New York City | Pbenjay's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘New York City’

20 Things You Didn’t Know About New York City!

Posted in BY THE WAY, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged Albert Einstein, Brooklyn, Duane Reade, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York City, United States, Wall Street on April 9, 2014| 3 Comments »

The western ramp and pylon of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I live in a strange and wondrous place. My City never sleeps which means should I get a craving for anything in the middle of the night, I can either go downstairs to the 24 hour Duane Reade (drugstore++) or across the street to the 24 hour diner and eat another dinner or breakfast. I can go to the Opera, the Philarmonic or the theater any night of the week. I can eat any ethnic food any day and visit at least 10 museums anytime. I can see wonderful, colorful parades on most Sundays in the Spring, and Summer and watch the world go by as Israelis, Pakistanis, Irish, Indians and more walk along Fifth Ave. That’s just a tiny bit of what makes New York City a wonderful place to experience life. BUT there’s so many things about this city that I didn’t know and here are some of those strange and interesting facts.

In 1857, toilet paper was invented by Joseph C. Gayetty in NYC.
The Jewish population in NYC is the largest in the world outside of Israel.
The city of New York will pay for a one-way plane ticket for any homeless person if they have a guaranteed place to stay.
Pinball was banned in the city until 1978. The NYPD even held “Prohibition-style” busts.
Albert Einstein’s eyeballs are stored in a safe deposit box in the city.
There’s a wind tunnel near the Flat Iron building that can raise women’s skirts. Men used to gather outside the Flat Iron building to watch.
New York City has more people than 39 of the 50 states in U.S.
There is a birth in New York City every 4.4 minutes.
There is a death in New York City every 9.1 minutes.
PONY means Product of New York.
The borough of Brooklyn on its own would be the fourth largest city in the United States. Queens would also rank fourth nationally.
New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia.
It can cost over $289,000 for a one-year hot dog stand permit in Central Park.
In 1920, a horse-drawn carriage filled with explosives was detonated on Wall Street killing 30 people. No one was ever caught, and it is considered to be one of the first acts of domestic terrorism.
In nine years, Madison Square Garden’s lease will run out and it will have to move.
Sixty percent of cigarettes sold in NYC are illegally smuggled from other states.
Chernobyl is closer to New York than Fukushima is to L.A.
The Empire State building has its own zip code.
The East River is not a river, it’s a tidal estuary.
There are 20,000 bodies buried in Washington Square Park alone.

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A Simple Street Fair Supper From The Kitchen

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged Connecticut, Cook, Costco, grinders, hoagies, Home, Meal, New York City, Onion, Sausage, street fairs, subs on April 1, 2014| 2 Comments »

This Tasty Tidbits Tuesday is really the simplest of meals and no recipe needed. I was looking for a really quick and economical supper for this night. In the Spring and Fall, many of the avenues in New York City are closed to traffic and hundreds of booths line the streets selling everything from socks to sheets, hats to hot dogs, fresh squeezed lemonade to ladies’ dresses, shawls, scarves and sweaters, jewelry to junk and best of all Sausage and Pepper Subs. I don’t call them subs as in submarine sandwiches because I come from Connecticut and we know these sandwiches are grinders! Well whatever you call them, they’re delicious and we always feel decadent eating them and why not since they are loaded with fat.

Tonight I made a healthier version and clearly it was an economical meal. We had Sausage with Peppers and Onions on a roll and steamed asparagus. I used hot poultry sausage. I don’t normally calculate the cost of the meals I make or the recipes I post, however, this meal was really, well, cheap!

Red bell peppers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The sausage (6) cost – $5.36

Mixed sweet bell peppers (6) – $5.99 I only used 5

2 fresh-baked rolls – $1.40

1 lg Spanish onion – $0.74

Asparagus – $4.79 – purchased at COSTCO (2 lb) This is the second side dish, and still have a third.

Total cost: $17.54

There is pepper and onion mix and 1 1/2 sausages left over for a lunch.

The key to making this meal delicious is sautéing the peppers and onion really slowly. The onion caramelizes and sweetens the mixture. I only use red, yellow and orange peppers – that’s why there is one left over; It’s green!

