Without fail if you tell others you are going to New York,
they will a) Tell you to call it the City (New York, New York that is) because
that’s how the locals refer to it and b) tell you that you must go eat at
Lombardi’s for the pizza and Steak N’ Shake for those special brioche buns.
Those restaurants don’t hold the same glow for someone
looking for gluten-free treasures though.
Not to fret, NYC holds plenty of
options that I’ll share with you below! I’ll end the post sharing some non-food notes from our five day trip.
FOOD and associated area-In case you happen to do some of the same activities, here’s food that was near by!
La Cabana Salvadorena-Washington Heights
Our local friends wide eyed commented “You
went there? You want to get shot???” To be fair we went to that area looking
for lunch on Yelp after the Cloisters museum. No warnings that I saw by
Yelpers. We wouldn’t want to be in that neighborhood at night. The subway was a
long, somewhat dark and very dingy. Bring your picky meat eater here for steak
and peppers with bean soup. The vegetarian gets to savor lorocco papusas, a crisp-chewy
masa (corn flour) dough that ensconces gooey-cheese and squash blossoms. Eat
those babies up with the cabbage and salsa (?) topping. Another plus was a TV
to catch some of the World Cup.
Zabar Market-Upper West Side location
My friend attended classes at Columbia
University and mentioned she still had not checked out this local/specialty food
and kitchen store. So off we went in the rain. A magnificent panoply of cheeses
and olives! House roasted coffee beans and tea blends. My favorite find was a
gluten-free rugelach cookie. Looked like a fabulous place to pick up the
fixings for a picnic to pack for Central Park.
Bare Burger-Hell’s Kitchen
Can I call it a tradition if this is the
third time we’ve HAD to hit a burger place while being out of town (Nashville
and Long Beach)? After scouting out discounted tickets at the TKTS booth in
Times Square, we were hankering for lunch. Café Terratin (French, gluten free,
sustainable) in Hell’s Kitchen was closed on Saturdays so we just took our
chances walking to the area to find something suitable. Dave eyed this
restaurant and I actually had perused the menu online before the trip-most pleasingly
they had gluten free buns, free range meats and even a veggie burger option.
You must try the fries with dipping sauces (two of them may have dairy, but I
think the curried-ketchup is safe).
Dellarocca’s-Brooklyn
What is a NYC trip without pizza? We did the
walk from NYC Centennial Park to Brooklyn crossing the bridge on foot. We
continued on to a few parks that Bash ran wild in, skipped the long line at the
Ice Cream Factory, watched boats along the waterfront and came across a
gathering of food vendors (maybe just there for father’s day). As the humidity
and warmth was relentless, we Yelped to find AC at a sit-down restaurant that
carried a non-salad gluten-free option. I was tickled to see that the
gluten-free crust was handmade (no machine cut perfect circle) and that the
sauce tasted of fresh tomato.
Amber’s-West Village
This is a NY friend’s favorite sushi-Thai
food bar. We met her and her boyfriend after work there to enjoy a roasted
eggplant appetizer, and then some raw sushi. I tried escolar for the first
time-a creamy white tuna! For the sports fans, they had World Cup playing on
the bar’s tv.
Risotteria-West Village
We were in the neighborhood to do the Empire
State Building. Dennis had looked up this restaurant for me since it was a
gluten-free Italian food. Don’t expect to see pasta here though, they specialize
in the arborio rice dish risotto. The chefs can accommodate dairy free to leave
out the butter and cheese. I tried the squid-lemon risotto which would have
been wonderful with the cheese to balance the citrus but my stomach had
protested. The best goodie was refills on the gluten-free breadsticks. If I had
more time or a larger suitcase, I would have bought some of the gluten-free
bread loaves or baking mixes there.
David’s Tea-West Village
This is a shop & not sit down place, but
had to mention it since it’s just across the street from Risotteria. Bonus that
they were open until 10pm (it is the only shopping I was able to do with our
busy schedule!) In addition to the more traditional teas, they have many
creative blends of tea (just check the ingredients if you have sensitivities, I
noticed some have dairy because they add chocolate or soy lechitin) such as
blueberry pancake or sparkling cream soda. They will weigh you out any amount
of tea you would like. They originally started in Canada and have expanded to
NYC and LA.
If you are hoping for a sit-down place, I
can’t speak to the service or drinks but in China Town across from the Relax
Foot Spa on Hester (great place to treat your tired feet and back-pack weary
shoulders…ask for Mike or Jacky if you can), I spied a Japanese tea café, I
think it was one where the servers had cute maid and animal ears!
Candle79-Upper East Side
Coney’s Cones-Coney Island
I had read on Gluten is My Bitch blog (love
this lady’s cheeky logo for the banner) that Coney Island is a desert for
gluten-free choices. Nathan’s wasn’t a draw for us but we paused at the clock
that counts down until the next annual hot dog eating contest (read Think Like
a Freak if you want to learn how the Japanese Man experimented on himself and
approached the problem from a different angle to find successful training
methods). We were going out on the 45
minute train ride to rest our feet, soak in the beach rays and grab an ice cream
(no dairy free, no special gluten free cones). I indulged with a Pink Gorilla
(strawberry banana with fudge) and Dave had a bi-polar bear (white chocolate
and oreo…not gluten free, darn!) The board walk for Brighton Beach there
stretches on quite a while-so we did at least 20 minutes of walking. We were a
weekend shy of the official open season for Coney Island so hardly any rides
were running and no fireworks would fly that night. When the Aquarium opens the
Shark exhibit it should be fantastic (doing construction when we went, but
looks enormous). Coney Island is another area where you should just stick to
the boardwalk at night, the surrounding area isn’t so nice.
LODGING
Even the hostels are fairly pricey ($100/night)
in the popular areas on Manhattan, at least when I looked for summer. Of course it’s awesome if you have a friend or relative who can house you for
free, but if that’s not an option…read on. Would advise if you stay in NJ to
save money, try a city that is served by PATH train. We did Union City and it
was reachable by bus-could not buy a weekly pass, carrying change was a pain.
My NY friend said if she had thought about it she would have told us to stay in
Queens instead to save money.
ACTIVITIES
I mentioned many activities during the food section, but
this is what else I would share with others:
- Be ready to wait an hour or more after you sign up for a time for the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center)-the bottom floor is a mall so plenty to do, unless you’re there at 9pm like we were. Hurray for sipping Starbucks.
- Many of the museums are by donation. We bought the City Pass online (using Dave's corporate discount) to help speed up waiting in lines though. If you pick up the City Pass at Natural History Museum, just ask staff where Will Call is (we were told wrong several times).
- Central Park has free summer concerts (thanks, Ann) and Shakespeare in the Park (there is an online ticket lottery and regular lottery)
- ·For Statue of Liberty trips to the Crown and Base may sell out, even if you look two weeks ahead online. Instead, we opted to see the Lady from afar by doing the Circle Line cruise to get oriented with Manhattan (and of course to have sit down time). However, my friend reports you may be able to go first thing in the morning to the ticket counter and get inside the monument.
So many places I didn't get to eat or see, but there can be a next time! Although the next trip out to NY, I'd like to explore Rochester and the northern areas.
Coming up next: The library surprised me with a
Filipino-American cookbook full of inviting pictures and explanations of
“mysterious” types of coconut, calamansi juice and variations on traditional
ingredients for a US cook.
Do you have
any summer or travel traditions? Have you recreated anything from your travels this summer?
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