101 NYC Winter Activities

Wowa, a hundred and one is a lot of things, and the suggestion to see the tropical butterflies at the Natural History Museum is an excellent one!

Wow this is a fantastic list! I would like to add a visit to the New York City wine expo to the list-http://www.wine-expos.com/wine/ny/. This annual event which is held in February at the Jacob Javits Convention Center gives you the chance to sample 600 wines from all over the world and meet many innovative vintners too.

Avoid Battery Park, it's just too cold!

Battery Park is great to visit during the spring and summer months. Just not now. You would freeze your butt off if you went down there this time of year. I went down there two years ago during the summer. It was a rather great experience.

On the artsy-fartsy circuit there's the Winter Works on Paper, an annual assemblage by art gallerist David Winter, which includes eccentric imagery, photography, and botanical specimens. By appointment only, at his gallery: 160 Fifth Avenue at W 21st Street. Tel: 212-352-9013

Warm up at Tea and Sympathy on Greenwich Avenue - an English-owned proper English pub/tea house with lots of heartwarming treacle- and toffeee-based desserts, warm specialty teas, and proper English fry-ups and shepherd's pie. Proper winter food!

Tea and Sympathy sounds really extravagant. I will need to look into it soon, since I love tea with dessert. I hope they have herbal teas, because that is the only tea I can drink.

Though it hasn't been entirely too cold these past few days (read: it's raining rather than snowing), I still find myself in holed-up winter mode, and currently I'm researching places that deliver hot chocolate. Anyone know any good ones?

@BroadwayBK I am writing this while bundled up in a fleece, hot tea at hand. Knowing your passion for hot chocolate I wonder if you are familiar with The City Bakery in the Flatiron District? They have the best hot chocolate in the city along with melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies. A quick check on menu pages shows they deliver too but you may want to check out their annual month long hot chocolate festival which kicks off on February 1st and offers new flavors like lemon licorice, vanilla bean, Arabian nights daily.

@uptowngirl Ahhhhhh.... I am there. Well, I will be tomorrow. I can't think of anything I'd rather have for breakfast than New York City's cup of hot cocoa and some cookies. I was actually looking at their website earlier and might have marked their chocolate festival down for future reference :)

Tea and Sympathy is definitely expensive, especially when you compare it to generally reasonable English Pub prices, but it's well worth it. If you love tea and don't want to spend the money for a sit-down event (plus, there's a per person minimum, I think around $15), Tea and Sympathy also owns an adjacent shop for expat Brits and Anglophiles: teas, Murray Mints, English candies, DVDs, and other bits of Anglo memorabilia.

Oh, and another idea! Go to the Christmas markets on Columbus Circle and Union Square. Slightly hipstery, but nevertheless a great array of arts and crafts, and there's a hot apple cider stand to boot!

@BroadwayBK: A hot cup of cocoa and cookies for breakfast? Now that is a strange breakfast. What about your vitamins and protein for a good start to your day. :) A good cup of hot chocolate is great on a cold day.

I find it super charming that the talk inevitably turns to chocolate...

@uraniumfish living in NYC has made us all foodies.. what can you do when there is a such a smorgasbord of great food available at every street corner of the city.

Yes, I agree. There are so many choices of restaurants to choose from, for every taste and type. All you have to do is no where to go and get there.

This might not count as exactly a thing to do, but still with the wintertime idea: I've been exploring how to cook foods I don't normally eat, like squash and beets, which seem to be very good for winter eating. I'm sure there's a scientific explanation for why that is, but anyways. Other winter foods are roasted chestnuts, and I find a glass of red wine with dinner on cold nights really does something heartening.

@Uraniumfish All of that sounds amazing and makes me wish I had a fireplace. My winter weekends have seen a lot of nights spent making dinner at friends' apartments and drinking red wine... And now that it is officially really really cold I think I have much more of that in store for me.

...And man is it cold lately. Even with the heat on, I can't feel my feet right now.

@BroadwayBK and Uraniumfish my sentiments exactly .. I have a steaming hot mug of tea in front of me as I type this..I am also balking at the fact that I have to go to a wedding in this freezing cold tomorrow.. I thought wedding season in NYC was June suddenly Gotham magazine says that February is wedding season in NYC. Is this a new trend? Why would anyone want to get married in sub zero temps and have to cover all their wonderful clothes with bulky coats etc? that being said I dont know how I am going to wear a saree tomorrow considering I have to try and wear a coat on top of it and long johns under it .. aaargh!!!!