Onion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Planning To Go GREEN Early This Year!

Posted in Everyday Food, tagged Amazing Race, Cabbage, carrots, Corned Beef, crock pot, Good Wife, Irish American, New York City, onions, Patrick, Potato, red potatoes, Saint Patrick's Day on March 16, 2014| 1 Comment »

Irish dinner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ha, ha, ha, I bet you thought I meant I was going to recycle more, use rags instead of paper towels, refuse to buy strawberries in March because in order to arrive here, they left a HUGE carbon footprint. Sorry to disappoint my readers and dash their expectations that I might be looking at the world with a more global view to saving the earth for the next generation – oh no that’s not what I meant at all!!

This sunny but cold Sunday, the day before St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would attempt, yes attempt to make my first Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. My husband is not sure why I’m thinking of doing this and now 3 days later, after I’ve bought the corned beef, the cabbage and the potatoes and carrots, I’m thinking the same thing! If we were in NYC we might go out for our annual Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner as we have for the past umpteen years but we are not in NYC. Actually we will be back in time to catch some of the world’s best and longest St. Patrick’s Day parade. However Monday holds a sacred place in my heart. Everyone who knows me, knows that Monday night is Mah Jongg night and since there isn’t a Colleen in the group, no one other than me seemed to think St. Patrick’s Day deserved any special consideration. Well that settled that. No Irish supper for Peter and I on Monday!

I did consider taking advantage of the considerable Irish-American population at the Jersey Shore and thought we might dine tonight at Clancy’s Tavern, The thought of enjoying a meal served and cleaned-up by someone else as well as the camaraderie of fellow diners and congenial drinkers certainly held its allure. BUT then I remembered how crazy Clancy’s can be; noisy, boisterous, and so loud, it’s hard to talk to your dinner partner! It’s really more bar than restaurant, Irish to its core so I started thinking that probably a good portion of the population might take advantage of an extended St. Patrick’s Day celebration by starting early in the weekend, only to continue right through to Monday night! AND then I remembered that on Sunday night a couple of my favorite TV shows are on, not to mention one of those rare occasions when I am in total control of the remote. How could I think of missing The Amazing Race, 60 Minutes and especially The Good Wife. I could DVR the shows but then I wouldn’t have the time to watch them because they would be on the TV in NJ and I’ll be heading back to NYC.

So now that I’ve settled that in my mind, I took my crockpot out and am hoping the corned beef will cook to its fall-apart texture this afternoon while I’m out and about. The packaging said to bring it to a boil and then cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours and add the vegetable an hour before meat is done. That flies in the face of most of the recipes I’ve read so I’m thinking 4 hours in the crockpot with the potatoes, carrots and onion on the bottom, topped with the corned beef will do the trick. I do hope it gets to bubbling point and then about an hour before I’ll toss in the cabbage. carrots. I happened to be on the phone with my cousin, Marian this morning, and she too was attempting a first time Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. However, she called her niece who writes a cooking blog and was told to put it in the slow cooker for 8 hours AND she put the cabbage, carrots and potatoes in with the meat right from the get go! I advised her to at least remove the cabbage otherwise I think she would end up with cellulose and mashed potatoes. We’ll compare notes later this evening, probably during the commercials!

Uh oh, I just took a good look at the photo I put in this post and see that the little red potatoes should have been left whole; I halved and even quartered some – I guess I will be the one with mashed potatoes! Oh well, ERIN GO BRAUGH…

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10 Things Out Of Towners Need To Know About New York

Posted in Only in New York, tagged Ambrose Lightship, Beer Garden, Business, FDR drive, Italy, New York, New York City, NYC, South Street Seaport, taxis, Television, the Big Apple, The City, tourists, United States, West Village on March 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Ambrose Lightship, South Street Seaport, Manhattan, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thursday’s Top Ten

The following is a sardonic bordering on sarcastic list of things we New Yorkers feel the need to explain to the visitors, tourists and out of towers who venture into our metropolis! This list goes beyond my byline of “Oops I bit my tongue in chic”; I gleaned this information from Thrillst NY. Some things just have to be ‘splained!

