Street Shopping

DAY 20

of the 30-Day Blog Challenge, 2011

Stop, look, and shop.

Among my favorite things about New York City are the street markets that prop up on weekends in certain parts of town. It's a joy to alight from the subway stop and be greeted by an unexpected road bazaar that stretches out over blocks and blocks of concrete.

More than the merchandise, it's the food that beckons: warm chicken and lamb gyros, freshly-squeezed lemonade, juicy slices of watermelon, barbecued corn, and more.

If it's the shopping you're after, you'll find all sorts of trinkets and colorful items—from pashmina scarves, mobile accessories, jewelry, nail polish, fragrance, and silk socks; to home accoutrements including large area rugs and decorative items.

Going back to the food, I recommend the following street market game plan if you're looking to check out any of the upcoming ones around town:

First, have at least $20 to $40 cash on hand. I believe some of the merchants take credit cards (like the carpet dealers) but for everything else, you'll need cash.

Second, start walking with an empty stomach, and head to the first gyro or falafel stand you spot; there are several of them. Sling your camera on your wrist or neck, and hook your bag on your shoulder. You'll need both hands if you're ordering the larger-than-life pita concoction. Don't worry, you can eat it with a fork, hence, "I have two hands."

Sweet street food.

Third, when the gyro whittles down to a much more manageable size that it looks like a sandwich and can be eaten as such, you can ditch the fork and walk towards a lemonade stand. Fish out a dollar and resist the urge to order the bubble tea (unfortunately, the street market version isn't very good, plus, it's ridiculously expensive). Dessert can be the uniformly cut hunks of watermelon, or, if you walk a few steps down, a banana nutella crepe. Yum.

If, at this point, you need to go to the bathroom, you'll most likely be in front of a Starbucks café or a Marriott Hotel. After using the facilities and freshening up, you can commence on shopping for things that you don't exactly need but are oh so cute and/or covetable. In my case, I spotted the purple Justin Bieber version of Beats by Dr. Dre Solo headphones. Adorable ube shade at $160—about 30% off the regular retail price. However, I ended up going to Best Buy and spending almost an hour perusing on-ear units, ultimately emerging with new Klipsch noise-isolating headphones. And that's for another post.

Corn sweet corn. A larger-than-life gyro.