New York City: Hurricane Sandy
Monday
Breakfast: Sky is eerily quiet but somehow foreboding. (Or am I just feeling that way because of all
the doom and gloom warnings on CNN?) I
make my usual 7-grain hot cereal with raisins and maple syrup.
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| Coconut-Salted Caramel Cookies |
Dinner: It’s here.
The power is out. The wind is
wild. Something hit my window not long
ago. I know I’m not supposed to be near
the windows but peaked out anyway. My
window planter is broken. Probably just
as well as not much more than moss has grown there in the last 12 months. Not sure how long the power will be out but
figure I should start eating the most perishable items. I don a headlamp, light the gas on my stove
with matches, and sear a small piece of skirt steak. I slice the steak and eat it in front of the
fireplace with tortillas and salsa verde. Beer is thankfully cold.
Tuesday
Breakfast: Woke up to a chilly apartment. It is still windy
but doesn’t appear to be raining. Still no electricity. Should probably get started on those farm
eggs. Fry an egg and have it on the last
of the sourdough with some Vermont salted butter.
Lunch: What comes between lunch and dinner? Linner?
Dunch? Anyway, I didn’t eat until
4. Getting stir crazy, I packed a
backpack and hiked the 2.25 miles to the closest gym with power. Worked out, showered, recharged. On the hike home, like a bright shining light
from heaven, I spotted a sushi restaurant with power! Two rolls and a Sapporo later I was feeling
more like a human being.
Dinner: Started to think about the perishables. Boiled the rest of the eggs. Moved the cheese
and the rest of the beer to the freezer (very important). Reheated the last of some cheese and chicken
enchiladas from a few nights earlier.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Poppy seed bread, a gift from John’s mom, was
starting to defrost so I pulled it out.
Will be munching on this for days, I think.
Lunch: Long walk, over 3 miles, to meet my cousin for ramen
in midtown. It is a different world up there in the electricity zone. Tourists shopping, suits lunching. Very different from vacant downtown. It was
worth every step for spicy ramen with extra pork and scallions at Hide-Chan.
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| Curried Chickpeas with Spinach and Peas |
Dinner: Made it back home just as the sun was setting. With no streetlights probably safest to get
home before dark. It is Halloween. Weird mix of people out on the dark streets:
kids in costumes holding parent’s hands; gay couples, hands entwined dipping
into the few open, candlelit bars; refugees, suitcases trailing, headed uptown
to escape powerless, waterless apartments.
I lit the stove and fried up chickpeas with onions, garlic, curry,
spinach, peas (last two salvaged from the leaking, defrosting freezer). Steamed
rice, just enough for one. Felt
luxuriously homemade, eating by candle and firelight.
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| Urban Camping Food- Tuna + Hardboiled Egg |
Thursday
Breakfast: More poppy seed bread and cheese (staying
somewhat cool in the freezer). Sadly
tossed out two duck carcasses I had been saving to make stock.
Lunch: Hardboiled egg, tuna, rosemary crackers. This scavenging thing is getting old.
Dinner: The hike uptown today was not so bad as the trains
are now partially working. Had a burger
and sweet potato fries at PJ Clarke’s.
The staff could not have been kinder finding me a table with an outlet
to charge both my phone and computer.
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| Carolyn's Poppy Seed Bread and Ossau-Iraty Cheese |
Friday
Breakfast: The last of the poppy seed bread and some more
cheese. As of today, I am over this
urban camping thing. Think I will spend most of the day uptown.
Lunch: Found a nice quiet table in the atrium for ticket
sales at Lincoln Center. Hot green tea,
Wi-Fi, lots of other refugees graciously sharing outlets. Met friends at
Landmarc in Columbus Circle and spent a sum of money I will later want to
forget. But the braised lamb sandwich
with butter pickles will surely standout as one of the most comforting meals of
the week.
Dinner: Lunch kind of ran into dinner and migrated to a friend’s corporate apartment. We
reheated my leftover sandwich and some pizza. We passed pieces around while
watching the Hurricane Sandy telethon.
Too many bottles of wine consumed to count. Disobeyed my own rules, walking home in the
dark, only my headlamp and some traffic guards to guide me.
Saturday
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| Friends celebrating the return of power at A Casa Fox |
Breakfast: Let there be light! Fired up the stove the old fashioned way to
make seven grain hot cereal. Still no
hot water or heat. But electricity!
Sweet electricity. Didn’t realize
how much I needed you.
Lunch: Neighborhood is still scarily quiet. Everyone just got power back so most
restaurants are closed. Walk for 20
minutes determining what is open. End up
at Bill’s Burger. Getting tired of
burgers and sandwiches but desperate times….
Dinner: At A Casa Fox on the Lower East Side it is back to business.
A random mix of people- new friends, old, friends of friends stranded in
Manhattan post-marathon cancellation. We
drink cocktails and pass plates of calamari and rice, empanadas, beef tacos. We talk of waterless toilet strategies, the
beauty of headlamps, the generosity of neighbors and gyms, the disappointment
of marathons un-run, the many people less fortunate than us still waiting for
help. We tie our bandana napkins in funny ways making neckerchiefs and silly
hats. We take pictures. A snapshot of a time that none of us will
soon forget.
Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell
Amy Powell is a food and travel writer based in New York City. She is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and the French Culinary Institute. Follow her on Twitter @amymariepowell
