Author Archives: Michelle Chen

36 Hours Below 59th Street, Manhattan

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36 Hours below 59th Street, Manhattan

By: Michelle Chen Dec. 5, 2016

In amidst of the well-known city of New York, lies between the unknown Seward Park and Greenarce Park.

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View of Seward Park playground during the afternoon. Photographed by Yuka Yoneda

 

Thirty six hours is not enough time to explore all of New York; let alone Manhattan. However, that shouldn’t stop you from visiting the hidden sweet spots of New York City. Manhattan is immersed with neighboring cultures adjacent from each other. One of the reasons why New York City is a popular location for tourists is because the city provides different types of activities that ranges from visiting museums, relaxing in parks, shopping at the malls, and eating in restaurants that make up the typical lifestyle of a New Yorker.

LINK OF THE LOCATIONS TO VISIT ON THE MAP

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RB2w8uJPVNR1RocYA75scnTDvLo&usp=sharing

Saturday

  1. STARTING FROM THE BOTTOM, 12 P.M.

Take a stroll through Seward Park and around the local area for it is not as crowded as other well-known parks. Not many visitors travel to Lower Manhattan for small parks like these but that is the major reason why you should begin with places like these. Especially right after you flew in from, you should relax and settle in before diving into the rich and congested environment of New York. Although Seward Park is not well-known compared to Central Park and Bryant Park, it is unlikely for adventurous travelers to be stuck in traffic in areas around Seward. Once you take the F to East Broadway/Delaney Street, you will be surrounded by 20-story buildings that was designed by Seward Park Cooperative. With the help of the United Housing Foundation, they were able to provide affordable housing for the locals while providing a fantastic view of the city for everyone.

  1. DONUTS AT THE DOUGHNUT PLANT? , 2 P.M.

Craving for some delicious pastries? Stop by Doughnut Plant where they grow homemade doughnuts. It is located outside of Seward Park on Grand Street. The best time to go is during the afternoon. Even though it’s during rush hour, that’s when all the doughnuts comes in hot and fresh. The price ranges from $3 to $5 dollars a doughnut. Try the blackout that’s heavy in layers of chocolate. The decadent chocolate cake doughnut is filled with chocolate pudding and dipped in chocolate ganache. As the last layer, they use chocolate sprinkles to finish it off. Other doughnuts are filled with homemade jam, custards, and cream. There are other drinks such as tea and their own brand of coffee to complement their pastries. New York City is known to provide the best doughnuts and pizzas. On every other block, there’s a pizza shop that serves the New York style pizzas.

  1. SOMETHING SWEET WITH YOUR SAVORY, 6 P.M.

You can’t go wrong with combining breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert all in one. Walk down to Ludlow Street to find Sweet Chick. This restaurant is an all-around American comfort food that serves their fried chicken with their fluffy waffles for $17. The $9 mac and cheese is one of the most popular items because it consist of three types of cheese: gruyere, fontina, and aged white cheddar cheese and to top it off, it has a later of Ritz cracker crust. Even though it is a little on the pricey side, it’s definitely one of the main joints to head to when looking for a combination of sweet and savory. It is the definition of American comfort food. There are other local shops and boutiques if you’re interested in buying gifts or souvenirs to take back with you.

  1. ALWAYS ROOM FOR SOME FUN, 9 P.M.

Just across Ludlow Street is a hip nightclub that hosts private events. No Fun’s menu is based on Mexican and Italian cuisines. They serve duck carbonara and seasonal risotto for $14, as well as tacos and empanadas that go for $4 to $11. All drinks such as Old School Manhattan (with sweet vermouth), Whippet Rush (with whipped cream vodka), and High City Miles (with Stolichnaya gold) cost $14. No Fun is the best to place to end the night with trendy music and bar food. No Fun is the definition of an authentic and trendy New York bar that offers their take on Mexican food while providing different types of music. New York is all about that adventurous lifestyle.

