Gangs of New York

Its been a couple of weeks since we got back from New York and with a couple of hurricanes getting in the way have only now got round to writing about it.

I do like New York, its a great world city.  Only on Friday I was reading an opinion piece suggesting that because of its even greater diversity, London has just regained top slot in the race for the #1 city of the world, a place held for the last 50 or so years by New York.  I don't disagree with that of course (being partial) but that still doesn't do anything to detract from NY's allure for me.

We arrived on a Monday in late October around 11 am so I organised a walking tour of lower Manhattan titled after the movie of the same name that is the title of this post.  That movie was a historical classic, and of a time when the city (and country) was changing from an old world colony to a new world polyglot.  Before this period (the 1860's) America was all about old world colonists.  After it was all about immigration, massive growth and a really new world country.  The Civil War being the devastating catalyst for speeding things up even more.

So I found Alex.

It was a Living Social thing that gave me the idea but none were available so the fallback of Google found Alex (see website www.Alexstours.com).  Timing was right so we headed out immediately and found the church assembly point AND the oldest pizzeria right near by... called Lombardi's and opened in 1905 (see website here).  The pizzas weren't as great as in Chicago or St. Louis but still pretty nice and as it was an icon, the place was jammed.

Lombardi's Pizzeria

However Alex didn't show up at the allotted time.

So I called him and he gave me a whole bunch of stuff about how his 3 different online calendars weren't working properly and said "sorry" an enormous amount of times ... and then said he could be there in 30 minutes.

It gave us the chance to consider where we were.  Its beyond Greenwich Village down to the unnumbered cross streets and south of Houston (which is one of the subway stops nearby) --- incidently Houston is pronounced HOW-STON not WHO-STON because of its Dutch ancestry and the spelling change from HOO-STON which in Dutch pronunciation is HOW-STON.  OK?  Well that's what Alex told us anyway.

It was a brilliant tour and it all comes down to Alex, a young 20-something with an outrageous French accent who conducts tours in English (father is English), French (mother is French), Italian and German (no idea about the last two).

I am so impressed by young people who have a vision and guts to start up their own business and give it a go.  (Alex incidentally plays jazz in a band and that night had a gig but despite this was very casual about continuing on and on).

He was also very knowledgeable (or at least it seemed that way to me) and had a high speed delivery that made me feel breathless and certainly obviated the need and opportunity to ask questions.

So onto the tour, well it all takes place around Five Points, a part of NY above the financial district but below where the rich folks lived.  Once you came off the boats from wherever, you ended up in Five Points.  There were Italian, German, Polish, Russian, you name it nationalities but predominantly the Irish.  They all hated one another but it was only the Irish who hated themselves too -- "You're from Cork, you B*&*^*&".  That sort of thing.  So there were umpteen gangs that were initially set up for self-protection but soon morphed into criminality as well.  So 'protection' was not only from the other nationalities but also from your own gang.

Five Points in the old days -- called so because it was at the junction of 5 streets

Take the tour yourself to find out all the good stuff.  There is so much I could write for ages but I loved the story about the firemen the most.  As all the tenement buildings were essentially wooden construction, fires were frequent and devastating.  Hence the need for firemen.  However the gangs owned the fire stations (which were usually the gathering points for the gangs) and were a good profit centre.  The city paid only the first crew that got to a fire so there was a race (and often battles) to fires.  Also enterprising entrepreneurs may even set the fires and then set an upturned barrel on the nearest hydrant so no competing fire brigade could attend the fire.

One of the old fire stations

These days 1 Police Precinct, City Hall and the Criminal Courts is on top of what was Five Points -- that says something!  Clearly it was so troublesome and after the multitude of riots, the worst being the 1863 version covered in the movie that the city fathers felt that bulldozing the whole place was the best solution.

Five Points today

We ended up after more than 3 hours pretty weary at the Staten Island Ferry right at sunset so felt that cocktails and dinner would be the best way ahead.

This we managed at Harry's in the financial district (see website here), a great steak house that made wonderful Negroni's, a personal favorite!

Tuesday was meant to be our shoppping day as everyone is on sale in New York, it seems all the time these days however after dragging ourselves around the 5th Avenue Uniqlo store, we ran out of energy so decided to go to the movies instead, passing the ticket office on Times Square along the way where we bought tickets for Les Miserables for that night (incidentally we made the movies too!).

I saw Les Miz in London 30 years ago and it was pretty much the same show, pretentious, dark and Jean Valjean having a pretty hard time of things, year after year.  Victor Hugo himself apparently didn't think much of either Marius or Cosette so constructed very superficial characters for them.  However Epernine and Gavroche were great characters and received strong, if brief coverage.  It must be difficult though for any actor to make any part his or her own after so many years.

I won't go into detail about my business meetings but will note that this year's restaurant choice was another simply magnificent steak house in old New York.  Thank goodness, they keep on coming.

