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Eating My Way Through New York…

My friend Sarah Jo recently celebrated her birthday and we thought it would be appropriate to extend the celebration to a quick New York trip filled with friends, fun, and perhaps most importantly, food. Let's start at the beginning...

After being dropped off at the airport, we found out that our flight (and many others) had been canceled due to blizzard. After a brief moment of discussion, we decided to fly into Washington D.C. and then possibly take a train into New York, Amazing Race style. To make a long story short, that's exactly what we ended up doing. Tip: Union Station in DC is pretty dreary in the middle of the night and the only food open is Au Bon Pain. The train ride, however, was quite pleasant.

After dragging our luggage through the somewhat snowy streets of Manhattan and grabbing breakfast at Aroma Espresso Bar, we made our way to the Warwick hotel. It definitely had the old world charm that they promised. After some much needed sleep, we ended up switching rooms from one facing a brick wall with duct tape holding the mirror on the door to a much nicer room with a lovely view of bustling 6th Avenue.

Now, back on schedule, we headed to the Meatball Shop where we sampled several different and utterly delicious meatball sliders including beef, pork, veggie, and lamb. The veggie were possibly the best I've ever had with a surprisingly meaty texture and just the right amount of spice, but my favorite combination was the pork with the spicy tomato sauce. They also had the most amazing roasted butternut squash side dish that is a must try. It was just a perfect dinner in my opinion and I highly recommend stopping in for some meatball goodness if you're in the city.

Then it was off to my first Broadway show actually on Broadway - Rock of Ages. It was RAD! It was non-stop fun from start to finish with classic rock hits that had the whole audience singing along. Afterward, we met up with a friend of Sarah Jo's for dinner at Bocca Di Bacco which was a pretty tasty Italian restaurant. The meat plate appetizer and meatballs were all scrumptious.

Sunday morning found us at Cafe Edison in the Edison hotel and me having an all chocolate ice cream banana split for breakfast. I must admit, it really hit the spot. Next it was off to see about last minute tickets for Next To Normal. Apparently, if you get to the theater a couple hours before show time, they hold a lottery for a small amount of cheap seats up front. There weren't tons of people waiting for tickets (probably due to a combination of cold weather and it being a Sunday matinee), so we secured a couple of tickets before heading to Toys R Us to kill time before the show started. If you've never been, you really should see the three story craziness that is the TRU in Times Square. I was slightly disappointed that they removed most of the characters from the Candyland candy shop upstairs and a person dressed at Geoffrey (the giraffe) playfully took my hat off my head which annoyed me more than it should have. Still, it's TRU and it's always fun to see the big Ferris wheel, LEGO display, giant T-rex, etc.

Show time rolled around and I have to say, if you have the chance to see Next To Normal, do it! It was simply amazing. I'm not one to get emotional at movies or shows, but I admit, I cried. If anyone in the audience didn't cry, I guarantee they are a robot. The performance and story are just so powerful, you can't help but get a little emotional.

Next stop was Jacques Torres chocolate shop to meet up with a couple more people and try their Wicked Hot Chocolate. It was a little thick for my taste, but they are undoubtedly a great place for chocolate treats of any kind. After hanging out and grabbing a snack at Papaya Dog, we headed to our dinner engagement with friends Matt and Kev from Big Kev's Geek Stuff at 69 for some Chinese food. It's a tiny restaurant plastered with one dollar bills from floor to ceiling and the food was pretty good, but the eggplant dish we ordered really stood out to me. I neglected to take a picture of the food at this stop before we devoured it, my apologies Kev :)

We ended the night at Marie's Crisis - a piano bar with sing-a-long show tunes! A couple of drinks and several Broadway hits later, we called it a night.

We fancied it up a bit with Mondays breakfast at Norma's. The fresh orange juice flowed freely and my granola was covered with a plethora of mixed berries and extremely good. The next stop on our agenda was the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA. I'm a little torn on what to say about it, so I'll try to be succinct. It was very exciting to see so much of his work in one place, but the presentation was kind of cluttered which I thought detracted from the exhibit a bit. Overall, it was cool to see the mix of his sketches, paintings, maquettes, and movie props all together and recognize influences like Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, Ed Roth, Ralph Steadman, and many others. Definitely worth the trip if you can make it.

We decided to have lunch at Carnegie Deli where we split a pastrami sandwich and I also had a single potato pancake. The pastrami was exactly what it should be, tender and flavorful, but to be honest, I think I like the pastrami better at Langer's here in Los Angeles.

After lunch it was off to a taping of the Daily Show which was just as wonderful in person as it is every night. Jon Stewart is hilarious and has an amazingly quick wit. Having previously attended a taping of the Colbert Report, I feel like I've completed the Comedy Central "news" show circuit.

Finally we met up with more friends to talk toys and grab some dinner which was at a place I do not know the name of. It was hot pot style in Chinatown which is a bit like fondue minus the cheese. We had a pot divided in two with half chicken broth and half spicy broth. Then we ordered tons of ingredients to cook in the pot including various meats and vegetables like sausage, chicken, potatoes, bok choy, mushrooms, etc. I thought it was very tasty and definitely best for groups.

Our last day in New York started with a trip to Zabar's for bagels and other tasty treats to bring home. Then we grabbed our luggage and headed to Momofuku for lunch. The food was exquisite, particularly the pork buns. We also tried the pig tail (very tasty, but the bones were annoying), chilled spicy noodles (refreshing and satisfying), and roasted rice cakes (super tasty bite sized treats).

We finished up our last day in New York with a visit to Tulley's gluten-free bakery and Milk Bar, both to grab a few cookies for an impromptu taste test. While the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies were possibly the best I've ever had, they paled in comparison to the coffee infused cookie creations from Milk. Don't miss the compost cookie with pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch, and chocolate chips all conveniently packaged in cookie form - divine!

Thus endeth a delicious weekend in New York. Three and a half days of walking around the city definitely wore me out and I slept most of the next day. As a side note, we used a combination of Google maps and HopStop.com throughout the trip for directions and they worked out surprisingly well. Coupled with a subway map these make it pretty easy for us non-public transit system folks to find our way around the city.

You can check out the rest of my New York trip pictures on Flickr.