25 Ways to Pretend to be a New Yorker

The anthropologist in me is never content with just visiting a place and being a tourist. I like to feel I’m getting under the skin and finding out what it’s like to be a local there. This was even more important to me than usual when I made my first visit to New York in October. It’s a place I’ve dreamed about visiting for years decades. It’s a place I’ve seriously thought about spending a year in just so I can get to know it. It’s why it’s on my ‘60 things to do before I’m 60‘ list. 

When looking for somewhere to stay I knew I wanted to stay in Brooklyn and that I wanted to stay in someone’s home rather than a hotel or hostel. I chose Brooklyn because I like the sound of it in all the books I’ve read and films I’ve seen where it’s played a role. Also I didn’t think I’d visit Brooklyn if I stayed in Manhattan, whereas no matter where I stayed I knew I’d be visiting Manhattan every day. So by staying in Brooklyn I got to know two of the five boroughs that make up New York City.

I wanted to stay in someone’s home so I could feel like I was actually living in New York and hopefully I’d have a host who would be able to give me lots of insider tips of things to do.

I couldn’t have planned it better. I found an amazing brownstone on AirBnB decorated exactly as I would have done it myself. The host was a fellow anthropologist (therefore I assumed she’d ‘get’ me) who claimed to be passionate and knowledgeable about everything New York.

Let me say now, that when I go back to New York (and I definitely will) I’ll be staying in this same AirBnB owned by Shannon. She was so full of tips and insider insights and recommendations. I didn’t get time in my ten days to do everything she mentioned, but I have it all on my list for next time.

So, because I’m a generous sort, I thought I’d share some of her tips and recommendations so you too can pretend to be a New Yorker.

Read on for 25 ways to pretend to be a New Yorker.

1. Commute on the subway

One of the best things you can do in any city to feel like a local is to partake in the daily commute. Get to know the local metro or bus network and experience what it feels like to make that journey twice a day. 

Okay, if you’ve only got a few days you might prefer to stay central to the places you want to see and not waste precious sightseeing time on commuting, but seriously, if you have more than a couple of days definitely consider this. 

Public transport is great for people watching and learning how people interact. Do people make way for each other, or just push and shove? Do they give up their seats to someone more needy or look down and pretend not to see them? Do they chat, read a book or spend the entire journey looking at their phones? How do they dress? Where have they been shopping? Do they all lug their daily essentials around in a backpack or do they all carry smart briefcases? Do they look tired, stressed and pallid or are they all alert and energetic looking?

This is all really fascinating to me and I think it’s the fastest way you can get under the skin of a city.

It’s not just about understanding the vibe of a city’s people though. When I lived in London, it didn’t take long for me to realise that real Londoners had an inner sense of the Underground. They didn’t need a tube map. They could tell you which lines to get and whether it was quicker to change three times rather than twice, which stations not to change at because the walk between platforms took too long, where to stand on the platform so you got on at the door that would be nearest the exit when you alighted and which exit to use in each station. All without looking at a map. It was when I realised I was doing this myself that I first felt like a real Londoner.

I didn’t have time to get to know the New York subway this well, but by the end of my ten days I’d at least figured out how it worked. Which for the New York subway and all its quirks I thought was pretty good going. 

To give you a head start I wrote a whole separate post about my tips for using the New York subway. 

2. Wear trainers

Seriously. Wear trainers. It doesn’t matter what else you’re wearing, on your feet wear trainers (that’s sneakers for my non-British readers). 

You know how in films you see all these glamorous New York women wearing 4 inch heels? It’s not true. New York is hard on your feet. You will walk a lot and stand a lot (in queues, on the subway … ) and your feet will ache. Even if you are wearing flat shoes your feet will ache. This will stop you enjoying New York and make you want to go home and put your feet up. 

Look at what all the New York women (and most of the men) have on their feet. It’s trainers. Maybe they have their 4 inch heels in their backpacks to change into once sat at their desks, but they do not wear them whilst moving around. 

I brought flat boots with me to New York. Boots I’ve worn plenty of times for walking round London and other cities all day long without a problem. Within a few days of being in New York I was ready to chop my feet off.

I knew I’d have to go native and get myself some trainers.

I’d already gulped plenty of times at New York’s prices for just about everything so the thought of buying trainers had me working out how to remortgage my house whilst out of the country. Fortunately Shannon came to my rescue and told me exactly where to go to get some reasonably priced trainers.

