American Food

England is not known for its food. That is, Ottolenghi has an small empire, and I'm a sucker for meat pies and Yorkshire pudding (ie popovers), but historically the situation has been, shall we say, grim. In practice, of course, there's plenty of good food in London. But... just... not like NY. Sorry.

So I worry, sometimes, about burritos. And guacamole, tacos, cemitas, and margaritas (frozen and un-). There may be a handful of Mexican restaurants in London, but it is a way of life in NY, especially as the weather warms up (stfu California).

Unfortunately, our go-to place, our local, shut down over a year ago. Its replacement is not up to snuff. So I'm still searching (fine, CA, fine) for the perfect burrito. But as for the rest of the standbys, options are pretty thick on the ground.

Burritos. Like I said, these are not perfect. Maybe you just need the wafting scent of eucalyptus and urine. But they are acceptable, when the need arises.
Maya Taqueria
Oaxaca
Dos Toros

Cemitas. Maybe this is the year I spent in my university's cafeteria working the 8-to-midnight shift making sandwiches, but I think they are one of the world's Perfect Foods (see also: dumplings, chocolate PB cups, gin & tonics).
El Atodero
Red Hook -- barbacoa de chivo cemita, at the cart furthest west and south. I crave this thing.

Tacos:
Just go to Sunset Park or Jackson Heights. And remember: Only suckers pay more than $3/taco.

Margaritas:
Santa Fe Grill -- the food is good, if you're alright with the Park Slope stroller atmosphere. The marg is pictured above. 'Nuff said.
Habana Outpost -- the food is crap. The sunny courtyard with a frozen margarita in hand is not. Sunday nights are movie night.
Five Leaves -- the food is fantastic, if largely off-topic here, but you cannot do better for brunch than a Moroccan scramble and a grapefruit margarita.

MAP

RECIPE: Sticky Cranberry Gingerbread, if you want something besides chocolate for Christmas dessert. Pairs perfectly with egg nog ice cream.

Recent Eats IV

Baba's Pierogies
I'm basically a sucker for any kind of filling in any kind of dough. Dumplings, ravioli, bao, pelmeni, burek, whatever. And these were solid pierogies, and I'd like to go back and try the blueberry. But seriously: You want to charge almost a dollar extra for a few caramelized onions? Get over it; and bring me some applesauce while you're at it.

Sweetleaf
Once a month or so, I work a day in Long Island City (instead of Harlem). By far the best part of this experience is the morning bike ride, which takes me up through Brooklyn, over the Pulaski Bridge, and -- almost -- straight to Sweetleaf. Rocket Fuel and Voodoo Child are both [kisses fingers]. Perfect start to the day. Why they have a giant painting of Kristen Bell on the wall, I don't know.

Jacques Torres
City Bakery is of course my hot chocolate gold standard, but I certainly won't kick the stuff from JT out of bed. Nor their chocolate-covered cornflakes either.

Pizza
Living in NY means you are absolutely obligated to have strong opinions about pizza. Personally, I find it important also to distinguish between "slice joint" pizza, and "fancy" pizza. For the former, still and always, I count on Joe's. For the latter, I'm generally pretty good now with my new local, Parkside. There may technically be better fancy places out there, but there are certainly none closer. In any event, Roberta's has too long of a wait, Lucali doesn't cook their shallots, the Parkside chef used to work at Franny's anyway, etc. But life happens, and a few weeks ago I found myself at Baby Grand and in need of sustenance, so we ordered from Motorino. I gather they've built a nice little hipster business, so anticip.ation was high. But the thing is, if you're going to charge that much for a pie that doesn't really feed two not-very-hungry people, you need that pie to be great, and Motorino's wasn't even close. We had two, one with mushrooms and one with sprouts, and the toppings were sort of tasty enough, although not revelatory, but my real gripe is with the dough. It was so... doughy. Pillowy, in fact. So if that's your pizza style, vaya con dios, but it ain't mine.

Chikalicious Dessert Club
One of my many problems with living in Japan was that they weren't, as a culture, very good at dessert. I like red beans just fine, but that has to be balanced with chocolate cake from time to time, you know? In general, it always seemed to me that they were way more concerned with how desserts looked than how they tasted, and the Age of Instagram has not helped matters. So while I wouldn't say the churro ice cream cone situation is a bad one, it's definitely a Made for IG one, and if you just want good ice cream and a good churro, you're probably better off eating them separately.

