Good Morning New York! It's been about 8 years since I've been in the state and over 10 years since I've been to the city. The reason for my visit was simply my sister invited me to stay with her at her hotel room she had booked for her art conferencings. Check out that view from the Sheraton in Chelsea! I really like all the water towers on top of those buildings. It looks like some sort of video game playground.
OK, long day so getting started right. Magnolia Bakery at 401 Bleecker. Took the A train down to 14th St. walked down 8th Avenue until Bleecker and made a left turn. In about 2 blocks.
Wasn't sure what to expect. They've got cupcakes, cakes, and mini-cheese cakes. Not exactly breakfast food.
We'll save these for tomorrow morning. (P.S. future Nat says they were delicious!) Chocolate Swirl on the left, Pumpkin on the right. Not sure what's up with the yelp reviews.
So having the failed for breakfast eats, we wandered around until we found this cute little Polish cafe called Doma at 17 Perry St.
These had some strange Polish name I can't remember but the internet tells me they are called Babicka, or Grandma's comfort food. It's French toast sandwiching cream cheese. A new taste for me. Good but really heavy.
Mmm... can not go wrong!
After breakfast, Maria had to split to go to a Poussin exhibit/conference. I went out looking for more eats.
Here is the Blue Ribbon Bakery which I hear is good.
Balthazar I also heard is good for brunch. Maybe next time...
This however, was on my immediate list. Rice to Riches at 37 Spring Street. Pretty close to one of the Spring St. exits along the ACE lines (which ever one of those is local).
Pecan Rice Pudding. Pretty good but I only ate like $1.50 worth of this $5 bowl. Babicka kicked my ass pretty bad.
Also checked out Ceci Cela, a Patisserie at 55 Spring.
This tiny thing was all I could fit into my stomach.
Wandered into Little Italy/Chinatown. Saw this place. Saw it's 29/30 Zagat food rating in the window and went in to check it out.
Holy crap was this place awesome. I wasn't really sure what I could bring back with me so all I got was some dried porcini mushrooms and some chestnut flour. They were giving free samples of cheese out here and there. Some fresh Parmesan cheese - which I can use to judge future cheeses with... and this absolutely mind blowing piece of cheesegasmic Montiago Cheese. Actually google says I'm wrong. I'm not sure what it was called but it begins with a "M" and ends with "mmmmmmmmm" Edit: the verdict is it's Montasio Cheese.
Chinatown
City Hall & the Courthouse
Lunch with Dan Murphy whom I went to high school with at Bouley at 120 W. Broadway. Their foyer area was great. It was filled with several hundred apples in 3 large baskets and about a hundred small shelves along the wall. Not exactly what I ate but it was certainly a nice aromatic beginning.
Fancy breads
A strange sorbet and gazpacho (yes, as in chilled tomato soup) starter.
I ordered the tasting menu which began with this seafood medley served in a vegetable based sauce. The shrimp was the best piece in this dish. Different. After the scallops at Clementine, I'm thinking scallops really need something extra to get the most out of them. The other mussel and squid piece were kind of boring.
Dan and his wife Tanya each had some of this Tuna Sashimi.
Skate (a type of flat fish). The sauce seemed like it was the same stuff they used on the first seafood dish. I was kind of disappointed. Did not get what this one was about.
The description was rather amusing. This is roast baby pig but not just any baby pig. It was baby pig fed only apples and clean grass. Couldn't really taste the difference. The flavor was pretty good but parts of the meat were a little dry. Pairing it with the skinned/fatty pieces made it work but you'd like to see the meat handled perfectly.
Forget... some sort of sorbet with a mango reduction of sorts.
Chocolate souffle
More dessert.
And yet more! They really like to give us desserts. Bouley was interesting. I got some new tastes but I also think that at lunch prices, we probably got the lunch cooking staff to go with it. Dinner supposedly costs 4x more so I'd imagine the cooking is also 4x better.
Wandered past the WTC site. That black building on the left is infested with danger mold. No one will go near it. It's just been sitting there waiting for someone to tear it down for the last 7 years.
I noticed that Grand Central station would make a pretty good CTF map for TF2.
Look at those symmetrical setups!
The funny thing about Times Square...
is it's not really square. In fact the trapezoidal piece of pavement this Amry Recruitment center sits on is actually Times Square proper.
Moving on to dinner with Scarlet, Denis, et al. Wu Liang Ye is located on E. 86th St between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.
This dish's translated name is "Ants Climbing Tree" which I fail to see the connection to. Although I'm told it was a poor attempt at the presentation.
This dish was supposedly spicy. Bah! Amusingly, Woody was fooled by my tolerance to spice and was immediately downed by the spice levels in this (3rd) dish.
Oliver: Evil genius in training.
Scarlet was funny bringing up "Cream Puffs" for dessert several times and then this place conveniently around the corner. I began to wonder if the restaurant was all a ruse so she could come here afterwards.
Tyler - this is what I call raising your boy right. Raising him a New York Rangers fan!
Back by the hotel, Maria took me to the Pinkberry she had been to the previous night. She had a funny story about secret toppings.
Do you know the secret topping?
This post took entirely too long to post. I'm so tired.
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