We spent the day in New York to see English and walk around.

The other day, I did a tally of how many times I’ve been to New York in the past three years, and it officially is at 37. I went to college in New York City, at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and had the chance to live there before COVID shut the school and world down. I then got jobs based out of New York, despite living three hours south, and went back and forth for work.

I love New York from the bottom of my heart, and if COVID had never happened, I probably would still be living there to this day. My life looks drastically different than what I expected it to be like in college, but I’m perfectly happy with how things turned out.

Having worked in theatre for years, I love catching a good show here and there on Broadway and one of the smaller spaces throughout the city. I knew about the production of English when it first came to Atlantic Theatre Company, but I missed it when it was at that space.

I ended up seeing that show in Washington D.C., which is a lot closer to me than everything else in New York, but I knew when the show announced it was coming to Roundabout Theatre Company that I wanted to go see and support the show on Broadway. As an Iranian American woman and theatre professional myself, I knew I needed to show up for this show and cast, especially since plays struggle more on Broadway.

An opportunity came my way, and I scored two balcony tickets to the show for a very good deal. I invited my mother to come with me, and we took an early morning bus up to New York City from Baltimore to see the show.

Here’s what we did over the course of that day! We certainly did a lot.

Walking through Times Square and Fifth Avenue to window shop is always quite a time.

Because we went to New York at the end of January, it was freezing out. We were bundled up in layers, but my mother was still cold, so we decided to stay local to the area around the theatre because of the wind and time constraints.

So we decided to window shop and go into stores! My mother first wanted to go to the candy store that’s right near Times Square, on 42nd Street, and so we spent about twenty minutes in there before heading towards 5th Avenue. The Christmas tree had been taken down in Rockefeller Center, but that didn’t stop my mom from taking pictures of the area.

We then stopped by St. Patrick’s, which is open to the public on Fifth Avenue. It’s a Catholic cathedral on 5th Avenue that’s incredibly big and full of European style architecture. I’ve never seen a church like it in the United States, and they allow anyone to walk in and look around.

After that, we wandered into Saks’ Fifth Avenue, where we were clearly out of place. But I wanted to show my mother what it was like in there, and she didn’t believe me originally when I told her what the prices were like. It was nice inside, but a little empty.

On the way to lunch we also stopped by McNally Jackson, and I showed my mother some friends’ books before we headed to our next destination. I’d picked this lunch spot because I’d been here before, the prices are reasonable, and the dish I wanted us to eat was delicious and filling.

Rice x Beans is one of my favorite places to eat before a show in Midtown.

As I mentioned in the previous section, I’ve come to this restaurant a lot. I first came when it was under a different name, and had different decor, but all in all this was my fourth visit to this restaurant specifically. It’s a Brazilian restaurant on 10th Avenue called Rice x Beans, and it’s got great food.

I wanted to come here to eat the feijoada for two. Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil, and it’s a pork and beef stew filled with black beans. The portion of this is massive, so if you’re two women like us who don’t have huge stomachs, you’re probably not even going to finish this meal.

We ordered two Diet Guaranas to start, then we waited for our food. It’s served in a big serving dish that we put in the middle, and then we each got our own plates with rice, an orange slice, and collard greens. We then ladled portions of beans and meat onto each others’ plates and started working.

This meal was not finished, but we were set for the rest of the day. It’s so incredibly filling, and I find it a bargain for only $48 (at the time of typing this) for two people to eat this dish. It’s full of flavor; my mother liked it a lot, and said it was quite tasty at the end.

English is a fantastic show with thought provoking themes and messages.

I’ve written a separate review about this production on my blog, under theater reviews, but my mother and I saw this show originally in DC with the rest of the family. We’re a mixed Iranian American family, we came into this production with some ideas of what to expect, but it goes way beyond that.

By the time this little travel diary comes out, the show will have closed. I say if it ever gets revived in a smaller or regional theater, seriously go check it out. It’s funny, heart warming, and very much about how we sacrifice parts of ourselves to learn English. It’s also an insight into Iranian culture and life.

I had booked a day where the show was having a community conversation, but I misinterpreted that title and thought it was a talkback. We didn’t end up staying because we thought it would be the cast and playwright, but it was instead audience members coming to talk with facilitators about the show with each other.

Instead, we walked to a coffeeshop a couple of blocks down and enjoyed some teas. My mother ordered a warm green tea, and I got an iced hibiscus tea. I’m always ready for cold and iced teas, even in the coldest weather, so I downed it. We chatted for about an hour, then headed to our next stop: Junior’s!

Junior’s has some of the best cheesecakes around.

Our final stop on this day was to the Junior’s Bakery in Shubert Alley. I told my mother about Junior’s because she had never heard of it, despite our local Costco having their cheesecakes now in the frozen section. I had only ate a slice of cheesecake from the Brooklyn location once, and it was quite good.

This Bakery, which is attached to the main restaurant, is for those who want to grab something to go without eating inside. It was quite full while we were in there, so my mother kind of panicked ordered hers. I new I wanted the red velvet cheesecae, so I was good to go.

We ordered three slices, and it came out to $35 after tax. We took them home on the bus, and they lasted the entire three hour bus ride. Our driver was generous and let us get on the bus an hour earlier before our actual scheduled one, so we got home about 40 minutes early. We devoured those cheesecakes at home, and they were absolutely delicious.

That was how our day ended! It was a nice getaway for a bit, and I always love walking around the city for a change of pace sometimes.

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