The Bonnie
We recently spent a day biking around Queens, hitting up the Socrates Sculpture Park, the Noguchi Museum, and the Museum of the Moving Image. Sustenance was required throughout. And if all you need, as we did, is an airy backyard, a beer, and some fries, The Bonnie is not a bad option. ...If you can discount a certain amount of soullessness and a full-on Best of the 80s soundtrack.

Mimi Cheng's
I like dumplings. And these are good dumplings. But. I have a hard time feeling a need to bother with anything fancier than, say, $0.50 per dumpling. Just say no to gentrification, and go to Shu Jiao instead.

MAP

RECIPE: Lentil Minestrone, because ultimately, who doesn't like soup?

Backyards

Just because it's a city doesn't mean we don't have backyards. They're just, well, in the back, which means you generally have to go through the front of the bar/restaurant/apartment in question to see them. The days I don't spend in my hammock this Spring/Summer/Fall, I intend to spend in a backyard somewhere.

Luckily L, one of my best friends has one. (In what is really an embarrassment of riches, she also has a ping pong table in her basement.) Many is the afternoon we've spent out there, eating steak tacos and guacamole, or lobster rolls and hot dogs, or kielbasa and pierogies. That backyard is where I learned to enjoy ice cubes in my wine, both for the chilling effect and the way it enables me to drink for ten straight hours.

If you are not also so lucky as to have a friend like this, never fear. Your life is of course the poorer for it, but you can still day-drink all you want and not have to do it from a brown bag in the park. Even with L's yard, we still sometimes go to a bar two blocks from her apartment and sit in its backyard. What the hell.

A few of my favourite backyard spots:

Sea Witch:
Aforementioned bar two blocks from L's apartment. Inside can be a bit dark, even with the massive fish tank, but outside has a stream with skulls in, lots of blonde wood, and occasional cats roaming by. They also generally have both Left Hand Milk Stout (one of my favourites) and a fine cider or two on tap.

Crown Vic:
The one drawback of L's pool table is that it is, as I said, in the basement. And when it's 75 degrees and sunny, the last thing you want to do is sit in a chilly, mildewy (sorry, L) basement. Crown Vic -- assuming you're willing to play on a table that's been warped to hell in the rain -- solves that problem. Also, in a city where space is so often at a premium, it's nice to have a place where you know you'll always be able to find a seat.

Not coincidentally, three of my other favorite backyards are also three of my favorite bars, period: Ice House, Hot Bird, and Tooker Alley. I have enjoyed each of their indoor spaces, but it's the outdoors that really puts them on the forever list.

Ice House is where you go for $2/$3 Miller High Lifes (always with a slice of lemon), an order of sweet potato fries, and two pulled pork baps ($5). Perfect for après-swimming at the Red Hook pool.

Hot Bird is where you go for good beer, a fire in the Winter, and whatever food you can find that will deliver.

And Tooker Alley is the best cocktails. Done.


...If you're still in Red Hook and want a cocktail though, and don't want to be cooped up in Fort Defiance, hie thee to Botanica. They don't actually have a backyard, and therefore shouldn't be included here, but their front wall pretty much opens completely, so it's like sitting outside, but with good shade.

MAP

RECIPE: Brown Butter Skillet Cornbread, because there are certain things you absolutely need one, decisive, go-to recipe for.

The Stroll

Last week, R and I walked the length of Manhattan, top to bottom, 17.4 miles. It's possible to be a bit more direct -- Google puts the straight shot at 12.2 -- but I will always choose food and views over convenience. Besides, the whole point was to spend the day doing the things we do best: wandering, eating, and taking pictures.

First stop, of course, was breakfast. We took the A as far up the island as we could, and headed straight to Cachapas y Mas for a chicharron cachapa and some passion fruit juice. I'd already forced R to skip his usual muesli, so I relented and didn't force him to walk to the very very tip top of Manhattan first. We'd tacked on some extra mileage by walking from the Times Square Q to the Port Authority A anyway, so starting the real trek from 207th St seemed... fine.

Trinity Cemetery

First thing after breakfast was our biggest elevation of the day -- straight up Fort George Hill. NY doesn't have much in the way of hills, if you don't count bridges, but those few up in Washington Heights, the Bronx, and Yonkers make up for the lack elsewhere. (We got lost trying to find the South County Trailway out of Van Cortlandt Park once, and it was brutal.)

