Gadling Take FIVE Week of Oct. 25–Oct. 31

by Jamie Rhein on

Wow! Here it is Halloween and October is almost over. Whew! What a month.

The pace at Gadling has continued to pick up. Perhaps you’ve noticed that Gadling blogger Karen Walerond has returned. She’s our resident camera and photographer expert, so stay tuned for tips on how you can make your camera work sing.

Also, there’s yet another series to add to our other mini-series. Aaron is gracing us with a Travel Trivia quiz each Tuesday. That Aaron is one smart guy.

Hopefully, you’ve been following Gadling’s series “Catching the Travel Bug” about our experiences when we’ve caught some illness when on the road. Also, this week there were two more “Sounds of Travel” offerings. This is the series where we’re sharing the songs that have moved us when we’ve ventured from home.

This week, who hasn’t noticed the flurry of U.S. election related news? By the next time I write next week’s Gadling TAKE FIVE roundup, we should know who our next president will be. We’ve had our own musings about the candidates and some oddball details.

Yes, that’s only four, so here’s one more from one of my favorite topics, New York City. Jeremy has once again given us a blueprint for discovering the gems we may not have heard of before. I’m so heading to Roosevelt Avenue in Queens for dip into Latin American culture the next time I am in New York.

By, the way, have a wonderful Trick or Treat or party, or whatever you’re up to. Hopefully, your fall day is as gorgeous as mine is.

Undiscovered New York: Take the 7 train to Latin America

by Jeremy Kressmann on

A traveler could spend years exploring the vast region of the globe known as “Latin America.” From the picturesque colonial villages and indigenous cultures of Mexico, to the caipirinhas and Amazon rainforest in Brazil, to gauchos and cosmopolitan Buenos Aires in Argentina, Latin America is a region that defies easy categorization. But what if I told you that with a 30 minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, you could visit all of Latin America in a single afternoon?

OK, maybe I’m exaggerating (slightly). But the fact of the matter is that immigration from Latin America to the Big Apple is thriving, and visitors can reap the benefits by taking a mini-tour of Latin America in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens. In just two hours along a strip of Roosevelt Avenue, one of the borough’s main thoroughfares, I had the chance to sample delicious Mexican street tacos, visit the shop of an indigenous Amazonian fortune teller and gorge myself on some Argentine sweets at a local bakery.

Tired of New York City pizza? Looking to get some Latin flavor during your trip and save you that flight down to Bogota? Join Undiscovered New York as we tour Roosevelt Avenue, New York’s “mini Latin America.”
What’s to Eat?
Perhaps the biggest attraction along Roosevelt Avenue is the authentic food. What all can you eat? There’s no simple way to answer this question – the amount of food and the countries it comes from is simply mind-boggling. Within a single block you are confronted with street trucks selling Ecuadorian specialties, Cuban lunch counters, cheesy arepas, and Mexican pastries among others. Particularly well-represented are the cuisines of Ecuador and Colombia, with numerous spots selling favorites like seafood stews with hominy, encebollado and fried plantains.

I quickly located a nearby taco stand and ordered myself a soft tortilla stuffed with spicy chorizo. After topping it with some lime and chili sauce I was enjoying some south-of-the-border snacking bliss. But no meal is complete without dessert, right? I stopped in B’Aires, an Argentine-style bakery, where I picked up some pastries stuffed with dulce de leche. Next I visited Vallecito Bakery, a Mexican pastry shop where I sipped on a bottle of lime Jarritos. I’m going to have to go back some other time for the Peruvian ceviche and Uruguayan morcilla. I was too stuffed!

What Else is There to Do?
After you’ve finished polishing off a few authentic tacos or that cup of seafood stew, you’ll probably be looking for something to do. What I found most interesting about this stretch of Roosevelt Avenue was browsing the various shops offering regional crafts and services. Day of the Dead is nearly upon us, and many of the Mexican vendors were selling brightly colored candy skulls, decorations and Pan de Muerto, the holiday’s special bread. I also discovered several shops advertising “Amazonian shaman” fortune tellers. The stores are filled with ritual indigenous trinkets and totems as well as “authentic” Amazon shamans who can tell your future. If shopping or fortune telliing isn’t really your thing, there’s plenty of bars along the strip offering nightly live music from their country of origin.

How to Get There
Though it may seem far away, making your way to Jackson Heights is not as hard as it may seem. Visitors near Times Square or Grand Central Terminal are only a short train ride away. Just grab a purple 7 train heading towards Flushing Main Street in Queens. You’ll be getting off at the 82 St – Jackson Heights. The strip of Roosevelt that runs from 80th to 90th streets is pretty much ground zero, with great restaurants, shops and bars branching off in all directions from the main drag.

Are you ready for some authentic Latin American culture? Vamos!

Going to Sesame Street: Manhattan moments

by Jamie Rhein on

“Did you know that Kermit Love died?” I asked my brother two days ago. I called him when I read the news in The New York Times.

