I miss bodegas
Monday, September 17, 2007
About a year after I moved out here, I got sick. I left work with a terrible headache, and as a result, ridiculous nausea. Ginger ale truly helps me when I'm nauseous. It might be completely in my head, but all I wanted that evening was a bottle of Schweppes ginger ale on my nightstand. I drove home, figuring it wouldn't be a problem since there were several places for me to stop and get it on my way. First stop - Bristol Farms. I walked in and looked up and down the soda aisle. I looked up and down the soda aisle again. Every other soda you could imagine - but no ginger ale. I hit Rite Aid. Another strike. No problem - there were three gas stations lined up on Sunset. One of them would surely be able to fulfill my need. Three gas stations later, I went home empty-handed with a worse headache than when I'd started. I walked in the door, got under the covers and cried. I cried because I couldn't get a ginger ale in LA. I cried because I missed bodegas.
There is something just fabulous about the ability to walk out your front door and have access to anything and everything that you could ever possibly want or need. Ben and Jerry's, Advil, cigarettes, black and white cookies, a six pack, toilet paper, a cup of coffee, ginger ale. You know...life's necessities.
I miss egg and cheese on a roll or a toasted, buttered sesame bagel in the morning on the way to work. I know I can get that here...but it's not the same as from the bodega on 43rd between Broadway and sixth. I miss the selection of gourmet chips (better than any grocery store anywhere ever). I miss being able to buy a single beer after a long day at work to enjoy in the privacy of my own home (No silly. I can't get that at a gas station. I can get a Bud Lite at a gas station. At a bodega, not only can I get a Pete's Summer Ale or a Hefeweizen, I can also get a lemon to go in it). I miss being able to just run down the street to grab toilet paper when we realize we're on the last piece of the last roll. I miss black and white cookies and chinese sprinkle cookies (the ones that are like sugar cookies with the colored sprinkles on top). I miss British candy bars which happen to be available on nearly every corner of New York City. And I miss fulfilling my monthly chipwich craving by simply walking 20 steps to Norberto's Deli. I even miss the fairly revolting smell of the bad hot food bars in Midtown
I miss bodegas. But for now, a trip to the gas station (which shockingly, happens to be within walking distance from my house) will have to suffice. But in the event that I need ginger ale, well, I'm shit out of luck.
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 2:27 PM
Labels: NYC
how sad that i don't know this word... bodega. it sounds wonderful. i miss those, too. now that i know what those are i mean. they are definitely missing from my life. yes sir.
I have been back in NYC for 3.5 days after 2 weeks in LA. Although I am a LAtoNYC girl I feel your pain on the bodega front. Before I left for LA I formed a healthy addiction to carbinated water(no sodium, no calories) you would think this would be easy to find in LA...not so much! I went to 3 7/11's and J Market on 3rd, what's the deal? Mean while in NY every bodega has every favor plain, orange, lemon, lime and not my fav berry...
Thank you. On a morning when I was having a bit of doubt about my recent return to the city, you reminded me of one of the things I love most about it. The only thing I can't get at a bodega.....you :(
being a two week old los angelino i have to say - each time I drive home I feel like i'm preparing for a flood or the bomb - thinking to myself, "what do i not have that i might need between the hours of 10pm and 7am?" Several times I've been too late to even hit the pizza joint for a bottle of water, for which I'd even gladly use quarters from my meter stash. going to sleep less hydrated than i wish in this arid town. (At least the pizza joint DOES ship it's ricotta in from Little Italy (NY) for it's canoli's)
oh sweetie I hope you have figured out by now they stock gingerale in the alcohol section of the store and not with the soda - it must be a California thing...