Then get out of the kitchen.

This stove on a steaming night sidewalk is not only an appropriate symbol for the current heat wave baking New York City, but also represents a change in someone’s life.

As we continue to live in a cool economy, more people are cooking at home, which means the stove is assuming a greater role in the lives of many New Yorkers.

H20 on the go.

You hear it all the time: New York City’s tap water is like no other water, anywhere. In fact, a LA Times article says of NYC’s water:

“It is, after all, one of the nation’s healthiest water supplies — so fresh that in 2007 the Environmental Protection Agency said it did not need filtration. New York pizza and bagel makers have long credited local water as a special baking ingredient. It goes down soft, without hints of tart-tasting minerals or chlorine like other public water systems.

The water comes from a system of 19 reservoirs and three lakes in upstate New York — some flowing to the city from as far as 125 miles away. Most of the supply is protected and filtered by the natural processes of upstate ecosystems. It dissolves natural minerals while traveling over land or through the ground.”

So why would these residents spend the time, money and effort on Poland Springs brand of water? Who knows.

Dirty white microwave

Blue grill at night

Most New Yorkers like to eat out or order in; however, in these tough economic times more and more of us are choosing to cook at home to save some money. This discarded microwave and grill demonstrate the variety of options we have at our disposal. Of course, we all know the difference between a microwaved Hot Pocket and a barbecued hot dog is rooftop access.

Fruit Flyer

A sign with a fruity message lies on a windy New York City sidewalk.

Completely innocent or a Stephen King novel in progress.

Not sure ice cream is a laughing matter, but an ice cream truck on a nice NYC afternoon does bring a smile to your face.

Round and Round.

Mangoes being sold in cardboard boxes at a Sixth Avenue fruit stand. The soothing and quirky-shaped fruit basks in the timid warmth of spring sunlight. $1.25 each.

Totally cooked.

It was time. Perhaps it took up too much space. Or broke. Or didn’t make the cut during a move to a better apartment across the river in Brooklyn. But this Upper East Side pot was trashed for some reason. Like being replaced by a newer, better pot that came as a wedding gift that someday a divorcing couple will bitterly argue over like two orphaned starlings over a stale hot dog bun. So don’t worry, discarded sidewalk pot. There are worse fates than the sidewalk for a New York City appliance.

Spring with envy.

This fruit and vegetable stand outside of a store near Union Square offers various foods imbued with the color that symbolizes spring: green. The red-and-green spackled apples, deep green avocados, and pale green asparagus, are a feast for NYC eyes that are still adjusting to melting mounds of snow and subsequent rivulets of grimy water that stream across our sidewalks and streets into steel grates that guard the organs of NYC below our feet. Stop and listen. That dripping is the sound a city beginning to awaken.

More utility box food. Is this a new form of tagging?

Five steps away from a daiquiri.

What is it with leaving food on utility boxes? It’s a fairly common site, even on a cold and rainy Tuesday morning in February. Is the food left to honor dead ancestors or the gods as they practice in some Asian cultures, or is it a Cold War type of spy drop off? I’d love to know how and why these bananas ended up where they did. Either way: hilarious.

Stove Top? I'm staying!

For many New Yorkers the idea of cooking at home is as absurd as the notion of going horseback riding on your fire escape. Who the hell has the space? And besides, one of the reasons New Yorkers love New York is because of the culinary options where anyone, at any time, can have Turkish lamb kabobs delivered to their door along, with a cannoli – and a bag of weed for that matter.

Cooking at home, however, has become a growing movement as the rise of “foodies” continues in New York, alongside a recession that has more people eating out, and ordering out, less. However, this photo indicates that at least one New Yorker has given up on their stove, maybe to embark on a life of delivery-only meals, or, even sadder, to eek out an existence with food cooked in a microwave. Bing!