Washington Heights is really all about the food. I wanted to keep us lean and mean (ie able to make lots of food stops along the way), so we went pretty straight through, but you could easily have a full batido-empanada-mofongo-patacon-etc-tour day up there.

Grant's Tomb

Our first real landmark was Grant's Tomb. I have a lingering fondness for this area, from when my college roommate, who's lived on Claremont for the last 15 years, let me crash on her futon the summer I came back from Japan, but I've rarely had occasion to go back since. It has just that perfect snootiness to mark the beginning of the UWS proper.

We crossed through Columbia, so I could point out where Joseph Gordon-Levitt parked his burrito in Premium Rush, then down past St John the Divine. (It's not a great movie, but there are silly bikey things, and it was New Year's Eve and I was high on officially prescribed oxycodone when we watched it.) I can't be in this neighborhood without visiting my favorite statue, of St Michael with some giraffes and a crab, lopping off Satan's head, so we sat in the garden there for a minute while we figured out our next move.

The Cannibal

We'd only split the cachapa, so lunch seemed, as it so often does, like a good next step. Also I thought a little iced coffee wouldn't go amiss, especially if we could get it with condensed milk -- like at Saiguette. I'd been there once before, and got something fancy, but this time we opted for the Classic sandwich. It did not disappoint. I'm a little sad that I'm not still getting my banh mi for $4 from the back of a jewelry store in Chinatown, but... this was really good, and we ate it on a bench in Central Park. Sometimes I can't hate gentrification.

That fueled us through the park and, after The Classiest Bathroom Break at Lincoln Center, on to Gotham West Market. My intention was to just do a quick walk-through and check the place out, but then it was mid-afternoon, it was mostly empty, and I saw a blackboard advertising slushie cocktails. Sold. One icy negroni later and I was ready for anything -- including the High Line. (We did maybe 30 blocks of Central Park, plus the High Line, but I refused to do any other non-street walking. The whole point was Manhattan, after all. Walking down the West Side Greenway, for instance, only shows you the West Side Greenway, and I've seen it plenty on my bike.)

By the time we hit ground again in the West Village, we were starting to flag a bit. It was time to bring out the big guns, aka Taiwanese shaved ice. Green tea and black sesame drizzled with condensed milk and topped with strawberries. Oh, and we got a Double Decker at Myers of Keswick, because for some reason we'd stayed up two hours late the previous weekend talking about chocolate bars. Next three miles were nuthin'.

We ended down by the water a bit after 6, not much the worse for wear. I'd done this walk once before, with 20ish other people, and that was much harder than doing it with just the two of us. Going at our own pace, deciding where we wanted to stop as we went, made the whole thing a lot easier.

I debated finishing things off with a beer on The World's Best Free Boat Ride (ie the Staten Island Ferry), and if there'd been good food next door to the terminal on the other side... Well, it still might have been nice, but we opted instead to just use the bathroom and go home. Which is to say, home to our shiny new local delicious pizza place. And beer.

MAP

RECIPE: Pasta alla Norma, furthering the Mark Bittman obsession that began when I picked up a free copy of How To Cook Everything Vegetarian on a stoop in Park Slope.

Recent Eats III

Some of these eats are not really "recent" anymore. But that's the way it goes. If I posted them in a timely fashion, I'd never have room to post anything else. (Which could be a good thing? We'll take a poll later.)

Chez Oskar
Nice local bistro. Hard to give a real review, since we were there for a set menu -- didn't get the full experience. Still, had a very tasty lamb shank and the atmosphere was pleasantly romantic.

Gaonnuri
I'd say it's all about the view, but frankly the meat was pretty good too. I mean, why have Korean BBQ on ground level when you can do it on the 39th floor, all things being equal?

Lobster Joint
I sometimes say that if I won the lottery, the only thing that would really change would be that I would eat more lobster rolls. That may not be strictly true, but the point stands. In any event, since I'm unlikely to either win the lottery or move to Maine, I do the best I can with what I have. The $12 slider special at Lobster Joint helps.

Midwood Flats
This is a recent eat in the sense that it is always a recent eat, since this place is directly across the street from our apartment. We were suspicious of it at first, I don't know why, but the switch flipped as soon as we went in. A duck torta with a fried egg on top may not be the only path to my heart, but it'll certainly get you there. The great beer selection can certainly come along for the ride.

