This time in New York

Happy New Year! I'm back from the USA with a new attitude and a new German keyboard (spilled tea on my old one, but now I have all these nice characters like ß and Ä!)

The US was lovely, with freakishly good weather in sharp contrast to present situation. S and I spent most of the holiday in DC, with a brief detour in New York City, checking out some of the sights that I never managed to visit before such as the Lower East Side and Brooklyn.

On our first day we had an awe-inspiring walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into Dumbo to get our first glimpse of the strange new world of Brooklyn. In the evening, my awesome friend Sara took us a large yet homey pizza place in Greenpoint- Paulie Gee's. You would never guess from the omnivorously adventurous first pages of the menu (bacon marmelade?!) but the menu features a fantastic selection of vegan pizzas, including the one I devoured featuring fennel-laced vegan sausage, cashew ricotta and arugula.

The cashew ricotta is to die for at Paulee Gee's in Brooklyn

Greenpoint! Where its possible to eat delicious vegan pizza while you pretend you are in the cast of Girls.

Another great discovery this time in NYC was the Lower East Side/ Chinatown. Previously, I didn't stray much outside of Midtown, but S., being an well-appointed German tourist, wanted to see some off-the- beaten-track museums. A good duo, particularly for those interested in immigration, is the Tenement Museum and the gorgeous Eldridge Street Synagogue. Right down the street from one another, the two museums explore the history of the LES as the primary destination for immigrants arriving in the US. The Tenement museum recreates a historic tenement building with well-researched stories about actual ex- residents, revealing fascinating details about life as an immigrant in the past century.

Prosperity Dumplings

The Eldridge Street synagogue is an elaborate art-deco masterpiece funded by Ashkenazi immigrants and then abandoned for years as the ethnic composition of the neighborhood shifted. Now brilliantly restored, its definitely worth a tour (especially in contrast to famous European synagogues, many of which are in various stages of ruin due to the nazi era.) The stained glass work alone is worth the price of admission.

While in the neighborhood there are also lots of food options, but I need to recommend this one place I found, a small dumpling joint that is insanely cheap and tasty. Prosperity Dumpling, also on Eldridge Street, is a tiny hole in the wall pumping out veggie and meat dumplings to a diverse crowd of lunch patrons. I can't verify 100% if the veggie dumplings are vegan, but they taste vegan and the register clerk told me thez contained no meat or dairy. (Take that for what its worth.) Anyways, 8 cabbage and mushroom stuffed dumplings, steamed or fried for $3.50, and absolutely delish.

In between museums we found another sweet spot, not super vegan friendly but worth poking your head in to check out the specials. Cheeky Sandwiches is a good spot to stop in for chicory-laced coffee or ginger lemonade in a cute, New Orleans inspired setting. The rotating menu has a few vegetarian sandwiches and S. was very happy with his shrimp po´boy (non vegan, obvs.)

Cheeky Sandwiches, a small and cute lunch joint

Its on a street packed with lots of good vintage shopping, and you can, like S. and I, fantasize about being millionaires who can afford to purchase an ex-tenement flat in what was once one of the nation's poorest neighborhoods.

Ah, New York! Bis nexte mal!