Museum Month: The Tenement Museum In New York’s Lower East Side

by Jessica Marati on

Often, the sights that are just around the corner are the ones that you somehow never get around to exploring. You say that you’ll go one day, but there’s never a real rush. You tell yourself that it will always be there.

For me, that sight is the Tenement Museum, located in the heart of New York City‘s Lower East Side, a block and a half from the apartment I’ve called home for the past three years.

The Tenement Museum celebrates New York’s immigrants by exploring the history of a single tenement building at 97 Orchard Street, built in 1863. From the outside, the museum doesn’t look too different from the other apartment buildings on the block, including my own. But inside lies a rich tapestry of stories tracking the major immigration waves of the 19th- and 20th- centuries, starting with the Germans and followed by Eastern European Jews and Italians.

There are three ways to experience the Tenement Museum: by exploring the carefully restored apartments at 97 Orchard; by taking walking tours of the neighborhood; or by attending a “meet the residents” session, which allows guests to interact with costumed interpreters depicting people who once lived in the building.

On a recent Sunday, I opted for a building tour that was focused on the experience of sweatshop workers. At one time, the Lower East Side was the center of the American garment industry, particularly in the 1860s when the neighborhood was bustling with workers churning out Civil War military uniforms. Most work was completed in small home-based garment workshops, in cramped and often overheated quarters.

The tour started with a visit to the garment workshop of Harris Levine, a Russian tailor whose 1900 census data provided the basis for the space’s recreation. The guide explained how workers would work an average of 70 hours per week, crammed into tiny quarters along with the boss’s wife and children.

Once garment factories were introduced at the turn of the century, units at 97 Orchard became slightly more spacious and tailored for family living. A visit to the Rogarshevsky apartment, which was inhabited in the 1910s and 1920s, provided a look at the changing nature of the neighborhood as immigrants started to assimilate and economic conditions started to improve.

The building was condemned in 1935, which is where the museum’s focus ends. But stepping out into the traffic and construction of Allen Street, it was evident that life in today’s Lower East Side isn’t too different from the world depicted inside the Tenement Museum. It is still a neighborhood of immigrants, crammed together in tiny apartments, working like maniacs to survive… just today with higher rents and more espresso bars.

[Images via Tenement Museum]

‘Bolivian Mennonites’ Photography Exhibition Begins In New York

by Meg Nesterov on

Unless you’ve followed the horrifying story of the serial rapists who wrecked havoc in the community in 2009, you might not know that the small South American country of Bolivia is home to a large community of Mennonites. Photographer Lisa Wiltse traveled to the isolated colony of Manitoba to capture the conservative community, who shun cars, electricity, and other modern conveniences, and live by a strict religious code. Many of the Mennonites do not speak Spanish, and women typically only speak low German, as the founders of the religion did in the 16th century.

Wiltse’s photographs are a rare glimpse into an insular culture. If you are in New York City tonight, you can attend a reception and slideshow of Wiltse’s work, moderated by the co-curator of The Half King’s photography series. The art exhibition will be on display in the bar until July, and some of the photos can be viewed on the artist’s website.

Photo courtesy The Half King. “Bolivian Mennonites” will be on display May 15 – July 9 in New York.

Classic Travel Writing: Jack Kerouac’s ‘Lonesome Traveler’

by Sean McLachlan on

While blogs take up most of my travel reading these days, every now and then I like to dip into an old classic. So on a recent flight to Washington DC to attend the Gadling bloggers summit, I read “Lonesome Traveler“ by Jack Kerouac.

This slim volume contains eight stream-of-consciousness essays in the style you’d expect from one of the leaders of the Beat Generation. For example, the author tells a friend:

“Deni the reason I followed the ship all the way 3,200 miles from Staten Island to goddam Pedro is not only because I wanta get on and be seen going around the world and have myself a ball in Port Swettenham and pick up on gangee in Bombay and find the sleepers and the fluteplayers in filthy Karachi and start revolutions of my own in the Cairo Casbah and make it from Marseilles to the other side, but because of you, because, the things we used to do, where, I have a hell of a good time with you Den, there’s no two ways about. . .I never have any money that I admit, I already owe you sixty for the bus fare, but you must admit I try. . .I’m sorry that I don’t have any money ever, but you know I tried with you, that time. . .well gaddam, wa ahoo, shit, I want to get drunk tonight.”