SUNDAY

  1. CHELSEA GALORE, 10 A.M.

What’s better than shopping for clothes at SOHO? Shopping at Chelsea Market. While most visitors walk down on Broadway and is overwhelmed by the clothing district, you can spend your valuable time at the market where most come for the diversity of food shops. You can take the F train once again to 14 Street Station and walk three blocks up West to 9th Avenue. You can shop at Amy’s Bread, hang out at Bar Truman, or dine in at Creamline. The Chelsea Market is known to have diverse events and shopping spaces and tend to vary every week. New Yorkers are those type of people who are always on the move because they’re so busy. Watch out for those long lines and go before 10 AM.

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A small area of the High Line on 23rd Street. Photographed by Robert Wright.

  1. ON A HIGH DATE, 2 P.M.

Walk a block more where the High Line is. It’s the perfect place to take your date out. The High Line is park that runs from Gansevoort Street to West 34th Street. One of the spots on the High Line is the Falcone Flyover that’s covered with luscious plants like big leaf magnolia and berry trees. As the holidays come, there are holiday concerts in the neighborhood. Activities such as caroling and a special tree lighting ceremony are just the few to name. Because New York can be overwhelming, places like the High Line are established to get away from the loud and congested environment. For a change of pace, visit the High Line to experience a whole new realm of what New York has to offer.

  1. FASHION IS THE NEW BLACK, 4 P.M.

If you’re still looking for more activities, head over to the Museum at FIT. As one of the select few of that specializes in fashion, it is one of the popular exhibits. One of the reasons why it is popular is because it is free of admission. As fashion plays a huge role in New York City, shopping and current trends is what New Yorkers look up upon. As I mentioned earlier, SOHO is overpopulated with tourists but if you don’t mind the pushing and shoving, head over there to get your fashion on. Times Square is another popular location and is the perfect area to take your Instagram pictures.

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A sea of Korean food from egg rolls to sweet and sour tofu and chicken to delicious stir fry noodles. Photographed by Michelle Chen.

  1. KOREA TOWN, 8 P.M.

Even though Korea Town only takes up one full block, it has many fun activities such as going into The Maze where you can complete puzzles with friends and family. You can take the 2 or 3 train to 34 Street Penn Station and walk to 6th Avenue to try out Korean Food. For $6 per pound, Woorijip gives a variety of different Korean foods such as kimchi pancakes, bibimdop, kimbap, and more. One of the great things about New York City is not only its diversity of people, but also the different types of food cultural backgrounds have to offer. If you’re looking to let loose, go to one of the karaoke bars to sing and drink all night long. As you probably heard before, New York City is the city that never sleeps.

MONDAY

  1. DETOUR ON ART, 11 A.M.

Moving deeper into the center of the busy lifestyle of New York, the Museum of Modern Art is one of many activities that one would spend in New York City. Photography and art is significant in today’s culture. Admissions for adults is $25 and children are free from admission. Many school trips are held at Museum of Modem Art because it provides a rich-learning environment about the culture in New York City. While some take on photography as a hobby, many consider it a career. Ever heard of Humans of New York? Humans of New York is a series of photographs that has a story behind each and every one of them. It is a website that encourages people to reveal their story and their background. Humans of New York means just that; experiences of all types of people of New York. This is one of the many ways that shown how much New York and its diversity has grown. Coming together as a community and as a city makes New York City one of the best places to not only visit in, but to live in.

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The 25 feet waterfall in the middle of Greenarce Park. Photographed by Michelle Chen.

  1. RAINFOREST IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY? 2 P.M.

I like to end where I started. Moving up to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is another no so well known park called Greenarce Park. Not only is it free of charge, but it is the most relaxing and rejuvenating spot you can find in Manhattan.The beautiful waterfall is the main attraction of the small park. It helps eliminate all noise pollution and isolates you into a rain forest type of environment. There’s also a small food both called Food Bella that sells the freshest lemonade. For the last few hours of your stay, why don’t you spend it in a relaxing park? Where else will you find a 25 feet tall waterfall in the heart of New York City?

