New York City’s food scene changes as fast as the taxis whiz down 9^th Avenue.  Since I’ve been traveling and somewhat removed from Manhattan, there’s no way I can keep up with the hot spot’s openings and closings.  This would be a full time job (one I hope to have someday). On a recent visit, to take the pressure off myself, I just enjoyed some new random spots that were either recommended to me by friends or places that I’d been to before that have stood the test of time (a pretty big feat in NYC).

My current favorite spots

Red Cat – Great neighborhood gem holding court in Chelsea for more than a decade with Mediterranean-American flavors & a cozy white-painted wood-paneled New England charm.  I’d eaten here with my grandmother (who lived just a block away for about 30 years) a few times, so besides the warm, inviting atmosphere, and especially tasty food, Red Cat holds special memories for me.

Birreria Eataly – I recently wrote about this fantastic rooftop bar and restaurant in the Flatiron District.  After enjoying the gourmand’s wet dream downstairs, climb up for some great views and tasty views under a retractable roof and cozy heat lamps.

The Chelsea Market – Inevitably, I always end up here every time I am in Manhattan.  I have a thing for the re-use of old buildings so you can imagine my crush on this former National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) factory where the Oreo was first invented.  If nothing else, you should come to pay homage to this perfect cookie sandwich (do you eat it whole or twist off the top first?).  It’s fitting that today it’s been re-purposed into an indoor-market of foodie finds – a fish monger, bread baker, gelateria, Italian specialty food market, several fast-casual restaurants, and, of course, home made cupcake shop. The exposed brick and duct work still help it retain its original industrial flavor with fragments of the National Biscuit heritage sprinkled all over the complex.  It makes perfect sense that the offices of the Food Network are upstairs.

The Little Owl – Another neighborhood gem, oozing with cozy (read: tiny) charm, I was introduced to the Little Owl by my friend Marie Elena.  Go ahead and click on their link to enjoy the sweet sounds of Frankie Valli, which to me, evokes the feeling of a warm spring evening in the Village.  The Owl is little, as is the menu and the space: just 30 seats.  But this is no “Chicken Little” when it comes to food, the Owl boasts unpretentious, straightforward food like their popular pork chop and one of the best burgers in the city –  I savored it and have to agree with this distinction…much more flavorful than the Corner Bistro…sorry Mark.

Kashkaval – A recommendation by fellow travel blogger, Jodi, I met my step-sister here for a great after-work scene and dinner.  The front is a gourmet cheese market and tucked in the back is a cozy wine and cheese bar.   My mouth watered over the decadent fondue and amazing Eastern Mediterranean tapas like baba ghanoush, a lemony lentil salad,  and Ajvar, a smoky red pepper spread. It’s a great date spot: dark, candle-lit, and full of foods to share.

The Park – Another Chelsea spot that I seem to keep returning to. The last two times I was there, I was invited by locals, so that’s always a good sign. The food is pretty good, but what I love the most is the gorgeous atrium and garden – a perfect spring and summer spot to dine under maple trees and chirping birds.  But now I have to go back, as I can’t believe I had no idea there was a rooftop bar. My friend Michaela told me about the penthouse, that has a hot tub that allegedly gets some action on some late nights.

Trilby – I had the good fortune of eating at the Cooper Square Hotel restaurant with my friend Monica and photographing our meal for the Wall Street Journal’s lunchbox column.  Since we dined there just a few months ago, the hotel has now been sold to the hipster boutique hotel chain and is henceforth known as the Standard, East Village.  I guess I really did have good fortune…because the restaurant is now closed (again) for revamping.  But look for it when it re-opens, the outdoor garden space is really a quiet oasis in the city filled with trees and odd pockets of quite. Serenity in NYC? Why, yes.

Katz’s Deli – Gotta give a shout out to an old time classic meat haven. This is the real deal. Pastrami piled so high on rye you can’t see over it. Get it anyway. Then take half home. I have even been known to get them to vacuum seal half the meat to freeze and make later by dropping the cryo-vacced bag in boiling water.

Union Square Café – The last time I ate here it was around 1992.  But it had a strong and lasting effect on me and my interest in food and dining out.  I grew up a very picky eater. In the summer and fall of 1992, I lived in New York City while I was interning at “Late Night with David Letterman.” It was then that I started to eat ‘real’ food.  And it was at Union Square Café that I tried new things and started to actually ‘like’ foods that I had always despised. I was finally eating food made right and loving it.  The restaurant is now legendary and routinely tops lists for NY eateries.