DSW is a store conveniently located by Union Square subway station. The acronym stands for Designer Shoe Warehouse and the one I went to is one of several in Manhattan. It takes up an entire floor above the Whole Foods supermarket and is seriously massive. Think Wynsors on steroids.

I headed straight for the trainer section and wandered row after row feeling shoes, checking for softness and weight. I found the lightest pair of trainers EVER and they had memory foam insoles which I didn’t even know was a thing. I put them on to try and refused to take them off. In fact I’ve barely taken them off since I got home. 

I paid for them whilst still wearing them and stuffing my boots in my backpack skipped lightfootedly out of the store (well, actually I stood on the escalator, but I was skipping lightfootedly in my head). 

Moral of the story – bring the lightest, comfiest trainers you can find when you visit New York. Not only will your feet thank you, but you’ll blend right in and feel like a real New Yorker. 

3. Buy food in Whole Foods and take it upstairs to eat

As I was going to be right by Whole Foods, Shannon suggested I go to their cafe upstairs and sit by a window overlooking Union Square.

After already spending several days in New York and only finding processed, bland and heavily packaged food in tiny corner shop style stores, walking into Whole Foods was like walking into foodie heaven. It was huge; it was filled with fruit and vegetables; it had organic food; it had a bakery counter; it had … drum roll … a salad bar to put all the other salad bars in the world to shame (including the ones in Swedish supermarkets which until now have been my world favourites).

I spent far too long wandering round and gazing longingly at things I had no need to buy and would have baulked at the price even if I did need to. 

I felt I had to buy something though, so bought a tiny pumpkin pie flavour cheesecake because cheesecake is New Yorky and pumpkin pie is far more American to me than apple pie will ever be. And buying them in combo like this was like two for the price of one. Bonus!

Next was the best bit and why I’d really come. I found the stairs and took my pumpkin pie cheesecake up to the cafe. This was a large space with long tables and panoramic windows overlooking Union Square. I bought a coffee at the counter which didn’t seem to sell anything else and chose a seat by the window but with full view of the room. 

I was going to sneakily eat my pumpkin pie cheesecake, but realised that everyone else was openly eating their food from downstairs. This was a thing folks! There was even a microwave to heat your food up in. I’d stumbled on a bit of New York life I wasn’t expecting. Looking around it was easy to see that the people who used this place were actual real New Yorkers who came up here to sit and use the Wifi and the plug sockets and eat food, which might be expensive in supermarket terms, but was a hell of lot cheaper than cafe prices. 

I barely people watched out of the window at all, I was far too interested in people watching the people inside. 

4. Eat egg and cheese on a kaiser roll from a cart

 All over New York you will see food carts. Being from England I assumed the food would be hamburgers, possibly hot dogs and not much else. I also assumed it wouldn’t be very good and only dumb tourists  would eat from them.

I was wrong. The guys inside (and it was mostly guys, at least in the ones I looked closely at) are cooking up a storm. There seemed to be lots of meat based offerings, but most of them offered falafels as well. 

Normally I can’t resist a falafel, but this time I did. Because this time I’d been told what to try instead. I had insider info. (Okay, it was Shannon again. Boy, was this girl good.)

Apparently the go-to breakfast on the run for a New Yorker is an egg and cheese kaiser roll from a cart. A kaiser roll is a soft white bread roll that has a patterned indent across the top. Originating in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, they have become a New York staple. Strangely they haven’t taken off in the rest of the US, not even in LA which has America’s second largest Jewish population after New York.

My egg and cheese on a kaiser roll from a cart experience was more late brunch/early lunch than breakfast, but this wasn’t a problem as these guys are cooking up fresh food to order all day long.

I placed my order, not really sure of what I’d get. It turned out to be an omelette with a slice of processed cheese on a warm roll. I didn’t like that it was presented to me wrapped in masses of heavy duty foil and in a massive paper bag, particularly as I was going to eat it there and then (think of the environment guys!) but it was delicious. Even with processed cheese.

5. Go for Saturday brunch in a diner and read the New York Times

Brunch, I was assured, is a New York institution. And to be a real New Yorker that brunch has to be on a Saturday morning.

One of the iconic (to me at least) things I wanted to do whilst in New York was to eat at the counter of a traditional diner. What better time to do that than for brunch on a Saturday morning.  

After extensive research (I chatted to Shannon), I chose the Morning Star Diner and duly commuted in on my Saturday morning. On my way I picked up another iconic New York institution, The New York Times. Not just because I wanted to read the New York Times, but because reading it is all part of the Saturday morning in New York brunch ritual.

