So, what's in New York City?

[hakumei_kouu]

'Ello! First time poster and I found this through that featured thingy-ma-jig. Those can give you some GREAT communities, I must say. D: Anywho~ The name's Rena and I have a pair of questions

Comments

[longlongwaytogo]

I can't help you sorry, but thanks for joining and posting! :)

I'm not sure how magic would affect the sorts of foods people eat. Unless they were magnificently displayed on the plate, in some way that could not possibly be done without magic?

Food in 2013

[marjwatkins]

Five years from now New York, and the rest of the USA, may really be Chinese dominated. Here on the US Northwest coast, we eat many different regional Chinese dishes, and I cook Chinese at home because it's healthy, colorful, nutritious, and cooks fast once you've chopped the vegetables, all to pretty much the same size. Stir-fries with at least five kinds of veggies, i.e. green onions, Chinese cabbage (nappa) or bok choy, sliced water chestnuts from a can, bell peppers, pea pods, bean sprouts. Always sliced or minced garlic and minced or grated ginger root. Chinese vegetables can usually be found in our supermarkets, but may be hard to find in 2008 New York. Still, by the time of your story, they may be everywhere. Steamed rice, of course.

Re: Food in 2013

[goreyhaus]

With a long-existing Chinatown - not to mention other large Asian communities - in NYC and other northeastern US cities, we have no shortage of Asian vegetables or any other ethnic food items. All the vegetabls and ingredients you listed and more are easily found even in rural supermarkets from New England to the Carolinas.

Re: Food in 2013

[marjwatkins]

Splendid news! If I ever find myself living anywhere in New York, I'll shop confidently for the Chinese and Japanese (?) ingredients so familiar to me. Thanks, Gorey. I guess I vacationed in the wrong part of the Carolinas, or the wrong stores. In the Beaufort area, we had some great Southern cooking, and some not so great, but nothing Chinese either in restaurants or grocery stores.

[goreyhaus]

There are corndogs in NYC but they're not a popular snack or street food. Hot dogs are far more common; so is pizza; even french fries. Coffees of all kinds are everywhere. I'd say sushi is eaten more often in NYC than corndogs, which I think are more prevalent in the south or maybe the midwest US.

[mymemine]

Actually, I've seen more corn dogs in Japan than I have in the south. ><;; I'm from the Carolinas, but currently live in Tokyo, and while they've got corn dogs in every convenience store here, I haven't seen them since school lunch in the Carolinas. I just don't think they're that popular anymore.

[pargoletta]

The nifty thing about New York, and especially Manhattan, is that you can find anything you might want somewhere in the city, and usually pretty close by. People eat everything in New York. If your character wants corn dogs, there will be at least one street vendor in the city (maybe in the northern end of Manhattan or even the southern part of the Bronx) who will sell them.

Can you narrow down question 1 a little? Are you looking for street foods, fancy foods, everyday foods, school lunches, specific types of restaurants?

[hillgal83]

I'm not from NYC so I can't really help with the first qus, but for the 2nd one.

Food will still be food even in a magic world. It would probably be the one thing that will allow the reader to relate back to real world when all else in the magic world is diff.
The food can taste better, can appear out of thin air... for the magic element, but I think it should still be food that we know of. Unless the magic world is base on another culture, Indian or Chinese... then it can be more interesting to a reader to also learn about food from elsewhere.

Check out Manchu Han Imperial Feast at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_han_imperial_feast
maybe it would be of use to you in your story.

Well, just my 2 cents worth...