on the wii and try on a new backpack. Do you think a turtle shell would suit me?

We also visited the kid friendly New York Hall of Science. We pretty much had the run of the place – which is what you want in an interactive museum. Its not the most modern Hall of Science I’ve been to but it is actually I think one of the more interactive ones. This includes a dedicated sports zone where you can surf, throw a baseball, race a car, shoot hoops, ride a bike etc.

Speaking of sports I of course took us over to Chelsea Piers for a bucket of balls. First time I’ve been there and there has been snow around the greens.

Finally, back to food, sorta! Pat arranged a Foods of New York tour for us around Central Greenwich Village and a bit of Soho. This was a mixture of food tasting and culture. Our guide took us to the following food places: Focacceria (famous for serving Italian sandwiches), Masala Times and Monte’s Trattoria. At the Trattoria we not only tasted some beautiful ragù we also got a free mini diary ..

We also visited a place called Cuba (which was our last sit down tasting) and after a side walk flat pizza from Grandaisy Italian Bakery (it was divine) we had a tart from Once Upon a Tart. The tour actually went over time as our guide was really getting into her story telling including pointing out where Robert De Niro shot his avert for Australian coffee Vittoria (at Caffe Dante) and also the Minetta Tavern (which is where writers, poets, and pugilists hung out.) Someone famous also used to live here …

… until their stalker drove them out! I think it was some musician but I can’t fully remember who it was! Our tour took us through Washington Square where we were entertained by a man and his piano!

The walk and talk was a combination of sit downs and eating on the sidewalk – an interesting way to get to know the area. There are some interesting tours that you can do in New York – one of the couples we got to know on the tour happened to be in the food business and they told us about this one that takes you along the subway hitting all the famous fast food places. Or something like that. Whatever it was sounded interesting!

After all of that I felt exactly like Bear did – just a little pooped out 🙂