Sunday, May 27, 2007

Noodletown!

If it's three o clock in the morning, and after a night of barhopping in Manhattan, your entrails are screaming for food, you lucky New Yorker have one recourse so fantastic, that I bet that you won't ever be happier at 3 in the morning anywhere else.
Praise the Lord for Great New York Noodletown, on the corner of Bowery and Bayard.
It used to be just Noodletown, then it was NY Noodletown and now it's Great NY Noodletown.
I think it should be called: Most Magnificent Shrine of Wonders and Divine Pleasures Great New York Noodletown, O Happy Day.
You possibly won't be happier doing anything else, anytime else, but at that late hour, the food of the Noodletown is even better, like manna from Heaven.
So you walk in and almost all the tables are taken. I saw a guy eating not one but two platters of noodles. Why not? If your entrails are rioting for food, order the half roast duck, which to my knowledge is probably the best in New York, and the salt baked squid, a fried marvel of salty crunch, and anything else on the menu; you will be forever grateful you went there, and so will your entrails.
We were on our way to the karaoke in Chinatown, but we had to eat first, so my adventurous friends Marta and Berta lit up the night sky when I remembered that Noodletown was open late. We forgot all about the karaoke. We were so happy. I was so happy I just wanted to stay there for the night, then wake up and order some more food. The chow fun with roast pork. Yum.
It was very cool too because Marta recognized a guy who used to dj at some parties, so we invited him to join us and had not only a fantastic dinner, but also a wonderful time with an almost stranger.
These kinds of things should happen more often.
We had been dancing at the Sapphire Lounge, which plays predictable but unoffensive disco and hip hop and nowadays, sadly, reggaeton (at which strains we packed up and left). Then we tried a bar called 205, where you are supposed to give a password or be in the guest list or who knows what. My mantra is Never Beg. We tried our luck. We said we just spontaneously sauntered by. This line has allowed me in twice this weekend, and I think it is more because everybody left town than anything else, but what is always surprising is that once you have been given the keys to the kingdom, you walk into a practically empty space. Meanwhile, hordes outside are begging for entry. It's such bullshit. The music there was very good too, and it took us like two hours to realize that they had space downstairs where hordes were dancing to house music. Bertha, our envoy, came back with reports that it was jammed and the music sucked. Hence, to Les Enfants Terribles, where in a spirit of Gallic rebeliousness, at late times, people are allowed to smoke. There is always a more interesting crowd in that place (read older and foreign) so we walked to that no man's land that is Ludlow and Canal, but the kitchen was closed and our entrails were roaring.
Noodletown beckoned. Total Happiness.

No comments:

Post a Comment