Latest news with #TanyaSichynsky
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
These Jam Bars Are My Jam
The sun smiled down over Brooklyn last weekend. The temperature gently hovered around 75 degrees, and on Prospect Park's Great Lawn, picnickers spread themselves out like asparagus on a sheet pan. We're eating outside again: Summer is a-comin' in! To tee up alfresco dining season, Tanya Sichynsky (she of the The Veggie) has assembled a collection of our best 'portable and shareable recipes built for the backyard, the beach and the communal barbecue.' She may not say it in so many words, but the list definitely works for picnics and park hangs, too. Tanya has lined up two dozen absolute bangers to pick from, but high on my list is Yewande Komolafe's recipe for chewy strawberry jam bars with cardamom. Yewande is a shortbread sorcerer, ever coaxing new flavors, shapes and colors from her exquisite, buttery dough. These simple bars with a nubby, crumbly topping hold up well for travel, easily feed a crowd and are maximally adaptable. Substitute any thick jam for strawberry — ideally something tart to balance the sweet crust. And if these treats, like most shortbreads, tend toward crumbliness, well, you're eating them outside. The squirrels, ants and sparrows will be more than happy to tidy up. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A Night Owl's Jaunt Through an Evolving Nightlife Scene
It was around 2 a.m. when the birds started to chirp outside of Carousel, a trendy bar in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I was with a small, committed group of friends, lingering as we considered our next move. I opened Google Maps and searched for '4 a.m. bars,' then '4 a.m. bars near me.' The results: A night club, a diner and a 24-hour bodega. What happened to the 4 a.m. city I used to know? Legally, bars in New York State can serve alcohol until 4 a.m. But I had learned in my previous reporting that newer bars like Carousel are closing hours before that. Restaurant closing times are also trending earlier, and night clubs are struggling, so it seemed like an appropriate time to check in on the city that supposedly never sleeps. I wanted to find out why some bar owners were calling it quits early. Thankfully, Tanya Sichynsky, an editor on the Food section at The New York Times, also wanted to know the answer. As a freelance journalist who has contributed to The Times since 2024, I have reported on Guinness beer converts and late-night coffeehouses. It's work that quickly necessitated becoming a night owl. My recent reporting started with Andy Simmons, one of the owners of Carousel. I had first interviewed him in 2023, when I was a reporter at Eater. Back then, he blamed the 2 a.m. closing time on his age: He owned one bar that operated until 4 a.m., he said. At 42, he didn't need another. As it turned out, the truth was more complicated than that. When we spoke again last month, he explained that permits for bars to stay open until 4 a.m. had become an issue in Bushwick, which has rapidly gentrified. The local community board had pushed for earlier closing hours. 'All new bars in Bushwick have to have a 2 a.m. license,' he said. I suspected that this trend was bigger than Bushwick. Later that week, I called Raffaello Van Couten, a member of Brooklyn Community Board 1, which includes the trendy Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods. The board was pushing for similar curfews in those areas, he said, citing complaints from longtime residents about noise. 'We don't give out 4 a.m. licenses anymore,' he told me. As someone who runs several bars in the area, Mr. Van Couten had a unique perspective. One of his bars, Dolly's Swing and Dive, stays open until 4 a.m. several nights a week. He agreed that closing times are trending earlier, but he disagreed about the reason. Younger Americans are drinking less, he said, and late-night sales stink. He suggested I visit a bar right before closing and observe the crowd. So the next weekend, I went hunting for other night owls to learn about their reactions to New York City's changing bedtime. Were they wired, tired or somewhere in the middle? The night of March 29 — and morning of March 30 — was funny. I slept from 9 p.m. to midnight and then hailed a ride share from Crown Heights to Bushwick, riding the shaky second wind of an energy drink. When I arrived at Carousel at 1:30 a.m., I felt the thump of house music through concrete. But where were the people? I staked out a spot on the sidewalk, by the bar's rear doors. At 2 a.m., the doors swept open, and people poured into the streets. As they lit cigarettes and considered the costs of taxis and ride shares, I interviewed Alyssa Grace, a 23-year-old fashion designer who was visiting from San Antonio. She was disappointed her night was ending at 2 a.m., only an hour later than the last call in Texas. 'Right now, we're getting tacos and going home,' she said. I also saw a D.J., Nak Im, leaving the bar with his equipment. He said he had tweaked his performances in recent years; he plays faster songs earlier in the evening to account for premature closing hours and smaller crowds late at night. After my article was published, many readers reminisced in the comments section about the nightlife of New York City's past. 'You could just bounce around and anywhere you went, you knew you would find something fun,' one reader wrote. Many others seemed to agree that with fewer 24-hour gyms, diners and clandestine bars, New York City's hours had simply changed. The pandemic or larger demographic shifts may be to blame. 'It's been the city that sleeps,' another reader wrote on social media. 'Maybe folks are tired.' But not this reporter: I'm onto my next assignment. Even if that requires staying up until 4.a.m.