Isabella’s – One of my first tastes of fresh Italian food that was not the heavy baked ziti and spaghetti and meatball variety that I’d grown up with in neighboring New Jersey.   I first ate here when sundried tomatoes and capers were all the rage…and brand new to me.  Wow. What are these fabulous treats?  It was here I was introduced to lighter stock and wine sauces or just the simplicity of a freshly made pasta with extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, garlic, and salty, 3-year aged Parmigiana Reggiano cheese. Perfection.

Places I want to Eat:

Next time I’m in town…wanna chow and imbibe with me?

• DBGB Kitchen and Bar – Looks amazing and love the music on the site too.
• Tia Pol
• La Bottega
• Luzzo’s Pizza – said to be the new ‘best pizza in Manhattan’ if there is such a thing? They had me at Coal-Oven.
• Shake Shack – I’ve yet to wait in the queue for this popular spot
• Per Se – Somebody take me please?
• Ouest – Same. Same.
• Craft – Ditto.
• Crif Dog – Cream Cheese, scallions, everything bagel seasoning? Um…yum. Kind of like sushi’s ‘Philly Roll’ of dogs
• Taim – Supposed to be some of the tastiest falafel around. And I love me some falafel since my first food truck in NYC in the ’90s.

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post. Want to take your own New York tour?  Try Tours4Fun.

Typically big-box stores (a la: Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target, etc.) and over-sized supermarkets have been an American import slowly spreading their bland conformity across Europe and beyond.  But this is a switch.

I first visited the mega-sized specialty market, Eataly, in Turino, Italy, in 2009.  I’d pegged it as an all-Italian ‘Whole Foods’.   My mouth watered and my eyes glazed over as I roved the many, stark-white aisles filled with sexy bottles of truffle-oil, silky gelato, and an amazing array of fresh meats, pastas, cheeses, and breads.

The Slow Food organization serves as a consultant to Eataly, and the artisinal super-store has adopted its three principles.  Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. 

• Food must taste good
• Food must be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health
• Food producers should receive fair compensation for their work

Like Santa bringing us gifts at Christmas, one red-faced, jolly Mario Batali, has now brought Eataly to all New Yorkers.   The huge store sits just across the street from the Flatiron Building and Madison Square Park and is a mecca of Italian foodstuffs, various fancy bar ‘stations’ (more like mid-store restaurants), and boisterous espresso and wine bars.

Upstairs, on the roof, Birreria opened this past summer.   The huge outdoor space is more than a beer garden, as sometimes described, even though they do brew some of their own ales as their name suggests (Birreria means brewery in Italian).   For me, the food is the draw here as the menu is stuffed full with all the delightful fixin’s of an ‘Italian picnic’ – charcuterie, cheeses, mushroom dishes, and other assorted savory morsels.   It’s not cheap, but the views are pretty priceless with the Empire State building looming overheard to the north and the Flatiron building just to the west, across the street, so close, you feel you can touch it.

See photo gallery here. Roll-over & click on each for larger image slideshow.

I’ve always loved cable ties. They are so good at tying cables. (Stay with me).  And one of the many things I love about New York City? There is always something to see or do right outside your door. And many of these things are free and unexpected. You are often treated to a free show or public art display as you simply walk down the street. On a recent visit, I was a bit entranced by this random Cable Tie Art wrapped around several street light posts around Astor Park in the East Village.  But this wasn’t the work of some random, stealthy street artist, this was a real art installation called ‘flaming cactus’ thanks to a partnership between New York City’s Department of Transportation and Animus Art.

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post. Want to take your own New York tour?  Try Tours4Fun.

Today I went for a run in New York City.  I am back for one of my many visits.  This city gets me every time; one way or another it gets me. Do you know what I mean?  As I ran through the brownstone-lined, charming side streets in Chelsea, I couldn’t help but get all nostalgic.  Coming back here always brings up various memories, one of the largest centering around my grandmother who lived in Chelsea for around 3 decades.  That was my ‘home’ whenever I was in the city.  She was the center of it all.  Running right past her building brought instant tears to my eyes. How strange is it, even two years after her death (she was 94 and lived an amazing full life), to not be seeing her here in her city.  She loved it here.  She always said she could go right out of her door and get everything and anything she needed – and she did.  She was fierce and independent, qualities I realized much too late that I had learned from her.