We don’t call it “The Big Apple”, “New York” or even “NYC” – It’s The City.
Everybody jaywalks – Go ahead, don’t be afraid, chances are you won’t get hit.
The Italian food in Little Italy sucks – Probably because hardly any Italians live there.
Cabbies don’t take advantage of tourists – They take advantage of ANYONE who doesn’t pay attention. The answer to “Do you want to take the FDR”? is always NO.
YES, it’s always this loud and NO it doesn’t bother us – For the love of God, stop covering your ears every time a subway screeches or an ambulance goes by.
You have to walk faster than that – We don’t have highways, we have sidewalks. Would you stop dead in the middle of the Interstate to take a photo of some random tall building? No? Then sweet Jesus don’t do it here.
South Street Seaport is totally irrelevant – We don’t set foot on this anachronistic hell-dock unless we’re going to Beekman’s Beer Garden. Even then we go in the back entrance to avoid the crowds of people taking photos of the man o’ war.
The streets are short, the avenues are long and it’s a grid – Unless you’re in the West Village; that place is essentially a maze.
That annoying TV in the back of the cab – You can turn it off, and if the credit card swipe below it doesn’t work, use the one above it.
Our bars close at 4 am every night – None of this 1 am or 2 am nonsense or “4 am on Saturdays only” – We booze it up every night till 4 am and still make it to brunch then next day.

A shout-out to Gail, who is my constant resource for funny, weird, bizarre, interesting, and informative articles. This one from Thrillist was a doozy!

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The Greatest Thing Since…. Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged Amy's Bread, Bouchon Bakery, Bread, buckwheat, East Harlem, Eli Zabar, Finnish Ruis, Flour, List of Italian dishes, M'smen, New York City, Nordic Breads, pear, Per Se, Pre-ferment, Spelt, Sullivan St Bakery, Sunbeam bread, Wonder bread on March 12, 2014| 3 Comments »

Bread (Photo credit: CeresB)

BREAD, the staff of life, gimme the dough/money! Bread has always played a major role in our lives and diet. When I was growing up, we lived in area where the milkman delivered milk to your door and the bread man delivered bread. They were both white; by that I mean we were getting pasteurized white milk and ultrarefined industrial white bread, so prevalent in the 50’s. My dad bought Wonder bread for us, my friend, Susan’s mom bought Sunbeam. Once in a while my father would bake delicious Italian bread with tiny bits of pork rind in it. Warm from the oven and slathered with butter…no wonder I take a statin every day now! Then along came Dr. Atkins and bread became the enemy. The war against carbs still rages on, however, real bread in its naturally leavened, long-fermented hearth-baked form has enjoyed a comeback, especially in New York City where there are several well-known and much-touted bread bakers. We have Eli Zabar, Tom Cat’s Noel Labat-Comess, Bread Alone’s Dan Leader to name a few. Bakeries such as Amy’s Bread, Sullivan St. Bakery and Balthazar Bakery produce such delicious bread, you really can make a meal out of it!

Here are New York’s top 5 new-wave breads: Try not to drool on your keyboard.

1.Roberta’s – CITY WHITE LOAF – Why would Melissa Weller leave the kitchen Per Se to toil in a converted shipping container? Three words: Wood. Fired. Oven. Her bread has a dark and crackling crust, with a moist crumb. It’s beyond “Rustic” in looks, more like a throwback to some communal oven in 19th century Paris.

2. Nordic Breads – FINNISH RUIS – If you’re a New Yorker, you know rye bread. However, there is a Nordic newcomer among us and this bread is dark, dense, flat as a Frisbee and has a tang that intensifies as you chew. High fiber content, organic and made with a sour-dough starter smuggled in from Finland. Produced by Nordic Breads.

