Cocktails and chocolate in Midtown Manhattan.

When I planned my trip to New York, I genuinely thought eight days would be enough time. After all, it wasn’t like I was visiting the city for the first time. I figured the TBEX travel bloggers conference would take two days, so that would leave six days to catch up with all my friends in the city and research my blog posts. Plenty of time, right?

Of course, it didn’t work out that way. When you subtract the travel days, the week shrank to four available days. Since the conference was on a weekend, that meant I was only available on weekdays when my friends were at work. So I wasn’t able to head over to Jersey City to have dinner at my friend Rema’s house and meet her baby daughter for the first time and renew my acquaintance with her husband.

Instead, we channelled our inner single girls – but only for an hour or two. We met for cocktails in the city after Rema finished work. The key was to find a venue that was relatively close to Rema’s office and easy for her to get the train home. The only problem is that this part of Midtown is very businesslike and there aren’t that many cool bars. Fortunately Rema was in the know and she suggested Ayza Wine & Chocolate Bar on West 31st St.

The bar has a bit of space inside, with a modern aesthetic, but it was a bit dark – perfect for a wine bar but not at 6pm on a brilliant June afternoon. It was a lovely day and not even too hot so I thought it would be pleasant to sit on the front patio with big shade umbrellas and lots of greenery.

Rema had wine but I ordered the chocolate martini, since it was the house specialty. It was very good. I liked the way it came with flaky chocolate around the rim of the glass, like you get salt on some cocktails, and it was served with a small artisanal chocolate.

I’d been running around all day – I went to the Cloisters earlier with another friend – so I’m not looking my most glamorous but hopefully you can tell that I’m having a good time.

Ayza Wine & Chocolate Bar
11 West 31st St
(Between 5th Avenue and Broadway)
Manhattan, NY
Tel: (212) 714-2992‎
Map it on Google

Chocolate martini at Ayza in Manhattan is a post from: Roaming Tales

New York City; June 2010

I promised that I would have some animal-themed posts from my trip to New York City and I don’t plan to disappoint. So far I’ve shared photos of gorillas from Bronx Zoo, now it’s time for some bear action.

Statue of the Three Bears of fairytale fame in Central Park

Central Park is full of fun statues. Earlier in the day I had visited Alice and her Wonderland friends and Hans Christian Anderson with the Ugly Duckling. I ran across this statue just before meeting fellow travel bloggers for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This famous fairytale trio of the Three Bears – sans Goldilocks – lives just around the corner from the southern end of the museum. I had to wait for quite a while before I managed to get a shot without children in it (the kids were photogenic but I didn’t want to get into the whole parental permission thing).

The remaining two photos are from the Bronx Zoo – the first is of a polar bear and the second of a pair of brown bears. I felt really sorry for the polar bear in the filthy heat – he seemed distressed and kept pacing the enclosure and rubbing his fur against the cement wall. It had been hot and humid for days too. Poor thing! The brown bears looked quite a bit happier and there was also more shade and greenery in their enclosure.

Polar bear at Bronx Zoo

Brown bears at Bronx Zoo

This is my contribution to Photo Friday, a weekly blogging event hosted by Debbie of Delicious Baby. Please take a look at the other contributions this week on her site. Check out my Arctic posts to see polar bears in the wild.

Photo Friday: Bears in New York City is a post from: Roaming Tales

My culinary adventures in New York City continued in Queens. My Brooklyn-based host Mike was keen for a Queens outing so I met up with him after work and we caught the F train out to Jackson Heights.

I had originally intended to go to Queens earlier in the day so I could visit some of the museums in Astoria recommended in this Matador post. Fortunately I checked online before setting out because it turns out they are all closed on Tuesdays! I ended up spending a bit longer in Staten Island than planned and then chilling out at home in Brooklyn and taking a shower before heading out again.

Jackson Heights is real melting pot New York City, with significant South Indian and Latin American populations. The World Cup was still in full swing while I was there and I saw a lot of flags on the streets – I don’t know if they are there all the time or were associated with the football.

My friend Kachina had recommended this culinary walking tour of Jackson Heights on About.com, so we used this as our inspiration. We started off with a cholado from Aqui Colombia (81-08 37th Ave), as recommended, though in hindsight we wished we had saved this for dessert.

Colombian food – Cholado

As pictured above, a cholado is what happens when you cross a smoothie with a fruit salad. It apparently comes from the Colombian city of Cali and is also called raspao. It was fascinating to watch the guy make it – there are layers of crushed ice and sweetened condensed milk topped with fruit salad and coconut and a glacé cherry. It was actually pretty good and not overly sweet. It was quite large but a lot of that was crushed ice and it helped cool us down. The drink came with a plastic lid, spoon and straw but I removed this for the photograph. After we had finished our sweet treats wandered around for a while before finding somewhere for dinner.