New York Times
03-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
More Grocery Stores That Are Also Great Restaurants
Restaurants: love 'em, obviously. But grocery stores … those are my happy places. And when a grocery store's got prepared food that beats anything? I'm moving in. Last year, my colleague Tanya Sichynsky did a great installment of the newsletter about grocery stores with excellent food, so consider this a sequel. With park picnic season approaching, mercifully, picking up a meal is an obvious solution. Or maybe you're hosting a last-minute hang — cook one thing (or nothing at all) and buy the rest prepared. Especially if you need to shop anyway, there's a win-win solution. Tashkent Supermarket, the venerated Uzbek grocery store with locations in Brooklyn and Queens, recently opened its first Manhattan location in Greenwich Village. They're selling produce and other Eastern European groceries, yes, but the big draw is the prepared food: two long hot bars, a bakery section, a kebab counter and a plov station. My favorite bites were of the tennis ball-size spiced beef manti ($2.99); kutabi ($3.49), a flaky, beef-stuffed Azerbaijani pancake; and excellently seasoned potatoes and mushrooms ($7.99 per pound). Finally, the pièce de résistance, plov ($9.99 per pound), a dish of rice and stewed meat (the lamb is phenomenal). Obviously, all buffet rules apply: Take a few laps first. Develop your game plan. Mind the prices when you pack up plastic clamshells of salads and dumplings, as prices differ per pound. Eat your steaming dish of plov in Washington Square Park, making sure to squeeze out every caramelized clove from the head of roasted garlic. Repeat regularly. 378 6th Avenue (Waverly Place) Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
27-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
This Cake Is So Easy for How Gorgeous It Looks (and Tastes)
Hello! Ramadan begins tomorrow, and Tanya Sichynsky has compiled a collection of 21 recipes to enliven suhoor meals and iftar celebrations. There are beautiful, centerpiece mains — like Tejal Rao's lamb biryani, a generous dish of layered lamb chops, mint and cilantro, basmati rice, saffron milk and fried onions — and equally lovely sweets. Yvonne Maffei's dates with cream and chopped pistachios, a five-star, five-ingredient recipe adapted by Julia Moskin, would be a wonderful dessert, as would this namoura (syrup-soaked semolina cake). Amanda Saab's recipe for namoura, adapted by Tejal, is simple to make and assemble: First, you make a simple sugar syrup with lemon juice and lavender extract (or rose water or vanilla extract). While that cools, your cake batter — melted butter, semolina flour, sugar, plain yogurt and baking soda — goes into your trusty 9x13 baking dish for a quick bake in a 400 degree oven. The cooled syrup gets drizzled over the fresh-from-the-oven cake, and you get a beautiful, gently scented treat that only gets better as it sits. Featured Recipe View Recipe → You probably noticed that there are no eggs in this wonderful cake — a boon to anyone whose store shelves are a little bare these days. If you didn't catch yesterday's newsletter, Melissa Clark shared some excellent eggless versions of otherwise eggy recipes, and you can find Genevieve Ko's smart guide to egg substitutions here. The egg yolk is optional in these boulèts (epis-spiced meatballs), a recipe from Elsy Dinvil adapted by Korsha Wilson. The torn bread soaked in evaporated milk (or unsweetened coconut milk) keeps the meatballs plenty juicy and bound together, and the sauce — a deeply spiced mix of tomato paste, epis, chile and onions — brings plenty of richness. Pair your meatballs with rice or fried plantains (or both!) for a warming weekend meal. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
