NYC Trip

Warning: Humongous Post Ahead (full of crappy iPhone pictures)!

Hi everyone! I got back from New York City last Tuesday. Unfortunately, on my last night there, I caught a nasty case of bronchitis/sinus infection. I’m now on four different prescriptions, and after a weekend of lounging around watching every episode of the first season of Game of Thrones, I am finally feeling almost better!

Anyways, I had am awesome time in the city, and I’m so glad that I got to see my best friends- Kathryn and Alana! Of course, as usual, I had a (very) hard time remembering to take photos of my food. Actually, pretty much everyone else had to remind me because I was soooo bad at it. I’m sorry, but when delicious food is staring me in the face, my first, and only, thought is: MUST EAT NOMNOMNOM! That said, I did remember (with loads of help) to photograph some of my tasty eats, and a few embarrassing photos of myself being…. well… myself. You may not have known how weird I am, but now you do!

Friday:

Friday night I got in really late. It was around midnight by the time I had taken a taxi to my hotel (with a  driver who purposely took the long way around and then pretended not to speak English when I called him on it), and brought my luggage up to my room. Alana wasn’t flying in unit the morning, and poor Kathryn had been waiting for me to eat dinner. We decided to walk to the first place we saw that was open. That led us to Harrington’s Bar & Grill. I ordered a bowl of French onion soup, and a side of veggies. While the food wasn’t anything to write home about, we were starving, and it was nourishment. However, the two things that did cause me a bit of annoyance was our inattentive waitress, and the drunk man that continually came over to our table and tried to mash his cheek against mine (????!??).

The hotel we stayed at, the Hilton Fashion District, had an awesome rooftop bar that Kath and I got acquainted with later that night. It was a surprisingly cute place with white lights decorating bamboo separators and secluded couches. Apparently, Friday nights are DJ nights. We lucked out and got to dance the remainder of the night!

Saturday:

Alana arrived late Saturday morning, and the first thing we all did was walk to find brunch. In such a big city, you would think there would be a restaurant on every corner, but we had the hardest time finding a sit-down place! We must have been turning down a block every time we were about to encounter one, because it took us nearly an hour to find somewhere. Finally, we discovered the Ridgeway Diner, a quaint, Greek-inspired, hole-in-the-wall type of place. I was pleasantly surprised by my Spanakopita that came with a side Greek salad.

That afternoon, we headed to MOMA. As it turns out, we all seem to have forgotten that none of us exactly like modern art, and the floor covered in wrapped candies, and plaster boots attached to pantyhose on a hanger were completely lost on us. The strangest part was that we were all convinced that we “totally had to go” to the MOMA, but we spent the entire time sarcastically examining the exhibit pieces. There were a few diamonds in the rough, though! We got to see a few Picasso pieces, a couple Frieda Kahlo’s, and a Warhol.

We met Alana’s sister, Olivia, and her boyfriend, Ryan, (who both live in Brooklyn) for a stroll through Central Park.

For dinner, Olivia and Ryan took us to a fantastic Thai place that I can’t seem to remember the name of. We got an amalgamation of appetizers that we all shared, including: chicken satay, duck lettuce wraps, crab rangoons, pot stickers, and an amazing salad that had a great ginger dressing.

Sunday:

I got a late start on Sunday, and met Kathryn and Alana in Chinatown. They picked up some fake name-brand sunglasses (when in Rome…), and I insisted we hit the Chinese bakery I could see across the street. Tai Pan Bakery was insanely busy. People were yelling in multiple different languages, and it was all a bit overwhelming. I ordered a roast pork bun, and a mini egg custard tartelette. Both ere extremely cheap, and extremely delicious. I wish I could have gone back and tried a bite of absolutely everything they offered.

For dinner, we headed in to Little Italy (yes I know this photo suck even more than the others).

We decided on a place called Da Genarro. we were met with ridiculously amazing warm bread that had a crisp exterior, but a warm, doughy interior. It was served with an incredible olive oil that was packed with herbs and spices.

