Thursday, April 23, 2009

“24 hours in New York w/ out a hamburger”

The average college student’s visit to New York is spent in the brightly lit and jam packed region of New York City known as “Time Square,” with thousands of other flustered tourists from around the world trying to do so much in so little time.

According to barrypopik.com the phrase “Big Apple” was created by The New York Morning track writer John J. Fitz Gerald in the 1920s. It means “‘The big time,’ a place where the big money was to be won, and for that reason many immigrants wound up merged together in one little place called NEW YORK city.

Through out the years these immigrants shared with the rest of America and the world what their rich cultures have to offer. For example, immigrants from countries such as China, Italy and many West African countries like Senegal.

With so many diverse cultures more students from America who visit New York should explore the vast traditions that the cultures have to offer rather than spending a whole trip partying, shopping in Time Square and grabbing a burger from the Infamous McDonalds, with its huge golden arches, visible throughout parts of not only New YORK city, but across America.

I decided that my next trip to NY City with my best friend Tamika Harvey, a typical college student at Central Connecticut State University who takes occasional trips to “Big Apple” just to shop, would be different. This time around we decided to encompass each meal of the day around the different cultures that NY City has to offer.

Breakfast
For breakfast we ate at the “Dumpling House” located on Canal St. in China Town. It is a tradition in China to eat Dim Sums for breakfast, lunch or brunch. Dim sums are fried or steamed dumplings with the choice of chicken, pork or beef.
Our order: Pork steamed Dim Sum, chicken fried Din Sum and 2 cups of fresh brewed Green Tea.
Price: about 20 dollars


Lunch
For lunch we decided to go light and head over to Little Italy where we each indulged in a simple pasta salad. Little Italy was full of great Italian restaurants, but because we wanted to go cheap and save some money for dinner we kept it simple and ate at a simple Pizzeria.
Price: about 20 dollars

Dinner
For Dinner we headed to the West African inspired community in Harlem, and salvaged some Senegalese food at the African Kine restaurant.
Order: Peanut butter sauce with chicken and rice, which sounds a bit intimidating, but Harvey loved it. Divinely seasoned shish kabobs with a side of fried plantains, seasoned onions, and specialty made hot sauce and 8” inch long bread. Also, we ordered two Bissap drinks. Bissap is a juice made from the pedals of dried hibiscus flowers
Price: about 35 dollars

After our 24 hour journey of stuffing our faces, Harvey and me caught our train and discussed the great adventure that we experienced. By the way, she was so focused on stuffing her face that she forgot how bad she wanted to stop at the Chanel store in Time Square.

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