3. Hot Bread Kitchen – M’SMEN – Their repertoire ranges from corn totillas to Sephardic challah. Their mission is to train immigrant women to parlay their native expertise into management positions in the industry. Headquartered in East Harlem, the most extotic and delicious of their offerings is m’s men, a rough-textured, butter-and-oil enriched North African flatbread that’s rolled, slicked, and folded into a delicious envelope of dough. Rich and flaky like a croissant with the tender-crisp chew of paratha, the m’s men is girdled golden-brown and traditionally eaten at breakfast in Marrackech.

4. Runner and Stone – BUCKWHEAT AND PEAR – Peter Endriss, formerly of Per Se and Bouchon Bakery is creating such wonders as a Cheddar-and-hard-cider loaf, a sourdough whole-wheat walnut with dried sausage and red wine and a pain au chocolate encasing port-infused figs. Local grains, natural leavening, and long fermentation all conspire to make his squarish buckwheat pear loaf a thing of crusty, nutty beauty, its speckled crumb a triple-grained canvas (rye and spelt too) for nuggets of sweet poached fruit.

5. Roman’s – SPROUTED SPELT – Baker Austin Hall appropriates a corner of Roman’s kitchen after hours to bake breads for service and for retail sale on weekends. He makes a naturally-leavened sprouted spelt, a sturdy burnt-umber sourdough loaf with a crackly, darkly caramelized crust and crumb riddled with New York State spelt berries. It’ a health bread for hedonists.

I will continue this list with more mouth-watering breads next week.

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“Seeing Red” on a Snowy Sunday in Central Park

Posted in Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, tagged Central Park, Murray Head, New York City, Photograph, Red cardinal, snow, snowman, St Bernard dog, umbrellas, Winter, Winter storm on February 16, 2014| 6 Comments »

I had a difficult time coming up with a title for this post. I wanted to use these photos while we still had fresh snow on the ground (although I’m sure we’ll have snow for a while just not so fresh). Murray took these photos and the red just popped out against the snowy white canvas of Central Park. As I said yesterday, EVERYONE comes to play in the snow in the Park.

First and in my opinion best of all is the sight of a brilliant red Cardinal perched on a snowy branch. These birds are beautiful at any time of the year but in the winter their bright and perky looks stand out in the bleak winter.

He Just Sits

A Spot of Red

A Little Tipsy

A Mandarin Duck in Winter

What to do? Build a Snowman!

New Boots

Royalty

Standing Out in a Crowd

Is my face red from the cold?

Red Tags, Blue Eyes

To the Rescue

Ready to Rescue

Waiting Patiently

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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The SNOW LEOPARDS Of Central Park –

Posted in Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged Adobe Flash, Big cat, Camera trap, Cat, Central Park, Central Park Zoo, Endangered species, Leopard, New York City, sliding, Snow leopard, snow men, Wildlife Conservation Society on February 15, 2014| 3 Comments »

Everyone goes to Central Park when it snows! The scenery is magnificent, the hushed quiet, serene. the hills entice the kids and their saucers. The dogs romp in the snow, we build snowmen, we cross-country ski, we bird watch, and we have snow ball fights. BUT none of us have the sheer joy that comes only from being a Snow Leopard cub living in the Central Park Zoo. Share their delight!

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Can I Play Too?

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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Central Park Snow – City Still Life

Posted in Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged Bethesda Terrace, Central Park, Central Park statues, National Weather Service, New York City, sculpture, snow, weather, winter scenes on February 13, 2014| 1 Comment »

We’ve had so much snow lately that it’s yesterday’s news every other day! And in the City, the snow rapidly melts into a dirty slush or turns into frozen walls around the parked cars. Well that’s what you see when you walk the streets on your way to work.

BUT if you were to go into Central Park, you would see snow scenes whose beauty rivals Anywhere USA. Murray was in the park capturing these lovely scenes and was gracious enough to share them with us. I told him how often my post on the 19″ snowfall in Central Park is viewed, it’s amazing really. I hope you enjoy these as much.

Central Park Snow

Bethesda Fountain

Untouched

Ice Angel

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Undeterred

Solitude

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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February in NYC – Every Day is HOT CHOCOLATE DAY!