When you have a monologue like that, you know you’re in Kerouac territory. The posts range from his time hanging out with William S. Burroughs in Tangier to his jobs as a fire watcher and on trains and boats.

Sometimes the best travel writing is that which takes you back to a place you love, in my case old New York City before its seedy heart was cleaned up and dulled. Kerouac takes us on a tour of all the crazy Times Square spots where the Beats used to hang out while a cavalcade of oddballs passes by. Through all this blur of activity Kerouac wonders, “Why does Times Square feel like a big room?”

Wow, yeah! Times Square does feel like a big room, even fifty years later when I hung out there. That broad open space enclosed by four walls of skyscrapers with all the people coming and going has a strange homey, interior feel to it. A good travel writer can put into words what you’ve always felt about a place.

And Kerouac is a damned good travel writer. “Lonesome Traveler” is filled with quotable one-liners about booze, sex, solitude, trusting strangers, nature and just about everything else. The one that perhaps best sums up the Beat mentality is actually by Gregory Corso, who in the New York sequence says, “Standing on the street corner waiting for no one is Power.”

Not a bad summary of the attractions of travel.

Where Would You Travel Just to Eat?

by David Farley on
It’s a question that comes up again and again. Even more so in the last few years, as the industrialized world seems to become food obsessed. Not just with eating in general but also where it comes from (is it local?) and how it’s grown. Our preoccupation with provenance is almost an existential crisis: it seems we have this growing need (no pun intended) to touch our food, to get closer to it, because technology is alienating us in an unprecedented way.

And so now, more than ever, we’re traveling just to satisfy that craving – a simple desire and a deeper one. Okay, this is getting way too serious. The point is, when I attended a couple food-centric events recently for the Lucky Rice Festival and the James Beard Awards, both in New York, I asked the participating chefs and mixologists the question: where would you travel just to eat? Not surprisingly many of them were looking to Japan and Spain for their inspiration.

Here’s how they all answered:

•Ted Allen, author of “In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks“
I’d go to Tokyo. I was there once – just for three days and I ate at a workingman’s place that was just great. It’s one of the world’s great cuisines.

•Chai Chaowasaree, chef/owner of Chai’s Island Bistro and Singha Thai Cuisine, Honolulu
New York. Wait! I think I’d go to Las Vegas. All the top chefs are there. I’ve been there over 100 times. The restaurant I would go to frequently was 808 but, sadly, it closed. I also really like eating at Joel Robuchon and Michael Mina’s place.

•Garrett Eagleton, the Beagle, New York City
Vietnam. It’s so different from anything else and I love pho. It would be a cheap and amazing food adventure.

•Vikram Garg, chef at Halekulani, Honolulu
That’s a very challenging question. I think I’d go to Spain. It’s all about the ingredients. Plus Spanish chefs are so progressive and so ahead of the time. In terms of where I’d go, I’d call up my chef friends – Ferran (Adria) and Jose Andres – and they’d tell me where I should go. It wouldn’t have to be Michelin-starred restaurants.

•Stephanie Izard, executive chef at Girl & the Goat, Chicago
India. I’m not exactly sure where I’d go but I’ve been reading a lot about Indian cuisine lately and it just sounds great.

•Matt Lambert, chef at Madame Geneva, New York City
I’d go to Bangkok. Specifically I’d eat at David Thompson’s place Nham. He’s doing some really special stuff over there, including reintroducing some heirloom vegetables to the Thai food landscape. He’s a really great chef.

•Joseph Lenn, chef at Blackberry Farm, Walland, TN
Spain. They’re doing some of the most creative food there right now. I’d check out Etxebarri, near San Sebastian, as well as Mugaritz.

