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24 hours in a diner in New York
- dazc 9y agoSORRY, YOU NEED TO ENABLE JAVASCRIPT TO VISIT THIS WEBSITE. I was expecting something more than text and images?
- hprotagonist 9y agoDiners are wonderful, and very very much a metro-NY thing in this incarnation. (There are other diner types, excellent in their own ways, but they're sufficiently different as to be out of scope.) They build communities, too, and "Diner regulars" are a pretty ecumenical bunch. Nearly everything I miss about NY has to do with food, and nearly all the food I miss is diner food: mystery meat gyros, the diner hamburger that's slightly too wet for the bun so you can't put it down once you pick it up, the right kind of natural-casing link sausages that snap when you bite into them, and above all, the matzoh ball soup: cure for everything. For dessert, rainbow cookies or a slice of pie from the glass rotating case -- and don't forget the weird chocolate mints on your way out. A half-decent bagel, good pizza, and any bodgea's sausage egg and cheese on a roll round out my list of foods I atavistically seek out every time I'm within 40 miles of central park.
- AznHisoka 9y agoOh man I miss matzoh ball soup. My wife (who is chinese) tells me that they have a similar food that looks like matzo balls, but the taste is nowhere close to the same.
- GW150914 9y agoMy friend, the secret is chicken fat, shmaltz. Try this, and I think your soup will improve. http://www.momfluential.net/2012/03/21/my-grandmothers-matzoh-balls-part-1-schmaltz/ http://www.momfluential.net/2012/03/21/my-grandmothers-matzo...
- irishcoffee 9y agoOh my I'm gonna hafta try this! I had no idea what shmaltz was either.
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y agoAh, so that's what schmaltz is. I've been wondering ever since I learned what this verse actually says: The white man had the schmaltz The black man had the blues No one knew what they was gonna do But Tchaikovsky had the news I had read the description of schmaltz in wikipedia but that didn't really give me a very clear idea of what it would be like. That page perfectly illustrates it. I might just give that soup a go and see what I can do. It's a bit hit and miss when you don't know the way it's meant to taste though :)
- gmueckl 9y agoHm... it is interesting that Schmalz only refers to chicken fat in the US. While growing up in Bavaria I have mostly seen Griebenschmalz, which is pork fat amd generally eaten as a spread on bread. I never acquired the taste for it. Now I don't even remember it anymore.
- auxym 9y agoIn traditional Quebec cuisine, people would save the fat rendered from pork roast, then spread it on toast the next morning. Not many people do it anymore. I had it once and am not a fan, it had a strong garlic taste from the roast.
- ukjohnny 9y agoIn England (I can't speak for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland) we call it 'Dripping' regardless of what animal the fat was from.
- noir_lord 9y agoBoth pork and beef dripping are common (though somewhat less so than when I was a child in the 80's) still in the North. Spread thin on toast with a sprinkle of salt it is amazing and instantly takes me back 30 years to weekends at my nan's.
- mattsfrey 9y agoTIL "ecumenical" I assume you mean this in a sense of people from disparate backgrounds coming together on a common ground? Is this even used in the context you meant it? Can you cite a text using it in a non-christian context? Just curious how the hell you ended up using this word lol.
- ghaff 9y agoI have seen it used as something akin to universal. See e.g. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ecumenical https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ecumenical But it definitely tends to be used in the religious sense.
- kijin 9y agoIn Ursula Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, the confederation of planets is called the Ekumen. It's a good ol' Greek word with no inherent religious meaning, so it's nice to see it getting reclaimed in a secular context. I think the fact that it tends to have a religious connotation imparts a sense of solemnity to it that is quite appropriate in the current context. "Ecumenical" also avoids the grandiosity and detechedness of "universal" or "global". Perhaps because its meaning derives from "home", it feels a lot more down to Earth and closer to heart than either of those common alternatives.
- thedailymail 9y agoSimilar trajectory for "catholic," meaning broadly inclusive. (e.g., She has catholic taste in music.)
- hprotagonist 9y agoI assume you mean this in a sense of people from disparate backgrounds coming together on a common ground? Exactly. Diners and bodegas are common spaces for people from every slice of life -- and everyone plays nice, or else the waitress takes your matzoh away and nobody wants that!
- enraged_camel 9y ago
- 8ig8 9y agoI think you meant bacon, egg and cheese. ;)
- byproxy 9y agoFood ties are strong. I'm lucky ebough to live in a region with great local fare....donut shops, burger joints, fast food mexican / chinese, mexican bakeries, sushi, boba... Most of them are practically interchangeable, but en masse they create a regional food identity and were I to move away, I'm sure I would feel a longing similar to yours. (also, there are plenty more 'yuppie' (read 'gastropub', 'artesenal', 'fusion', etc. spots that are good, but it's a bit harder for me to feel such an attachment)
- kasey_junk 9y agoWhy do you describe this as a metro NYC thing? I feel like every major metro in the USA has similar diners to this? In my experience, Nothing in this article or your comment describe things I’d be hard pressed to find in most big cities.
- hprotagonist 9y agoI have not seen "the new york diner" represented outside of a 60-mile radius of central park, roughly. Western PA, NY south of about Liberty, Stamford area CT, and northern New Jersey have a diner culture which is distinct. I've only ever seen respectable bodegas in new york state, but you can find them as far north as White Plains. I live in New England, spent a bunch of time in the midwest and southwest and pacific northwest, been in the south a little bit. None of those areas do it like this. Pizza is a holy war; bagels -- I'll grant you Montreal.
- kasey_junk 9y agoI guess what I’m looking for is what makes a nyc diner. Like how would I know I was in one other than locality to Central Park?