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Only in New York, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged Bakery, Chocolate, Cooking, February, Home, hot cocoa, Maury, Maury Rubin, New York, New York City, Valentine, Valentine's Day on February 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

YES this is one of those ONLY IN NEW YORK experiences! Every year I look forward to February….no I don’t love the gray days, or the ice and snow piled up at the bus stops, or the black slimy slush on the subway stairs. BUT February brings City Bakery’s Annual Hot Chocolate Festival.

Every day of the month, St. Maury Rubin (not to be confused with St. Valentine who only has one feast day) celebrates February with a different delicious blend of his famous hot chocolate every day. I really don’t have the words to describe this liquid orgasmic treat. It’s creamy, feels thick in your mouth, the hot steam sends chocolate thrills up your nose while a smooth molten very chocolatey, chocolate slithers down your throat. I swear my eyes roll back in my head when I drink, no sip, this heavenly concoction.

See for yourself just what can be had this month!

Oh Heavenly Days!

Once a chocoholic, kind of a hard to get over this particular addiction since the only 12 Step Program I know goes like this: “Never Be More Than 12 Steps Away From Chocolate”. In 2012 I posted this: HOT CHOCOLATE on Steroids!

I’m not alone in my devotion to the February rite of steaming delight – No, City Bakery’s Hot Chocolate has a cult following. This year I noted that another blogger who I follow, FOOD BY SKYLAR, posted an homage to City Bakery and Maury’s Hot Chocolate and I am adding the link to her blog post below. Maybe I’ll run into her on Malted Milk Hot Chocolate day! A Hot Chocolate a Day Makes February the Best Month Ever

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MENTAL HEALTH MONDAY – Steps To STOP Worrying!!

Posted in Mental Health Monday, tagged Barry Lubetkin, Behaviour therapy, Clinical Psychology, Cognitive behavioral therapy, Institute for Behavior Therapy, New York City, Pennsylvania State University, United States on February 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

worried square (Photo credit: cathredfern)

A long time ago I read that two very useless emotions were worry and guilt; Prevalent among us all and hard habits to break! The following words of advice are from Dr. Barry Lubetkin, Phd, ABBP.

” More about worry!
Remember ,worrying is a mental habit…….some thing that is repeated involuntarily without our being aware that it has started. So it will take frequent practice of actions that are incompatible with worrying to reduce the habit of worrying. Psychologists at Pennsylvania State University have developed a series of anti worrying steps.:

1. Write down the specific thoughts that you have when you worry..

2.Analyze each thought……is there evidence for it? What is its real probability of occurring? Have you handled such situations in the past without dire consequences.? A year after the event will it really make a major difference in your life.? Couldn’t you survive and move on even if the worst happens?
Write down your answers.

3.Use these new more adaptive thoughts whenever you notice a worrisome thought throughout the day. Remind yourself that they are more valid based on your logical evidence based analysis. With repeated practice they will begin to feel more true.

4.Designate a 15 minute period each day as your “worry time”. And only focus on your worries during this period. This will allow you to postpone worrisome thinking from other times,and do creative problem solving and rational thinking.

Dr Barry Lubetkin is the Director and founder of The Institute For Behavior Therapy in New York City. He is Board certified in both Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Psychology. He is the author of numerous academic and popular articles as well as two popular self-help books: “Bailing Out”and “Why Do I Need You to Love Me in Order to Like Myself”. He also has recorded the popular insomnia treatment CD set “Dr. Barry’s Sound Asleep.” The Institute for Behavior Therapy is the oldest privats.e Cognitive Behavior Therapy center in the United States founded in 1971. s have received treatment at the Institute.

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Pbenjay's Blog

Smooth or Crunchy – Ouch! I bit my tongue in chic

Posts Tagged ‘New York City’

20 Things You Didn’t Know About New York City!

A Simple Street Fair Supper From The Kitchen

Planning To Go GREEN Early This Year!

10 Things Out Of Towners Need To Know About New York

“Seeing Red” on a Snowy Sunday in Central Park

The SNOW LEOPARDS Of Central Park –

Central Park Snow – City Still Life

February in NYC – Every Day is HOT CHOCOLATE DAY!

MENTAL HEALTH MONDAY – Steps To STOP Worrying!!

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