Parkside Pizza
Lamb sausage pizza, olive pizza. Promising-looking cocktails.

Oaxaca Taqueria
This place fills a very particular need: Close enough to swing into before BAM and pick up food that we can eat while we see a movie. There isn't a lot of competition in this category, but I'm satisfied with Oaxaca for now. Their flavors are good, but as is so often the case they suffer a bit with layout. People eat their burritos from one side or the other, so ingredients need to be layered, like in a proper paté. You can't have one end be sausage and the other end potato. Take pride in your burritos! This is especially an issue when you're sharing burritos back and forth, as R and I tend to do.

Grindhaus
This place was on my "to try" list for a while. Sadly, it did not make the jump to any kind of recommended list. It's not that the food was bad, but it wasn't mind-blowing, and I am extremely unwilling to pay, for example, $23 for a teacup-sized portion of non-mind-blowing gnocchi.

Brooklyn Bell's The Local
It's 60F; it's February; it's ice cream time. Prospect Heights has no shortage of ice cream, with Ample Hills on Vanderbilt, Blue Marble on Underhill, and now The Local on Classon. I'll make an argument for any of them, but this latest addition may currently have the largest portion of my heart. They make only very small batches -- a tub or two at a time, and then it's on to something else. When we showed up the options were: vanilla, black lava caramel, banana bread, bananas foster (an unplanned bananza, apparently), some kind of pecan brittle with pretzels and rice krispies (I don't remember the exact name, but I had it, and it was good)... and three other things. Sorry, not great reportage here. But the owner/ice cream creator served us -- I think it's basically just him and his wife running the place -- and we came away with an impression of a very short supply chain and deep attention to detail.

And a special shoutout to Trader Joe's peanut-butter-filled pretzels, the ones with salt: my constant office companion.

MAP

RECIPE: Mushroom Moussaka. A misleading name, because only some of the lamb is replaced with mushrooms, yielding a slightly lighter, cheaper, healthier dish.

City Bakery

In this life, there are a few perfect combinations. Me & R. Blueberries & Corn Chex. Avocados & salt. Chocolate & peanut butter. Chocolate & pretzels. Chocolate &... a lot of things, actually; specifically, for our purposes today: City Bakery's hot chocolate and pretzel croissant.

Now, I'm a big fan of pretzels generally. Everyone has their defining snack food, and pretzels are mine. I also believe that there is something sacred about a really, really good croissant. So combine those two things in all their buttery, flaky, salty glory, and pair the result with the thickest, richest, most chocolatiest hot chocolate in the world, and it's pretty hard to beat.

I should note that City Bakery also has a very decent savoury food buffet, not to mention some excellent cookies and other pastries. Or so I'm told. The pretzel croissant-hot chocolate combo has always inoculated me against all other temptations. If you're in the neighborhood (of City Bakery or any of its Birdbath offshoots), it's hard to go wrong.

I should further note that this is one of the only things -- actually the only food thing I can think of -- where R and I differ. He claims their hot chocolate is too thick and sweet. I counter that he is insane, and it is everything anyone could ever want from hot chocolate. If you're looking for cocoa, open a packet of Swiss Miss.

February is the perfect time to visit because it's the Hot Chocolate Festival. Every day, in addition to the standard, they offer another, different flavor. Some are more tempting than others. I'd recommend going with a friend, and getting one of each so you don't feel you're missing out.

City Bakery gets crowded, but if one person waits in line and the other scouts around upstairs, there's usually enough turnover to find a seat by the time your hot chocolate arrives. Oh, and do say yes to the marshmallow.

MAP

RECIPE: Cacio e Pepe, because it sounds basic, but this is one of those times when the ingredients add up to way more than the sum of their parts.

Red Hooking

I love my neighborhood. I love all of Brooklyn, really, although I don't put it into practice much out in Canarsie or whatever. But there's only one neighborhood I go to for no other reason than to sit, and be, and soak it all in: Red Hook.

Red Hook is the Land Time Forgot. Even as distilleries and raw chocolate artisans and cocktail bars continue to pop up, and even with the presence of Ikea and Fairway, the extremely limited public transportation keeps it just a little slower, a little more relaxed. It's like a tiny corner of New Orleans in NY. (Insofar as that's possible, which isn't very, but still. As close as we get.)