By the way, do you know why they call New York the big apple?  Apparently it stems from Harlem jazzmen who in conversation always referred to getting a gig as getting "a big apple" so at some point along the way, those jazzmen's slang went viral.

So Big Apple and of course Alex, thanks.  We had a great time!

Gastronomy Domine

It is difficult looking back over the road trip to forget a key highlight being the various regional things we ate and drank which are of exceptional note.  Here they are in no particular order:

Chicago Pizza 
Probably the stodgiest thing I've ever eaten in my life.  In London 30 years ago there was a restaurant called the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory (closed now sadly) which I went to often.  Their pizzas were certainly deep dish but not this deep dish!  The pizza takes 45 minutes minimum to cook through but its worth the wait.  It just amazes me how even slim and small people can wolf back immense hunks of this pizza.  We shared a one person pie and left barely able to waddle, let alone walk!

Giordano's deep dish offering

Memphis BarBQ
Memphis BBQ is dry which is just how we like it.  That way you can taste the meat not the sloshed on sauce covering up any fault in the cooking.  It was great particularly when sprinkled with the dry rub after being taken off the grill just prior to serving.  That gave a wonderful extra something to the meat, usually ribs and brisket for us.

Lamb Ribs
Why hasn't anyone thought of serving lamb ribs the same way as pork ribs?  You get the trimmed down, so called French cut, racks of lamb which are nice in their own right.  But just wait and try lamb ribs barbecued the Memphis (i.e. dry) way.  Fantastic.  When you think about it lambs have exactly the same rib set up as pigs so why wouldn't they have spare ribs too?  Well they do and probably its the butcher that knows just how lovely they are so doesn't allow them to get out to the public at large.  He gets to keep them for himself instead.  Don't blame him at all.

Rendezvous BBQ in Memphis' dry rubbed lamb ribs

St. Louis Pizza
The other side of the coin to the deep dish is the wafer thin, hellishly crispy, cut into squares piece of deliciousness that is the St. Louis Pizza.  Lord knows why they do it this way, I am just glad they do.  Just fantastic.  We had one for breakfast one day which is a really good time to eat this type of pizza.  I think any time is good to eat this type of pizza actually.

Toasted Ravioli
What?  It happened by accident when a chef accidentally dropped a ravioli into a deep fat fryer.  OK its fried and anything fried tastes good, right?  We only had it once and it was ... OK.  Crispy for sure on the outside which is interesting but the inside remains a bit on the stodgy side.  Glad to have had it but I won't rush back for more.  And the title... no idea why its called 'Toasted' as its actually deep fried.  Could be because it sounds more healthy to be toasted.

And what we missed, again in no particular order:

St. Louis BQ
This is the wet cousin of dry BBQ with gushing amounts of sauce sloshed all over the cooked meat.  To be honest we didn't try that hard to eat it.

Frozen Custard Pie
Huh?  Just as it sounds except place in freezer and cut chunks off to eat... like an ice cream.  Never saw it.

Alligator and Shrimp Cheesecake
Honestly.  We went to a good cajun style restaurant and this was on the menu.  A bunch of guys came in after we'd eaten and went through a bunch of Louisiana favorites including steamed crawfish, oysters done a variety of cooked styles and this.  Imagine a cheesecake covered in shrimp and alligator and that's exactly what it was.

It would be wrong to talk about eats without what should wash it all down so in no particular order:

Mint Julep
I'd practiced by having a julep with coriander in Cayman a short while before which was ... well ... so when we were in Kentucky we just had to have the real thing that is served in gallons at the Kentucky Derby.  Made with bourbon, mint and sugar syrup over ice, this drink is not to be taken lightly at all.  I cannot imagine drinking more than two of these without the ability to retire to a quiet, cool, dark room for a nice lie down.

Old Fashioned
Made with bourbon, syrup again and something else, I think sweet vermouth, this tastes like velvet and warms you from the inside top to toe within two minutes.  About this time you also lose the feeling in your teeth so probably have another which really is a bad idea without the ability to retire to a quiet, cool, dark room for a nice lie down.

Old Fashioned on the left and Mint Julep to the right

Bourbon
This of course is unfair as there are hundreds of varietals all made with the same loving difference as the finest scotch whiskies.

Negroni
This drink is made to different recipes in different places.  The basic ingredients are gin, campari and sweet vermouth but if you delete gin and add bourbon, you get the Peabody Hotel Memphis twist.  However if you take some port, put it in a barrel for 4 weeks and then add the aforementioned traditional ingredients you get the Missouri Athletic Club twist.  Both are really scrummy and if you are wise, you definitely have another and abandon further plans for the evening but instead seek out a quiet, cool, dark room for a nice lie down.

Barman Robert's Negroni from the Missouri Athletic Club

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