NEW YORK (AP) — Begin with breakfast in the Dominican Republic: cafe con leche and mashed plantains. Have the churrasco — barbecued meat — for lunch at a Brazilian buffet. Later, snack on a Colombian fruit shake, then stop at a Mexican taqueria for dinner. After dark, hit a salsa club.
You can take this tour of Latin America all in a day, without ever leaving New York City. A new book called “Nueva York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in The Five Boroughs” shows you how.
“When we have people coming in from out of town, we don’t want to just show them Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty,” said Carolina Gonzalez, who co-authored “Nueva York” with Seth Kugel. “We actually want to show them the real New York, and to us, part of that real New York is all these different great Latin neighborhoods.”
New York City is 27 percent Hispanic, according to the 2000 Census, and one of the most heavily Dominican neighborhoods is Washington Heights, in northern Manhattan. At a restaurant here called El Malecon, breakfast for four, with eggs, juices, fried cheese and mangu — mashed plantain — runs about $30, including cafe con leche — “like a latte at one-tenth the price,” said Kugel.
But El Malecon “is really known more than anything for their chickens that you see twisting around in the rotisserie,” Kugel added. “You can actually smell them for several blocks around.”
Across the street, at La Plaza de las Americas, an outdoor market, look for bargains on yuca, papayas and avocados. Nearby, Centro Botanico y Esoterico Gran Bua sells perfumes and statuettes to solve any problem. Saleswoman Odette Pichardo says the best-sellers are always love potions — like a fragrance called “Garrapata,” which means tick, suggesting its power to latch on. If old-fashioned florals are more your style, bottles of gardenia scent runs just $5.
At Rancho Jubilee, it’s not just the food that evokes the Dominican Republic — it’s the decor, from the palm trees to the donkey saddles to a little tin stove mounted over the entrance, all imported from the D.R. The wooden chairs crackle when you sit down, to “remind you of sitting on your grandmother’s porch in the rural Dominican Republic,” said Kugel.
Now head to East Harlem, where Puerto Rican flags fly from many windows. At Carlitos Cafe, Tuesdays are open mic nights. At Casa Latina, shop for Latin music from the 1930s on, or pick up a “Salsaholic” T-shirt.
For art lovers, there’s El Museo del Barrio on Fifth Avenue, at the northern end of Museum Row, and the Taller Boricua galleries at Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center, named for the Puerto Rican poet. A mosaic of de Burgos has just been installed on 106th Street, while a mural at Lexington and 104th called “The Spirit of East Harlem” depicts community life, from kids playing basketball to an old man playing guitar.
MARTIN JORGE AQUINO
March 17, 2007
EL BARRIO DONDE NACE YO
I was born in the area and grew up there.
This is where I did my first of whatever…
Here I stayed with some short stays in the Bronx, Staten Island, California and Puerto Rico.
In 1969 on September 26 I joined the US Army and it has not been my home ever since except for furloughs from the military.
El Barrio is where I still come back to have cuchifrito on East 116th Street across from Casa Latina whenever I feel the urge.
I will never forget where I came from.
Adios mi barrio espero volver pronto si no siempre estare en mi recuerdos de mi juventud.
MARTIN JORGE AQUINO
March 17, 2007
EL BARRIO DONDE NACE YO
I was born in the area and grew up there.
This is where I did my first of whatever…
Here I stayed with some short stays in the Bronx, Staten Island, California and Puerto Rico.
In 1969 on September 26 I joined the US Army and it has not been my home ever since except for furloughs from the military.
El Barrio is where I still come back to have cuchifrito on East 116th Street across from Casa Latina whenever I feel the urge.
I will never forget where I came from.
Adios mi barrio espero volver prnto si no siempre estare en mi recuerdosde mi juventud.
Hugo
February 19, 2007
had a chance to visit carlito’s cafe after an announcement on harlemonestop.This place is literally a hole in the wall! But like many things New Yorkian (i own that madeup word), “holes in the wall” always hold the most precious of gems when it comes to city life. Carlito’s is about 10 feet wide about 80 feet long. It looks like it was modified from an old bodega. When you walk in you feel like you walked into someone’s livingroom. There are a couple table with candles and some cushioned seats scattered about. The walls have different displays of different art media. The bar section is toward the back where you’ll find a most attractive bartendress, Ms. Christina. I went last night for “Sunday Night Flicks” which is a series of movies they run on…well…sunday nights. Happy Hour is from 6-8pm…beers are $3 and micheladas are $5. Maybe you alcohol-philes know what a michelada is. I did not so I decided to try it. I won’t ruin the surprise though. Definitely try the Sugar Hill Beer…it’s a native Harlem beer. They run movies on a projector which is tapped into the bar sound system.
On Mondays they have open mike poetry, other nights they have open mike anything (song, poetry, screenplays, etc)…and they’ll have invited bands playing on scattered days over the month. They also have specific art exhibits on different weeks. This is truly a rustic, grassroots, art oriented place. Like the old european coffeehouses.
It just so happens that night the projector lamp burned out. But the Carlito’s crew were not going to be overcome by technical difficulties. Israel, Christina’s bf, got his iBook and plugged it into the sound system. They propped the laptop on the bar table and we all huddled around and watched “Raise the Red Lantern”. It was an awesome movie. Some of you might say…that is so unprofessional! To be honest, this maneuver made a convert out of me. I thought the idea was ingenious and also spoke to the personal and familial nature that exists in Carlito’s. I honestly felt like I was with my college friends in a dorm room or something. We all enjoyed the movie. Being around the bar itself was a plus as we got all our drinks without having to walk away from the movie.lol.
Anyway, I loved this place and now have somewhere to go on Sunday nights as well as during the week for the invited bands. Come by and you’ll fall in love with the folks. Don’t forget to try a michelada!