Perching myself on a high stool at the counter, I ordered coffee and pancakes (what else?) and spread the New York Times out in front of me. 

I decided American pancakes are drier than their English equivalents, but that just gave me the excuse to pour extra maple syrup over them. And it was real maple syrup, not the maple and carob combo I’m used to. 

The stack of pancakes took me a while to eat. So I had a couple of free refills for my coffee and ticked off another New York thing to do. 

6. Eat bagels

If there was a list of foods associated with New York (and there probably is) then bagels would be at the top. I eat bagels a lot at home – supermarket ones and ones from special bagel shops – so I thought I knew enough about bagels to not have any pressing need to try one in New York. But then I was recommended a couple of bagel shops and told I HAD to try them and so of course I did.

 The first one I tried was from Murray’s Bagels. As soon as I walked into the shop I realised that bagels in New York were on a whole different level to bagels in Britain. There were so many types for starters. I went for a salt bagel because I’d never seen a salt bagel before. 

Then I failed. 

I wasn’t hungry at the time and so just asked for my bagel to be put in a bag and took it away to eat later.  #rookiemistake

The bagel was great; one of the best I’ve had and I wouldn’t have realised my mistake if it hadn’t have been for the look on Shannon’s face when I took it out of the bag in her kitchen and put it in the toaster oven to warm up.

“You can’t do that! It won’t be fresh! You have to eat it while it’s still warm from the bakery. And where’s your filling?” etc.

Yeah, I’d failed my ‘how a New Yorker eats a bagel test’.

But despite my failure that bagel was amazing. The best bagel I’ve ever tasted. And so I knew two things: 1) New York bagels really are different. The hype is true; and 2) If doing it wrong tasted this good, then there was no way I was leaving this city without doing it right.

I had Tal Bagels on my list of places to try for great bagels and so when I passed one of their branches unexpectedly, and even though I wasn’t ready for lunch, I went in and ordered. I was going to do it right this time.

I ordered an everything bagel, which kind of had a bit of everything on it, and asked them to fill it with scallion cream cheese. Then I sat down, phone at the ready to take a photo of my perfect New York bagel.

I opened the bagel to peek inside. It looked so delicious, so soft and warm, so stuffed with cream cheese, a cream cheese that was so brimming with scallions … Maybe I should just take a bite so I could take an arty photo? You know the ones with food partly eaten to show how delicious it is?

I took a bite …

Then I scoffed the lot.

Screw the photo this was too good to wait a second longer.

I’ve tried to find proper New York bagels since I’ve been back in the UK. I’ve read a zillion reviews of specialist bagel places, even the really famous ones, paying particular attention to reviews that compare the bagels with New York bagels and it seems like they really don’t exist outside of New York. 

I guess I’ll just have to go back.

7. Buy a bialy

Buy a what? Yeah, I hadn’t heard of them either. Apparently a bialy is a kind of bagel, but instead of a hole it has the centre filled with onions and sometimes seeds, garlic and breadcrumbs as well. There are other differences too – a bialy is just baked, whereas a bagel is both boiled and baked; a bialy is flatter than a bagel and has a texture that is a cross between a bagel and an English muffin; and for some technical reason a bialy has less sugars than a bagel. 

The name ‘bialy’ is short for bialystoker kuchen and it comes from Bialystok, a city in Poland. The recipe was brought to New York by Jewish immigrants more than a century ago.

The best way to eat a bialy is straight from the oven so it’s still warm. Slice and butter it or just spread the butter on the top so it melts and drips into the depression with the onions.

Sounds delicious. Though it was high on my list I never got to try one. I wanted to go to Kossar’s Bagels and Bialys on the Lower East Side as this is supposed to be the best place for a bialy and as it’s been around for about 80 years I guess they do know what they’re doing. I just ran out of time. It’s at the top of my list for next time though.

If you want to know more about the difference between a bagel and a bialy or even just how they’re made have a look at Kossar’s website – they’ve got a  couple of videos which are quite good.

Oh, and if you’re thinking you can try one elsewhere, good luck with that. I haven’t managed to find any in the UK. I even got a bizarre ‘what are you talking about look’ when I asked for one in a Jewish bakery in Golders Green. 

8. Have a pickle

Okay, this is another one I didn’t get around to trying, but it’s definitely on my list for next time. 

Munching on a pickle is another one of those iconic Jewish New York things to do. Essex Street on the Lower East Side (near Kossar’s Bialys) used to be the home of the pickle and had many pickle shops. Now the only one left is The Pickle Guys.

