Lethologica

I have very nearly run out of words this week.

The old IRT power station. It supplied power for New York's first subway.

The beautiful, enormous building was designed by McKim, Mead & White.

I’m also all out of big thoughts, the ability to punctuate and good questions.  You see, for more than a week now, I’ve been filling in for one of the editors at work who has been out of the office.  I have slain many hackneyed phrases, deleted dozens of superfluous adverbs and thought very, very hard about the future of sports, the crisis on Wall Street and the new regulatory landscape in D.C., all on top of my regular job.

12th Avenue street art. This whole building was covered with it.

Clip Clop

New York City used to be a horse town.

People used to ride down Broadway. Buses used to be pulled by draft horses. Rather than streets full of yellow taxis there were streets full of neighing, pooping, kicking horses.

I wish I had seen those days.

The only remnant of the golden days of equine New York is the NYPD Mounted Unit. When I hear the clipclop of a police horse, my heart skips a beat and I get a little giddy. I turn into a 6 year old, I want to pet the horse!

Recently I was bumming around Tribeca when a very familiar smell hit my nose. Manure. Then I looked around and noticed all the trailers, and then I saw a mounted policeman. I asked if there was a stable around and he gestured down the street. Right there, opening up onto Washington Street, was a barn.

I could hear small rustlings, low whinnies, and see an occasional tail flick, but these are working animals and kept at a safe distance from over-enthusiastic ex-equestriennes like myself.

Not ready to join the NYPD? Then why not think about joining the New York Parks Enforcement Auxiliary Mounted Unit? You can patrol some of the city’s most beautiful parks and help lost kids find their parents and do a good thing for your city!

Ten Miles, Two Soups

Did you notice that I only posted once last week?

And only once the week before that, and the week before that, and the week before that? And that the posts really haven’t been about food?

Our friend Jack did.

On Friday nights we like to stop by the bar that used to be our neighborhood local when we lived in the Lower East Side. We go to catch-up with friends, drink beer and laugh, you know, the usual things people do at bars. My job keeps me late on Fridays, so Isaac gets time to play pool and chat and gossip before I get there. Last Friday, Jack turned to Isaac and said, “So, what have you guys been eating? Annie hasn’t been posting…”

I laughed and laughed when he told me this the next morning. It’s true. I had gone into a bit of a cooking slump right before Christmas. But boy, I was out of the gate fast and with gusto in the new year. The kitchen has been in heavy use and some truly spectacular stuff has been flowing out at a steady clip, but I seem to have lost all time management skills.

Case in point? This post. It’s at least a week late. But, it was held up for good reason. What’s the reason? Cartography.

A few weekends ago, Isaac and I went on an epic walk. We walked Bedford Avenue from start to finish (give or take a block or two). Bedford is considered by many to be the longest street entirely contained within the County of Kings, a fact gleaned from Barry Lewis on Thanksgiving. Once we learned that, we knew we had to walk its 10 miles.

We awoke two Saturdays ago to a glorious, warm January day. It was time. And so with coffee and bialys in hand, we rode the Q out to Sheepshead Bay, camera in tow. I got a little lost trying to get us from the subway station to Voorhies Avenue, the actual head of Bedford, so we started our trek at Avenue Y instead.

I know you’re all thinking, “Right, so you guys went on a walk, what do maps have to do with this?” Well… I made you one! Right here. Complete with pictures and captions. I think it puts the trek into a better context. And I did it because I love maps.

We have an entire hallway lined with them in the apartment, right outside the bathroom. They’re those antique reproduction posters of cities like Paris, London, Venice and New York that you can buy in any art store. I love to study them while I’m brushing my teeth. And since I have a penchant for reading slightly trashy historical novels, they often provide insight as to where the characters are living. And, since we’re going to Florence in two months, I’ve been studying that one especially hard.

But, enough about maps, back to the walk.

We stopped for a “light” lunch somewhere around the midpoint of the walk. The plan was to snack in the middle and to end our trek in Greenpoint with a great, steaming bowl of white borscht like Brooklynguy suggested. Alas. Balboa was too much for us. The curry chicken, oxtail and mac & cheese (Oh the mac & cheese! How have I never thought of eating my mac & cheese with curry sauce until that day?) were delicious and filling enough to carry us through. We wanted to stop for borscht, but it just wasn’t prudent.

But what we did discover is that the trip to Greenpoint is actually quite easy from Bay Ridge, so we’ll be going back Brooklynguy! Don’t you worry! And soon. I need to have a borscht-off of some sort this year, since I failed so miserably at the Great De-Beet 2008.

We were achy and sore when we got home, because no matter how many times you go to the gym, a ten mile walk is still a ten mile walk, especially when it’s ten miles on hard city sidewalks. So dinner was a modest affair. Pasta in a thrown together tomato sauce. But the next night? Oh delicious soup!

I’m beginning to think there’s such a thing as blogronicity. Two days before New Year’s Eve, as Isaac was in the kitchen cooking up his pot of cauliflower soup, I surfed over to Clumsy‘s blog and found she had just made a cauliflower & leek soup. Monday morning as I was desperately trying to catch up on my interweb surfing, there she was again, with French onion soup, the meal I’d cooked the night before. I find it amusing how two people on two different coasts experiencing vastly different winters can crave the same thing. Funny.

So, in celebration of my new discovery, blogronicity, I’ll leave you with our recipes for the two soups, even though I know you’re just really here for the map.

Head below the jump for Isaac’s Cauliflower Soup and Annie’s French Onion Soup.

Manhattanhenge

Stuyvesant Street is the only street on Manhattan that actually runs on the true East-West axis. All the other streets are slightly tilted. This allows for a curious phenomenon that occurs twice a year at sunset that has become known as Manhattanhenge.

The sun comes pouring down all the streets, turning them into bright orange canyons of light. It’s truly spectacular, and a little awe inspiring. There’s another one on July 13th in case you missed this one.

Uncorny Coney

My absolute favorite time to visit Coney Island is off season. There’s such a down at the heels, sadly romantic feel about the place. It’s quiet.

You can hear the waves lapping at the shoreline. I love it.

During the summer it’s a whole ‘nother story. I try to avoid it like the plague. Thousands of people swarm the boardwalk and it’s hotter than hades.

Nathan’s is open year round, as is the rightfully famous Totonno’s.

The Cyclone is not.

Trust me, that’s okay. It’s the scariest roller coaster I’ve ever been on. It whips you so hard they ask you to take your glasses off. I balked when the guy asked me that. I said, “But what if I want to see?” And the guy replied to me, “Trust me, you’re not going to want to!”