Psychic Serena

A Visit To The Psychic

by Sarah Enelow

Never having chosen a psychic before, I did my research, which consisted of visiting some extra-tacky websites, reading consumer reviews, watching youtube videos about chakras, and perusing what "information" I could find. However, since there are no actual facts to be learned from researching this subject, I just chose a psychic who lived in a nice neighborhood, claimed to have 30 years of experience, and was having a sale, a 30-minute tarot reading for $25 ("valued" at $90). How bad could it b ... Continue

V-Note

Organic Wine Bar & Restaurant On The Upper East Side

by Kara Deniz

V-Note is an organic wine bar and restaurant on the Upper East side that offers fresh and flavorful ingredients in a bright and welcoming space. The mushroom scallops and potato crisps, made with trumpet mushrooms, taste precisely like actual fresh-from-the-ocean scallops, perfect for a non-vegan shellfish allergy sufferer. Also delicious is the mushroom lentil ravioli entree, filled with chickpeas, smoked egglant and lentils in a shiitake-tahini cream sauce, topped with herbed greens. Ingredien ... Continue

McGolrick Park

Greenpoint Charm

by Sarah Enelow

McGolrick Park is easily one of my favorite parks in the entire city. Some people could do without the occasional creepy drunk, some cringe at the decades-old Newtown Creek oil spill lurking underground, but this park is just so calm and verdant, and stately with its colonnade in the middle. And it doesn't hurt that it's perpetually clean and surrounded by cute buildings. The immediate area also has a number of agreeable coffeehouses, like Café Royal on Nassau or Café Grumpy on Meserole. If you ... Continue

Shanghai Asian Cuisine

Soup Dumplings In Manhattan's Chinatown

by Scott Sendrow

The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema recently wrote up Shanghai Asian Cuisine on Elizabeth Street in the ground floor underneath Jing Fong in Manhattan's Chinatown. He had high praise for the soup dumplings and various cold dishes (he was less excited about the main entrees). The soup dumplings are good -- definitely a nice option to have in Chinatown. They're packed with crab and pork, but wher ... Continue

Top of the Rock

Top of the Rock

by Sarah Enelow

The holidays are here and once again, we transplants are looking for ways to entertain out-of-town guests without fraying what's left of our nerves. Maybe it sounds like tourist hell, but I sincerely recommend taking visitors to the Top of the Rock. Yes, it costs $25 (check for discounts online) and you have to deal with midtown, but this view can inspire the most ornery visitor and the most jaded New Yorker alike. In one glance, this panorama reminds us what an impressive city we live in, home ... Continue

New York Botanical Garden

Holiday Train Show At NYBG

by Scott Sendrow

The New York Botanical Garden's Holiday Train Show is one of the highlights of Christmas in New York. I mean, yes, there is that gigantic tree in Rockefeller Center and, sure, the Christmas windows all around Midtown are a sight to behold, but there's nothing like taking in the collection of 140 New York City landmarks entirely constructed from plant material (!) in the Haupt Conservatory. And then there are the model trains. It would be demeaning to call this special tradition "outsider art," b ... Continue

Green-Wood Cemetery

Fall Foliage In Green-Wood Cemetery

by Sarah Enelow

Perhaps New York City doesn't have the illustrious fall foliage of New England, but that doesn't mean we have to head north to find some. Green-Wood Cemetery has many trees turning yellow, orange, and red right now, and it's still one of my favorite "parks" in the city. (To be fair, it is basically a park because it's a Revolutionary War site and a National Historic Landmark, and therefore affiliated with the National Park Service, so there.) Green-Wood's virtues are many: it's never crowded (un ... Continue

Zuccotti Park Greenmarket

Zuccotti Park's Bustling Village Of Discontent

by Sarah Enelow

In just two weeks, the bustling village of discontent called Occupy Wall Street has become a genuine tourist attraction in Zuccotti Park. After speaking with several protesters and perusing the paraphernalia, I saw that both locals and out-of-staters were thrilled to be making (or witnessing) history and participating in something urgently American. Unfortunately they weren't chanting "U-S-A!" at the Olympics, but were expressing their collective anger about many problems from 2008 (and earlier) ... Continue