It’s no secret that there’s a huge divide between places for tourists and places for locals. In a city where about two million tourists a day, armed with maps and guidebooks visit the same places, it’s very difficult to find a quiet, non-touristy spot, especially considering that New York City is an island. But locals have learned how to survive in the stone jungle and have kept to themselves the most protected corners, where seldom sets foot of tourists. Let’s take look at the list of such places where you can fully experience the atmosphere of the city and understand why the locals are so proud and admire their city.

Bronx Botanical Garden and Bronx Zoo

Tourists tend to stay in Manhattan and leave the rest of the city untouched. But for good reason. In the middle of the “black ghetto”, which is considered to be the Bronx, stretches a luxurious botanical garden – the second largest in the world after London Botanical Gardens. Locals come here not only for the quiet but also for cultural enrichment. All spring and summer there are exhibitions and concerts, which are worth seeing. For example, the exhibition “Frida Kahlo: Creation. Garden. Life”, not only presents some of the most famous works of the artist but also recreates a Mexican garden with rare plants and flowers and the artist’s studio. 

Streed food from push-cars

The tents on wheels offer a wide variety of food – from nuts and pretzels to hot dogs, kebabs, and all kinds of flatbreads and grilled rice and vegetable dishes are called “push-cars” in New York. As a rule, tourists squeamishly turn away from these tents, believing that nothing but food poisoning is to be expected from these ever-smelling garbage and grease tents. The locals, on the other hand, are happy to line up for their lunch.

The secret is that in this case, you need, as they say, to know the places. At some “tentmakers” buying food is life-threatening, while others offer perhaps the most delicious lunch in town. You have to pay attention to the line. If you see a long line of locals lined up to the pushcart, feel free to get in line behind them. Don’t doubt – the food will not disappoint you. Take a delicious food snack and play slots online in the nearest park! Sometimes such street food even tastes better than famous restaurants. And this is the real New York you can taste.

Authentical Chinese food in Queens

When tourists think of Chinese food, China Town immediately comes to mind. And where else but in Chinatown can you try Peking duck and dumplings? Queens is a Chinatown located in Queens – a neighbourhood most tourists have never even heard of. Not only are the prices and the quality of the food and the size of the portions a good thing, but the fact that at the tables of every restaurant and café there are either Americans or Chinese themselves, which is a very good sign. There are a great number of Asian markets, where you can get the feeling that you have mysteriously moved to China and not just to another district of New York.

Apotheke Bar – a secret prohibition-era bar in the bloody corner of Chinatown

But Manhattan’s Chinatown isn’t exactly hopeless for locals, either. They come here for the original cocktails, in a secret bar where no tourist can get, because even most of the yellow cab drivers do not know where this little alley, which is called “bloody corner” is located and can take you there only if you show them the way or give them the exact address for the navigator. During the dawn of the Chinese Mafia, many murders were committed on this street, it was easy for criminals to hide around the corner, on a sharply curved street and wait for their victims there. That’s why the corner got the nickname “bloody.” People tried to avoid it. And in the 1920s, the time of Prohibition, there was a pharmacy.

So, ready for an exciting New York trip?