@BroadwyBK This is just for you - the entire list of flavors to be showcased at the City Bakery annual hot chocolate festival- courtesy Time Out New York Monday, February 1: Lemon Hot Chocolate Tuesday, February 2: Chile Pepper Hot Chocolate (Now that I want!!) Wednesday, February 3: Chinese Cinnamon Hot Chocolate Thursday, February 4: Espresso Hot Chocolate Friday, February 5: Ginger Hot Chocolate( and that...) Saturday, February 6: Banana Peel Hot Chocolate Sunday, February 7: Caramel Hot Chocolate Monday, February 8: Vanilla Bean Hot Chocolate Tuesday, February 9: Earl Grey Tea Hot Chocolate Wednesday, February 10: Introducing….Moulin Rouge Hot Chocolate! Thursday, February 11: Tropical Hot Chocolate Friday, February 12: Bourbon Hot Chocolate( and that .. sigh!) Saturday, February 13: Milk Chocolate Hot Chocolate Sunday, February 14: Love Potion Hot Chocolate Monday, February 15: Vietnamese Cinnamon Hot Chocolate Tuesday, February 16: Hi Ho Pistachio Hot Chocolate Wednesday, February 17: Milk Chocolate Hot Chocolate Thursday, February 18: Darkest Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate( and also this......) Friday, February 19: Creamy Stout Hot Chocolate Saturday, February 20: Happy Hot Chocolate Sunday, February 21: Sunken Treasure Hot Chocolate Monday, February 22: Ginger Hot Chocolate Tuesday, February 23: Arabian Nights Hot Chocolate (read how Rubin wrestles with this one here) Wednesday, February 24: Ode to the Polar Bear Hot Chocolate Thursday, February 25: Beer + Brown Sugar Hot Chocolate Friday, February 26: Shangri-La Hot Chocolate Saturday, February 27: Banana Peel Hot Chocolate Sunday, February 28: Festival Finale TBD Hopefully I will be able to manage a visit to City Bakery during the festival.. will make sure I become a gym rat before and after my visit though...

I saw the list and it did mention the Winter Antiques Show. If anyone is into antiques, why not go to the New York Armory at Wallace Hall on Park Avenue and check it out.

@uptowngirl You are so awesome! I'm reserving Feb 2 and 6 for some hot chocolate definitely.

February is pancake month at Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant. http://www.clintonstreetbaking.com/?page=about-pancakemonth Personally I'm looking forward to the poached pears with vanilla bean whipped cream and warm maple butter variety. But I'm not leaving the house unless the temp stays in the 30s!

@BroadwayBK thanks for the pancake alert .. I so agree about the temperatures though enough of this winter already... aaargh..

@uptowngirl Haha.. you're welcome. Going to City Bakery for some chili hot chocolate tomorrow? I'm making an excursion into the city for this specific purpose.

@BroadwayBK I may just make way to Union Square for that very reason ..yum!

Oh, I love pancakes, especially with fruit on top. I will have to remind myself about it the next time I got out to eat.

So I went to the City Bakery first thing yesterday for some hot chocolate with chili.... I wish there had been more chili involved, but I have to say that the beverage was excellent. Very rich though - I couldn't drink more than half of it. The homemade marshmallow pretty much made the experience.

Hot chocolate with marshmallows. Now that is a treat indeed.

@bgs, you're so, SO right! I went to Battery Park on January 2nd and I was so cold that my hands were nearly frozen solid. It was not an ideal experience - the wind is absolutely terrible! Ditto South Street Seaport.

I did a sauna visit recently because I felt so run-down from the cold that I was afraid I'd get sick. Works wonders! I'm surprised more people don't do this here, especially with this crazy cold the last few days. At the gym it seemed the place was empty, and I think huddling at home is probably the worst thing that you can do in winter, though understandably that's what everyone thinks they ought to do.

@BroadwayBK You can roast chestnuts in the oven...seems exotic until you do it once, and then you ownder why you haven't done it sooner. You have to make a small slit in them before you put them in the oven, so they don't explode like popcorn.

@Uraniumfish Can't you toast them on the stovetop too? Never tried it with chestnuts, but have don't it pinenuts and the like. Sounds amazing... just like a trip to the sauna.

@BroadwayBK I didnt make it for the chili flavor as I had a terrible earache all day which usually signals the onset of a cold for me . Must be all these big navel oranges that I have been consuming. I absolutely love them and they seem to be in season so I keep on eating them.

@Uraniumfish the roasted chestnuts sound amazing! where do you buy your chestnuts?

@uptowngirl Well, you have the rest of the month to try different flavors. I thought that once I went I would be going back every day, but the experience was pretty overwhelming. Wouldn't navel oranges help rid you of a cold rather than bring one on?

@BroadwayBK I'm not sure roasting chestnuts on the stove top would work, only because they're quite massive, as compared to pinenuts, and they need to be in the oven a good while for the heat to get all the way to the center. Otherwise they're too hard to chew and not very tasty? It's only a guess since I've never tried the roasting method. @uptowngirl Got mine at the local grocer, they had a bin full. But I seem to remember them at Whole Foods too? The best way to get them is probably at a farmer's market, where they'll be fresh and reasonably priced. They're excellent with red wine!

Okay, well, now that I think of it, the song DOES state: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."

@uraniumfish thanks will look out for them and try my hand at roasting them as well since according to the Staten Island groundhogs winter is going to be around for another six weeks sigggh....

@BroadwayBK I should have warned you about the richness of City Bakery's hot chocolate. I know Oranges are full of Vitamin C and should kill my cold but I tend to eat them at night and that's what is doing me in I think or maybe its just this wretched weather and not enough protection.

@uptowngirl Yes, a warning would have been great. It was like drinking a dark chocolate bar, and of course I love dark chocolate but feel it's best in small doses. It was fabulous, though, but when I go back for the banana peel hot chocolate I will have to ask for the extra small size.

Dark chocolate is really good for you as it contains antioxidants. As for nuts, I prefer honey-roasted peanuts. They taste great.