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...
NY Snow
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.
Aroma New York
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.
Meatball Shop
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.
Scary T-Rex at TRU
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.
69 Chinese Food
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.
Granola at Norma's
Tim Burton Exhibit at MOMA
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.
Pastrami & Potato Pancake at Carnegie Deli
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.
Waiting for the Daily Show
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.
Hot Pot
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.
Pork Buns at Momofuku
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).
Spicy Noodles
Cookies
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.
Pie Time! (#95)
I've always wanted to bake a pie from scratch, but it seemed like a complicated, time consuming undertaking. A couple weeks ago I had a wicked craving for pie, so I decided it was time to cross of #95 on my 101 list.
I didn't have any eggs on hand, so I decided to go for a vegan berry pie with ingredients I had on hand. I looked at dozens of pie crust recipes online and settled on this one (which I can't find the link to again)...
1.5 c flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
.5 c vegetable oil
2 tbls milk (I used Rice Dream)
Mix everything thoroughly; it will be a little crumbly, but trust me, it will work. Press the mixture into a pie tin (or whatever dish you are using) to form a nice solid crust. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Then add your filling.
For the filling I combined frozen mixed berries (thawed) with a little strawberry jam, lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon. I topped the whole thing off with the left over crust mix and baked for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.
Finally, I added a little freshly made, berry flavored whipped cream and the end result was far tastier than I thought it would be! I generally enjoy a nice flaky, buttery crust, but this was just as good, especially with the sweetness of the berries. You could also easily substitute Splenda to make this a sweet, delicious sugar free dessert. It totally fulfilled my pie craving, so I count this one as a complete success and look forward to more pie making adventures in the near future!
Pinks Hot Dogs (#70)
Along with conquering #70 on my 101 List, our recent visit to Pinks also marked the launch of a new pet project called Stick It In Your Mouth.
Basically George, myself, and anyone else we can wrangle will be recording ourselves eating at fun places and letting you know if you should stick it in your mouth!
Oh and Pinks was good, but not fantastic. I had the Spicy Polish Dog which was indeed spicy. It was quite tasty, but the chili just wasn't up to par in my opinion. The fries and onion rings were average and the ranch was ridiculously thick. I would recommend to stick it in your mouth at least once if your in town.
Quick Cake
I recently ran across an interesting post on how to make a microwave hot chocolate cake. Obviously, I had to try it out. The ingredients were pretty simple - three packets hot chocolate mix, four tablespoons flour, three tablespoons water, three tablespoons oil, one egg, and a pinch of salt. Then basically just mix and microwave for three minutes.
The result was a cake like substance, but it was a bit too spongy for my liking. It was also not really chocolaty enough. The hot chocolate mix has a lighter flavoring, so perhaps the addition of some cocoa powder would help. Really though, with that many ingredients, I might as well make a real cake.
Deep Fried Thanksgiving (#15 & #74)
Thanksgiving 2008 marks the first time we ever deep fried a turkey...and successfully I might add!
We started with a very dry 12 lbs. turkey and rubbed it thoroughly with garlic pepper and a little cayenne pepper. Then we slowly inserted it into the 325° canola oil (we had a person with peanut allergies so we opted not to use peanut oil). About 45 minutes later, we had a beautiful looking fried bird that was surprisingly moist and delicious inside! Of course, we had several other tasty Thanksgiving treats including my moms famous leeky cheese bread, Neil's potato broccoli cheese surprise, yam fries, etc. It was really fun to mix up the traditional dishes a little bit and of course to be with our friends and family having an awesome day.
After dinner, we decided to play a little badminton. Badminton is probably my favorite physical activity, so needless to say, I was very much looking forward to it. It was starting to get dark out by the time we finished setting up the net, but did that stop us? Hell no! We had a blast chasing a barrage of shuttlecocks around the yard and occassionally taking one in the face. That's just the price you pay for night badminton. In retrospect, I should have splurged for the light up badminton set that had lights on the net, rackets, and shuttlecock, but there's always next year!
Oh and let's not forget after badminton when we attempted to deep fry candy bars. We battered a few Snickers and a Baby Ruth with waffle batter and dunked them in our giant pot of oil. The result was sort of what you would expect - slightly melted candy coated in batter. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good enough to bother doing it again. I think I need to be at a fair of some sort to properly enjoy fried treats like that.
Magic Bullet
We finally broke down and bought a Magic Bullet. You can only watch an infomercial so many times before you simply need to own the product it's hawking. Let's just get this out of the way - it's a glorified blender. That said, it's sort of cool and sort of a piece of crap. Let me explain. No, there is no time, let me sum up.
The Bullet is great for drinks and smoothies, especially since you can make them right in a cup. It's also great for dips like hummus, guacamole, and bean dip. It's not so great at chopping nuts (the bottom just becomes pasty), chicken (unless you want it really finely chopped), or cheese (hard to get it all chopped and you're probably just going to melt it anyway). It's a great party gadget, but it's no substitute for a food processor.
Great Greek (#39)
Wow. All I can say is wow. An old friend of George's came for a visit this evening and introduced us to a fabulous Greek place right around the corner from us. It's called Pita Kitchen and I can't believe we never knew about it before! I had a pita with falafel and lamb which was super excellent. I also tried George's babaganoush which was smoky and rich - very good! It's within walking distance of Best Buy, so I anticipate several delicious DVD releases in my future. Of course, this also thoroughly satisfies #39 on my list. Woot!
Unexpected Tapas (#40)
So I'm a dunce and have actually eaten tapas several times now! I realized last night that the Uva Bar in Downtown Disney is actually a tapas place and a pretty tasty one, too. My favorites so far are the hummus and the garlic fries - yum! All my visits have been since I started my 101 list, so it totally counts.
Target Chips = Delicious!
While I was walking around Target the other day, something inexplicably drew me to the potato chip isle. Having no idea what I wanted and being rather hungry, I left with several bags of chips, two of which were Target's Archer Farms brand. Specifically, there were the Smoky Bacon & Cheddar flavor as well as Maui Onion. Oh my gosh are these fabulous!
The Smoky Bacon & Cheddar are baked and taste just like a real baked potato, but with the added fun of eating a chip! Pair these with a little plain sour cream and I may never bother with real baked potatoes again. The Maui Onion are equally delicious, although not baked. They are very sweet and in my humble opinion, perfect on their own without any kind of dip. The price was comparable to regular brand name chips; I think they were about $2.39 for a nine ounce bag. The flavor, however, is so much better than I expected! I would highly recommend these to any potato chip lover.