Half the time, all I do is ride to the end of Valentino Pier, or the one behind Fairway, and stare at the water. For cheap, very local thrills, you could do a lot worse. The waves lap, boats go by, the Statue of Liberty stands.

...That said, there's plenty to actually do, so long as you have an interest in food, drink, entertainment, or art.

Food

Every weekend, Spring, Summer, and Fall, the vendors park around the southeast corner of the Bay St/Clinton St intersection. There are tamales, pupusas, cemitas, tacos, fresh juices... All of the trucks are good; none are expensive. My personal favorite -- and one of the few things I actively, specifically crave, is the barbacoa de chivo cemita from the white truck furthest south on Clinton St. They do taco versions too, and a few other things, but something about this cemita is just so perfectly balanced. I can't resist. Though I will often accompany it with a watermelon juice from the truck furthest west on Bay, and then pick up some tamales from the somewhat shabbier truck furthest east. (They freeze and steam up very well.)

Hometown BBQ also deserves a mention, but be warned: The line can be long, and by the time you get to the front there may be very little meat left. This is especially worrisome because the beef rib is so good, and you don't want to have to settle for the smoked turkey -- which I guess is fine and all, as smoked turkey goes, but I just don't get very excited about cold cuts. If you've planned poorly though, you can always comfort yourself with the bloody mary, which comes garnished with crispy, carmelized bacon. As for the rest: sides are as expected, which is to say: good to have on the side, but uninspiring. The usual bbq story. Only Fette Sau's beans are worth it all by themselves.

The Good Fork. Full disclosure: I haven't been here in several years, but last I checked it was a very fine, intimate restaurant, worthy of a special date night.

Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies: What is says. None of that meringue nonsense. Though I'd recommend skipping the regular ol' pie and going for a swingle. This is a chocolate-dipped, frozen pie, and it comes in three flavors, all of which balance each other well if you have enough people to share.

Thai. I've talked about the Thai places before. Either way, quality food that's not just pad thai with damp, tough chicken strips.

The Red Hook Lobster Pound. I'll admit, after eating lobster rolls in Connecticut and Maine, it's hard to get it up for rolls in NY; they're twice the price, with half the lobster. So usually what I do is buy the meat from RHLP, bring it over to my friend L's, and then we make our own damn lobster rolls. It's still not the cheapest meal in town, but it makes the experience cost-effective enough for our purposes. Which isn't to say that RHLP doesn't make good lobster rolls. I've also heard excellent things about their lobster mac n' cheese.

Baked! For all your coffeeshop, very-Brooklyny baked goods. (Think chocolate, salted caramel, pretzels, peanut butter.)

Drink

Fort Defiance serves the best Irish coffee I've ever had. Actually, until I had it here, I didn't really understand that Irish coffee could even be a thing. It's just coffee with some whiskey, right? If you, also, don't understand, then please go to Fort Defiance and drink until you do. They also have a Thursday tiki night.

If FD didn't cure your cocktail craving, or you're making a day of it, or you prefer airy to cosy, head to Botanica.

And then when you're tired of cocktails and it's hot and you just want to sit in someone's back yard and drink $2 Miller High Lifes (with lemon) and eat 2/$5 pulled pork sandwiches with sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo... Ice House was the first bar I ever went to in Red Hook, and I've been back innumerable times since. It's the definition of a lazy summer afternoon.

Brooklyn Crab. I'm putting this under drink, rather than food, because the food is crap. However. If you want a deck to watch the sun set over the water (and the Fairway parking lot), washed down with a few Narragansetts, it will serve. And the oysters are probably fine?

Whiskey & Chocolate

Widow Jane & Cacao Prieto: Whiskey, rye, bourbon, rum, liqueur, and chocolate. With some fancy chickens running around the courtyard.
Van Brunt Stillhouse: Whiskey, rum, grappa, and moonshine.
Raaka: Chocolate.

All offer tours and tastings. It is an extremely pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Art
There's nothing better than taking in a bit of art when you're more than one sheet to the wind. Pioneer Works screens movies, hangs art on its walls, and puts on performance pieces. As with any contemporary gallery, this is all very hit and miss, but even the biggest miss can be very entertaining after a few whiskey tastings.

The Robotic Church is only open every once in a while. Sign up with Atlas Obscura, and they should keep you in the loop (with plenty of other things too). It's an odd, slightly scary performance, which they cap off with a tour of the space. An ideal event for weeding out potentially questionable dates.