The Pickle Guys use traditional recipes to make a range of pickles (pickled pineapple anyone?), but the pickled cucumber or gherkin is always going to reign supreme.  It’s so supreme that in the US if you just ask for a pickle this is what you’re going to get. 

My plan for next time is to go to Kossar’s for a bialy, then stop by the Pickle Guys for a half sour pickle.

9. Try three kinds of cheesecake

Why three? Because New York has three kinds of cheesecake that can be considered traditional and they’re all slightly different.

The three types are Italian, Sicilian and New York.

Italian cheesecake is made from ricotta, whereas New York cheesecake is made from cream cheese. The difference between Italian and Sicilian is that Sicilian has candied fruit mixed into the ricotta. At least this is the difference at Veniero’s which is supposed to be the place to go for your Italian and Sicilian cheesecake fix.

I called by Veniero’s late one evening to get a piece of each to take ‘home’ with me. The place was packed and even at the late hour I had to queue for a while just to get takeaway. Veniero’s has been around since 1894 and is a place every New Yorker is familiar with. If you want to pretend to be a real New Yorker then it’s not enough just to have Italian cheesecake it has to be cheesecake form Veniero’s.

But what about New York cheesecake you may be thinking. After all  the very name implies this is the cheesecake you should be eating in New York. And yes you should, but not from Veniero’s, though they do sell it there. No, for your New York cheesecake you have to go to Junior’s.

The original Junior’s is in Brooklyn, but there are branches now in Manhattan too, including one in Times Square. I really wanted to get to the Brooklyn branch and see where Brooklynites, and New Yorkers in general, have been eating their cheesecake since 1950. It wasn’t to be however and I didn’t get to any of the Junior’s.

But … I did get to try the cheesecake. I was feeling quite sad that I’d missed out on it because I love cheesecake and really believe it should be in a food group in its own right. I got to the airport a bit too early and went into a diner for a coffee whilst I waited. And there it was on the menu – Junior’s New York cheesecake. I checked it was the real deal and then ordered a slice.

OMG!!! This was the best cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. It was creamy. It was thick. It was … do you remember the scene in When Harry Met Sally? The one  where Meg Ryan faked an orgasm in a restaurant? Well, this cheesecake almost had me recreate that scene in a JFK diner. It took me all of my self-control not only to not do a Meg, but also to not cancel my flight and order a second slice.

Think I’m exaggerating? Try it for yourself and see.

10. Have real Mexican food

New York is such a multicultural city, more so than anywhere else I’ve been, including London, that it’s easy to find food from just about any country in the world. One of the cuisines I was keen to try whilst I was here was Mexican. I’ve never had real Mexican food before. I love the Tex-Mex version we get in the UK, but I wanted to try the real thing. I knew that New York, with its large Mexican population, would be my best chance other than going to Mexico itself.

My first Mexican food experience was probably closest to the real thing. I’d gone to Corona in Queens for the day. This is a working class neighbourhood with a large Mexican population. Consequently there were plenty of cheap and genuine places to choose from.

The one I’d been recommended was Tortilleria Nixtamal. They make their own corn tortillas here and it’s the kind of place where locals gather to watch football (soccer) on the TV in the corner. I was looking forward to my Mexican lunch and being able to soak up some culture at the same time. It wasn’t to be however, at least not here, as it was closed.

There was no shortage of other places though and I found myself in a small place that seemed to me to be the New York Mexican equivalent of a ‘Northern-English-Formica-table-egg-and-chips-cafe’.

I perched myself at the counter and tried to order something vegetarian. The lady serving spoke about three words of English, none of which was ‘vegetarian’.

Not to worry; the advantage to a place like this was that they had pictures of the food in the window. I took her outside with me and pointed at what I wanted (‘vegetarian’ was conveniently labelled in English).

I got a couple of soft tacos filled with veggies, beans and hot chillies and washed it down with a glass of horchata. Horchata was something new to me, but it was what everyone else seemed to be drinking. It turned out to be a kind of cinnamon flavoured milkshake and tasted delicious.

The other customers were mostly teenagers on their way home from school or mums with young children, not that there were many of them as it was only a tiny place. They were all speaking Spanish. I felt like I was getting my fix of Mexican culture as well as of food. Especially because there was a TV in the corner showing football. 

My second Mexican experience came later in the week in Manhattan. I’d been told about Hotel Tortuga, which isn’t actually a hotel but a Mexican restaurant that has a lot of vegan and vegetarian options including a vegan chorizo made from tempeh. One evening I just happened to pass by it as I was starting to think about dinner. Of course I went in. Especially as I’d spotted the board outside advertising half price happy hour frozen margaritas.