My brother was Kermit Love’s apprentice years ago, not long after my brother moved to Manhattan to attend the School of Visual Arts. Kermit Love, the creator of Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus, was also an artist in other venues.

Those were the days my brother and I sat out on the fire escape of the building where he sublet a room in someone’s apartment one summer. One night when I was visiting him, we climbed out the window with our dinner to watch a ballet class in session in a dance studio across the street. The studio’s windows were open so we could hear the music.

During that same visit, we dressed up in halfway decent clothes to head to Broadway about the time of intermission. In the summer back then, people spilled out onto the sidewalks for a smoke or something to drink. If the show wasn’t sold out, it was possible to mingle with the crowd and head back in for the second half. All one needed to do was wait at the back of the orchestra seating to find the empty spots. Such were the tricks of broke college students.

At first, while working for Kermit, my brother earned a small sum for ironing Big Bird’s feathers. Those feathers don’t look fluffy all by themselves. Because Big Bird travels in various shows, there’s more than one costume that needs refluffing.

Eventually, my brother graduated to larger, more complicated jobs. He and two other fellows reconstructed costumes based on Love’s design for a Picasso exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. As what happens with apprentices, they work behind the scenes without getting credit up front. It was cool to go to the exhibit, though, and see my brother’s handiwork. Not long after, my brother moved on. But, not before I got my trip to Sesame Street.

My brother needed to deliver something–not feathers, something else, but I can’t remember what. No matter. We went to the studio where the show was filmed. It has since changed locations to Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens.

Sesame Street looked like Sesame Street. Happy.

Carroll Spinney, the guy who has played Big Bird for years was standing around in his Big Bird legs. The top of the costume comes off in between takes, you see. It’s too hot to keep on.

Kermit Love smiled when I shook his hand. I’m sure we said, “Pleased to meet you”–or maybe not. It was a brief visit, but an awesome one that has stayed with me all these years. I connect Kermit Love to a time when my brother and I were younger and nervy enough to sneak into a Broadway show as if we belonged there.

Now, when I go to Broadway show, it’s with a ticket that I’ve bought at TKTS, the discount ticket booth near Times Square.

My brother didn’t know that Kermit Love had died and there was a wistful tone in his voice when he told me he may look to see if there is a memorial service. He is still in touch with a person who also knew Love back then.

As for visiting Sesame Street again, the studio doesn’t do tours. The Studio Cafe is open to the public, though. If you head there for lunch, look for a guy with stripped legs and bird feet. You’ll know who he is. Ask him who irons his feathers.

One for the Road: The Neighborhoods of Queens

by Kelly Amabile on

Last night I took three connecting subway lines and a bus to get from Manhattan to my brother’s new apartment in Queens. This morning I commuted back into the city with his wife, taking another bus, as well as three different subway lines. Without revealing which neighborhood they live in, you can surmise that it’s not the easiest one to reach. But the options for getting there are as diverse as the neighborhoods that comprise this bountiful borough, a characteristic that makes the inconvenient commute much easier to accept. The best part though, is that their location affords them plentiful opportunities to discover the colorful neighborhoods that make up this fantastic and often overlooked borough.

As a housewarming gift, I brought along copy of The Neighborhoods of Queens, a thoroughly researched and well documented tour through 99 neighborhoods of “the Gateway to America”, as Queens has been dubbed. Home to two of New York’s busiest international airports (La Guardia and JFK), Queens is also the most diverse county in the world. This wonderful book celebrates that diversity with an alphabetical arrangement stretching from Astoria to Woodside. Each section includes photographs, neighborhood profiles, facts, a map and a historical summary. There are also over 50 new maps that chart precise boundaries between the neighborhoods. Written by a South American immigrant who herself entered America via Queens, this well-done guide celebrates the enormity of all that the borough offers to both residents and visitors. The book, and the borough, are definitely worth checking out.

Dumpling Redux – From Shanghai to Queens

by Kelly Amabile on

It’s midnight and my mouth is watering for some soupy dumplings. World Hum points me to Disanne McLane’s search for the best dumpling in Shanghai. Which takes me back to my own encounters with the darling dumplings of Shanghai — I ate at two of the places McLane reviews in her quest for the perfect soup dumpling, and agree with her that Din Tai Fung’s are the best tasting, although the atmosphere at Nanxiang suited me better and felt more “authentic” — catering to tourists, the pace is faster and the decor not as pretty, but the dumpling sure do hit the spot.

Since my return from China I’ve yet to seek out similar soupy goodness on the streets of New York. When time allows, I’ll do some research and head straight to Chinatown in search of some Shanghainese authenticity in the heart of Manhattan. But Gothamist alerted me today that a detour to Flushing may be in order. Seems there is a Nanxiang noodle house in Queens with a reputation for serving up delicious dumplings. They go so far as to label them “the best in the city.” Seems worth a trip to me…