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NYC: hot dogs or raw gourmet? Horn of plenty or fries and a shake?


Robyn Openshaw - Dec 08, 2010 - This Post May Contain Affiliate Links


After my second trip to New York City this year, the verdict is this: in keeping with the diversity of that teeming city as immigrants poured in during the 19th and early 20th century, the city is all things.

Hot dog stands AND lush edible vegetables growing next to the street on 9th Ave. A horn of plenty in the Macy’s parade, and a giant Ronald McDonald and Pillsbury Dough Boy. A huge Hershey’s store on Times Square, AND Sarma Melngailis’ Pure Food and Wine restaurant.

(See them below. My friends Jamie and Jennie were afraid to try the oyster mushroom I am showing in the photo, so I enjoyed most of the 10 fabulous courses myself. Both of my friends suffer from horrific endocrine / hormone problems that cause them great pain as well as infertility. I am working on getting them to see the connection between those issues and diet/lifestyle. Both subsist primarily on junk food, so raw food dishes taste strange to them. Anyway, the food was wonderful, but DARN I didn’t get to meet Sarma.)

A few of my photos

–served and cleaned up at a downtown soup kitchen run by Baptists

Robyn and friend with people in a soup kitchen

–watched the Macy’s parade including Jessica Simpson, Kanye West, and Gladys Knight

–ran all over the city and Central Park on the subway and on foot, impressed in the photo below at the creative places I found KALE growing!

Robyn with veggies

–hung out with some drag queens, firefighters, and Elmo (see photos for proof)

Robyn with friends and a drag queen

Robyn with a friend and Elmo

–saw some fabulous shows like Promises, Promises with Kristen Chenoweth, Sean Hayes, Molly Shannon

Robyn standing near a hot dog stand

–found a sports bar to watch BYU lose by one point to the U of U

Robyn with firefighters

Robyn with her friends in New York City

Robyn with friend after shopping

–and of course shopped till we dropped on Canal Street and Chinatown, and here at FAO Schwartz (or the candyland “FAO Schweetz” here!)

Robyn's friend drinking syrup

Somehow I missed snapping the parade photo of–I am not making this up–the cornucopia of plenty from the original Thanksgiving followed IMMEDIATELY by a giant fries-and-a-shake. I did, however, capture my Nemesis #1 and Nemesis #2 as they floated past us on the edge of Central Park.

Ronald McDonald

Pillsbury Doughboy

On Thanksgiving I reflected on the abundance and the paucity of modern life. How we can tap the amazing things available to us like never before in history–or we can indulge in those things that are shiny on the outside but slowly drain away our life force.

Posted in: Lifestyle, Whole Food

4 thoughts on “NYC: hot dogs or raw gourmet? Horn of plenty or fries and a shake?”

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I love the picture of the beautiful, oddly placed Kale…but my first thought…”I hope they keep their puppies and doggies away from it!” :o)

    I had to share.

    Thank you.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Is there a good resource (book/website/whatever) for how to garden inside one’s apartment? We have no porch or anything. But I do have a 2×5 foot (approx) ledge just inside the living room window. That’s the only available space. Otherwise, it’s 2 people and 2 cats in a rediculously tiny apartment. Also, are you familiar with abdominal adhesions? I’ll try and avoid the gnarly details here, but between not having a colon and the massive amount of scarring (adhesions) from when it was removed, I have a great deal of difficulty with raw vegetables. (I was one those sick kids that the parents did what the doctor’s told them…including a horrendous surgery that I’ll suffer the effects of for the rest of my life, but they didn’t know any better.) Eating vegetables “straight up” raw (i.e. salads) can and has easily sent me to the emergency room because of intestinal blockages from the adhesions and the no longer existent colon causes vegetables in the form of smoothies to create HORRIBLE diarhea (sorry, TMI, I know). This horrendous combo has made it difficult for me to figure out how to go raw. I do the green smoothies anyway and just keep plenty of immodium on hand. But I wish I could eat vegetables without either cooking them to death or having to drink them. Tomatoes, avocados, and olives are delicacies to me because they’re soft enough to eat as-is. (That was dinner, in fact, with some hummus.) Anyway, just wondering if you’ve ever run across anyone else with this problem. If you have, I’d love any tips he or she could offer for someone with such a compromised digestive tract wanting to go completely raw.

    1. Robyn Openshaw says:

      Hey Colleen, read Ch. 5 of my 12 Steps to Whole Foods. 🙂

  3. Anonymous says:

    Ornamental kale is very TUFF and rather tasteless, I’d guess it also has less nutritional value than reg kale I got some from my neighbor’s garden and will never bother again.

    My latest SUGAR discovery, besides making me almost instantly TIRED, is that it causes a more wrinkled, tired face. Experiment and see for yourself! It’s because it’s a stress factor for the body.

    To LaRae above, don’t give up! Try wheat grass juice on empty stomach, or Robyn’s green veg powder with water, for quick and lasting energy boost. It’s a major antioxident and “cure-all”. ALSO, add exercise, even just an a.m. brisk walk/jog around the block, to revitalize energy and well-being. Get a mini-trampoline to add some fun to exercise.

    To Colleen, add at least 2 TB chia seed in some water to green smoothie at the start and as u finish cutting vegs etc., it will congeal and may modify the diahrrea. Love ya all! United in health pursuits. . .

    “Suzie-doozie”

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