I was bored the other day, as always, so when Stephanie, my youngest, called and said she had to go to New York City I decided to meet her there and within an hour I had booked my ticket!
We set up an itinerary beforehand, which is really unusual for us as a typical trip to New York for us is eating, shopping and eating some more. This trip, however, would consist of eating, exploring and a little bit of shopping (and eating some more of course!)
Our first morning there we set out for Katz’s Deli. I haven’t been there in over 30 years, but it was as good as I remembered and so much fun. The waiter asked if we were ready to order and as soon as I answered he said, “You used to live here, but where do you live now?” How’d he know that?? Yes, I lived in New York (on Long Island) for 38 years and moved to the suburbs of Cleveland 20 years ago, but how did he know?? My kids were young when we moved so they all have Cleveland accents (yes to all my Cleveland friends there is such a thing!). My husband has lost his NY accent even though we grew up in the same town. I still have mine, although it’s not as strong, but I’m proud of it!
Ok, back to Katz’s, so my daughter and I ordered potato latkes because she wasn’t sure if she would like the pastrami or corned beef (in this area I have truly fallen short as she’s never had them before, sorry Steph). Truth is she would have been happy with the plate of pickles. We ordered one corned beef sandwich and one pastrami. The waiter looked at us and shook his head, “You’ll never be able to finish that. Why don’t you get 1/2 of each?” Who knew we could do that-perfect! However, he did tell the couple at our table (you do have to share a table at Katz’s) that they’d be able to finish a whole sandwich each! ? So, we get our 1/2 sandwiches (on rye bread and I added mustard, yum) and they were piled so high our mouths couldn’t open that big-well, mine could. My daughter starts deconstructing her sandwiches and another waiter walks by, takes one look and says,”What the hell are you doing?” I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. In between laughing we did get to eat and the food was delicious.
A few blocks down is a little shop called Yonah Shimmel Knish Bakery. I remember my parents talking about this place when I was a kid and when I was going to grad school in the city (as New York is referred to, after all there’s only one city right?!) my mom would ask me to bring some knishes home for her. I also have a sweet memory of stopping there with my dad when I was apartment hunting in 1982, before grad school started. Stephanie didn’t think she’d ever had a knish before so we ordered two-one potato and the other kasha. The cutest man took our order, microwaved them (guess it’s a little different than back in the early 1900s) and we were on our way. Steph loved the potato and I loved them both. It was just a delicious trip down memory lane.
We continued our walk, eating our knishes, and came upon some beautiful street art as well as the Bowery Mural Wall, a graffiti wall on the corner of Bowery and Houston Streets. I’m always awed by the talent I’ve seen just walking streets in different cities and what I saw in New York was incredible.
What an amazing day we had playing in the city. There’s something about being there that just gives me this incredible energy and makes me so very happy and so not bored!
More on our great trip to come.
