TASTE: Waldorf salad at the Waldorf Astoria
“Lunch for one? Any special occasion?” inquired the hostess at Peacock Alley at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. “I’m just here to try the Waldorf
May 26, 2026
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TOUCH: Staten Island’s ancient oyster middens
One might not expect that Amboy Road in southern Staten Island—now home to King Smoke, Wei Wei Nails, We Buy Gold—was once paved in oyster
April 24, 2026
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SMELL: Wonton Food fortune cookie factory
As I rounded the corner of Starr Avenue and Thirty-Seventh Street in Blissville, Queens, I saw a semitruck struggling to extricate itself from a snowbank.
March 17, 2026
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SOUND: DSNY’s snow hot tubs
The topography of the city changes after a big snowstom, as pedestrians create “desire lines”—unofficial paths formed by people repeatedly walking the easiest route between
February 12, 2026
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SOUND: Surround Sounds Piano_QNS
Toward the end of last year, Stephen Street Gallery in Ridgewood featured what appeared to be a piano in a dim, empty white room. But
January 26, 2026
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TASTE: Caribbean black cake for Christmas
On the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Maple Street in Brooklyn, the noon bells at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Blaise
December 17, 2025
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SMELL: Holiday scents above and below Fifth Avenue
This holiday season, if you step onto Fifth Avenue anywhere between Forty-Seventh and Fifty-Ninth Streets, you might notice a scent in the air. As it
November 24, 2025
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SMELL: Eugene J. Candy Co.
The aroma inside Eugene J. Candy Co., a jewel-box confections store in Bushwick, is a combination of caramelized sugar, warm marshmallow, and bubblegum, undercut
October 27, 2025
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SMELL: The Staten Island Ferry
As the Staten Island Ferry lurched toward the Whitehall terminal in Manhattan, passengers—mostly tourists on a late-summer afternoon—surged toward the doors in a haze
September 26, 2025
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