Lodging

Manhattan is a rich lifestyle to maintain and to keep up but that shouldn’t stop you from resting in a relaxing hotel. Make reservations in the Holiday Inn at Midtown for $125 or less. It’s located in the middle of Manhattan and has all the available trains and buses to get to all of the destinations.

Are you with friends or family? Children perhaps? Make reservations at Hotel Pennsylvania for prices that go as high as $90. They provide It’s located between W 32nd Street and W 33rd Street. Hotel Penn is also close to majority of the trains such as the B, D, F, M, N, R, and W trains. If you’re looking to stay in, Hotel Penn also provides free facilities such as a fitness center, as well as amenities you can think of.

References

Hello, World! (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://nofun-nyc.com/

Holiday Inn. (2016). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/reservation

Humans of New York. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.humansofnewyork.com/

MENU – Doughnut Plant | Est. 1994. (2016). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://doughnutplant.com/

Midtown NYC Hotel | Hotel Pennsylvania. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.hotelpenn.com/

Museum | Fashion Institute of Technology. (2016). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/

Museum of Modern Art | MoMA. (2016). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from https://www.moma.org/

  1. (2016). Greenacre Park. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.sasaki.com/project/111/greenacre-park/

Superfame, H. (n.d.). Chelsea Market. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://chelseamarket.com/

Sweetchick NYC. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://sweetchick.com/

The High Line | Friends of the High Line. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.thehighline.org/

The History of Seward Park Cooperative. (2010). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.sewardparkcoop.com/spc_history.html

Welcome to Woorijip Korean Restaurant! (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://woorijipnyc.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle, Anna, Chris, Pedro, Roxanne – Tuesday’s Class ( Le Destrict Reflection)

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Michelle and Roxanne: A food and beverage director is responsible for operating the kitchen, the catering, the restaurants, the bars, and the room service efficiently and consistently. On a daily basis, the food and beverage director has to exceed guests’ expectations, perform and display leadership skills, observing and identifying trends, and monitoring their employees. It is essential for the food and beverage director to meet the guest’s needs, improve services, and make sure everything goes according to plan. 

Chris: His job was to be a Steward. A Steward maintains the kitchen and dining area in a clean and sanitary manner as he follows health and hygiene regulations as well as company policy and procedures. From Chris’ point of view, he saw workers change their pair of gloves every time they made a new meal. Also, the counter was extremely clean and empty, it was wiped down constantly leaving it looking some place like you would actually eat at without worrying that they didn’t follow health and hygiene regulations.

Anna: The job description of a Catering Sales Manager is to optimize guest satisfaction and revenue by selling the most profitable functions and going above and beyond to exceed guests’ food & beverage and service expectations. Beaubourg is a fine dining restaurant inside Le District. The restaurant event holds about one hundred guests and they provide both indoor and outdoor seating. They also do special events. Beauboug has a pre-fixed three-course menu that includes appetizers, entrĂ©e and desserts. Each course has about two to three options, which makes it much easier to prepare for a large group of people with the limited amount of space they have. And there is Le Bar, it is not just a bar, they also do catering. The bar has a catering menu for special events. Le Bar offers four different beverage packages, six platter options and also little’s bites by piece.

Pedro: Executive chefs work for restaurants and make most of the administrative decisions. They may review food and beverage purchases, develop and standardize recipes, maintain safety and sanitation in the kitchen, maintain equipment, design food presentation aesthetics, plan and prepare special menu items, choose menu designs and determine menu prices. They may also be in charge of interviewing, hiring and training new kitchen personnel.Additionally, executive chefs supervise all kitchen workers. They give performance reviews, grant pay increases and take disciplinary action when necessary. Executive chefs may also help prepare meals in the kitchen and delegate work to other chefs and cooks during the restaurant’s busy times. At the end of the work day, executive chefs oversee clean up and record the day’s sales. During Le District mall, there are various food options but they’re are molded by the customers they receive and their location. On the ground floor, there a few restaurants that you can go to eat in peace and enjoy the company of others. On the first flight up, there is a food court that has a lot of fast food restaurants that provide good quality food for those rushing during their lunch break and the prices match the area.

