New York City Affordable Places

There’s to see this Christmas than just the tree at Rockefeller Center and the windows at Sak’s. Check out the following indoor exhibits:

Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Annual Christmas tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche, through Jan. 6

American Museum of Natural History:

Christmas tree decorated with Origami figures.

The Morgan Library:

Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol

New York City Transit Museum, Grand Central Annex:

Holiday Train Show, through Jan. 13

Stay warm!

Downtown for Dinner 2007 starts November 12th! What does that mean? It means restaurants all over the city offer prix fixe dinners: three course meals at high end restaurants for only $25!! That doesn’t include beverages, tax and tip, but that’s still better than paying regular prices! November 12-18–hurry and make a reservation somewhere!!! For a list of participating restaurants, click here! Bon appetit!!!!

Bet you didn’t know that Brooklyn had a Chinatown. Well, on 8th Avenue between 42nd Street and 62nd Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn there is a flourishing Chinatown that is less touristy–and less expensive–than the one in Manhattan. The great thing about it is the things you can get for less. Laptop dead? There are shops all around this area that can have it running again for $40! Need vegetables for a dinner party? Get them here for ridiculously cheap. Hungry? There are delicious Chinese (and some Vietnamese) restaurants all around that will serve you something more authentic than the run-of-mill, is-that-a-rat-or-a-piece-of-chicken type places in other parts of the city. Be forewarned: the menus are often monolingual, that is, only in Chinese. Be prepared to ask and or point to what you want.

D, N and R trains to Prospect Avenue.

The décor may not be the most appealing, but once you get past the slight dinginess, the food more than makes up for it. This is easily the best Vietnamese food in the city, and two people can eat dinner for under $20 – including tip and a doggie bag of the leftover noodles you just couldn’t finish but can’t bear to leave behind. Be sure to try the fried spring rolls, and the barbequed beef with rice vermicelli; it comes with mint leaves and sliced cucumbers to add in.

85 Baxter St, New York 10013 Btw. Bayard & Walker St. 212-608-3656

by Anna Bristow, contributor