- hprotagonist 9y agoSome promising signs. A lot of these are true for no obvious reason. - open 24 hours, breakfast all day. - At least three industrial-grade bunn coffee makers - waitstaff primarily comprised of middle-aged women and 20-something men of the "working folks" varities. Normally, greek or latino. Normally lifers. Normally gruff but kindly. The owner is likely to be on the floor, and will inevitably be a 50+ year old man, normally chunky, normally greek. - red formica tables are a plus, as are naugahyde stool covers that have seen better days. - chromed steel backsplashes and a bar with round stools that you can sit at. - Gaudy exterior facade, that was last updated in about 1995, featuring (ideally) columns and usually neon signs. - Menu should be big and tall with plastic sheets protecting the paper, ideally edged in fake leather. At least 6 pages long, with an inordinate number of dishes -- of which maybe 5 are ever actually ordered in real life. - A lingering greasy smell of schmaltz and pancakes and hamburgers and singed coffee. - not so much now, but historically, one jukebox per booth - "Diner" in the name, normally also greek references (olympus, zeus, etc.) Bodegas are corner stores with completely forgettable names, the usual selection of beer and drinks and snacks and other gas-station-like foods, a newsstand that actually sells newspapers, normally phone cards or phones and whatnot. Goya foods in abundance. There is also a long grill that makes aforementioned sandwiches, and there is nearly always a cat on the premises.
- lotsofpulp 9y agoI find diner food to be of very poor quality, and nutritionally poor too. Not good for vegetarians either. Some are okay, but most don't seem to be maintained properly.
- marpstar 9y agothere's a reason the article states "diner food is best consumed when drunk"...because quality and nutrition go out the window for convenience and good vibes.
- solotronics 9y agototally missing the point here. this is like arguing Mexican street taco stands aren't vegan enough
- malvosenior 9y agoBut are they meant to be poor “quality”? Is that really part of the allure? Mexican street tacos are not vegan but they are delicious. How is eating terrible diner food tasty as opposed to a cultural experience (which I buy)? Someone in this thread mentioned bottomless coffee. I too enjoy that experience but as a coffee lover I won’t pretend that diner coffee is actually good.
- tyingq 9y ago"Diners are wonderful, and very very much a metro-NY thing in this incarnation. (There are other diner types, excellent in their own ways, but they're sufficiently different as to be out of scope.)" That's a great observation. We have our own diners in the south. But the dishes you want are chicken fried steak, meatloaf, green beans with bacon, mac-n-cheese, broccoli rice casserole, southern pies, etc. Completely different categories and experience.
- tyingq 9y agoThough, I should have mentioned, some things in common. Like competent, but sassy, wait staff. No diner puts up with your crap. Formica, pleather booths, tall laminated and fake leather trimmed menus, as well as neon seem to be common threads.
- ramphastidae 9y agoDon’t forget the bottomless cup of coffee and four ounce glass of orange juice :)
- jchrisa 9y agoAs a west-coaster, your description of the food is exactly what makes me keep my east-coast trips to an absolutely minimum. There are a short list of survivable restaurants, but even the grocery stores are depressing.
- malvosenior 9y agoIt’s true. As a west coaster who lived in NY for years I found the “classic” NY food to be pretty gross honestly. The most pined about pizza and bagels are greasy and bland respectively. It’s a cliche at this point for West coasters to not get what the big deal is and you were downvoted as expected (as I will be), but I suspect it’s out of lack of exposure to west coast food more than greatness of NY food. Dinners and pizza are hardly worthy of discussion let alone praise. You are not alone but the East coast has the media to promote their cuisine hence its dominance and over representation in US culture.
- pasbesoin 9y agoIn my local farm town, long since swallowed by suburbia, a local "farm style" diner continues to chug along. Very early breakfast through lunch. Closed Sundays. Despite the latter, and the proliferation of "weekend dining" with the change to suburbia, they're doing just fine. There is definitely a community of locals. Including many people in the trades and whatnot, who still grow up and live around here while the surrounding suburbia is much more "fluid" in its population. I've also watched other "farm diners" close, such as the one out in the farm town where I went to school. Changing economics and demographics. They are definitely their own sub-type of diner.
- jumelles 9y agoIf you like this, you might also like This American Life's 24 Hours at the Golden Apple (2000): https://www.thisamericanlife.org/172/24-hours-at-the-golden-apple https://www.thisamericanlife.org/172/24-hours-at-the-golden-...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- JAdamMoore 9y agoI wish people would stop romanticizing New York. The entire East Coast is terrible, but New York is extraordinarily stupid.
- dang 9y agoMaybe so, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. It doesn't help. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- swang 9y agoOK so just out of curiosity I looked at the newspaper date that Lynn is reading. "Chris Hardwick, King of the Nerds, Is Expanding His Empire" It is from April 7, 2016. Does that mean this thing took 2 years to come out or is she just reading an old newspaper? EducationLife which is on the table near her, folded in 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/television/chris-hardwick-king-of-the-nerds-is-expanding-his-empire.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/television/chris-har... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/saying-farewell-to-education-life.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/saying-f...
- sabj 9y agoIt took a long time. I was there.
- johnnyb9 9y agoOne time I had jet lag and went to the neighborhood diner (in NYC) a bit on the earlier side, like 5 AM or so. For a random Tuesday morning it was interesting to see all sorts of people walk in after a night out (on a Tuesday morning no less!). Reminded me of how crazy the city is.
- chadlavi 9y ago> perhaps the most famous diner scene after the orgasmic pastrami sandwich in “When Harry Met Sally” Small and basically meaningless point, but Katz's is not a diner.
- scroot 9y agoShout out to Clark's in BK