I took my trip to East Harlem around 2 pm on Friday, the 20^th of February. It took a little over an hour to get there from my house. I took the B train and transferred to the 6 train on Broadway.  I got off at East 116^th Street. This was the street I focused on while exploring East Harlem. As I walked towards 3^rd Avenue, I saw many small businesses such as delis, nail salons, and a dentist’s office. There was an abundance of fast food places including Taco Bell, Burger King, a pizza parlor, and a restaurant called Cuchifritos. There were also apartments on the upper floors of the stores.

As I made my way towards 2^nd Avenue, I began to see more Mexican restaurants and also one Italian restaurant called Nocciola Ristorante. There were more barber shops on this part of East 116^th Street as well. I also started seeing more stores and signs with Spanish words. One photo store was called Numero Uno Photo. There were also more fast food places. I walked one more avenue down and saw a juice bar and two more barber shops. The people who walked around me were of different ethnicities, but the majority was Latino. Most of the people were middle aged men and women. It was extremely cold outside so there weren’t too many people walking down the sidewalk. The four-laned streets were busy though. I made my way back but also turned on 3^rd Avenue so I could walk down East 117^th Street for a few blocks. This was a residential street with old looking multi family houses. I didn’t see anyone as I walked down this street. Despite this being a quiet residential block, I did see a McDonald’s as I got to the corner. I also saw a few churches while walking around. On East 117^th Street I saw one church called St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church. There were more multi family houses on this street.

After all of the walking, I went back to East 116^th Street and I went inside the Cuchifritos I passed by earlier. I met with one of my group members, Fatema, at this Puerto Rican restaurant at around 4:30 pm. The restaurant had a cozy environment with a long counter and seats for staying and eating. While the staff were all Spanish speaking, the people who were eating there were of mixed ethnicities. There were fried Spanish dishes being served at Cuchifritos. I tried the meat stuffed plantain while I was there. It was surprisingly cheap with the price being only $1.50. Most of the food on the menu was very affordable.

Even though East Harlem is located in Manhattan, the area of the neighborhood that I walked through reminded me more of Brooklyn. The small businesses and local restaurants were the reasons why. Even though the area’s population is predominately black and Latino, I did see people of mixed ethnicities walking through the streets and also at the restaurant I went to. With the abundance of Latin American restaurants settled in East Harlem, one can also see other restaurants with different cuisine making their way into the neighborhood. An example of this is the Italian restaurant I saw and the few Chinese restaurants that were scattered around the streets I passed. One can clearly see more cultures popping up in this neighborhood.