New York Bakery and epic running fail
When I first saw the sign that said "New York Bakery", I was really intrigued. A bakery! It's named after the city! How could I have been in the dark about this? I had to investigate. Upon investigation, the first thing I learned was that New York Bakery wasn't a bakery at all. They have some baked goods, depending on whether you visit the store before they sell out. But it's just mass produced baked goods wrapped in plastic. You can find the same kind of baked goods at many of the Japanese or Korean grocery stores like Sunrise Mart. What does New York Bakery have if they don't have baked goods? Spanish/Latin/Korean food.
I like the gimmick of a place with a name like New York Bakery serving tacos instead of bread. The best part is that a Korean guy runs the place, and he speaks Spanish to all the guys that go to this hole-in-the-wall. They actually have Korean food there, I think... except it's written in Korean and I'm not literate in Korean and I'm too ----- to ask.
Most of the guys who visit New York Bakery speak Spanish. Most of the ordering is done in Spanish, the chit chat is done in Spanish, and the specials of the day is written in Spanish. The first thing on the specials menu was 'Pechuga Empanizada'. I googled this right away to figure out wtf this was... and it's bread chicken breast.
They serve their version with rice, some lettuce, beans, tortillas, and housemade hot sauce. The pechuga was tasty. It's a really thin, flat piece of breast meat that's lightly breaded and crunchy. The rest of the dish was just average. Only the hot sauce made it redeemable. But the thing is, I keep going back to this place. One time I ordered 'chicharrones con salsa verde' because I had no idea what fried pork skin would taste like if it was in salsa verde. It's uh, not crunchy at all like normal chicahrrones.. it's braised/stewed and it's soft and mushier.
Each of those dishes were $6 and average tasting. But I keep finding myself going back for some odd reason. There's just not much else in this area for food at this price. And I love the idea of some middle aged Korean dude serving up Spanish/Latin food to a largely Latino customer base. It tickles me, so I go back again and again. If you go, just have a normal expectation for the food, otherwise you might be disappointed.
In unrelated news... so this past weekend I decided to start running because you know, eating a lot has its consequences. I started off with a two mile run and that was okay. Then on Sunday morning I decided to run around Prospect Park for a total of 4.3 miles. Since I can't run that well, I took it really really slow. Everyone in the park passed me by. It didn't matter if they were old or young, men or women, fat or skinny. Everyone ran right by me on Sunday. Then about a mile into this run, this woman catches up to me from behind. She would have been like the 247th person to pass me or something but that's not why she caught my attention. She caught my attention because she was not just running by herself, she was pushing a baby stroller... yea that's right, I run so slow that a woman with a baby stroller CAUGHT UP to me.
This was beyond disappointing of course, because I then had to start running faster just to keep up with her. And don't think she was just walking and pushing a stroller, she was pounding the pavement hard. I was panting and about to collapse, and I look over... she wasn't even breathing hard! Seriously, she ran with a baby stroller and it was easy as pie for her. When the trail sloped up, she just plugged along with her baby, and I was trying to keep up and about to die. When I ran at her pace, no one passed us except super fast runners. We started to pass other runners. Yea that's right. Me and the baby stroller lady. I was sucking air hard though. Lucky for me, she exited with a mile left in my run. So after she left, I was exhausted and couldn't run at the baby stroller pace, I slowed down a lot. That's when two speed walkers passed me. No, that's right. Speed walkers. I'm beginning to think I should just tone down my food in-take instead of running so much. Shit ain't for me.
New York Bakery
51 W 29th St.
New York, NY 10001
212-213-2838
I hate running/jogging. But I can speed walk like crazy. And it definitely helped me get the weight off and keep it off. It's much easier. Why don't you try that?
hungry
May 26, 2009 12:50 pm
Lol! That is hilarious. Truth is, that baby stroller lady was probably a marathoner who recently had a kid. Don't let it get you down. Now, on the other hand, speedwalkers lapping you? I mean, at some point pride has to kick in, no?
FN
May 26, 2009 10:41 pm
@hungry,
Hmm.. I might try speed walking too, if that's easier to do. Thanks for the suggestion!
@Fn,
If you put it that way, then it's not so bad! It's okay to run slower than a marathoner! And when I ran with the baby stroller woman, we were going pretty fast (for me) and I just couldn't move after that. Otherwise the pride would kick in against the speed walkers!
Danny
May 27, 2009 1:36 pm
Danny,
I'm moving to Windsor Terrace this weekend and I'm a block from the park .. I'm training for a marathon, but I love taking long slow runs, so if you ever wanna give it another go, look me up. :o)
Rochelle
May 27, 2009 10:27 pm
Why don't you borrow my bike. It's faster than running and it's still good exercise. If someone runs past you while biking, then I don't know what to tell you...
Ang
May 28, 2009 1:13 am
omg.
New York Bakery is one of the oldest bakeries in NY! They were all over the place, especially in Flushing but I noticed that they have all closed down. That is just so WEIRD that they're selling Spanish food!!!!! Tough times, eh?
Ambitious
May 28, 2009 12:13 pm
I think if I trained you, you could definitely beat the lady pushing the stroller. How about it?
Jack
May 28, 2009 12:48 pm
Hah, love your running story!
Agnes
May 30, 2009 10:23 am
@ ambitious - unfortunately, this new york bakery is a foreign rip off ... anytime you see this sign in korean &/or a pic (or replica!) of the statue of liberty with this sign, it's probably the korean rip off ...
@ danny - the main one in seoul is in one of the richest parts of the city ... and it still sucks donkey ass when it involves actual bakery goods ... haven't been there in almost a decade ... most koreans can't bake ...
what's funny to me is hearing mexicans speak korean as they're working in a korean grocery store in koreatown ... ;b
twk333
June 16, 2009 1:41 pm
Your blog about the lady with the babystroller was very funny. New York is such a great place for food and running. If you're looking for some really fun runs in New York you might want to check out Fun On Foot In New York by Warwick and Nola Ford. The book includes all the details that are important to runners or walkers, such as restrooms, water fountains, public transit and even food or beverage destinations!
Betty
July 16, 2009 1:26 am
Lol! What a unique name name, but the food looks wonderful!
Betty - Thanks for the heads up on the book. I actually checked out the author's website and found some pretty good maps there.
Melissa
July 16, 2009 12:52 pm