I ordered the Papardelle Campagnola. It was a rich pink sauce, filled with sliced cremini mushrooms, that covered thick, chewy pappardelle pasta ribbon- soooooo good!

Monday:

Monday was our busiest day, both in terms of activities, and food…. mostly food :). We headed out Monday morning towards breakfast, but first, we had to stop at a place I had heard a TON of good things about- Doughnut Plant. Holy moly, you guys. This place is more than worth the hype. I ordered two doughnuts: a peanut butter-glazed, raspberry jam-filled yeasted doughnut, and their tres leeches cake doughnut. I also got some farm-fresh milk to was it down. While both doughnuts were out-of-this-world good, even Alana and Kathryn agreed that the PB&J doughnut was the best out of all (including their vanilla yeast, hazelnut yeast, and chocolate cake doughnuts). Since we were on our way to breakfast, we didn’t eat every bite, and packed away the rest for later.

We ate breakfast/brunch at an adorable French place, called Petite Abeille. I ordered a Peach Bellini and the Cocotte- fried eggs over bacon, diced tomatoes, and goat cheese, topped with gruyere. It also came with a peppery side salad, and stoemp. It was seriously delicious, but seriously rich.

Afterwards, we headed to the American Museum of Natural History, which was positively phenomenal. I LOVE natural history museums. They contain all of my very favorite things: dinosaurs, astronomy, and early human history and origins. I’ve been to a quite a few natural history museums, and this one ranks as one of my favorites. One of the highlights was the  planetarium show, Journey to the Stars, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg!

Even though we sneakily munched on the remainders of our doughnuts throughout the museum, we were ready for even more food not long after. We took a cab over to Columbus Circle to go to on place I had promised myself I would visit- Bouchon Bakery. We got an assortment of goodies including: a TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo), Bacon-Chive Scone, a large vanilla bean macaron, and three mini macarons (pistachio, salted caramel, and passion fruit). Yes, it was all as amazing as I had hoped.

For dinner, we met back up with Olivia and Ryan at a tapas bar near our hotel, Tia Pol. I had the absolute hardest time trying to remember to photograph each dish as it came to our table, and whether it was the pitchers of house-made sangria, or my shoddy short-term memory, I only ended up with photos of about half of what we ordered!

Fried Chickpeas

Artichoke and Manchego wrapped in Serrano Ham

Marinated Pork Loin, Piquillo Pepper, and Tetilla Cheese Sandwich

Lamb Skewers with Moorish Spices

Chorizo with Sherry

Shrimp in Olive oil with Garlic and Chile

Octopus Salad with Fingerling Potatoes

Chicken Liver Mousse with Pedro Ximenez

Spanish Cheese Plate

Charcuterie Plate served with Toasted Baguette with Tomato Puree

Caramel Flan (which was definitely not the correct texture…)

Spanish Almond Cake with Dulce de Leche and Turron Ice Cream

Basque-Style Fried Custard with Drunken Cherries

Later that night, Alana, Kathryn, and I ended up at The Tippler, an unmarked, underground bar that I doubt you would ever find if you didn’t know what you were looking for. They had a lot of tasty and unique beers on tap, and the atmosphere was relaxed, fairly quiet, and all-around “cool.”

Tuesday:

Unfortunately, I had to leave Tuesday afternoon, so I didn’t get to accomplish much that morning. We tried going to the 9/11 Memorial, but we didn’t know that you need to get (free) tickets in order to get in. I didn’t get to go, but after I left, Alana and Kathryn were able to go through it.

Right before I headed to the airport, we got to stop at Momofuku Milk Bar. If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you know that I have A LOT of Momofuku and Momofuku-inspired recipes on here! I grabbed an Almond-Pistachio Croissant for the road, and brought home slices of Crack Pie and Candy Bar Pie to Mikey. Needless to say, he was very excited 🙂

Well, there you have it! That’s nearly my entire trip to NYC! I know this post was quite long, but I hope it was somewhat interesting and/or informative to some.

Is there anywhere I missed? Where should I go when I inevitably go back?