Uruguayan food – Steak

We decided we liked the look of El Chivito D’Oro(84-02 37th Ave), a Uruguayan restaurant. It also happened to be recommended in the About.com walking tour, but we chose it for the menu and the fact it was well lit and seemed to be popular with other customers. Mike has been to Argentina and he says the food is very similar  – in other words, steak, steak and more steak.

It was a friendly atmosphere inside. At the next table over, they were having a birthday party for a one-year-old. By now it was 9 o’clock at night but the one-year-old was awake and having a grand old time – chalk one up for cultural differences! The restaurant was quite open and the lighting wasn’t great anyway so I didn’t take photos once we were inside the restaurant. (I very rarely take photos of food inside restaurants – I like food photography but I don’t want to intrude on other diners’ eating experience).

I ended up ordering steak – no surprises there – and it was almost the size of my dinner plate! It was very tender and delicious, especially with the garlicky green sauce on the table. Mike had ordered beef ribs, which were a bit tougher but very tasty. In a heroic effort, Mike actually finished most of his dish. I could only eat half of mine so we took the rest home in a box and hopefully it got eaten later in the week!

Originally we had planned to get Indian sweets for dessert but neither of us could manage another thing.

The United Nations of food

I am on a quest to eat food from every member nation of the United Nations. So far, I’ve written posts about eight countries and there’s 182 to go.

Flags wave above 37th Ave, Jackson Heights

UN of food: Colombian and Uruguayan food in Queens is a post from: Roaming Tales

A rare glimpse at how one of the world’s top museums does its restoration work on art and artifacts.

Jen on the Context Travel tour of the Met

On the Thursday before the TBEX travel blogging conference, I joined a small group of travel bloggers on a special tour with Context Travel. Context offers walking tours in a few cities around the world – mostly in European centres such as Paris and Rome, but also in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. The company’s unique shtick is that its tour guides are professionals in their fields – archaeologists, art historians and so on. Usually there is a maximum of six people on each tour so it’s a far cry from walking around in a herd following the umbrella! Context tours cost around $65 or €65 a person – this one was free but I am under no obligation to write a post.

Our tour was a behind-the-scenes look at restoration work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, aka the Met, led by Beth Edelstein, assistant conservator in the Department of Objects Conservation. We started with some completed restoration work – including a stained-glass window from an old church in New York and the Pacific Islands and Asian rooms. To me, one of the most interesting objects was a Sumatran mourning puppet. Researchers only realised its purpose after restoration when they found that it had moss inside so that it would cry mechanically. It would be used when a dead person did not have enough relatives to carry out the necessary mourning rites.

Johnny Jet makes a spectacle with conservator's glasses

Then we moved into the uncompleted restoration work, actually going behind the construction zone to see the half-completed work in the Islamic galleries, which Beth is currently focusing on in her day job. She did a good job of explaining thought processes behind restoration decisions and the frustrations when things don’t work out exactly as planned or one exhibit interferes with another (which can incur the wrath of donors). We weren’t really allowed to take photos once we had moved beyond the public areas of the museum but she made an exception for Johnny Jet to pose with special conservator’s glasses!

It was extremely interesting and also great fun to meet some of the other bloggers ahead of the schedule – including Kim and Maren from Galavanting and TBEX, Jennifer from The Vacation Gals, Stephanie from Twenty-Something Travel, Gary from Everything Everywhere, Chris from the Amateur Traveler, Jodi from Legal Nomads, Matt from Nomadic Matt and the aforementioned Johnny Jet. (Sorry if I’m missing people out).

I’ve done a Context Travel tour once before back in 2007. Also in New York, the tour was of specialist chocolate shops in Manhattan. That was a lot of fun – especially the samples! But really the company is best known for its art and history tours. The special thing about this Met tour is that it is not on their regular schedule – it was put on especially for us travel bloggers. I’m sorry to say that members of the public cannot book a tour that will go behind the scenes to look at restoration work in progress. On the other hand, Context offers a number of other tours at the Met and other art galleries and in New York more generally.