As I ran toward the Hudson River on Manhattan’s west side, I was still in awe of the transformations that have taken place here since I was a kid visiting from the ‘burbs of New Jersey in the 70s and 80s.  What was once an edgy, gritty, and downright dirty area full of warehouses and traffic edging right up to the water, is now a gorgeous green park area full of families and runners and cyclists.  It makes me smile.  It is one long band of green parkland and running paths running along side the river, as well as piers for walking and sitting and kissing.   It’s beautiful and made me want to live here again.   The revitalized High Line is  nearby snaking it’s way through Chelsea parallel to the river.  It’s another makeover that makes me proud of this city.

I stopped on a pier and gazed across at New Jersey where I’d just come from and where I literally come from.  It looked a bit closer at this point. I could see Jersey City to the south and then Hoboken right across from me and Weehawken to the north.  Cities I had never once explored as a kid.  I mean why would you bother, when they were so close to THE city?

As I sat there catching my breath (not a fan of running), I noticed people gawking down river, and there I saw it, a huge navy ship heading our way.  Of course.  It was Fleet Week, the Navy’s annual docking of active military ships around the city.

Leave it to this city to present you with gifts and spectacles when you don’t even expect it.  It seems in other places we often wonder ‘what to do?’ But here in New York, it’s as simple as going out your front door and just happening upon something special.  It’s a case of not finding something to do, but it finding you.

Okay, yes, being here makes me all ‘thoughty’ and pensive. It makes me contemplate. You always hear about people needing space and air and a virtual Walden Pond to really think.  But I find the opposite true. The energy that is New York City always makes me feel something.  I realized it was five years ago now that I was planning my escape, my trip around the world, which ended up lasting about two years more than I expected it to.  And my life has never been the same since.  I am now working for myself full time.  I have never fully gone back to the life I left in 2006 and it was a good life.  I am forever in flux; changing, bending, molding to what tomorrow brings.  Five years ago I was working full time for ABC television. I was living in my plush two-bedroom condo with my cat and boyfriend.  Now I’ve downsized significantly to a smaller apartment, no car, less stuff (and I keep selling off more), less responsibilities, less bills, less carbon foot print. And I love it. Less is truly more.

I don’t get too personal on this blog. I mean that to say, I get somewhat personal, but just about me.  I don’t drag others into the fray.  Now I am sharing my life with someone and solo hasn’t  just become a couple, I could be given the gift of an instant family.   Is this necessarily what I’ve always wanted?  No.  And it’s not what I ever expected.  But like New York, life has surprised me yet again.   And now I am considering leaving my beloved Chicago behind and returning here, yet again, to New York.   It’s funny how everything changes.  But isn’t it the changes that make us grow and learn and be?

“Are we in Brooklyn or are we in Manhattan?”

We were walking across the Brooklyn Bridge from a requisite tourist stop at the always crowded, but always delicious, Grimaldi’s Pizza – home of some damn tasty coal brick-oven pizza.

I love transportation and bridges in general, but the iconic Brooklyn Bridge just knocks it out of the park.  It is a classic; a beautiful sight and an architectural marvel at that. One of the oldest suspension bridges in the world, the neo-Gothic limestone and granite bridge was completed in 1883 and spans New York’s aptly named East River. It cost $15.5 million to build and approximately 27 people died during its construction.

A little odd trivia for you: One week after the opening, a rumor that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which crushed and killed at least twelve people. One year later, P. T. Barnum helped to squelch doubts about the bridge’s stability—while publicizing his famous circus—when one of his most famous attractions, Jumbo, led a parade of 21 elephants over the bridge.

One of the best (and FREE) things to do in New York City – take a lovely stroll across the bridge on its pedestrian walkway one level above the traffic.   In just two years, the Brooklyn Bridge will celebrate its 130th anniversary.

When I moved to Chicago, I instantly became a Cubs fan. It’s pretty hard not to when you live on the north side and you visit the historic house of the Cubs: Wrigley Field. But as I traveled around the world, no one cared, let alone had ever heard of the Cubs. There was one team and one team only I encountered everywhere I went. It was one of the most common logos seen all around the world – The New York Yankees.  And in most cases, it was just a highly marketed logo or hat, many people I asked didn’t even know the team…just the New York part.

It’s only fitting that I share this photo essay with you now as the Bronx Bombers slide into the American League Championship Series and are once again that much closer to a spot  in the World Series (yes, it’s not really the world…just North America).

This is probably not the first image that came to your mind when seeing this post’s title. But there it is — a blazing sunset over the Hudson River taken from the New Jersey side looking east toward New York.  Yes, just north of the city, is a gorgeous green state that goes for hundreds of miles all the way up to the border with Canada.