I ordered burritos with black beans, rice, salad and tempeh chorizo and washed it down with a frozen margarita. Then instead of dessert I had my second horchata of the week (and of my life).

Life is good when it has horchata in it.

11. Get a pedicure

There are two things, I was reliably informed (yeah, Shannon again), that all New Yorkers do. Or at least the women do. These two things are popular because they are cheap by New York standards and it’s easy to get them anywhere. One of them is to get a pedicure on a regular basis.

As I was only on holiday I would’ve only been able to do this once and as it happened I didn’t get time at all. I’m squeamish about my feet as they’re really ticklish so this might be one I would have passed on even if I did have the time. Now that I’m home, I’m thinking that maybe next time I should be brave and just give it a go. After all, if I can work up the courage to let fish eat my feet in Crete, then surely I can be brave enough to get a pedicure in New York.

12. Have a Qigong massage

I said there were two things all New Yorkers do: one is to get a pedicure and the second is to have a regular qigong massage.

Qigong (pronounced chee-gung) is an ancient form of Chinese massage that works by balancing the qi (chee) or life energy in your body. This was another thing I didn’t get time to do, but I am definitely doing this next time.

13. Browse the books in the Strand bookstore

The Stand Bookstore is New York’s equivalent to Foyle’s in London. The slogan ’18 miles of books’ gives some idea of the size of the place. Two and a half million books are reputedly packed into this place over several floors. The shop sells new, second-hand and rare books as well as gifts, souvenirs and book paraphernalia. Outside are lines of carts with used books each costing a dollar.

The shop has become a New York institution and features in many stories and films. Joyce Carol Oates’s short story ‘Three Girls‘ is set in the store and films such as ‘Six Degrees of Separation‘ and ‘Julie and Julia‘ have featured it.

I spent quite a while wandering round, but only bought a few fridge magnets. I saw lots of books I would have liked, but I didn’t want to carry them and  they were much more expensive than I can buy them for at home. It’s still worth a visit though because it is such an icon and with the way bookshops, particularly independent ones, are disappearing who knows how long it will last.  

14. Take a stroll in Central Park

Look at a map of Manhattan and you’ll see that Central Park takes up a huge great chunk of it slap bang in the middle. It’s hard to imagine the size of this park until you’re actually in it. I spent a few hours wandering around and barely scratched the surface of it. 

There are lakes, boats, woods, a reservoir and a whole flippin’ zoo. What I didn’t expect was that it’s hilly  and once you get off the main paths you can wander round little tracks in the woods and almost forget you’re in a  city.

There’re plenty of touristy things to do in Central Park such going for a ride in a horse and carriage or having your picture taken at the John Lennon ‘Imagine’ mosaic, but this is also a park for New Yorkers.

Whether they’re jogging or playing with the kids, meeting friends for coffee or just taking a stroll and getting some fresh air and nature therapy, this is a park that locals use.

So if you’re really trying to pretend to be a New Yorker, don’t think you have to skip Central Park. You’ll be like far more of a local if you take a stroll through the woods or bring your lunch and sit and have a little picnic. Just don’t get in a horse and carriage!

15. Play a game or do a bit of art outside the library

The New York Public Library has an impressive 92 branches, most of which are in Manhattan, with a few in the Bronx and Staten Island (Queens and Brooklyn have their own library system). Look at the Google map on the library’s homepage and all you’ll see is a mass of red pins.

The main branch is the one in the Stephen A Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue – an ornate mansion famous from films such as Ghostbusters, Spiderman and Sex in the City. The library is a wonderful building to look around and if you’ve done some research then you probably already know about the Rose Reading Room and that you can see the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals on display here. What you might not realise though is what’s outside the library.

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Around the outside of the library are tables set up with games, such as chess or jenga, at which you can just take a seat and start playing, maybe even finding someone to play along with you if you’re on your own. Don’t fancy any of the games? Then how about doing a bit of art instead? On the other side of the library steps are tables set up for art projects. You can collect all the resources you need from a cart and make your own masterpiece.

16. Watch sundown from a rooftop

Watching the sun go down from a rooftop, preferably one with a bar attached, is one of the quintessential New York things to do. Google ‘rooftops New York’ and you’ll get page after page of articles and suggestions. Of course the ideal situation is to spend a summer evening in an open-air roof garden sipping cocktails, but even in winter some of the rooftop gardens are open (hopefully with heaters!) and there are also plenty of enclosed rooftop bars.

