A New Yorker's Fridge

Three bottles of water, seltzer, eggs, a lime, a stick of butter, and some hotdogs. Wow. My fridge is kind of overstocked in NYC terms! Sad, but true - for the fridge, anyway.

NYC is known for it's vast array of cuisines, fusions of cuisines, hyped (and over-hyped) openings of restaurants, lamented closings, food trends and dinner clubs. There are countless NY foodie blogs, food walking tours and enough friends to entice you out to dinner.

So now you see that NYC is all about food. NYC is also all about tiny apartments so we don't usually entertain at home, we meet out. Because first you'd have to have room for a table. Then you'd have to have extra chairs. Then you'd have to convince your friends to travel to your apartment when in the end, everyone is going home in different directions. Much easier to meet at a central locale.

My mom kids me when I call her after work and say i'm going to the grocery store. "To buy a tomato and some butter?" Yep, pretty much. NYers food shop like Europeans. Besides big grocery stores and delis, we're lucky enough to have small, family-run speciality stores (meat store, cheese store, bakery, etc) so we can pick up individual items, on an as-needed basis. Most of us don't have cars so it's easier to make a few small trips a week (if you actually do decide to eat at home) then to load up.

And last, kitchen space, two words that don't belong together here. An apartment I looked at to rent had 4 inches wide x 12 inches deep of counter space. That's it. In the entire kitchen. I told the broker I sometimes cook so that's not an option for me. He said "It's not a problem for most people who see it, they eat out or order in." And this is true, many NYers don't set foot in their kitchen except to throw away delivery containers or fill up a glass of water. I've even heard of people unplugging their fridge and using it as storage space. I wish I was kidding.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must see what I can make with eggs, lime, butter, seltzer, and hotdogs. A delivery call to my favorite Indian restaurant, I would imagine.