What’s special about this photo is that I snapped it when I was in high school.  That’s right, this was before digital, before Photoshop, and before sex (well, for me).   Got your attention?   ‘My first SLR’, my high school sweetheart and I were wandering around the New Jersey coast and lo and behold, the sky was really that ‘on fire’.  But what I always liked the most about this shot was the little tug boat and its tiny lights.

Red Dusk

New York 1990

Last week, the new gourmet Italian mega-store known as Eataly opened in Manhattan.   At nearly 45,000 square feet, the gluttonous foodie-heaven is like a Macy’s of Italian culinary goodness.

“This isn’t a giant food court,” said co-owner Mario Batali to the Wall Street Journal. “This isn’t a selection of restaurants under one roof. This is a retail store where we peddle the greatest of Italian gastronomy to people who want to eat it and know how to appreciate it. You ask any Italian and all of the smart Americans where the best meal they ever had in the last ten years was, and it was never in someone’s restaurant. It was always in the house. And with these products, and this ideology, we’re hoping that’s what we’re going to bring to New Yorkers.”

When I was in Italy last year I visited the original Eataly just outside of the city center from Torino.  This Whole Foods meets an Italian food-mecca was far more unique in Italy than it will be in the foodie-centric and upper-class hipster haven of Manhattan.  Before now, Italy didn’t have a Trader Joes or Whole Foods type market.

At Eataly, I drooled over the enormous selection of cheeses, meats, breads, pastas, fish, chocolate, and olive oils. Stark white shelves heaved with perfectly aligned jars of oily, salty anchovies, a plethora of pestos, tasty tapenades, freshly made pastas, and so much more. Luckily there are cafes sprinkled throughout the store where you can sit down and chow on some of the delights right before your eyes.  And for dessert, of course, there is a gelato stand from which part of the proceeds go to charity.

Here are some photos from my tour of Eataly in Torino. If you are in New York, head down to the Flatiron District. Or better yet, hope a flight to Milan and train in to Turin to check out the original.

For more food and travel stories, check out WanderFood Wednesday.

Has a movie ever inspired you to travel?  This is not that uncommon, in fact, my friend Mark and I visited Tokyo after seeing Lost in Translation. He called me up and said, “Want to go to Japan?”

“Sure,” I said. And we were off…well, not that same day, but you get the point.  Basically if I have the opportunity to go anywhere, I will. All you have to do is ask. Ask me…go ahead…I am waiting…oh, okay, I guess I’ll get on with the rest of this article.

It turns out, we are not the only ones traveling to far off lands after being inspired by a film. Nowadays, a growing vacation trend is themed trips focusing on popular books and movies such as the Harry Potter series, The Da Vinci Code and science-fiction favorites such as Star Wars.  Some statistics show that thirty per cent of under 20-year-olds are likely to visit a place after seeing it on film.

There are definite areas that have seen particular success as people opt for ‘location vacations’.

• New Zealand – thanks to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings (NOT why I went there)
• New York City – It’s said to be a character of its own. And has been featured in countless films such as: Woody Allen movies, When Harry Met Sally, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Superman, Ghostbusters, The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and most recently, Sex and the City which also treated it as the 5^th character.
• Italy – Under the Tuscan Sun, Roman Holiday
• Thailand – The Beach (I did visit THE beach…not too shabby, but, of course now very touristy—case in point)
• London – Always a popular destination on it’s own and thanks to movies like An American Werewolf in London, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Love Actually, Notting Hill, Sliding Doors (love this movie), Bend it Like Beckham (love this too), and period films like the Elephant Man, Sweeney Todd, and Sherlock Holmes.

Bob Atkinson, travel expert from travelsupermarket  said: “It’s hardly surprising that travelers are taking their inspiration from films, we’re a captive audience and the big screen often captures locations at their best.  People might also look to recreate the experiences in the films.

“From bored housewife Shirley Valentine ‘discovering herself’ on a Greek Island or gorgeous period dramas with the backdrop of some of the UK’s most stunning stately homes, to fun and frolics in hits such as Mamma Mia!, or films from best-selling novels like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, when a destination gets picked to feature in a film the tourism office there should really capitalize on it.”

And locations around the world do capitalize on it. The New York ‘Sex and the City Tour’ became a huge success especially after the release of the first movie in May 2008.  Just as the “Sound of Music Tour” just outside of Salzburg is still extremely popular with American and British travelers.