Red Hook also has a variety of galleries and other art spaces. Stroll the length of Van Brunt (or at least from the Lobster Pound all the way down the pier) and you'll hit a good number.

Et cetera
Hope & Anchor does karaoke every Friday and Saturday, starting at 9. It's my second-favorite karaoke in the city (after Baby Grand). Unless it's taken over by one of those all-girl birthday parties where they never sing in groups smaller than five, usually to Katy Perry or whatever, it's a great scene. (I'm not saying you can't eat here, but why would you? I mean I have, several times, but only the breakfast items are not disappointing.)

During the summer, there's a film series at Valentino Park. Bring a blanket and bug spray, stock up on snacks at Fairway, and settle in. It's the Land Time Forgot, remember, so it never gets nearly as crowded as the other outdoor movies.

Rocky Sullivan's has a quiz night every Thursday at 8.

The pool is open every summer. Free.

MAP

RECIPE: Coconut Layer Cake, even though I've only ever made the cake part, not the frosting. It's my standard white cake recipe, because it doesn't taste strongly coconutty, just nicely sweet and moist.

To the Beach!

Another thing I will miss when we leave New York is the ability to hop on my bike and be at the beach in an hour. Granted, it's not up to (what I imagine are) Hawaii standards, but for a place I can get to from my apartment, taken together with all the other places I can get to from my apartment... it's pretty good.

Technically, you can also get to the Rockaway peninsula by train, bus, or car. None of these options allow you to explore much once you're there though, and none are quick. If you're not up for the full bike adventure though, you can always bike down and around, then hop on the subway back.

Aside from speed and convenience, the other nice thing about biking is it allows you to really appreciate your arrival at the seashore. My route goes straight down Bedford Ave until it ends at the water; from then on it's a breezy ride along the sand, hands off the handlebars and waving at the cars backed up on the Belt Parkway.

Your first item of interest, coming this way, is Floyd Bennett Field, NY's first municipal airport and now a part of Gateway National Recreation Area. I wouldn't call it thrilling, but there's something to be said for the wide-open emptiness of abandoned tarmac, dotted with occasional dilapidated hangars. There's also a campground, though you have to make a reservation and hammocks are prohibited. I have a friend who regularly spends Memorial and Labor Day down there, and apparently the proximity to the beach makes up for the lack of any real wilderness.

Across from FBF, down through the trees, is Dead Horse Bay. If you're looking for the detritus of the ages, this is the spot. Broken bottles, whole bottles, crockery, shoe leather, etc. all come burbling up from the old landfill. Etsy raw materials heaven.

Next up is the Marine Parkway Bridge. (Alternatively, you could stay on the greenway and continue to follow the Belt Parkway around to Cross Bay Boulevard, thence down to Rockaway Beach.) No matter how sticky and awful the day, crossing that bridge is a breath of fresh, salty air.

The view back towards Manhattan.

On the other side, you have a choice: left to Rockaway, straight to Jacob Riis, right to Fort Tilden. We'll get to that in a second though, because in front of you (come down off the bridge, cross the street, look right) is the unmissable milkshake truck. Sure, it serves hot dogs and whatnot, but the milkshakes are why they -- and I -- am here. $6, and you've got lunch. My personal recommendation is vanilla malt snickers, but feel free to change vanilla to chocolate and snickers to Reese's or whatever just don't leave out the malt. R has yet to take my advice on this, and it drives me nuts. He thinks the shakes are great without malt, and I think he's like someone who thinks candy corn is great because they've literally never had any other kind of candy.

Now. If you just want to sit on the beach and drink your shake and watch the ocean, carry on straight ahead and you'll be at Jacob Riis. Nothing wrong with this. As of last year they've even got a little Brooklyn Flea sort of thing and a selection of food vendors. Easy.

Hankering for that hipster haven you've heard so much about? Turn left and keep going. (To give you an idea of how far: Jacob Riis is at around 160th St; Rockaway is around 96th-86th. There's a bus that runs inland, but it's an easy flat bike ride. Or a serious trek on the sand.) Here you'll find surfers, Ripper's, and a host of other options. If you want to try some surfing, watch some surfing, sit around and drink micheladas on the boardwalk, Rockaway is where it's at. And if you did happen to take the train, this is where it drops you.

