Weddingbee boards

One idea I had for our rehearsal dinner was to do foods that represent New York City, which is where we will be going for the honeymoon and I could use some help!!

What foods make you think of New York City?

Thanks!

cheesecake, black and white cookie

pastrami or corned beef sandwiches

pretzels (the big soft kind that they sell on the street)

chicken over rice (it's what they sell on the streets so it'd be great to serve in bulk but i'm not sure what the recipe is!)

bagel and creamcheese with lox

pizza! apples! dirty water hotdogs!

Casual, YES!

I will be doing the cooking myself so I would prefer things to be easy! 

With hot dogs, do they need to be cooked a certain way?

Pizza, would the kind you heat up in the oven be okay?

I've googled the black and white cookie but what kind of cookie is it?  Is it a sugar cookie dipped in chocolate and white chocolate?

Any specific flavor of cheesecake?

You have all helped so much!!

Why don't you do a Turn of the Century New York theme and do all ethnic foods that represent the Lower East Side immigration?  This way you could do an Italian dish, a German dish, a Polish dish, etc. rather than trying to make a meal out of pizza, hot dogs, and bagels.  Plus the decor coul be cool.

And after all, where do you think the stereotypical "New York" foods came from!

Well, really, the most New York foods are from various ethnic traditions.

NOTHING is more NYC than genuine bagels from, say, Murray's on 13th, and knishes from Russ and Daughters, and pickles from the L.E.S. But those are all completely brunch foods, obviously.

Good pizza is totally New York, too -- but no one, IMHO, makes anything even vaguely resembling real, perfect, NYC pizza. As mentioned above, Nathan's hot dogs are famously New York.... but that's probably a bit weird for a rehearsal dinner?

Mainly, New York food is about the best of the best of the best treats from various nationalities/ethnic cultures, whether it's soup dumpings from Joe's Shanghaii, or it's Korean barbecue from one of those places near Herald Square.

That is something that's very hard to replicate outside NYC.

Unless you did a multi-culti, United Nations of food, NYC, style, ya know? Like something from each of several different neighborhoods: New York strip steak from the Meatpacking District, and Chinese noodle soup representing Chinatown, and tiny little Korean appetizers representing the Korean cuisine area, and etc etc like that.

If you are going to do NY pizza, there is nothing you can put in the microwave that will be ok!

Jocelyn: exactly!

A really good black and white cookie is a good idea! That would work if you went the NYC "deli" route (aka, pastrami from Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side, knishes, etc etc).

Egg creams to drink are sssssso New York. (No eggs in them. It's just milk, seltzer -- aka, soda water -- and then syrup, sometimes vanilla but most often chocolate. it's like a fizzy chocolate milk. Or an ice cream soda sans the ice cream.) Serving those could be fun.

Chocolates from Li-Lac.

ROASTED CHESTNUTS is a classic, classic, classic, New York street food - -and it smells and tastes divine. (Very Audrey Hepburn walking down Fifth Avenue.)

PS: I lived in NYC for about 20 years and never noticed anyone sellling chicken over white rice.... Hmmm.....

PPS: i agree that cheesecake is kind of a touristy thing. Yes, occassionally, I've heard of people getting cheesecake from Junior's out in Brooklyn.... but.... nah, no one really eats cheesecake. At least not any more than anywhere else in the U.S. Oh, what about iced coffee? That originated in NYC, as an everyday drink. (But probably no one knows that, so forget that one.....) Fantastic sushi is very New York, with a chaser of fantastic Indian sweets. A Manhattan cocktail.

We are in Texas so I'm going to have to do my best to make the food myself, if this turns out to be something we can do on our own, otherwise we'll be doing spaghetti!  I'm also trying to do it on the less expensive side.

Oh, and knish.  Though I don't actually know what that is.

NY style cheesecake - or whatever it is that they serve at Veneiro's and Rocco's. My friend who's a NYer born and raised swore he couldn't find anything like that when he was away from NY.

yes i'm talking street meat.

i like egg creams but have realized that not everyone does.

i don't know if it's ny but what about family style italian a la carmine's? i'd never seen servings like that in other cities i'd lived in before. it may not be quintessential ny but it would be something she could make on her own.

It doesn't matter what you serve.  Just hire an actor/musician/dancer/writer/artist to serve it.