“Undoubtedly the modern ‘tour de force’ behind movie tourism however is Dan Brown – demand for tours in Paris and Scotland increased after the release of The Da Vinci Code, Vatican Tour requests rose by 20 per cent in the months following the release of the Angels and Demons, so we have high hopes for Washington DC, which must be hoping to revel in the same success, having been the setting for Dan Brown’s latest novel – The Last Symbol.”

With the summer movie season on the horizon, here are some films and possible ‘location vacation’ destinations for 2010:

Recently my step-sis, Beth, and I were doing what a lot of people in New Jersey spend a lot of time doing: driving. It was late one night and we were returning from dinner and heading north on the infamous New Jersey Turnpike. We were near Newark, New Jersey’s largest city and a bastion for industry. You’d think growing up in New Jersey as I did, I would have visited here, but nope. It really wasn’t a destination for several reasons…it wasn’t known to be very safe, I didn’t really have my driver’s license until my last year in New Jersey (before I left the state for university) and the fact that New York City is just 8 miles east…so why mess around in Newark?

As we sped passed a large power plant of some kind, all lit up against the night sky, I began to wonder what was really going on there. I caught the name and in modern technology fashion, Beth proceeded to punch it in to Google on her Blackberry and away we went into the world of interesting facts and knowledge (well, for us at least).

According to Wikipedia and various other websites, the gas-fired (natural gas and butane), 940-megawatt Linden Cogeneration Plant was built in 1992. It is owned by El Paso Energy (the nation’s largest natural gas pipeline operator, with more than 43,000 miles of pipe in service) and operated by G.E. Energy Services.

The way in which the facility generates power is intriguing. It burns natural gas, which while not entirely clean is certainly better than a few other sources. But it takes the process one step further.

It uses the heat generated by its five gas turbine generators to pressurize heat recovery steam generators—hence “cogeneration.” The plant is making sure to harness every drop of energy it creates, even heat.

Apparently a percentage of the power produced by the facility is sold into the New York City market in the form of steam.

From a small dry cleaner on Manhattan’s East Side to Rockefeller Center to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the United Nations, along with some 2,000 other customers and 100,000 buildings, from residential low-rises to commercial skyscrapers, the City of New York is one of the largest consumers of steam. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter in lower Manhattan began using steam to warm its sanctuary in 1882, the year the first steam generation plant went into operation in New York. The church has used steam ever since.

Some 30 billion pounds of steam every year flow beneath the streets of Manhattan from the Battery to 96th Street. While it is unknown to most New Yorkers (even though years ago David Letterman talked of the ‘radioactive steam’ wafting up from the city streets), Con Edison’s subterranean steam system is the biggest steam district in the world boasting an annual steam production more than double that of Paris, Europe’s largest system.

The New York City steam system carries steam from central power stations under the streets of Manhattan to heat, cool, or supply power to high rise buildings and businesses.  Cogeneration significantly increases the efficiency of fuel usage and thereby reduces the emission of pollutants and particulate matter and reduces the city’s carbon footprint.

So now I know this super steam system is the reason for the steaming manholes we see all over Manhattan. We did learn this is usually caused by external water being boiled because it came in contact with the freakin’ hot steam pipes, rather than leaks in the steam system itself.

A bit of history:

By the early 1900s, regulations emerged across the U.S. to promote rural electrification through the construction of centralized plants managed by regional utilities. These regulations not only promoted electrification throughout the countryside, but they also discouraged decentralized power generation, such as cogeneration.   By 1978, Congress recognized that efficiency at central power plants had stagnated and sought to encourage improved efficiency with the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which encouraged utilities to buy power from other energy producers.

Cogeneration plants proliferated, soon producing about 8 percent of all energy in the U.S. However, the bill left implementation and enforcement up to individual states, resulting in little or nothing being done in many parts of the country.

In 2008, Tom Casten, chairman of Recycled Energy Development, said, “We think we could make about 19 to 20 percent of U.S. electricity with heat that is currently thrown away by industry.”

Cogeneration, also called combined heat and power (CHP), is, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “an efficient, clean, and reliable approach to generating electricity and heat energy from a single fuel source.”  Combined heat and power can greatly increase a facility’s operational efficiency and decrease energy costs. And it is said that CHP reduces the emission of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global climate change.

Outside the U.S., energy recycling is more common. Denmark is probably the most active energy recycler, obtaining about 55% of its energy from cogeneration and waste heat recovery. Other large countries, including Germany, Russia, and India, also obtain a much higher share of their energy from decentralized sources.