Eating More Food
When you finally regain your ability to eat after Thanksgiving, I want you to consider how New York food is different. I’m from California, and during my fine dining in New York I’ve noticed some strange customs. There’s a continental divide in our cuisine:
- People in New York drink from soda cans with a straw.
- They also fold their pizza slices.
Folded?
I admire this convenience but I can’t bring myself to convert. The pizza’s so beautiful you want to see the toppings. Also, the diversity of texture found in the cheese, sauce, vegetables and meat is far more pleasant than the monotony of bread. So for now, I’m going to eat with one eye on my toppings and another on the 6’3” construction worker who keeps staring at me.
- In New York restaurants (and in other busy places) people wait “on line” not “in line.” This is confusing.
- Every fast food Chinese restaurant serves a very popular condiment called duck sauce. Apparently they have duck sauce in other places, but I had never heard of it. I wasn’t prepared for the outpouring of love New Yorkers have for duck sauce.
- In New York people get their food “To stay or to go,” while in California they get their food “For here or to go.” New Yorkers are much more logical. Should I stay or go? Makes sense. This must be a commentary on the nature of Californians. They had to develop a system of restaurant speak that emphasized the here, the now. Enjoying the moment.
Enjoy your post-Thanksgiving.
November 28th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
It took me a long time to get used to saying “to stay” instead of “for here.”
“On line” really threw me when I first got here too. Where was this line that people claimed to be on top of? Now that mobile Internet access is ubiquitous, that term is even more confusing.
I’ve adopted the folded-slice method only when I’m eating low- to mediocre-quality pizza. For pizza I genuinely want to appreciate, I’m all horizontal.
November 29th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
[...] Eating More Food I’m from California, and during my fine dining in New York I’ve noticed some strange customs. There’sa continental divide in our cuisine:. People in New York drink from soda cans with a straw. They also fold their pizza slices. Folded? … [...]
November 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
[...] Eating More Food Every fast food Chinese restaurant serves a very popular condiment called duck sauce. Apparently they have duck sauce in other places, but I had never heard of it. I wasn’t prepared for the outpouring of love New Yorkers have for duck … [...]
November 29th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Hahaha, lovely commentary post.
Straws are mostly on-again, off-again. New Yorkers are raised with a (as I see it, healthy) concern for where the can’s aluminum lip has been and what it has touched. Or it could be that slurping action and the fun, slightly nostalgic empty-air-in-a-can sound at the end.
Folded pizza? Better to run and not lose the toppings with, says the witch as she flies to the subway car. I’m with Jim on this one.
Ah, New Yorkers as logical? Fantastic!
November 30th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I was also bewildered by the straws, but I’m a convert to folded pizza. It definitely tastes better to eat it the other way because you can taste more of the cheese, but it’s much more efficient to eat it folded.
Here’s my pet peeve. This born-and-bred midwesterner was shocked by the realization that in a town where you can get Thai, Indian, Korean, Scottish–any kind of food you can name–a decent blueberry bagel is scarcer than gold.
To illustrate, I once asked a vendor if he had any blueberry bagels. “Yes, yes,” he said, and handed me a raisin bagel (bleh!). We then had a five minute debate on whether or not raisins were the same thing as blueberries.