Steph and Jodi in the Pacific gallery

Kim looking at artwork hanging from the ceiling of the Pacific Gallery

A group of travel bloggers on the Context Travel tour of the Met

Beth shows how the stained-glass window looked before restoration

The stained-glass window after restoration

Beth explains the restoration of the Sumatran mourning puppet

Gary and Chris at the glass exhibit

Johnny Jet with Mickey Mouse ears

Jodi looking up at the ceiling in the Pacific room

Note: These images are copyright but I will permit other travel bloggers to use them, as long as they credit me and provide a follow link to Roaming Tales (either the home page or this post). For all photos see the Flickr set.

Behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a post from: Roaming Tales

The St George Parish Grill and Staten Island Museum.

When I decided to visit all five boroughs of New York City on my recent trip, I didn’t have much of a plan for Staten Island. I knew I’d be staying in Brooklyn and making regular trips to Manhattan. The Bronx had the zoo and the Botanic Gardens – though I didn’t know about the zoo’s fabulous gorilla exhibit until I got there – and I knew that between the museums in Astoria, the Hindu temple in Flushing and the Latin American and Indian food in Jackson Heights, I would figure something out for Queens.

For Staten Island my plan was something like this – take the free ferry to the island and check out the Statue of Liberty as I go past, then get off the ferry at the other end and see what I could do in an hour, before getting the return ferry back to Manhattan. My schedule was getting very tight by this point – it was my last day in New York City and I still hadn’t been to Queens. Nonetheless, I ended up staying two hours, visiting the charming Staten Island Museum and having a rather fabulous lunch at the St George Parish Grill.

The Staten Island Ferry is one of those things that is billed as a great travel secret – it’s a free service and you get close enough to get a good look at the Statue of Liberty without forking out lots of money and wasting lots of time actually visiting the island. In reality, it’s not much of a secret since everyone knows about it and it’s mentioned in pretty much every guide book. One of these days I actually do want to do the full Statue of Liberty experience – seeing it is all very well, but I bet the immigrant story at Ellis Island is pretty interesting.

I imagine most tourists simply disembark the ferry at Staten Island and get straight back on the next one, without looking around Staten Island. And I can now definitively say that they are missing out. Instead, they should walk two blocks to the St George Parish Grill and get themselves some Cajun food. I know Cajun food on Staten Island might sound weird but New York is a melting pot and there’s no reason for Staten Island to be any different.

St George Parish Grill – Cajun restaurant in Staten Island

I would have missed this place, were it not for the fact that I had a quarter hour to spare before free entry kicked in at the Staten Island Museum and it happened to be lunch time. It’s an unassuming shop front and when I wandered over to look at the menu I was expecting a typical diner or sandwich shop. Apparently it used to be an antique shop and before that a candy store.

The menu was handwritten and photocopied on fluorescent-green paper. You can check out a sample menu online but it is different to the one I had – I guess the availability of things like soft shell crab change with the seasons. My menu included soups such as crawfish and andouille gumbo, appetisers such as alligator meatballs or conch fritters, and a full range of po-boys from sliced steak to popcorn shrimp.

I bought a lunch special, which gave me soup with my main course. The soup was fresh tomato, basil and roast garlic and I could tell from the perfect balance of flavours that it was homemade. It was served chilled like gazpacho, which was perfect as it was a stiflingly humid New York day.

For my main choice I nearly ordered the chicken fried alligator with fried okra and sweet potato balls or the grilled pork loin and pineapple. I decided not to get the gator mainly because I was told it would taste like chicken. Not only am I bored with the concept of everything tasting like chicken, but I’m also not that fond of fried chicken. Heresy, I know, but it just tastes greasy to me. And the pork sounded good but not distinctive enough.

Instead, I ordered the soft shell crabs on the recommendation of chef Dennis Crotty, who also happened to be the owner and my server. I had them sauté veronique – a creamy sauce with a hint of alcohol and red grapes that complemented the slight saltiness of the crab meat and shells. It came on a plate with rice and vegetables and made an extremely satisfying meal.

I’m afraid I made rather a pig of myself though because I also ordered an appetiser of fried okra with mustard dressing. I really love okra, so even though I was on my own I couldn’t resist. They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with a great flavour, just what I hoped they would be. There was already a bit of tang to the okra but the mustard sauce made it something special. I didn’t manage to finish them but I made a pretty good effort.

The lunch specials vary in price from $7.50 upwards, which includes the soup. The crabs and soup combo was $12 and worth every cent, plus the fried okra was another $4. Considering the amount of food I ate, and its quality, it was very cheap!

Since I was the only one in the restaurant until just before I left, I chatted a bit with Dennis. It turns out he used to work at a well-known restaurant called Cajun in Manhattan. He opened up in St George, Staten Island because he lives locally and his commute is now just a four-block walk. (Though he misses the adventurous nature of Manhattan restaurant goers). He opened last September and he’s built links with the art community in Staten Island, displaying the work of local artists and playing local music. When I was having lunch, he was playing music by Queen Tipsy, a Staten Island-based soul and blues singer.

