CAN YOU DIG IT? or Coney Island Part Two: In Which We Finally Talk About Hot Dogs

This cult classic was my first introduction to Coney Island. The Warriors was filmed at a time when Coney Island was at its lowest, the amusement parks torn down, the land caught up in endless court battles over development. Only the lonely 'Wonder Wheel' remains.

That was not, of course, the Coney Island that we witnessed. It was very much alive, and I'm sure that the crowds would have been maddening if we'd gone on the weekend. The long story short is that it was worth the lengthy train ride, hangover or no hangover.

If you want the even longer history of Coney Island, I won't bore you with it here if it's not your bag. Cliffnotes version.

We started our adventure with a slew of roller coasters, most notably the brand-new Thunderbolt:

Fastest I've ever experienced

We avoided the Cyclone because, although it is iconic and one of the last wooden roller-coasters out there, it can also be very painful (there have been some accidental deaths) and well, four other rides didn't do great things for my hangover.

We did, however, ride the Wonder Wheel, a piece of American history. Unlike most traditional Ferris wheels, the Wonder Wheel has cabins that slide back and forth on a track as you go up and down, making the wheel feel a bit more thrilling. Good view from up there.

We blew the last of our tickets on skee ball. Because skee ball.

Then finally, FINALLY, we got our first New York hot dogs from the original Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, the birthplace of the hot dog.

Kim's on the left.

Hot dog: Original

Ketchup: Yes

Mustard: Honey mustard. Medium grain.

Toppings: Fried onions.

Rating: 7/10

James' on the right.

Hot dog: Original

Ketchup: Yes

Mustard: Regular type.

Toppings: None

Rating: 6/10...shoulda had the onions.

Nathan's Famous are tasty. They have salty exteriors. These sloppy dogs were probably as close to the 'classic' Frank-in-a-bun experience as you could get...but the hot dog has come a long way since then, and we have been spoiled by a plethora of smokies, premium Italian sausage, etc. Having a Nathan's, the original, was an essential part of our New York experience, but it didn't exceed any expectations.

Coming up tomorrow: Kim blogs about the Met (not the Mets) and baseball (also not the Mets)

--James

Sodom by the Sea and Little Italy

...well, that's what it was called before the amusement park showed up, at any rate. Although the 'Steeplechase' mentioned in my favourite Dire Straits song no longer exists, an iteration of its famous horse-racing style roller-coaster does. More on that later; I'd better do this in chronological order.

Sunday morning we started with Chinatown.

There are parts to any big city that are designed around tourism; most specifically, making money off of tourists. This is a part of the lifeblood of many big cities, but...

...not to say that Chinatown was a trap. But the rows upon rows of souvenir stores all hawking the same t-shirts and key-chains, plus street vendors trying to sell you cheap designer knock-off watches and handbags...are a trap. I've seen it elsewhere though, so it's not shocking, but they do prey upon the unwary. So if you're going to a touristy part of New York such as Times Square...

Which segues perfectly into this paragraph, because we decided to go see The Lion King as our second show.

Short paragraph.

Chinatown was great. Highlights were the Buddhist temple:

And the $20 (for two, including tip) lunch at Nice Green Bo, which Kim has shared pics of. But heck, here they are again because damn, those dumplings and spicy beef noodles were delicious:

Why yes, that is the warm filter

We also visited Little Italy which, as locals told us, has been reduced to essentially a single street (Mulberry) downtown. Here I unlocked the 'haggler' achievement by successfully (accidentally) lying about the price of a t-shirt that I saw in another store across the street. This is a great area to go see if you like cute old brick apartments and authentic Italian waiters shouting out the $9 lunch specials for their authentic Italian restaurants, complete with authentic Italian accents.

Our evening was reserved for the harbour tour, which offered an incredible view of Manhattan, New Jersey and Brooklyn from the water. Definitely worth the $ if you get the tour with the 'City Pass'. The boat goes right around the Statue of Liberty. Although I wasn't crazy keen on doing the actual statue tour, I'm glad I got to see it up close...it is quite possibly the most iconic thing to see in New York, which is a city full of iconic buildings.

Highlights of the boat tour included: meeting the retired G.I. who told me about the U.S.S. Intrepid Air and Space Museum (which we may or may not have time to see but ohmygodihopesobecausejetplanes), the Statue of Liberty, and having 95% of the tourists disregard the 'don't stand up it spoils everyone's view' instructions from the staff.

Stock photo

Well this is getting a bit tl;dr so I'm going to finish it off here and tell you all about the wonders of the Wonder Wheel (and our first actual hot dogs of the trip!) tomorrow.

--James