Month: March 2017 (Page 1 of 4)

We first visited the United Sherpa Association, a large cultural and religious center in Jackson Heights.

A popular Filipino chain fast food restaurant that opened in 2009 and has an average of over 500 customers per day. Famous for their chickenjoy and fiesta noodles

The church of worship for most Filipinos in Woodside. The church also hosts Simbang Gabi, a novena of nine masses at dawn every Christmas, which is an important tradition for Filipino Catholics.

We visited Macro International Cargo and interviewed the owner Robert about the Filipino community in Woodside. Robert's store was opened in 1993 and he helped Filipinos transfer money and packages back to the Philippines. He also help Filipinos book plane tickets so that they can travel back to their home country and visit their family

Right across from the St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church is the St. Sebastian Roman Catholic School, which is religiously affiliated with the Church. Since most of the Filipino immigrants are Catholic, they would send their children to this school in the neighborhood; the children attend school here from kindergarten through 8th grade. 

A chain Filipino bakery and a favorite local dessert spot famous for its ultimate chocolate cake

A local Filipino restaurant that specializes in Filipino barbecue pork and chicken.

The High School that we visited where we interviewed parent coordinator Ms. Rosa, and she told us all about the Dominican life in Washington Heights.

Lucky 7 Bar was one of the hot spots that Ms. Rosa told us that Dominicans go for fun.

La Casa Del Mofongo was the restaurant referred to us by Ms. Rosa.  Mofongo is a dish with deep-fried plantains and pork or seafood.  

This is the park we visited which was mostly baseball fields showing us how much Dominicans enjoy playing baseball.  

We visited the Maha Lakshmi Mandir on 121st and 101 avenue. Unfortunately, the mandir was closed and we could not go inside it. The mandir represents the how the Guyanese culture expresses Hinduism in Richmond Hill. 

We visited the "Little Guyana Bake Shop" in Richmond Hill that is located on 116-04 Liberty Avenue. The bake shop has a wide variety of both sweets and meals. We tried Doubles, which is a sandwich made with 2 flat breads filled with curry channa. 

We visited Spice World Inc., a small grocery store that provides Guyanese, West Indian, Indian and Pakistani food items The grocery store, although small in size, is packed with food items nonetheless. The workers were very nice and showed us around the place and telling us about common Guyanese food items and drinks. 

Anita's Fashion was a place filled with Indian suits! Anita herself was very nice and let us tour her store which also included traditional Hindu religious shrines and also jewelry items. The store layout, which can be seen below, was filled with items from the second someone enters the store. 

Richmond Hill High School is the high school where a majority of students from the Richmond Hill area attend due to it being there "zoned school." Thus, the school has a large population of both Guyanese, Indian and West-Indian students. Unfortunately, the high school was closed because we visited the area on a Saturday.  

Phil Rizzuto Park, or better known as Smokey Park, is a park in the heart of Richmond Hill. Instead of common sports such as basketball and baseball, kids can be seen playing common West Indian games such as cricket. Additionally, the park serves as a cultural hub where locales can come and greet one another. 

We visited the Museum of the Chinese American again after the class took the trip a few weeks ago. It was very interesting to see the way that Chinese immigrants were portrayed in different ways, in an effort to prove their "dangerous" nature. Such photos are seen in the attachments. 

Columbus Park is a short walk from the Canal Street subway station and features many pleasant seating areas. When we visited, we saw a group playing soccer, a few men practicing karate, and many groups of people playing cards and checkers. It was very clear that these games of checkers are an integral part of daily life to those older residents that are retired or do not work during the day. 

The Mahayan Buddhist Temple was one of many religious facilities we saw in Manhattan's Chinatown and housed many sculptures of the religious figure - the Buddha. We noticed that Buddhism seemed to be the predominant religion practiced in the neighborhood, and it was here that we spoke with one of our interviewees about her experiences in Chinatown and her perspective of immigration to America. 

We visited the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association during our first visit to Chinatown, without really knowing what to expect. When we walked in, we were greeted by a member of the staff there who encouraged us to take pictures of the facility when we explained that we were students learning about the area. As seen in this photograph, there were a variety of Chinese decorations and artwork on the walls, and there was a seating area for patrons waiting to be called in. 

This small soft serve ice cream shop has gained popularity recently, which showed through the long line to be served. They feature ice cream flavors that are different than what you see at a regular ice cream shop, such as Ube and Macha. We decided to visit this Facebook famous destination after seeing great reviews across various social media platforms, and realizing how close it was to the other places we visited. 

The Chinese American Planning Council offers a variety of services to Chinese residents in the neighborhood, but unfortunately, we were unable to speak to anyone there because they were closed when we visited on a Saturday. The outside of the building featured many fliers about some of the services being offered such as a Young Adult Internship Program and HIV/STI testing. 

The East Broadway Mall featured many small businesses within one larger building which Brianna and I actually stumbled upon by accident. The mall is accessible through individual storefronts on the outside of the building, something which we did not expet after entering one of the buildings. 

We ate lunch at Audrey Bakery and Cafe on a Friday afternoon, and were surprised by the price of the food! We each paid less than $5 for a chicken sandwich and bakery treat - a deal you can't find in most bakeries in midtown! The style was self-serve, another characteristic that is uncommon among bakeries in much of Manhattan.