Eating Habits of Single New Yorkers

Is your oven a storage space for dishes and pans? Does “cooking” mean popping a frozen meal into the microwave or picking up a rotisserie chicken? Do you
even know if your oven works? New Yorkers are a different breed from when it comes to eating habits. Being a single New Yorker, I have adopted eating habits of “single in the city”. Read on to see my observations of single New Yorkers eating habits (as well as a few of my own!)

Top 10 eating habits of single New Yorkers:

1. We grocery shop day to day. New Yorkers don’t like to do large grocery shopping trips for several reasons. One reason is that we have to carry the bags home. Heavy bags can really hurt your hands! We don’t put them in a cart, wheel the cart to our car and drive home like suburbanites do. We have to walk home with the bags. Sure – we could have the bags delivered … but it seems kinda silly to pay & tip someone $5 or more to carry your bags 5 blocks. More importantly, many of use don’t have the storage space in our tiny kitchens to hold large amounts of food. Better to shop day to day to pick up what you need!

2. We shop with convenience in mind. New Yorkers are always in a rush, tired or have other things to do. This often leads us to shop in small local neighborhood markets or overpriced Asian or gourmet delis because they are convenient. I can’t stand the thought of walking 15 minutes out of my way to go to a larger store, then having to wait in line for even 5 minutes. I have too many other things to do!  So I end up paying at least 30% more due my laziness/impatience. In addition these markets tend to offer less variety. And since they are so small, they tend to stack the food up really high (which can make reaching the food quite challenging! See video)

Check out this video of a city girl struggling to purchase cereal in a NYC deli

3. Many of us use our ovens as storage compartments. True story: several years ago, I was cooking for a friend. I followed the recipe directions by preheating the oven. About 15 minutes later, smoke and the worst smell ever was pouring out of my oven. I forgot I had stored my plastic dish drying rack in the oven. The rack had melted all over the inside of the oven! No cooking for me that night … don’t think this nutritionist impressed her guest with her cooking skills ..

4. We rarely cook. There – I said it! I love the look on my clients faces when I ask them if they cook. I often see an embarrassed giggle or a look of horror. We know how to cook, we just choose not to. (main pic on this blog post is of my miniature kitchen. Suburbanites, would you want to cook in that?)

5. We depend WAY too much on take-out or prepared foods. Why bother cooking when a delicious meal can be delivered to your door within 10 minutes!

6. We love to go out to eat. With a different cuisine on each block, who wouldn’t? We spend a lot of time discussing where to go out to eat. I have a personal obsession with finding the best tuna tartare.

7. We think “cooking” is picking up a pre-cooked food from Grace’s Market or Whole Foods and reheating it.

8. Many of us eat while watching tv (gulp … I do this) You are probably shocked to hear that a nutritionist does this as we are always told not to eat in front of the tv. But why would a single person want to sit and face the wall and eat alone

9. We don’t always eat at the kitchen table. Many of us live in small spaces and don’t even have a kitchen table. We may eat on our couch or even our bed. Many New Yorkers live in studio apartments. (pic is of my miniature “kitchen table” … sad. Rick can barely fit in)

10. Many of us graze instead of eating real dinners. A yogurt here, a few handfuls of pretzels there, a few spoonfuls of sorbet later, then you get a craving for a handful of pretzels … before you know it, you’ve had the caloric equivalent of 2 dinners! If you are alone, no pressure or impetus to have a real dinner.

Feel free to add any of your own quirky eating habits! Stay tuned for my tips on how to help single New Yorkers improve their eating habits.