an uncertain return
So here I am in New York, perched in my dear friend G.'s lovely little flat on Broadway near Columbia, listening to someone practicing the cello in the next apartment. We're just up the block from where I stayed the very first time I was in NY, when I was seventeen--with a friend of G's at Union Theological Seminary. Strange echoes everywhere. But it's lovely to be in this city again.
Right now I'm entangled in an odd sort of reverse culture-shock, unused to America after eleven months without a visit, and living abroad for most of my adult life. I'm embarrassingly hapless with the currency (I keep confusing nickels and dimes with their opposite-sized 5 and 1op coins, and forgetting the existence of dollar bills) and keep saying "sorry" instead of "excuse me." Prices seem higher; that's partly Manhattan, and partly that I'm not used to the inflationary increases of intervening years. Bookstore browsing (whiled away some time in Labyrinth today) is slightly disorienting, with the different US covers on all the books I'd been gazing at in Blackwell's. Walking into supermarkets is an exercise in confusion and excited amusement. It was maddening to search through three of them without finding red lentils or dried mint (on the other hand, frijoles negros, object of often-fruitless searching in the UK, are everywhere). But this is New York, after all, so I just had to keep walking, and eventually a Lebanese deli appeared, so the mercimek çorbası is now steaming on the stove. If I'm moving here, I need to locate some good South & Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern grocers right away. Suggestions?
It still feels like this is just another visit home, not a (permanent?) return. I keep reflexively thinking I'll be packing my bags and heading back overseas soon, and I wonder how long it will take for the feeling to fade.
Right now I'm entangled in an odd sort of reverse culture-shock, unused to America after eleven months without a visit, and living abroad for most of my adult life. I'm embarrassingly hapless with the currency (I keep confusing nickels and dimes with their opposite-sized 5 and 1op coins, and forgetting the existence of dollar bills) and keep saying "sorry" instead of "excuse me." Prices seem higher; that's partly Manhattan, and partly that I'm not used to the inflationary increases of intervening years. Bookstore browsing (whiled away some time in Labyrinth today) is slightly disorienting, with the different US covers on all the books I'd been gazing at in Blackwell's. Walking into supermarkets is an exercise in confusion and excited amusement. It was maddening to search through three of them without finding red lentils or dried mint (on the other hand, frijoles negros, object of often-fruitless searching in the UK, are everywhere). But this is New York, after all, so I just had to keep walking, and eventually a Lebanese deli appeared, so the mercimek çorbası is now steaming on the stove. If I'm moving here, I need to locate some good South & Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern grocers right away. Suggestions?
It still feels like this is just another visit home, not a (permanent?) return. I keep reflexively thinking I'll be packing my bags and heading back overseas soon, and I wonder how long it will take for the feeling to fade.
posted by kitabet at 2:09 PM
5 Comments:
got ur postcard today! it's now on the softboard in my office :)
glad to know u've reached this side of the atlantic safely. how long are u in new york?
go to the fabulous vietnamese noodle bar in the lefthand corner of union square if you're facing the big B&N. and cosi - any cosi because the sandwiches are really fantastic, but expensive. and the big supermarket in grand central (who has gourmet markets in train stations?!). and movie theatres where you can order the biggest biggest popcorn trough and pour buckets of delicious golden butter all over it. and rockerfeller plaza, where you can jealously watch little kids skate and stare through the windows of NBC and wave madly so that you appear on tv. and sbarro's at times square if you need a big cheap meal. and museum mile and central park west (that will all take several days). oh, the guggenheim! and go up further and find that famous italian diner in harlem, and jazz clubs that none of my ABCD relatives will let me go to because 'harlem is too dangerous'. and that bookstore - all those many bookstores around columbia, where you are. and up further to the heights - jackson (little india), and washington. and maybe to the bronx zoo, and perhaps do sunday breakfast at a gospel church while you're in the area. and then out to brooklyn, park slopes where you will find lovely little apartments in brownstones with red walls and packed with books - all your kinds of books - and prospect and fort green park, and if you find south portland avenue and the laundery that i would shamefacedly take my clothes to because i couldn't iron them, think of me. and, oh, i forgot lincoln centre - but if you do go to the met, make sure to wear your furs and diamonds (it's the only part of new york i was a foreigner in). i want to be in america, ta ta ta, ta ta ta, *taa* *taa* *taa*
buchu babe: i have your birthday present! i am in ny until the 18th, then in DC, then back 22nd-24th. any chance you will come down, or shall i mail it? or do you know anybody at harvard who's coming to MESA? i should give you extra treats for your willingness to serve as transatlantic book mule.
thariel: i keep seeing you disappearing round streetcorners: imagining all the possible new yorks, from furs and diamonds to punjabi gospel choirs. did you know there's a bakery in queens that sells simit? i'm amongst the brownstones now, and if i move into one i shall paint the walls red for sure, and you can bring all my books back to me when you visit.
Sahadi's (187 Atlantic Ave) in Brooklyn may be the best Middle Eastern grocery in NYC. It's in the neighborhood where Arabs first settled in NYC in the early 20th c., but is now quite gentrified. Still there are a number of good Arab groceries. Damascus Bakery, also on Atlantic Ave. is good.
For South Asian groceries, there's 74th St. in Jackson Heights, Queens, which is a solid block (and then some) of sari shops and Indian foodstuffs. A lot overlaps with SE Asian ingredients; not sure of a specifically SE Asian grocery.
Also the Bronx Terminal Market has an amazing array of ethnic foods being sold wholesale; they also sell retail to those who are interested. Hurry though, as in a few months it's being closed down for a... mall. No joke.
hey, leaving for england in less than ten days so in a desperate hurry to finish work, so new york looks unlikely..although thanks to R's comment very very tempting indeed. esp before it gets too cold.
what is MESA?? mail me.
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