Our ex.expat group explored the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue, the first great house of worship by Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the United States. We had arranged for a knowledgeable docent to guide us. He took us through its sweeping history, from the synagogue as a cultural hotspot in the bustling Jewish Lower East Side to decades of decay to its miraculous rebirth as a 21st-century museum.

Always grabbing a bite after one of our outings, we walked around the corner to the new (opened in December) Dim Sum Palace, offering made-to-order dim sum and traditional Cantonese cuisine. Some favorites of our group of twenty included har gow (translucent dumplings stuffed with shrimp), shumai (traditional Chinese dumpling), char shu bao (BBQ pork buns) and many of their Cantonese stir-fry dishes.

I recommend a visit to both!

Dim Sum Palace
Lower East Side
27 Division St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 587-4277
dimsumpalace.com/

Eldridge Museum
12 Eldridge St,
New York, NY 10002
(212) 219-0302
eldridgestreet.org/