I have, however, saved the best for last: Fort Tilden. The edge of this beach is just next to Jacob Riis; you can sit there and still have access to the bathrooms and tacos. However. The best bits lie within. The beach itself offers no boardwalk, no toilets, no food, no direct access to public transportation. You might regard this as an inconvenience, until you realize that the further west you go, the emptier it gets. So if you do want to have the sand to yourself and your thoughts, Fort Tilden is perfect. If you also want to explore abandoned military buildings covered in vines and graffiti, it's even more so.

MAP

RECIPE: Tamale Pie, for those weeknight, I-don't-want-to-think-but-I-want-this-to-be-good-and-more-interesting-than-pasta meals.

Coffee

R and I were talking recently about what the defining foods and drinks of NY and London, respectively, might be. When it came to the NY drink, he didn't hesitate: "It's coffee."

Blue Bottle, Williamsburg

Every morning I look forward to my simple pour-over. It isn't fancy, but it beats by a long-shot the k-cup machine that is our only other office option. In addition to being terrible for the environment, k-cups just don't make very good coffee. There's also a very real pleasure in coming in every morning, boiling water, heating my milk, and watching the coffee drip for four minutes. I'm not kidding when I say I look forward to it.

But for those who can't or won't make their own coffee, rest assured that's no reason to go without.

Starbucks of course is everywhere. They provide valuable wifi and bathroom services and will happily (grudgingly) even give you a free glass of water. (NYC tap water is excellent. There is no excuse for buying the bottled stuff.) I also, very occasionally, like maybe once a year, admit to enjoying a matcha frappuccino or gingerbread latte. About the rest of their offerings, the less said the better.

I will give Starbucks credit for one thing though -- well, a combination of things. Starbucks taught America the difference between a cappuccino, a latte, and an americano, and that paying over $4 for one was not extreme, and in doing so helped create and foster a new coffeeshop culture. Without Starbucks we might not now have Stumptown, Blue Bottle, Brooklyn Roasting Company, etc. It's a sort of Microsoft effect, where they built something everyone had to have, and as soon as everyone did, they became uncool.

In any event, the question stands: Where should you go for coffee in NY? (Because you should, definitely, go for coffee in NY.)

Stumptown, Red Hook The Basic Cup: If all you want is a basic cup of coffee, maybe with milk and/or sugar, keep an eye on the sidewalks. Every morning until about 11 or 12, silver carts set up on the street corners. They offer coffee, pastries, and other snacks, and some have grills for breakfast sandwiches. These are not to be confused with the halal lamb/chicken-over-rice carts, the hot dog carts, or the smoothie carts. They are silver, disappear after lunchtime, and charge $1 for a small cup of basic coffee. It won't change your life, but it's cheaper and better than either Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.

Why, how do you carry yours? Iced Coffee: If coffee is the drink of NY, iced coffee is the drink of Summer in NY. It is not going too far to say that on certain mornings, it is veritable manna from heaven. And you can get a perfectly cromulent cup from the silver carts ($2 for 16oz), but if you want to step things up a bit there are a few alternatives: + Blue Bottle New Orleans + Miscelanea Cafe Helado con Horchata + El Rey Vietnamese Iced Coffee (Any place that does banh mi will also have this on the menu.) + Toby's Estate Espresso Julep + Stumptown Nitro + Cold brew (At pretty much every serious coffeeshop these days.)

Milk Bar

Espresso Drinks:

I'm not a big drinker of espresso on its own. It has its place (namely, after a multi-course meal with my father), but generally when I'm drinking espresso, I'm drinking a cappuccino. Still, this does not happen often. Just as there exist iced coffee mornings -- humid, hungover -- there are the "sweet mornings of perfect repose" meant exclusively for cappuccinos.

Cappuccinos are not an everyday drink, nor are they a cardboard cup drink. They must be unhurried, luxurious, possibly topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon, enjoyed near a window, preferably with a cat and the crossword puzzle.

My favorite cappuccino in New York is at Brooklyn's Milk Bar. They also do a killer avocado toast, and sometimes Michael Cera comes in to buy scones. Yes, it's in Brooklyn, but so are a lot of the best things in NY. If you're looking to make a day of it, it's within easy striking distance of the Brooklyn Museum, Botanic Garden, and Flea.
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RECIPE: Lamb Burgers. The lamb is cooked in the pita, which makes things both easy and incredibly delicious. I like a shmear of goat cheese on top as well.