I wasn’t sure if I’d get to have this experience for myself, but then I found myself in the Met Museum and realised they have a roof garden with a bar and as it was the end of October and the days were short, I’d be there for sunset. 

I made my way up there and although it wasn’t a great sunset the views over Central Park with the highrise city skyline in the background were wonderful. It was a bit chilly (though that might be because I only had a t-shirt on) and drinks were expensive so I just wandered round and took photos.  

If I’m ever here in summer I’m definitely going to spend an evening (or two) drinking a cocktail (or two) on a rooftop. I won’t even care about how expensive it is. 

17. Read a book on Subwayreads

Just about everyone on the subway is looking at their phone. Not so different to subways everywhere you might be thinking. But the New York subway is different because it has something called Subwayreads.

All the subway stations have free Wifi and so whilst your train is in a station you can log on to the website and download a short story or poem to read as you continue on your journey. It’s free to use the site and once I realised it was available (it’s advertised widely on the subway) I got quite addicted to it, even logging on to read things at home.

There’s a wide range of literature available categorised into genres such as parenting, sport and travel. The genres that attracted me most were black voices matter and immigrant stories because these are genres that I don’t read enough of and don’t know that much about. The immigrant stories were really interesting to me as the stories all concerned immigrants from different countries who had moved to the US and by reading them I got an insight into a part of life in America that I wouldn’t have otherwise had any access to.

As well as short stories and poems there are also lots of full length books on the site, though only the first few chapters are available to read. It’s more than enough to get a good taste and for most of what I read I’ve since bought the books for my Kindle so I can finish reading them.

Whenever I was on the subway I got my my phone out like everyone else (I’m all about blending in and going native) but I was reading my way through a ton of great literature rather than mindlessly scrolling through social media. I like to think this is what everyone else was doing too, but without looking over their shoulders and peering at their phones I have no idea. I hope they weren’t on social media.

18. Charge your phone or use the internet at a booth

I love my Samsung phone. I bought it earlier this year and the battery is amazing. I can use the phone as much as I like, take a zillion photos and still have battery left at the end of the day.

Why am I telling you this? Because in the past needing to charge my phone constantly was one those really annoying modern life problems. I’d usually lug my big camera around with me because I knew my phone wouldn’t last more than a few hours if I started using it to take pictures. It’s getting easier now to find cafes with plenty of sockets, but you don’t always want to go and sit in a cafe and buy a coffee just because you need to to get a bit of charge on your phone.

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New York has come up with a solution. Dotted around Manhattan you can find small booths where you can charge your phone for free. You can use the internet for free too as the booths double as mini computers. 

Having a phone with amazing battery life meant I didn’t need to use the booths for charging. I thought I might have used them for the internet as I didn’t have my data switched on while I was in New York as that would have cost me a fortune. Instead, each evening I used the Wifi where I was staying to research for the next day and I made loads of notes. If I needed to check something online whilst I was out and about I could usually do so in a coffee shop or in the subway stations. But it was nice to know that these booths were there if I needed them.

19. Go to the beach

Did you think about going to the beach as part of your new York trip? No? Neither did I. I don’t know why I was surprised because New York is, after all, a coastal city and coastal places do have beaches.

If you zoom in on Google maps you’ll see lots of long yellow strips. These are beaches folks! You’ll find most of them on Long Island which (this was another revelation to me) is where Brooklyn and Queens are.

You could pretend to be a rich New Yorker and rent a house for the weekend in the Hamptons which are way at the far end of Long Island (it’s not called LONG Island for nothing) and spend hours getting there or you could get local ferries, or even the subway, and visit beaches much closer to the city.

A few examples:

From Pier 11 (by Wall Street) you can get a ferry to Rockaway in Queens. The journey takes 57 minutes and the ferries are roughly once an hour. These ferries only cost $2.75 – the same as a subway ride. Bargain!

Once in Rockaway you’ve got sandy beaches with over 5 miles of boardwalk to explore. There are lots of eateries so you don’t even have to worry about bringing food.

Alternatively you could take the subway to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. Brighton Beach is also known as Little Odessa because of its Russian immigrant population. It has a nice sandy beach and lots of shops and food places specialising in all things Russian. And if you get fed up of the beach you can always go for a Russian Bath – there are a few to choose from.

Close to Brighton Beach is the famous Coney Island Luna Park with its old wooden roller coaster. Known as the Cyclone, it dates back to 1927. Coney Island is more than just its amusement park however. It also has a 3 mile stretch of sand and boardwalk. The beach does get crowded so you might want to get here early to bag a spot.