•Paul Qui, executive chef at Uchiko, winner of “Top Chef Texas,” Austin
San Sebastian. It has the most Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain. I’d hit up Mugaritz and Arzak, for sure. I’m sad I wouldn’t be able to head down to elBulli anymore.

•Julie Reiner, mixologist at Lani Kai, New York City
Japan. I love Japanese food. It would be interesting to eat in such an authentic way. I think I’d eat mostly sushi.

•Steve Schneider, bartender at Macao Trading Co. and Employees Only, New York City
I’d go to Peru and eat anticuchos, a meat stew that a lot of slaves and Chinese laborers used to eat. I’d just eat this and at the same restaurant every day. It’s so good.

•Alan Wong, chef/owner of Alan Wong’s, Honolulu
Japan. Specifically, I’d go to Hakaido. I love it there. They actually have dairy there – milk and cheese – and it’s really good. The seafood is abundant. The ingredients and cuisine are very inspiring to me. I’d spend a lot of time at an onsen relaxing and eating.

•Roy Yamaguchi, chef/owner of Roy’s, multiple locations
Japan. I’d go to an onsen in Hakone, which is about an hour from Tokyo. I’d take a hot spring bath and then eat a meal based on all the fresh seasonal ingredients that are available.

Manhattan Project: The Rebranding Of Thai Cuisine

by David Farley on
Thai cuisine is not very good. That is, if you live in the United States and you’ve never been to Thailand and the only opportunities you’ve had to eat it are at one of the many mediocre restaurants that exist here.

The first time I ate Thai – embarrassingly in my mid 20s when I was living in Los Angeles for a few months – it was something of a revelation. The combination of sweet, sour, spicy and salty flavors all conspired to taste like nothing I’d ever eaten before. But the more I ate Thai and the more that I learned about it and talked about it with food-loving friends, the more I realized how average most of the Thai restaurants are in the United States – particularly in Manhattan where I’ve been living most of the last decade.


In New York City, we’ve had to travel to Queens to get decent Thai food. Which is fine but somehow the borough of Manhattan (not to mention the Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklyn) have escaped good Thai – at least until recently.
In the last few years, a handful of Thai restaurants (albeit more expensive and, often, serving elevated takes on the cuisine) have fired up their burners and are serving, for the first time, inspired fare.

Kittichai was one of the first. Then came Rhong Tiam, which earned a Michelin star and thus an acknowledgment that things were changing on the Thai dining landscape in Manhattan. And now there’s Lotus of Siam, the import from Las Vegas (which many foodies had dubbed the best Thai restaurant in the country), Ngam, Zabb Elee, Betel and Kin Shop, to name a few.


Manning the stoves at Ngam is Hong Thaimee, a native of Chiang Mai and a former model. Chef Thaimee prepares traditional Thai as well as Siam-inspired takes on American comfort food. She infuses lemongrass in a burger and tops it with shredded papaya, for example. Or she puts massaman curry in a pot pie and covers it, not with a pie crust, but with a piece of roti bread.

Thaimee said one reason why quality Thai never took off in Manhattan is because of its association with cheapness. “Thai needs to be rebranded,” she said. “People think Thai is spicy and cheap. It’s like the new Chinese food and I hope to help elevate it out of this stereotype.”

Another new Thai restaurant to open in Manhattan recently is Kin Shop, Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle’s homage to Thai cuisine. “I started working in the city around 2002 and the Thai food scene was quite weak. I’m not trying to be rude about it, but the only real spots to get decent Thai food were in Queens. Manhattan was just full of mediocre takeout spots.”

And what does chef Dieterle attribute to this trend in better quality Thai cuisine in Manhattan?

“As people raise their expectations and learn more about the food and culture they’ve probably wanted to get dishes that are more representative of what Thai food really is.”

Jay Cheshes, food writer and restaurant critic for Time Out New York, has a slightly different take on it: “Even the top Thai cooks in New York have long kept the best stuff to themselves, afraid the most fiery funky dishes were just too much for western palates. At places like Zabb Elee in the East Village, though, that’s started to change. And with all the New York chefs exploring potent Thai flavors all of a sudden there’s no excuse for making do any more with generic pad Thai.”