Tuesday, June 2, 2009

All around but never there before


This morning, I had occasion to come out of the subway at Herald Square.  I needed to be over on 32nd & 1st Avenue.  With morning traffic, I thought I'd get there just as quickly by walking than by catching a cab or bus.  I've walked east on 34th Street several times, but today I walked on 32nd St.

For a couple of blocks from 6th Ave to Madison on 32nd is a small Korean community.  I'd been so close to this but hadn't seen it.  I spotted a couple of restaurants that deserve some more attention.  It could be a nice weekend stroll with my wife and daughter.

I appreciate some of the ethnic enclaves here in NYC.  Back in 2005, before I had relocated here, I spent a long weekend here.  On the Monday before I had to go to the airport, I started at Battery Park and walked north.  On the way, I ventured through Chinatown and ended up on a street that was hardly bigger than an alley.  All the windows of the businesses there had Chinese words.  The newspapers were written in Chinese.  The people spoke Chinese.  I was the only caucasian there.  And then, just steps away, I was in Little Italy.  Today, it was Korea.  Tomorrow, it might be Ghana.