The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.
Call me biased, but I think the Germans did a much better job than the Italians in organizing an authentic cultural holiday abroad. On the day of the San Gennaro Festival they organized a little Octoberfest in the middle of Central Park. And of course they served traditional German food like sausages, sauerkraut and plenty of beer! Admittedly… some of those bratwurst buns resemble hot dog buns, but at least there was something traditional German to the festivities. People even dressed up in their regional outfits and held contests such as “Masskrugstemmen”. Take a look:
If you want to learn more about German activities in NYC visit http://www.germanyinnyc.org/
The San Genarro Festival, an annual celebration held in little Italy, is completely overrated. Matter of fact… little Italy is overrated. It suprises me every time how Italy, a country so rich in culture and history, renowned for its art, food and fashion could loose all of its European attractiveness and actually become repulsive once thrown into the American melting pot of so called “little Italy”.
When I visited the San Genarro festival in September of 2012, I felt like I accidently took a train to the Jersey shore instead of Spring Street. It is sad enough that Italian Americans seem to have forgotten how to pronounce Italian words in this part of the city, but at least they could have served something else than shish kebobs, crepes, arepas and don´t let me forget the daiquiris and mojitos… I mean who needs aperol spritz, martini or vino, right? It didn´t really help that the long hanging decolletes were nicely decorated with “Kiss me I am Italian” stickers, nor did the African-American marching band fit the picture.
If you want to get a taste of real Italian cooking, I would highly recommend one restaurant in particular and one area in Brooklyn, that´s worth checking out the Italian heritage in NYC. Here are my NYC Italian favorites:
Malatesta Trattoria in the West Village: get the spinach gnocchi with gorgonzola!
BoCoCa – although nobody who lives here calls it that….
Lack of Tolerance 