Roaming the Hood

Today is one of those lovely days in the city when you almost forget that you're surrounded by concrete and steel, and that the closest nature is found in the produce section at the supermarket. Thus I thought it would be a great time to take you on a tour of our neighborhood and give you an up-close view of city life. First I'd like to show you a shot of the outside of our building, courtesy of Google maps. It's a charming brick building built sometime before World War II. Most buildings this old would typically be walk-ups, but an elevator was installed sometime after its construction, which we love. Being on the fourth floor, it also made moving quite a bit easier. We are on the opposite side of the building and have a view of more buildings instead of that nice tree, but during the winter it doesn't make much difference anyway since the tree is bare.

The front of our building 

One thing people always talk about needing to get used to in New York City is the noise. And that's totally true - it's an incredibly loud city that seems to have construction everywhere, plus the almost-constant piercing noise of sirens in the distance. But fortunately, we are in a quieter part of town, probably in part due to the fact that we are across the street from a Mormon church:

I love the architecture! 

Other buildings on our street include private schools, a nail salon, a dry cleaner, and other apartment buildings. The nail salon is in the building adjacent to ours (dangerously close) as is the dry cleaner, which is super convenient for those occasions when the hubby likes to show up to work with clean clothes.

About a block away there is a restaurant called Papaya, which is famous for its hot dogs and other American treasures. It's pretty small, but I've seen the line stretching out the door and around the block, so it must be pretty decent. The dogs have been featured in Serious Eats, a website devoted to delicious foods. The company also has a website that will give you a headache!

Serving New York its hot dogs since 1939

Close by is another one of my favorite restaurants - Shake Shack. According to their website, they are a modern day roadside burger stand serving the most delicious burgers, hot dogs (Papaya still has them beat, according to most), frozen custard, beer, wine and more! They use the finest local ingredients to make their own version of much-loved American classics. Initially Shake Shack opened as a small stand in Madison Square park 8 years ago, and now has lots of chains around the city. Their equivalent of a blizzard is called a concrete, and instead of ice cream, it has... wait for it... custard! The regular size is at least 20 oz. of soft, creamy, goodness. Fortunately there is always a super long line deterring me from adding another 15 pounds!

Shake Shack. Also right next to B&N.

View down Lexington Ave

So much to see! We've only walked about two blocks at this point and have already passed by almost every type of store you could think of. Mostly restaurants and shoe stores... so, so many shoe stores. But we're also super close to Staples, Best Buy, Fairway (grocery chain), Barnes and Noble, Brookstone, and a ton of other huge chains. And my favorite, Nuts 4 Nuts. Not even a store, this brilliant invention is situated right outside of the subway stop, ensuring that I pass by it almost every day. It is a small food cart that sells one thing: sugar-roasted nuts. I usually have to pause for 10 seconds just to take in the smell of roasted sweetness floating by my nose. This little cart almost makes up for all of New York's other terrible smells, including the seemingly millions of people who smoke, and all of the dogs and homeless people who use the streets as their personal bathrooms.

Nuts4Nuts!

I took the subway 10 blocks north to a branch of the NY Public Library to get my library card. I have fond childhood memories of going to the public library in our neighborhood and checking out books, and of using the catalog system at my elementary school to find the latest Goosebumps "novel". For some reason I still had that archaic image of a library stuck in my head, which was probably solidified by the thousands upon thousands of books I saw at the NYPL's main branch. Now I'm not saying the library looked modern, but you can do all sorts of cool online stuff through their systems - for free! Tax dollars at work! You can even rent DVDs and check out books for your Kindle, which I definitely plan on doing.

Anyway here are a few pictures from that part of town, near 96th and Lexington. By the way, something great happens when you travel a few blocks north - you can see the sun! The buildings are so tall here that we get about an hour of direct sunlight per day, but up towards Spanish Harlem (which starts in the 100's) the buildings get shorter and the sun is able to get through. This is also the neighborhood where Mount Sinai is located - it's a few blocks west, nestled right along Central Park.

Park Ave near 96th St

Also Park Ave

Fruit Stand

Three things that are almost on every corner here are fruit stands, food carts, and Starbucks. The first two are great if you're looking for a bargain and, for the first, wash your fruit carefully. The Starbucks phenomenon was ridiculous to me at first, and then the stores just started to blend in with the rest of the scenery.

A church amidst skyscrapers

One of my favorite little markets 

Out last stop will be Fairway - the "large" supermarket that is wonderfully close to our place. Fairway is one of the largest supermarkets in Manhattan, and still pales in comparison to an H-E-B or Kroger from back in Texas or New Mexico. That being said, I think they probably carry the same amount of inventory as a "normal" sized grocery store, it's just packed in a little tighter. Shopping can be a little overwhelming depending on the time of day and how many moms bring their kiddos with them, but if you know what you're looking for you can get in and out without much hassle.

It's actually kind of easy to miss!

Buying groceries is not the most convenient thing in the city, but it's totally do-able. Bringing the groceries home is the hard part. In the south, I was used to filling up a cart with food, taking the cart to my car, and unloading a few bags at a time. Here you can pay for delivery after picking out the items yourself, which costs anywhere from $5 to $35 depending on how far away you live, and you are still required to take your perishable items with you. You also have the convenient option of ordering online, but you pay a premium for the food and still pay an additional delivery fee. The final option - the least expensive of the three - is carting the stuff back with you. This is what I opt to do, and it usually just means I buy less food more often. Which really isn't a bad thing since I am able to get fresher produce. The first time I went to a supermarket here, though, I didn't realize how much food I was buying until after I purchased it, and ended up feeling like I just got back from the gym when I got home!

Inside Fairway - Manhattan's mega grocery store

Of course groceries are more expensive here, but you can still find great deals. Today I found fresh salmon for only $6.99/lb - a steel in any market! Anyway, that's all for the neighborhood tour, I hope you enjoyed it!