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In my opinion, one of the more unheralded New York foods is the crumb cake. Sometimes known as the coffee cake, it’s an item that is so New York-centric, but somehow hasn’t made it onto the bucket lists of tourists. In my opinion, the crummier the better. I like there to be a thick layer of crumbs on top, the ideal ration sort of being half crumb, half cake. You’ve seen it beckoning for your attention in glass deli cases, or on an Entenmann’s endcap at the grocery, or in the shadow of scones and croissants at your local bakery. Hell even Drake’s makes a decent version if you’re in a pinch. Much like bagels and pizza, most places in New York make a uniformly great version of it, so there’s no need to seek out the “best”. The “best” is in fact the one that’s closest to you.
Oct 19, 2021
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I grew up eating it, but they discontinued it in California more than a decade ago. Every time I pass it in the aisle butt display next to all the Drakes and Little Suzie’s in New York I feel gooey inside. No one on this coast seems to realize how lucky we are. It tastes like what you always want chocolate cake to taste like. It’s like when your tongue gets stuck to the roof of your mouth when you hit a really big chocolate chip in a warm cookie, but prolonged. I don’t even like chocolate cake usually but it tastes like what the cake from Matilda looks like.
Jan 27, 2024
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I prefer the heft and crispy exterior of cake doughnuts to raised. It makes me sad that doughnut shops will only have 1-2 cake options and they aren’t as exciting as the others.
And a Dunkin’ chocolate glazed has never failed me. The slight bitterness of the cocoa is nice with all the sugary goodness.
Feb 5, 2024
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I’ve baked many a cake in the 24 long years I’ve been on this planet. Cakes covered in cinnamon streusel, pudding-filled, frosting-covered cakes, cakes that look hideous but taste beautiful (never the reverse). This cake, though, is my favorite cake to bake and eat. The recipe (here without a paywall) is perfect when followed as written, though I still tweak it sometimes by browning and re-solidifying the butter for a deeper, funkier flavor or using peaches, blueberries, and most recently, pluots from the aforementioned L.A. farmers market in place of the traditional plums. Any way you bake it, you’ll get to experience the pure bliss of slicing through its warm, crispy exterior, into a pillow-like cake full of fruit even sweeter and juicier than before you scattered it over the buttery batter.
Aug 10, 2021
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I guess you could say I’m a pretty avid backpacker; I enjoy the autonomy of carrying your bed, kitchen and house on your back, while navigating the unpredictability of nature. For this reason I make routine sojourns to Harriman State Park. The park is both approximate to the city, and also very remote feeling once you are inside of it. No car? No problem. Just take NJ Transit from Penn Station up to the Tuxedo, NY stop. There are multiples trailheads just near the station. About 40 miles of the Appalachian Trail pass through the park, which boasts the trail-famous Lemon Squeezer obstacle. It also is a great place for climbing, with the Claudius Smith’s Den being the best known locale for rock-heads. Harriman is a labyrinthine network of trails of varying difficulties. It’s probably the only place where you can get mauled by a black bear while looking at the Empire State Building. Actually I have had multiple bear encounters there that were totally were drama free. Great for leaf peeping as well!
Oct 19, 2021
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I’ve lived in the same apartment in BedStuy, Brooklyn for over a decade now. I moved here to flee the nightlife scene in Williamsburg, which had become tedious living on Grand Ave. Then a few years later, the action followed me, and now my neighborhood is robust with newer bars and restaurants catering to gentrifiers like myself. Bar LunÀtico is one of those watering holes; one that I actually feel lucky to live quite near. The bar, which is excellent, has live music every night. No tickets, first come first serve, and the owner passes the hat around, all of which goes to the musicians. I’ve seen ensembles from Morocco, Brazil, Hungary. It’s nice to have a place you can just show up to and expect to see some really interesting music you’ve never heard before. The atmosphere is confidently cool without being pretentious, and in a city where most bars have morphed into this hemogenous urban nightlife experience, its unique in a way that’s become increasingly rare. See you there perhaps?
Oct 19, 2021
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When people come to visit New York, and they ask me for advice on things to do and see, I without fail recommend the Dream House, a long-term sound and light installation in Tribeca. Conceived by minimalist composer LaMonte Young and light artist Marian Zazeela in the 1960’s, and in its current location since the early 1990’s, the Dream House is, essentially, a room on the second story of an otherwise unremarkable downtown building, with four speakers emitting mixed frequency sine waves, in a soft glow of fuchsia light. Hearing is believing, because as you navigate the room, the interplay of frequencies makes every coordinate in the small room completely unique. Even minute movement of the body alters the perception of sound in the space. And the sound isn’t just heard, it’s felt. The Dream House predates the public’s consciousness of meditation with binaural sound, and this is quadaural! Donations are suggested, might I recommend going there and spending an afternoon or evening. Stay as long as you like!
Oct 19, 2021