Have I made you want to go to the beach in New York? Maybe you’re already in New York and you’re reading this. You might be thinking, ‘Damn, I’d love to go to the beach, but I didn’t bring a bikini‘. Don’t worry, New York also has several nude beaches within easy reach. 

For example, you could take the ferry from Pier 11 across to New Jersey and visit Gunnison Beach in Sandy Hook. Be warned, the ferry is expensive though. Might be cheaper just to buy a bikini.

I can’t actually vouch for any of these beaches as the end of October wasn’t really the best time of year for beach weather. But as soon as I find myself in New York in the summer you can bet your bottom dollar I’m doing the whole beach thing.

20. Be polite and friendly

Seriously. I mean it. Be polite and friendly. You might be under the impression, from all those films and TV shows you’ve seen, that everyone in New York is brash and brusque and in a rush. And just downright rude. The in a rush bit might be right (don’t get in their way), but the rest is complete fallacy.

Americans are inherently polite and New Yorkers are no different. Every time I spoke to someone when buying a ticket in a museum or buying a coffee the person was polite and helpful. Obviously they were in a hurry if there was a queue so I didn’t take up too much of their time. When I ate in restaurants and it wasn’t busy the waiters were quite friendly and not at all put out by my questions about the food and explained what things were and made recommendations.

They were just after tips you may thinking. That did cross my mind too. But I was to find that people who weren’t serving me and so in no way were going to get a tip were being nice and friendly and helpful too. Random people I chatted to, people I asked for help with knowing which subway train to get, people I asked for directions. Everyone was lovely.

Each evening I would walk home from the subway station, back to the brownstone in Brooklyn where I was staying. It was always dark by the time I was going home and there were usually small groups of hoodie wearing youths congregated on darkened stoops. Was it scary having to walk past them? Intimidating?

If they noticed me passing by them they would straighten up, stop whatever they were doing and look right at me.

‘Good evening Ma’am‘, they’d say as I walked past.

Intimidating?  Not in the slightest. 

Polite? Very.

21. Eat donuts

Donuts are so New York. Like bagels and pizza and pancakes, they’re one of the iconic foods associated with the city. And you don’t have to be a cop to eat them.

Donuts in New York are an art form. I’d been recommended a couple of places to try. I stumbled across Dough, one of my recommendations, unexpectedly and as I was passing decided to go in and give it a try.

This wasn’t a case of choosing between jam or custard. The counter was filled with an array of colours and sugary decorations. I took far too long choosing and in the end could only get it down to two – a cheesecake donut because cheesecake and an hibiscus donut because weird. 

I ate my cheesecake donut (yes, it really is a thing) with an espresso in the shop as that was the one that seemed least likely to survive a journey. The hibiscus one I took home to have that evening. Both donuts were huge. They were also soft, light, airy, melt-in-the-mouth and probably the best donuts I’ve ever had. If I lived in New York I’d go back once a week so I could work my way through all the flavours.

The second place I’d been recommended was Donut Plant. I never got the chance to go here, but their donuts look just as good as those at Dough. It’s definitely on my list for next time.

22. Eat a (pizza) slice

I’ve got to include pizza here as eating a ‘slice’ is another one of those New York iconic foods, even though I don’t have any particular recommendations. The only pizza I had was at the cafe on Liberty Island when I went to visit the Statue of Liberty (which actually isn’t even in New York – it’s over the border in New Jersey. Did you know that? I didn’t!)

I wasn’t expecting much from a super busy, overcrowded place catering purely to tourists. But, you know what? It was actually pretty good. It was massive of course; this is New York after all. But it was quite reasonably priced considering where I was and it tasted freshly made. If this is the pizza at a mass tourist place then I really have to try pizza at some of the highly rated places next time I’m here. 

23. Eat cannoli

Eat what? When Shannon first mentioned cannoli to me I had no idea what she was talking about. I wondered if it might be like cannelloni. Actually I wasn’t far wrong, just that it’s a sweeter, crispier version and you eat it for dessert rather than as a main course.

Cannoli is a fried tube of pastry dough filled with sweetened ricotta. I didn’t know this when I first tried one and assumed the filling would be cream. What a surprise when I bit into it and and thick cream cheese filled my mouth. It was far thicker than any ricotta I’ve had and almost more like cheesecake in its consistency (and we all know how much I like cheesecake!)

The place I really wanted to try cannoli is a restaurant called Puglia that does great lunch deals. It wasn’t to be, but I did get to try cannoli.

