Day 5 Chinatown and Little Italy



Katz's Deli



Left the apartment late morning and rode the subway down to Canal street to checkout Chinatown and Little Italy. We spent an hour and a half walking the streets of both places and it seemed as though Chinatown is encroaching on Little Italy. We did enjoy the Chinatown sights, but Little Italy seemed to be a little too hokey and touristy. Instead of having lunch there, we decided to walk on up to Katz's Deli on Houston(http://katzsdelicatessen.com/). It's a crazy place and most people consider it the best deli in New York. We split a Pastrami sandwich that was orders of magnitude better than any pastrami sandwich I've ever had. On the way up there we passed through a neighborhood called Nolita (North of Little Italy) that seemed to be a wonderful place to live and hang out. I'd like to go back there some day. Leaving Katz's I thought since we we were near McSorley's Ale House (http://www.mcsorleysnewyork.com/) and the oldest bar in New York, we might as well stop in and have a beer. It was a short walk to a different sort of pub. It's 156 years old and only serves two beers, their own light and dark, and when you order either light or dark, they give you two beers. The only other beverage is a soda. I had my beers and a clam chowder and Sylvia stood there (no bar stools) and watched me drink. Women were not allowed in McSorley's until 1970 and then it took a Supreme Court ruling (must have been a bunch of Liberals). We could have taken the subway back uptown, but since we were already on 7th street, and it was a nice enough day, we thought we would just walk the 80 blocks back to the apartment. We walked mostly up First and Third avenues through the East Village, Grammercy Park, Murray Hill, and Lennox Hill areas. We did make a couple of stops though, one in particular was O'Flannigan's on First and 66th - an Irish Bar I used to stop in fairly often (couple times a week). I remember sitting at the bar when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record. The place has not changed one lick. Arrived back at the apartment late in the afternoon, and as we had just walked a total of about 12 miles, the 34 steps looked like a mountain.

For Dinner we decided to try Zebu Grill (http://www.zebugrill.com/) a small Brazillian restaurant a block from where we used to live. We arrived at 8 to a nearly empty restaurant, and by the time we left it was mostly full with people still coming in. The staff there were very young, extremely friendly and enthuiastic. Sylvia had Filet de Lombo - it's almost like a pork schnitzel. She had been clamoring for one the past couple of days - she loved it. I was a little more adventuresome and ordered Feijoada, the Brazilian national dish. I have no idea how to pronounce it, I asked three times and still couldn't. It's a black bean stew with braised pork, short ribs, and sausage served with rice, collard greens, yucca (consistency of sand), and oranges. It was outstanding and I couldn't believe I ate the whole thing. I would be a regular customer if I lived anywhere near here. Stuffed, we waddled back to face the 34 step mountain.





McSorley's Menu