My Short List for New York City

  I've been to New York City twice before and did a lot of touristy stuff.  I saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, The Met, The Guggenheim, the Museum of Natural History, Little Italy, and Chinatown.  I love touristy stuff but I think this time around I'm going to focus on trying to "blend in with the locals".  As you read in my previous post, I just booked airfare to NYC for $177, nonstop, round-trip for this winter.  On a whim, I decided to check out a book from my local library called "Pauline Frommer's New York City:  Spend Less, See More".  I actually really enjoyed this book.  It gave me plenty of great ideas to try new, creative things in New York City.  Some ideas are still touristy which I don't mind but then I have some fun "local" ideas as well.
  Here's a short list of ideas that I've jotted down so far from Pauline Frommer's book:

1.  Eat Dim Sum in Chinatown.  Dim Sum is small portions of Chinese cuisine traditionally served in steamer baskets.  The food is pushed around the restaurant on carts and customers can choose what items they would like.  I first saw Dim Sum in New York City in the movie "Made of Honor".  Two of the Chinese Dim Sum restaurants that Pauline Frommer listed in her book were Jing Fong and Golden Unicorn.

2.  Try a restaurant that uses peanut butter in a majority of its recipes.  Peanut Butter & Co. on Sullivan Street was recommended by Frommer.  They have all kinds of sandwiches and desserts made from peanut butter.

3.  Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  o.k. this is touristy but I've never done it before and Frommer said that there are great views of the city from the Bridge.  Plus, I've never been to Brooklyn before.

4.  Do a Steinway & Sons Piano Factory Tour in Astoria, Queens.  See how the famous Steinway pianos are made.  I play the piano so this is right up my alley.

5.  Go to a Japanese Tea Ceremony at Cha-an in the East Village.  According to Ch-an's website they have Japanese tea ceremonies the first and third Sundays of the month between noon and 4pm.  Reservations are needed.  I've read the food and teas are great even if you can't make the tea ceremony. 


I plan on discovering many more great ideas for my trip to NYC which I will share in future posts.  I would love to hear more fun tips and ideas from anyone else that has visited NYC.

Below is a photo from our March 2011 trip to NYC.  A fun touristy NYC activity is ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza.  It's a little on the expensive side.  For $35 you can get a combo ticket for a skate plus a visit to the Top of the Rock Observation Deck.  This could be a very memorable and fun experience.