St George Parish Grill
Cajun restaurant on Staten Island
100 Stuyvesant Place
Staten Island, New York
Tel: (718) 556 5355

Staten Island Museum

Stuffed to the gills, I eventually made it to the Staten Island Museum. Ordinarily admission is $2 for adults or $1 for students and seniors while children under 12 are free. But admission is free for everyone from 2pm to 4pm on Tuesdays, which is when I visited.

It was a cute little museum. The first room had a stunning collection of stuffed birds, all of which were native to Staten Island, and curiosities such as a four-legged chicken in a jar. Behind a curtain you could visit a room filled with rocks that glowed with vivid colours when you turned the UV lighting on. Another room was devoted to Staten Island’s maritime history and upstairs there were paintings by local artists. Unfortunately I found out halfway through the first room that the museum has an annoying no-photography policy. (Why is it that you can take photos at the world’s top museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum but not the little ones?).

I wouldn’t make a trip to Staten Island especially to go to this museum but if you are taking the ferry anyway, it’s worth getting off the other end and popping in. It doesn’t cost much and you’ll be done in half an hour. It’s also worth walking around a bit and checking out buildings like the Staten Island Borough Hall and the court house. And definitely have lunch at St George Parish Grill!

Staten Island Muesum
75 Stuyvesant Place
Staten Island, NY 10301
Tel: (718) 727-1135
Web: Staten Island Museum
View St George Parish, Staten Island, NYC in a larger map

For more photos from Staten Island, follow the link to the Flickr set. All photos are copyright to Caitlin Fitzsimmons and Roaming Tales.

Cajun food in Staten Island – yes, really is a post from: Roaming Tales

Bronx, NYC; June 2010

Even a baby gorilla somehow manages to look like a wise old man. It’s like they’re 100 years old when they’re born. Would you just look at their faces? Adorable!

I am not as lucky as Kristin from Camels and Chocolate who got to go see wild gorillas in Rwanda all in the name of work. But I did make a pilgrimage to the Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx Zoo when I went to New York City recently. (And I ticked off the Bronx in my mission to visit all five NYC boroughs at the same time).

It cost $3 extra (the website says $5 so maybe prices have gone up) on top of my general admission ticket but was worth every penny, especially since the money goes to fund conservation projects in Africa. They’ve done a really nice job recreating a natural rainforest and you can see other animals such as monkeys while you’re there. There is some good information on conservation with an eight-minute movie and interactive exhibits and you can choose how the Wildlife Conservation Society will spend your ticket money, from options such as scientific research or helping create local employment.

I loved looking at the expressions on their faces – and at the little gorilla following its mother around and repeatedly trying to climb on her back. She wasn’t having a bar of it! The volunteer guide told me the mother was 30 and the baby was four – and a bit too big to be carried. Just like a human toddler then.

On the other hand, the human kids seemed most interested in the gorilla that did a number two right near the glass. Such is life!

If you want to donate, you can also consider organisations such as the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund or the World Wildlife Fund.

Colobus monkey

This is my contribution to Photo Friday on Delicious Baby. Please check out the other entries this week.

Animals in New York: Gorillas at Bronx Zoo is a post from: Roaming Tales

Charley Boorman and AmEx do Edinburgh

Actor Charley Boorman and I have something in common – we are both passionate travellers. He’s the guy who joined Ewan Macgregor in the motorbike trip around the world that became the documentary series Long Way Round. Clearly I think American Express should have chosen me to host their new web TV series  The One Thing. I’d be great at swanning all over Europe – Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam and Edinburgh so far – and making videos. But I get why they chose Boorman instead.

At least they chose me to help spread the word and yes, I’ll be paid a fee to do host this video. But I wouldn’t be sharing it with you if I didn’t think it was also worth a look. As branded content, this ain’t half bad! The branding is subtle so just enjoy the fun travel content.

I particularly enjoyed the Edinburgh video. I love Scotland and Edinburgh is a beautiful city with its sandstone buildings and castle on the dramatic rocky outcrop. I never did get to see the view from Arthur’s Seat though – the fog rolled in before I got to the top of the hill and I was lucky to make it down. Boorman’s video shows off Stockbridge, a part of Edinburgh I don’t recall.

Roaming Tales’ policy is to disclose all commercial arrangements.

