New York Produce

After nine months here the initial novelty of the endless choices and chaotic 24 hour nature of Manhattan grocery shopping has worn off a little. 

We are definitely missing European cheeses and breads. And mayonaise.

(I actually had a dream recently that M&S opened a branch in New York...) 

Anyway, one thing we do still love is buying our fruit and veg (or produce as they call it here) and other supplies at one of the many greenmarkets around the city.

There is a huge and famous greenmarket in Union Square which is great but there is also a lovely little one right at the end of our block at weekends.

Most of the produce is organic and locally grown. So far we've enjoyed cherry season, peach season and lots of heirloom tomato salads and right now we are loving the most delicious sweet corn.

 Any idea what this crazy vegetable is?

 I love the little green punnets the smaller fruits come in

 Now we're looking forward to an apple-filled Fall!

The grocery store

Shopping for food in New York is actually pretty different to London. It's all quite exciting still and full of novelty. So much food, so much choice! 

But I do have to admit that I am occasionally missing Waitrose and the Newington Green veg shop (that's normal right?).

Our best local grocery store is the Westside Market. 

It has a great deli and brilliant fruit and veg selection plus it stocks (at considerable expense) three of my most missed food items. Marmite, halloumi and creme fraiche. 

Incredibly it's open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Avocados the size of my head (you should see the size of the aubergines!)

 A tough choice... which dip to have with our 'chips'?

 The huge selection of cheese and meat keeps us both happy.

A little further down Broadway is the famous Zabar's deli which has been open for around 75 years and is a real Upper West Side institution (and features in SATC, The West Wing, 30 Rock etc etc). 

It's another great place for meat, cheese, bagels, smoked salmon and various Jewish delicacies and baked goods. Yum!

They'll also ship a 'homesick New Yorker' crate anywhere in the US within 12 hours containing Zabar's bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon and coffee.

 Within a couple of blocks of our flat we also have an Italian deli (that does the BEST sandwiches), a bagel bakery, a wine shop (you can't buy wine in regular supermarkets here - weird) and loads of other independent grocery stores. Pretty great! 

It's all quite chaotic and packed in though. I'd love a half hour gliding around the wide aisles of Waitrose where everything is organised in a sensible manner!

Did you know you can't buy Heinz baked beans in America though? What?! No buttery beans on toast? There is Tea and Sympathy downtown where you can buy pretty much all your favourite British treats. But you would not believe what they charge for baked beans, Cadburys, monster munch and Marmite! 

Think i'll start writing a little shopping list for our upcoming visitors!

Round the fleas

We seem to have spent a fair bit of the past few weekends exploring flea markets and scouting out local vintage stores in an attempt to furnish our apartment fairly cheaply and in a style we like. 

Luckily this is definitely my idea of fun! The hardest bit has been trying to stay focused on furniture when there has been so much amazing other stuff everywhere we've been.

Hell's Kitchen Flea Market is split over several locations. Some indoors and some outdoors.

The best section is definitely the Antiques Garage which is housed in a huge car park every weekend. Sadly not much furniture but I will definitely be back for clothes, knick knacks and lots more. So much great stuff!

This weekend we made our first trip to Brooklyn for the famous Brooklyn Flea. Apparently it's even better in summer when it moves outdoors. During winter it's in a huge old bank building and there was so much i wanted to buy! But sadly once again very little in the way of furniture. Seems second hand furniture is harder to come by here.

We also did some initial exploring of Brooklyn which seems great. It's funny how different it feels to Manhattan, was sort of like being back in the real world. Need to go back and see more soon.

Defrosting with hot chocolate in a Swedish cafe in Park Slope after some very chilly wandering.

Greenflea, our local market on the Upper West Side has proved the most fruitful on the furniture front so far. Lots of good stalls and close enough to go back to each week to see what's in stock. It's housed in a Junior school and is within walking distance of our flat.

Our favourite purchases so far...

Some very reasonably priced champagne bowls from Hells Kitchen (5 for $10). Yes we're still lacking essentials such as a kettle and coffee table but at least we can drink our Prosecco in style.

And a desk made of lovely old wood we will use as a work area in the living room (from Greenflea).

 Lots more shopping still to be done. I'm off to stalk some coffee tables on Ebay...

Getting festive

New York really is magical at this time of year. This is definitely a city that knows how to do Christmas without a hint of cynicism. Almost every shop makes me feel like a small child (Kevin in the classic Home Alone 2!) Pretty much every street corner has one of these lovely Christmas tree stalls so the whole place even smells festive. Looking forward to getting our tree up later this week!

Columbia even has it's own Christmas tree lighting ceremony (which sadly we missed) and the campus looks so sparkly now!

Walking around the city on Saturday we kept seeing loads of people in full Christmas fancy dress too. Initially thought they were just getting in the spirit, then it became a bit odd. Then we got home and googled it and turns out it was Santacon. What a weird event!

The famous Rockefeller Centre tree is pretty enormous but so packed with people you can't even get close!

The departments stores really go all out with their Christmas windows which are so pretty. I had a lovely sunny walk round midtown on Friday just soaking up all the magic.

(Apologies - it is quite hard to photograph windows in bright sunshine!)

Saks fifth avenue had a snow filled window selection.

Henri Bendel had some spectacular indoor displays too. It is a lovely old-fashioned department store and was apparently the first place in the US to stock Chanel.

Carousel themed windows at Tiffany & co.

Pretty wreaths at Bergdorf Goodman.

Who also have my absolute favourite windows with a spectacular animal theme. 

Look at the crowds!

Not that Christmassy but I just liked the circus at Louis Vuitton.

Lady Gaga designed the windows for Barneys (involving a lot of frankly quite creepy hair).

 Classic New York Christmas at Macy's!

Couldn't quite face the crowds at Macy's to get proper photos of the actual windows as it was a manic Saturday morning and Dave was waiting patiently for his brunch!