The probably little anticipated New York Parts 3 and 4

Whew. It’s been really really busy round here. But I have my trusty moleskine with all my scribbles in it so I’m going to finish this out if nothing more for more my own record.

April 1st – Day 3 we had tickets for the NBC studio tour at 10am and I thought we could squeeze in a trip to Chelsea Market beforehand and grab some cupcakes from Elinis. I ordered a half dozen cupcakes – they’re all vanilla with buttercream and not nearly as good as I remembered them from the last trip. We also stopped by Amy’s bread and I got a Hot Cross Bun (delicious. No picture, sorry.) And Jodi got some delicious meat and cheese biscuit. We hustled over to NBC studios and took a very interesting tour. Partly interesting because we were the only two not part of a huge exchange student class, although we may have blended in…

After the tour we stopped in at H and M in Times Square. I give that store 5 noms just for its size but 1 nom for its stupid escalator.  We decided to head to Burgers and Cupcakes for lunch. This place started the entire idea of the food tour in NYC. I saw it last time I was there a few years ago and had been thinking of it ever since. We got off at the proper subway stop, walked a few blocks and stared at the address on the awning.

Me: WTF

J: Dude

Me: WTF

J: Dude

Me: Are you sure this is right?

J: Check the website

Me: WTF

So, yeah, Burgers and cupcakes went out of business. They didn’t pull their website though. We were very sad for a bit. We ended up taking a cab to Katz’s deli since it was on the list. I would not recommend this place personally. We both got sandwiches that cost FIFTEEN DOLLARS. And mine was not a fifteen dollar sandwich. 4 bucks, maybe. I ended up eating a few cupcakes from Elinis to make up for it.

Katz sandwich. Jodi's was better than mine

No chips but some weird ass pickles come with your FIFTEEN DOLLAR sandwich

Get down on it

Since it was our last day, we decided to head to Brooklyn and walk around Park slope a bit. Met two very nice people on the subway, one fellow is a wedding cake baker and gave us some good advice on where to head. Whatever that main drag is there through Park Slope was full of interesting little shops and what nots. We sat at a coffee shop for a bit and then headed over to Chip Shop. I think I expected a lot more but also this was only maybe 3-4 hours after Katz’s so I was still really full. We split some super fried plate, including: Fried mac and Cheese, a salad, Fish and Chips, Mushroom Mac and Cheese, Rhubarb  Cobbler and 4 berry stew. I give Chip Shop 3 noms out of 5 but maybe if I was hungrier I could appreciate it. Of course I ate til I was about to pop. again. and then we headed back to the hotel so I could roll around on the bed again and groan “i can’t believe I ate all that.”

Day 4 we left for the airport but our flight was super delayed so we sprinted up to the upper west side and visited the Natural History Museum. I dragged us over to Levain “Home of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie” – Meh. It was ok. We found a Jaques Torres a few doors down and their still warm cookie was probably the best I’ve actually ever had.

Levain Cookie. Meh.

I think that’s it.So, we hit many many spots however there were equally as many we didn’t get to and then of course new ones will be added so….I guess I’ll start planning the next trip.

New York New York: Part 1

I am drinking coffee from my new favorite Dean and Deluca Mug as I type this. JB and I left for NYC at some awful early hour on Monday. JB hates flying. Really hates it.  I used to hate flying too but I used to travel so much for work it’s a little soothing to me now.

Pre-trip photo

JB does not like flying. At all.

We were at the airport at 630 and no coffee for me yet. Sucks. I sat in the row behind JB on the plane and watched her play peekaboo with the little kid in front of her. I put on my Frank Sinatra and friends playlist on the ipod and tuned out.Flight was uneventful, arrived and caught a taxi to hotel. My mom called me twice to ask me if had gotten in the cash cab yet. If you don’t know, Cash Cab is a game show on Discovery Channel. Unsuspecting passengers get in a taxi and end up on a mini-game show. Conversation with my mother:

me: Hi mom

mom: Did you get in cash cab?

me: No. There’s kind of a lot of taxis here

mom: I don’t know why not. EVERYONE gets in cash cab

me: well, I don’t know if it’s that easy.

mom: Maybe me and your father will got to New York. We will get in the cash cab

me: mmm. I’m not sure you and dad in new york is the best idea.

