A&N Fruit Store's watermelon slush.
WITH APOLOGIES TO the many thousands of talented cooks and chefs toiling away in this city's kitchens, we must note the most memorable food we've eaten this year hasn't been inside a dining room. It's been shared with friends standing on a corner, snatched from a takeout bag at a park, or unwrapped and messily dribbled onto a bench. This is no knock against proper restaurants, but when the most exciting development to come along recently at an establishment like Eleven Madison Park is the arrival of an alfresco croissant pop-up (Bake It Nice), it's a testament to the joy of great food without any pomp and circumstance. Maybe the act of sitting down to a meal has begun to feel stultifying-"Have you dined with us before?" comes across less like a helpful inquiry and more like a threat to explain the concept of "appetizers"-or perhaps it's that low overhead and a ravenous dining public happy to seek out whatever food appears on TikTok afford a greater range of creative expression. While the weather is warm and New York is at its most walkable, we're choosing to focus on the food right in front of our faces: the crisp-rolled lumpia Shanghai, icy watermelon slushies, over-size Swedish hot dogs, and pork-stuffed Vietnamese doughnuts being slung from carts, counters, stands, and windows all over town. Consider this hit list to be the jumping-off point. It's not an exhaustive catalogue of all the street food in the city-how could it be?-but it's made up of our absolute favorite snacks, drinks, and meals right now; many are brand new, while some have flown under the radar for years. In every single case, they are perfect for gulping down on a sidewalk somewhere this summer. - A.S.
A Bottle of Gazpacho From Mercado Little Spain
Esta historia es de la edición June 17 - 30, 2024 de New York magazine.
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Esta historia es de la edición June 17 - 30, 2024 de New York magazine.
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THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
