Hi, friends! Happy Wednesday!
After my trip to New York last week, I thought it’d be fun to share my experience with one of the things for which NYC is most famous: the FOOD! Although New York is known for its pizza, cheesecake, hot dogs, etc. my food experience was pretty different from a typical tourist experience since the group I was with didn’t spend much time in the tourist-y parts of Manhattan and instead were spending every day eating in and walking around Little Pakistan in Brooklyn.
Oh yeah, I spent last week in New York City on a missions trip with my church. The idea of a missions trip in the U.S. (instead of somewhere overseas) may seem a little funny, but so many people from all over the world live in New York City!
My church partnered with a NY church called Global Gates, and my smaller group spent the week in Brooklyn in an area referred to as “Little Pakistan.” We did a few different things, but one of our hopes was to find people who would be interested in hosting Bible studies in their homes in the Little Pakistan community, since some immigrants don’t feel comfortable going to a larger church where people speak mostly English. It was really rewarding and I learned so much. I’d be happy to answer questions about the experience if you have any!
So, onto a typical day of NYC eats during the trip:
…I’ll share one unique dinner we had towards the end of the week. We went to the Whole Foods store in Union Square and I may have jumped up and down in excitement because it was a health food lover’s paradise. There were so many great options, including a huge hot bar, salad bar, and burrito bar.
So, those were my NYC eats in a nutshell: lots of breakfasts on-the-go, things like chana masala & warm naan, and no pizza (although I did get cheesecake on our free day!). There were few fruits and veggies to be seen…but I decided to be okay with it for the week.
Questions for you:
New York-style pizza, cheesecake or hot dogs: if you could only pick one, which one would it be?
Cheesecake
What’s your favorite type of ethnic food?
Are you a fan of hot bars and salad bars? Which ones do you like?
Cheesecake alllll the way!
My favorite cuisine has to be Mexican. I love my beans and rice! #carbsarelife
The Whole Foods salad bar always makes me swoon. I love getting their quinoa salad with some baked tofu. Their sesame dressing is outstanding!
Quinoa salad and sesame dressing sound amazing! Yep, #carbsaremylife
I’ve never been to Little Pakistan before, and I didn’t even know there was such a place! Learning from the tourists myself 😉 That’s so wonderful that you went on a mission trip there. The US definitely has places where people need to hear the Good News!
My favorite type of ethnic food is either Mediterranean or Japanese. And now I’m craving both.
I get giddy in Whole Foods too, haha!
Right? I’d heard of Little Italy and Chinatown, of course, but there are so many ethnic neighborhoods in New York City that I had no clue existed before now!
Yum! Looks good!!
As a lifelong NYC’er, it can feel crazy how there are always parts of the city you don’t discover until someone from out of town makes it catch your eye. I’m a Manhattanite and until one of my close friends moved to Brooklyn recently, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been there!
That’s so interesting! Because of the nature of our trip, we stayed in Queens, spent our days in Brooklyn, and then toured Manhattan on our free day. I loved getting to experience all of it because the boroughs were all SO different!
That all looks great! crazy that you can get all that food for only 7$ too! Also that Whole Foods is AMAZING.. I plan on hitting it up all the time (by that I mean as much as my wallet can handle) this summer
YES, I hope you get the chance to go to that Whole Foods lots this summer! Hope you enjoy your time there 🙂
Naan bread is AMAZING! Love that stuff. I am definitely a fan of the Whole Foods hot bar, but not a big salad fan. My favorite part of Whole Foods is actually the burrito bar 🙂
There were so many things I wanted to try that I didn’t get to try the burrito bar 🙁 Next time!
Pizza definitely! And the cute sprinkle ice cream cones from the trucks you find on every corner:) Whole Foods was definitely my go do when I was in NYC too! There’s something so comforting about that salad bar…haha.
Right? And even though Whole Foods isn’t exactly NYC-style dining, the Whole Foods there was so different from mine back home!
Pizza for sure! And the cute sprinkle ice cream cones you can find on every corner! Whole foods was definitely my go to when I was in NYC! There’s something so comforting about that salad bar…haha.
Colour me jealous. Not only of the food part but the whole NYC experience. It’s still [and obviously will always be until it happens] my dream to fly there one day.
All of the meals you had look amazing – especially since I really like the ethnic fare you ate. I’d be very interested in hearing more about your missions trip and it’s outcome, too. This is something pretty much unknown over here.
This post made me so happy!! I’m so glad you got to experience the diversity in NYC. That’s exactly why I love living in Queens so much…I feel like I’m overseas! Oh, and our world may have collided: did you meet Brad Wall or Chris Clayman?!
We stayed in Queens! And yes I met Brad!!! No way, I had no idea you were part of that?!?!?!?
I’ve never been to NYC and never knew that they had “Little Pakistan,” that sounds like a really awesome experience!
Mmm that Naan bread looks so good! :). Greens taste even more amazing after a few days of heavier food. I always am amazed how salad can taste even better on vacation after a few splurge days haha.
Experiencing Little Pakistan was so cool. After a Subway ride, it really almost felt like we were in a different country! And I agree that when I haven’t eaten much fresh food in a few days, a salad can taste like the greatest thing ever!
OMG I LOVE the Whole Foods salad bars! I just wish it wasn’t so expensive or I’d eat there everyday!
I always underestimate how much my Whole Foods meals will cost! I think it’s very intentional that they don’t have scales near the salad bar and hot bar so we’ll have no idea how much our food will weigh haha 😉
Delicious eats! NYC definitely has many great places to eat, I love middle eastern food. Those to me look great no matter what anyone says haha.
Haha I’m glad you can see past the brown and unphotogenic nature of the food- it really was delicious 🙂
One of the (many) surprising things I learned when I moved to Cleveland was that downtown we have Asia Town, instead of China Town, etc.. Yes – they’re all combined together! We also have a Little Italy, which is full of yummy bakeries.
That’s awesome that you have an Asia Town and Little Italy in your city! I can only imagine how good those bakeries must be…
Sushi is my favorite ethnic food 🙂 Union Square Whole Foods is awesome. I live right by one uptown and go every day. I’ve gone to 7/8 Whole Food’s in the city (I’m crazy, I know).
7 out of 8 Whole Foods?! That’s seriously impressive! If nothing else, you’ll be able to navigate the city by figuring out where things are in relation to the closest Whole Foods 🙂
I’m not a huge fan of yogurt, but I think I could get behind that blueberry one! Also pita bread is my happy bread but no one else in my family likes it and I would not eat it often enough to go through an entire loaf! Looks like you’re soaking up a great variety of food there! How fun. 🙂
I never really knew that I liked pita bread or naan until recently, but it turns out that I really just like any freshly-baked bread. Who woudda thought? 😉
It’s really sad how unphotogenic middle eastern food is considering it’s so friggen delicious! I wish you had the opportunity to actually visit the Middle East and try it out here.
Favorite ethnic food will always be Mexican! Mmmm
I would love to try out the real deal in the Middle East with you! And Mexican is always a good option 🙂
OOh wow! I actually really like beans and rice kind of meals. I wish they had them more as staples in the American diet. :)) And I love local restaurants because getting to know the restaurant owners is always super fun!
Those beans and lentils look so yummy. I <3 beans and rice. And I also love teeny little mom and pop restaurants. 🙂
I love eating in NYC! there are so many different types of cultures so you can pretty much eat anything you want 🙂
I agree! There were so many different types of foods that I wanted to try while we were there but so little time 🙂 I’ll have to go back for sure.
i did not know there was a little pakistan in NYC!! I’m hoping to go there next month, and hope i’ll check it out!