Finally here. First taxi ride of the week. not cash cab

We checked into the hotel and headed to Famous Joe’s pizza, supposed to some of the best. And it was really good but then again we hadn’t eaten all day.Beard papa is a cream puff store that was on our list of places to see and happened to have one right next to Famous Joes. I have no idea why it’s called Beard papa or what that has to do with Cream Puffs. It’s Japanese.  Jodi could not contain her creampuff and ended up with a puddle of puff all around her.  I do not waste food, however, and mine ended up in my belly.

Famous Joe's - pretty dang good

Omnomnomnomnom

There must be some connection between anime sailors and cream puffs but not sure what

It was about a 20% loss

Lady filling the puff

in my belly

As luck would have it we found a Pinkberry a few blocks away. Pinkberry is a frozen yogurt that is unlike anything I’ve ever had. It was sublime. Very tangy, like Greek Yogurt. Highly recommend this. VERY VERY good.Man. Now I’m really craving Pinkberry. I can see how it would be addicting.

OMNOMNOMNOMNOM

We then caught a train up to Central park and went on a very very very long walk. We did catch a view of the Guggenehim (one of my favorite buildings) and saw some very chubby squirrels. I like chubby squirrels very much. rats, not so much. At one train station, a baby rat just about ran over the top of my shoe. I didn’t scream like a girl and leap into JB’s arms because I didn’t have time to react but if I saw it earlier I probably would have.

Hmm. Maybe you should pick a stouter branch, Mr. Squirrel.

Beautiful.

So we tried to find some tunnel that’s in a lot of movies and walked nearly all of Central Park but to no avail. I also wanted to find the Diana Ross playground but never found it either. Will have to try again at another date.

We headed back downtown to the Shake Shack. If you are in New York and can only stop at one place for lunch, go here. The burgers are nearly perfect. We met a very nice Rutgers student named Catherine. I can’t even remember why we started talking, I think I was asking her where the strand was in relation to us. She had a map of NYC and was a wealth of information so I let her have some of our fries. Overall, I have to say we met a lot of people and every single person was as friendly as they could be. And I mean these were natives to the area too. Very pleasant experience.

GO HERE NOW OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

Very Helpful Rutgers Student.

For dinner, we ended up at Cafeteria. Oh boy. This place was gooooooood. Kinda higher end comfort food. New yorkers love mac and cheese. I mean really really love it. We didn’t try it here but the people next to us did. We decided to try some things we wouldn’t have otherwise so started off with almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon with bleu cheese and a balsamic reduction. It was a lot going on but delicious. I had the fiery roasted chicken and JB had the Short Rib tacos. I liked the play on the taco because it was a sweet potato puree instead of beans with a corn and apple salsa. So good. There was a mother / daughter next to us. The mom kept peeping our food so we struck up a conversation. Meanwhile, her daughter looked horrified that her mother would be talking to us. So, JB does not eat a lot so I end up often eating my dinner / snack and most of hers too.And I love to meet people that love food:

Random Mom (RM): How were the tacos

JB: Really good. She (Pointing at me) ate most of mine

RM: (To me) You ate all of yours and most of hers?

Me: (Mouth full of food, nodding)

Me: I’m really good at eating. It’s one of my three talents

RM: Me too! I’m so good at it. I’ve been practicing my whole life

Me: Yes! same here.

Appetizer

Tacos omnomnomnomnom

I think that’s all we ate the first day. JB had addresses for all the places we wanted to visit in her Ipod I-thing which took me some time to master. I’ll post part 2 later, need more coffee in my new favorite mug right now…here’s how day 2 started though…

how day 2 started