 

 

Michelle Chen- Greenarce Park (Tuesday’s Class)

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In the mid 1900s, human population has been increasing exponentially in the central of New York City. In response to mass population, high cost of city center land, and the need to access a park after hours, the Greenarce Park was designed and built by Hideo Sasaki and with the help of DeMay Associates, Masao Kinoshita and Tom Wirth.  One of the reasons why I chose this park is because in the heart of New York City, Greenarce Park has a waterfall in the middle of it all. This park is covered with massive and lush plants and a waterfall at the entrance to greet its guests. This park creates a environment that separates from the busy, live, and condense environment that New York portrays. In a way, this park allows one to escape from congested and loud environment. Sasaki created a vibrate and soft landscape to contrast the brick and steel adjacent buildings. Specifically, the waterfall eliminates the sound of traffic by how it cascades down the wall and leads down to the main fountain of the park. Greenarce Park plays a significant role in creating a separate space that isolates from the dense and highly populated areas of New York City.

B. (n.d.). Greenacre Park. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from http://tclf.org/landscapes/greenacre-park

Brooklyn Waterfront Reflection

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Michelle Chen, Mimi Chen, Robert Lo, Roxanne Luciano

Our area of tourism focuses on the cultural aspects of tourism. Cultural tourism revolves around the region’s culture and lifestyle of its people. It can also tie into the aspects of history, art, architecture, and religion. The cultural landscape of the environment is also a critical point that is associated with cultural tourism. One reason tourists visit New York City is for its cultural activities such as visiting art galleries and museums and going to Broadway theaters, music and dance festivals. Most of them are located on the Brooklyn Waterfront, which are essentials for tourist attractions and to generate revenues. In August, the Brooklyn waterfront conducts a double dutch event that is free for anyone to join. It brings people from all different boroughs and gives off that block party vibe. Block parties are one of the best representative to display the environment and culture that Brooklyn is about. An example of cultural tourism that takes place on the Brooklyn waterfront is Coney Island. Coney Island is famous for its food vendors and activities such as  Nathan’s hot dogs and the infamous Cyclone. From many different food places and activities to choose from , a little bit of every culture is brought to this one attraction for all to experience. Particularly in the Brooklyn Bridge Park, there are cultural activities such as free Shakespeare performances by the waterfront with the view of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. While walking around, there were phrases derived from a poem by Walt Whitman which expresses the historic aspect of how and when the architecture was built. Similarly to the Brooklyn Bridge Park, Sunset Park is a great place at the Waterfront to view the sunset. Both parks are friends and family orientated and great places for photographers to take pictures. The lifestyle of these people are generally more hip and modern to the point where leisure activities such as photography, bird watching, and physical activities are apparent when going into these parks.  During the trip to Brooklyn Bridge Park, there were two sites that tied into the cultural aspect of tourism; Bargemusic and St. Ann’s Warehouse. Bargemusic is significant for its excellent acoustic musics five days a week, every week of the year, while St. Ann’s warehouse which was originally a tobacco warehouse, was transformed into a spectacular theater that holds concerts, performances, and rock and roll. Not only these two are part of New York City’s culture, both Bargemusic and St. Ann’s warehouse can be traced back as historic and heritage of New York City. All of these cultural events comes back full circle to show that they contribute heavily to cultural tourism.

Michelle Chen (Edited)

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After graduating from Midwood High School, I now attend New York City College of Technology to pursue my passion for baking. I am enrolled in Hospitality Management to gain knowledge and to develop skills that are important to become a successful pastry chef. One of the redeeming qualities I have is being able to soak up as much knowledge as I possibly can like a sponge. I am willing to learn and to grow from my mistakes. During my sophomore year of high school, I worked as a tutor assistant. Now, I am currently working at Subways to develop my communication skills and customer service. Both of my jobs involved communicating and delegating tasks which are important in the hospitality industry. By learning from my mentors in both of my jobs and from my professors, I hope to emulate their footsteps to become a pastry chef.