The New York City Traveler

Candle 79 is a warmly elegant escape in the heart of Manhattan’s Upper East Side.  A duplex with floor to ceiling windows not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers superior alternatives to institution cafeteria food with attentive service and some of the best organic vegan cuisine in NYC.  Don’t miss their Seitan (wheat gluten) Picatta served with mouth watering lemon-caper sauce, velvety creamed spinach, lavishly prepared oyster mushrooms and perfectly carmelized shallot mashed potatoes.  Or try a side of polenta (boiled cornmeal) fries.  Truly to die for!
Their local ingredients come from as many as 10 small farms …read more

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Over the past 35 years, the Indo-American population and its cultural influence has increased exponentially in the U.S. and nowhere more prominently than NYC. So it’s only fitting that this year, marking India’s 60th Anniversary of Independence celebration, The Dance Festival of India will be held on Sept. 20th at Carnegie Hall.  Featuring a pre-performance celebration dinner and a six-part evening concert lasting three hours, the festival will begin at 8PM showcasing six internationally recognized dance troupes from across India performing the following classical dance styles: Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Odissi, and Kalaripayattu. A little knowledge of this art form’s …read more

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Hey summer isn’t over yet….so all the hot weather treats are still in!  It’s still safe to wear shorts, flip flops, and take your time with your favorite frozen yogurt.  That’s right, I didn’t say ice cream cone because Red Mango is in town!  They keep it simple at first with 2 flavors: either green tea (as flavorful as the liquid variety) or a real creamy vanilla.  After that, your topping options expand exponentially. You can either take the high road with healthy fresh blueberries, raspberries, bear naked granola, mochi (sweet rice cake), red beans, or sliced almonds. Alternatively take …read more

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The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, New York’s largest artist-run non profit exhibition space features more than 700 paintings and photography spread over 25,000 square feet of a Civil War era warehouse. Located at 499 Van Brunt St. in Red Hook, this 1869 complex of storehouses is constructed with rough-cut schist on reclaimed marshland and is now a work of art and heritage destination in itself.  Settled by the Dutch in 1636, Red Hook’s docks increasingly bustled with maritime trade, especially after the Erie Canal connected New York harbor to the Midwest.  Inside the galleries, you can easily imagine hard scrabble …read more

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Its third season in NYC, Spiegel World, often described as "neo-carnival", actually represents many experiences.  As a traveling circus, it resembles Cirque du Soleil but it also includes a 25,000-square-foot open air venue encompassing a restaurant, bar, and beer garden with cabanas, hammocks, and nightclub under the stars, all with spectacular views of the three downtown bridges, East River and the Olafur Eliasson waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge.  This year, two Spiegel tents, The "Salon Perdu" and "The Deluxe", an intimate 350-seat tent with circular stage, crown this site at South Street Seaport’s Pier 17.  These Spiegel tents (Flemish for …read more

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Building on the noodle craze that’s been taking Manhattan’s Chinatown by storm, Lan Zhou Handpull Noodle in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, elevates noodle making to a loftier and consequently tastier level. Noodle masters prepare the goods from scratch right before your eyes. Lumps of dough are cut off from the giant mother lode batch and kneaded a little bit with oil. Next, the noodle master flours the table and starts stretching the dough into amazingly long strands, usually in batches small enough for just a few servings. The resulting noodles are then slapped against the table to remove excess …read more

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Due to popular demand, Arias With A Twist, originally scheduled to run through July, is now extended through December.  If you really want to see what makes NYC the nation’s cutting edge performance art venue, get yourself over to the newly renovated Here Arts Center at 145 6th Ave. and check out puppet master Basil Twist interacting with drag diva Joey Arias.  Mr. Arias is a cross-dressing vocalist best known for reaching Billie Holiday-esque wails and sporting heavy false eyelashes as mistress of ceremonies for Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity in Vegas. Mr. Twist, an accomplished puppeteer along with his acclaimed …read more

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You may have seen ladies on the street wearing a flouncy bright pink skirt, rhinestone studded black tank top and red-streaked black hair.  I’ll bet you didn’t know that New York Couture is on the vanguard of popularizing this look…at least here in NYC. Now you can be at the epicenter of this staggering blend of punk-rock cool, ultra-glam and prima ballerina at the New York Couture Fashion Show and Party at Mansion, a club on 530 W. 28th Street. Sold in 20+ boutiques across the world and featured in magazines such as Star, ELLE, NYLON, and sported by celebrities …read more

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Eating a crepe on the go isn’t always possible, especially if it’s stuffed with drippy fruit sauces and loaded with cheese. However, once you become more adept, crepes turn out to be good mobile snacks. In Paris, you’ll find many crepe stands doling them out in wax paper or on paper plates. The Creperie, one of New York’s few take-out places serving an extensive lineup of these savories, prepares them hot and crispy right before your eyes.  The crepe artist behind the counter of this Lower East Side 7×7 (tiny) cafe pours the exact amount of batter into three circular …read more

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A lot of times, pocket parks are overlooked in the mad rush to grander sylvan refuges…Central Park, Prospect Park, etc.. But ignore the smaller pockets of respite stuffed into New York’s urban fabric at your peril!  Not that doing so will unleash any bad omens but you’ll definitely miss out on some intriguing capsules of city heritage and portals from which to view everyday New Yorkers at ease…on their way to something else.
More information on PlanetEye: Bowling Green Park

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