Video: Charley Boorman in Edinburgh is a post from: Roaming Tales

Manhattan, NY; June 2010

I can’t help myself – when I see a piano, I want to play with it. I say with because my rudimentary skills mean that I am not really playing the piano, just fooling around. I can peck out part of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy with my right hand and that’s about all.

It seems I am not alone. Sing for Hope, a non-profit organization that describes itself as a Peace Corps for artists, is currently running an art installation in New York. There are 45 pianos around New York – 24 in Manhattan, 8 in Brooklyn, 5 in Queens and 4 each in the Bronx and Staten Island. The brightly painted pianos are in streets and parks and plazas and are free for the public to come and play.

I had vaguely heard about this but came across it quite by accident. After the end of the TBEX travel blogging conference last weekend, Alison Brick, Amy from The Q Family Adventures and I went off to try to see the new Highline, a park that has been made from a disused elevated railway line in the Meatpacking district in the Lower West Side. Unfortunately the Highline was closed because of the Gay Pride march earlier that day. We wandered around and then randomly came across this piano in Gansevoort Plaza.

I shot this video of a guy playing Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. He was good enough to say I was welcome to put it on my blog. I think he was pretty good, especially considering the fact half the keys didn’t work. Of course he was followed by a tourist busting out ye olde Chopsticks! I hope you enjoy my video and if you do, please consider rating it on YouTube and leaving a comment. Thanks!

Video: Street pianos in New York is a post from: Roaming Tales

I’m en route to New York City for TBEX, the Travel Blog Exchange conference. Through the miracle of Virgin America’s in-flight wifi, I’m writing this from thousands of feet up in the air.

Pam at Nerd’s Eye View has a Q&A for travel bloggers going to TBEX. Some people are responding in the comments but I thought I would answer on my own blog.

* Who’s your favorite travel writer? I don’t really have a favourite. I probably don’t read as much in the genre as I should. It’s important for me to have a sense of place in any story, travel or otherwise. There are a lot of great fiction or memoir writers who do that really well. For example, I learned more about Iran from watching Persepolis based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel and Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi than I would have from a travel book or article.

* What’s your favorite blog for reading about travel? There are many great travel blogs. I do like the mix of stories on Intelligent Travel and World Hum. Also EcoSalon has really been ramping up its travel section Passport lately. For solo bloggers there are many but I turn most often to My Folie a Deux for mouthwatering stories about food and travel, My Melange for everything France and Italy, Travelojos for everything Latin America, Nerd’s Eye View for great writing with eclectic style and attitude and Camels and Chocolate for an infectious sense of fun.

* How much do you earn blogging? About $50 a month, mostly writing for other blogs such as UpTake and EcoSalon. I could earn more but journalism pays better by an order of magnitude so I tend to write for magazines and newspapers instead. I make some money from my blog but very little, mostly because I knock back all the offers to buy text links.

* What percentage of your travel is sponsored trips? None. I plan to keep it this way. (See this post).

* Do you have a day job, supporter, other source of income? I am a freelance journalist. 2009 was tough but it really feels like things are picking back up now. I am also married.

* What’s the last travel book you read? Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It was fantastic! Before that it was In the Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron, which was dazzling in parts but lost me for a while in the middle.

* Where do you come down on Eat Pray Love? I haven’t read it. I don’t begrudge her success but I have no interest in reading it.

* Do you think blogging and writing are the same thing? Blogging is a form of writing. Not all writing is blogging but all blogging is writing (except for photo or video blogs). The quality varies of course.

* Why are you blogging? I originally wanted to showcase my work and my travels and teach myself about new media. Now I do it because I love it and the community it connects me to. I don’t aim to make my blog commercially viable but I do look at it as good platform building if I ever write a book.

* Who have you met at TBEX that surprised you and why? [TBD]

* What have you learned while at TBEX? [TBD]

Photo credit: “Virgin America plane” by Binder.donedat on Flickr. Licensed for commercial use through Creative Commons.

Travel blogger TBEX Q&A is a post from: Roaming Tales

San Francisco; June 2010

Colourful bus parked on John F. Kennedy Drive in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on a warm summer’s day. I think the people on the front are cleaning the windscreen, but I’m not sure. What does it look like to you?

The bus looks very Northern California to me – very in tune with hippie culture. Of course, Golden Gate Park is not far from Haight Ashbury, one of the original centres of flower power.

It reminds me of this song, “If You’re Going to San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”…

This post is part of Photo Friday, a weekly blogging event hosted by Debbie of DeliciousBaby. Please click through to check out posts from other bloggers.

Photo Friday: Rainbow bus in Golden Gate Park is a post from: Roaming Tales