I saw them on the bakery counter in Whole Foods and bought a couple to try. They were only tiny ones and so perfect for trying two without feeling greedy. I wanted two because one of them was covered in chocolate. Both were delicious, but even though I’m a chocolate lover I think I actually preferred the original one.

One thing with cannoli is that the pastry needs to be really crisp, so it’s best if they’re filled only when you order them. The ones I bought in Whole Foods weren’t filled to order, but as it was first thing in the morning I don’t think they’d been filled long before and so tasted fine.

As a complete aside, I’ve recently started watching the Gilmore Girls (it’s an American TV show). The mother and daughter characters speak fast and the quips shoot from their mouths like rapid gunfire. One of the quips was about cannoli. As they entered the local diner the conversation went like this:

Lorelai: We could sit in the corner – you know, the Mafia table so that no one can come up behind you and whack you with a cannoli.

Rory: Whack you with a cannoli? Oh, because he left the gun and took the cannoli.

You wouldn’t believe how excited I was to hear this reference. ‘I know what a cannoli is!‘ I may or may not have shouted as I jumped up and down on the sofa.

The reference actually comes from The Godfather, which I haven’t seen. But I do want to see it now just so I can listen out for the cannoli reference.

24. Avoid fast food and coffee shop chains

You might think of America as the home of fast food and huge chains; the sort that systematically put all small and independent businesses out of, well, business. I certainly did. I expected to see the streets of New York lined with McDonald’s and Burger Kings and Starbucks. But this really wasn’t the case. I’d been there almost a week before I saw my first McDonald’s. I can’t recall seeing any Burger Kings and although I saw several Starbucks, there were far fewer than I see in the UK. The chain that seemed to be most prevalent was, surprisingly, Pret a Manger.

This is because New Yorkers love their food and so support all the small, independent places. These places specialise in particular things, like bagels or pickles, and they make them far better, far fresher and far tastier than any chain ever will.

New Yorkers appreciate what they have and so have never let themselves get addicted to all the bland, processed crap that the fast food chains serve up. It’s real food all the way. And so if you feel that because you’re in New York you have to live at McDonald’s in order to blend in, think again. There’s nothing that will shout tourist louder (well maybe riding in a horse and carriage in Central Park whilst wearing 4 inch heels would, but apart from that).

And anyway, with all the wonderful food on offer, why on earth would you want to eat fast food that you can get at home anyway?

25. Tip

This one’s important. In the UK I rarely tip. I’ll tip at a restaurant if I’ve had good service, but that’s probably about it. I know plenty of people who don’t like doing even that. In America you are expected to tip for just about everything you do. In a bar it’s about a dollar a drink, in a restaurant it’s 20% of the bill. There are tip jars in takeaway places and just about every kind of service you receive will be tippable.

I feel uncomfortable with this, particularly in a situation where the person expecting a tip hasn’t really done anything for me. I also feel that employers should pay their staff properly and not expect customers to make up their wages on top of the price they are paying for the food or service. It leaves a bit of a bad taste and a feeling that I’m being ripped off in some way. To me a tip is a way of showing appreciation to someone who’s gone above and beyond; it’s not a way of topping up someone’s wages because their boss can’t be bothered to pay enough.

When I mentioned tipping to friends before I left for New York, I usually got a response along the lines of, ‘well I wouldn’t tip for that’ or ‘I might round the bill up, but I’d never leave 20%’.

People, remember that saying about ‘when in Rome…’? Well, you might not be going to Rome, but you are going to someone else’s country and who are you to say things should be done the way you like them doing?

In the US tax is added as an extra to your bill rather than being included in the price (another thing I’m not used to and found annoying!). The tax differs from place to place, but in New York it’s just under 10%. Add a 20% tip to this and you’re paying almost a third more than the price listed in the menu.

Whenever I checked out a menu I just mentally added about 30% to the listed prices and told myself that was the actual price. So if I saw something priced at $10, I thought of it as being $13. That way I could decide whether or not I thought it was worth it and didn’t get any nasty surprises later on.

The key point I’m trying to get over here is that no matter what you feel about tipping and whether or not you tip at home, you are not at home. You are guest in another country so suck it up and tip.

So what do you think of my 25 ways to pretend to be a New Yorker? Have I got it covered? Or do you think there are things I’ve missed? Share your thoughts and recommendations in the comments below.

enjoyed this? read these:

• 13 Things to Eat in the Netherlands
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• A Day in Peckham – Exploring London’s Suburbs

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