My family of four has been to the Legoland New York theme park for day trips, but we'd never stayed on the property before since it's only a 90-minute drive from my home in New York City.
19.09.2023 - 00:25 / bbc.com
Few places are as synonymous with Jewish food as New York City. Manhattan's Lower East Side neighbourhood served as a culinary cauldron when it was home to the largest Jewish community in the world in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, blending centuries of diasporic gastronomic knowledge.
It was here that Jews with roots in modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia and Romania merged their spices and tastes with German and Hungarian Jews and their Gentile neighbours. This blending of recipes created Jewish-American cuisine as we know it today – think bagels with lox and schmear (cream cheese-based spreads), pastrami, matzo ball soup and loaves of freshly baked babka bread oozing with cinnamon or chocolate.
The Jewish culinary pioneers of the early 20th Century have created institutions that are must-see stops on any foodie's visit to the city. The stacks of pastrami at Katz's Delicatessen, the smoked whitefish of Barney Greengrass and bagels with lox and schmear from Russ & Daughters are legendary juggernauts.
But here we're highlighting the lesser-known denizens of Jewish food history and the new era of sandwich slingers who are maintaining New York City as the epicentre of Jewish-American cuisine.
1. Shalom Japan
Japanese and Jewish cuisine might not seem like natural partners. But it takes just one bowl of Shalom Japan's matzo ball ramen with garlicky chilli oil built on a foundation of chicken broth with char siu chicken, spring onions and nori to change anyone's mind. Suddenly, dishes like their lox bowl with sushi rice, ikura (salmon caviar), avocado, Japanese pickles, fried capers and chilli mayo make complete sense.
Married co-owners, Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi, play off their respective heritages to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience at this Williamsburg eatery. There's a chic izakaya (Japanese tavern) vibe marked with tasteful Jewish kitsch – like the photo from a 1960s ad showing a Japanese boy holding a sandwich next to a bag of Levy's Jewish Rye bread with a message reading, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's real Jewish Rye".
Fortunately, travellers can now recreate their Shalom Japan experience at home through Israel and Okochi's cookbook, Love Japan: Recipes From Our Japanese American Kitchen.
Website: www.shalomjapannyc.com
Address: 310 S 4th St, Brooklyn
Phone: +1-718-388-4012
Instagram: @shalomjapan
2. Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery
For those in the know, the name Yonah Schimmel is synonymous with knish – the once-beloved Ashkenazi snack of baked dough stuffed with potatoes, kasha (buckwheat), onions and spices. These are hearty, dense snacks on-the-go with roots in the Pale of Settlement (modern-day Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Ukraine, eastern
My family of four has been to the Legoland New York theme park for day trips, but we'd never stayed on the property before since it's only a 90-minute drive from my home in New York City.
The head of Airbnb, the world's largest vacation rental platform, issued a warning to travelers considering a trip to New York City over the next year.
In the spring of 2023, the New York City portfolio of Moxy Hotels expanded into another borough with the opening of Moxy Williamsburg, where it is courting more than guests. The Moxy brand property is the partner of the WNBA basketball team, New York Liberty, through an agreement that began this past June.
Let’s face it: New York City has never been cheap – and a strong dollar and recent inflation have only made things more expensive.
Born in California, Alex Brightman is a two-time Tony nominee and writer living in New York City. He loves watching baseball and basketball when he's not on stage. Right now you can see him as Richard Dreyfuss in “The Shark is Broken” on Broadway.
In my latest column where I profile creatives and highlight their travel style, I had the pleasure of interviewing Yulia Ziskel, who is a violinist for the New York Philharmonic and has been a member of the first violin section since 2001.
Three life-changing words: New York City.
A recent visit to Governors Island came a few days after a conversation I’d had with my father in which he’d instructed me to act like a tourist in my own city. He’d started by asking simply how I was filling my summer weekends, and I answered honestly that most of my free time was spent reading in one park or another and going to bars in my Brooklyn neighborhood. “New York City,” he reminded me (with earnest intention to inspire, no righteousness detected), “has more things to do in it than you’ll be able to see in a lifetime.”
When you're after a beach in New York State, the glitz and glamor of the Hamptons and the old-school appeal of Coney Island – both in the vicinity of New York City – tend to steal the spotlight. But there are plenty more sandy havens to be found across the Empire State.
New York City evokes both high-rise luxury and savvy deals. But the best offer in town? The number of free attractions the Big Apple has to enjoy.
If there's one thing New York City does better than most other US destinations, it's overloading the senses.
After 18 years of living in New York State, I’ve learned quite a bit about the country’s fourth-most populous state. From where to go and what to do, to what to eat and how to get around, here are some tips from a local on how to make the most of your visit to the Empire State.