New York – Day 9

Our last morning in New York, we started packing up and then wandered around visiting our favorite spots and one new one.  After doing a quick drive-by at Bloomingdales we walked over to Momfuku Milk Bar to load up for Utah.  They have milk for sale in three flavors:  coffee, strawberry and cereal milk – the cereal milk has cornflakes in it already!    we also had some of their french toast bread which has little bits of sausage in it.  Everything is just so good.

We wandered past the Penguin store and then caught a cab down to Eataly, a new Mario Batali venture that just opened Tuesday afternoon.  It is a grand mecca to Italian food, with groceries, cafes and restaurants.   His partner in this venture is Joe Bastianich who I have developed a little crush on during his appearances on Master Chef (it’s ok, BK knows).  So, it was pretty exciting when all of sudden we walked right past us. tee hee hee…

We needed to get home and finish packing up, so we made our obligatory stop at People’s Pops (watermelon-lemongrass today) and then headed off to the airport. 

There’s was crazy traffic trying to get in the Holland tunnel but we made it to Newark with plenty of time to spare (sadly, because Terminal B really needs an upgrade).  Our plane is also super full, so we’re back in coach, on our way Utah, our NYC jetsetter lifestyle gone for now.  But at least we have Wifi on board so I can type this up somewhere over Iowa or the Dakotas…

Dinner @ Babbo

Dinner at Babbo was really good and a great way to end our week of big dining adventures (Thanks Jon & Candi!). The setting seems formal, but if you listen closely they are playing Nirvana and things are actually pretty reasonably priced for such a well-known restaurant.  We chose the pasta tasting menu:

First up was a small plate of marinated chickpeas:

Then the first pasta, Black Tagliatelle with Peas and Castelmagno – I had never had squid ink pasta before but it was good.  The fresh corn was even better though

“Casunzei” with Poppy Seeds – I can’t remember what these were stuffed with…

Garganelli with “Funghi Trifolati” – I tried to swap out this dish since it was all mushroomy but we both would have had to and I didn’t want  BK to miss out on mushrooms.  So I tried one and gave the rest of the ‘shrooms to BK.  The hand rolled penne tubes were amazing though…

Domingo’s Pyramids with “Passato di Pomodoro” – all these hand rolled and shaped pasta are just so fresh and nice…

Pappardelle Bolognese – last pasta dish, ending on a classic

“Bigne” with Fig and Lemon Crema

Above, Gelatina di Moscato d’Asti

Below, Chocolate “al Diavolo ”

corn ice cream, blueberry compote over cake - so good but so big after all that pasta.  Try as we might we could not finish it…

We were so full leaving Babbo but in a good way.

New York – Day 8

We wandered over to Chelsea Market for breakfast at the crepe stand before embarking on our final day of sight-seeing.  I had a fig-walnut-gorgonzola with greens, while BK had apple and brie.  As usual, I stared longingly at People’s Pops, but decided to wait until the afternoon.

Next stop was Battery Park for the Statue of Liberty.  When we tried to go last week the park was jammed and lines for tickets and the boats were crazy long.  Today we walked right up and got right on – sweet timing.  It was another hot day in the city so it was nice to get some breeze on the water.  The statue really is beautiful – we took lots of pics and walked around the base. 

Back on shore we needed lunch and headed to a spot we’d seen on tv – The Meatball Shop in the Lower East Side.  This place is great – well-decorated, nice vibe and thoughtful menu and presentation.  They know their focus:   meatballs.  There’s 5-6 different kinds, and 5 sauces.  From there, there are several ways to have your meat and sauce served to you depending on what you like – just mark up your menu and enjoy.  I loved it.  BK got 4 sliders so he could try lots.   I had a “smash”, which meant two chicken meatballs on a brioche bun with a parmesan cream sauce.  yum.  And because we couldn’t resist, we split one of their homemade ice-cream sandwiches for dessert – same concept:  5 ice creams, 5 cookies, you pick what you want to go together (Chocolate Chip Mint – fresh mint).  Awesome.

Next stop was the American Museum of Natural History, but along the way to the train we cruised past Russ & Daughters and Katzs just to check them out quick.  The museum was as huge as I remembered and totally kitschy but great with all the giant dioramas.  I need to watch Night at the Museum…

On the way home we got our daily dose of Pops (Roasted Red Plum Mint) and then our dinner reservation that night was until 9:45pm, so we spent the evening just hanging out and starting to pack and clean.  Eventually we fancied ourselves back up a bit and caught a cab to Babbo for our final NYC dinner (thanks Jon & Candi!).  This was a great meal to end on (as usual, separate post to follow)…

Dinner at Le Bernadin

Big dinner #3 was at Le Bernadin, owned by cute, popular chef Eric Ripert.  He was actually strolling through the dining room visiting tables as we arrived (sadly when I enquired at the end of our meal if he was still there he had already left).  Le Bernadin was very formal and clean – all the dishes and staff were super refined.  We of course did the Chef’s tasting menu, along with the wine pairing as Le Bernadin is revered for their sommelier and wine staff. 

First up, an Amuse Bouche of Watermelon Soup – yummy and fresh

Smoked Yellowfin Tuna “Prosciutto”; Japanese Pickled Vegetables and Crispy Kombu

Poached Pastured Egg; Osetra Caviar; Mariniere Broth and English Muffin – two poached eggs in 5 days for me?  whew.  still preferred scrambled

Seared Langoustine, Mache, Wild Mushroom Salad; White Balsamic Vinaigrette – gave my mushrooms to BK of course…

Pan Roasted Monkfish; Hon Shimeji Mushrooms; Turnip – Ginger Emulsion; Sake Broth – I always think of Sallie when I eat monkfish…

Baked Lobster; Pickled Golden Beet, Fennel and Citrus “a la Nage” – these were the best beets I’ve eaten yet, but I still gave my extras to JJ after trying one.  I just don’t like them.  The lobster was delish - look how beautiful the claw is – who ever gets to eat the claw?  I think I’ve only had tails…

Crispy Black Bass, Lup Cheong and Beansprout “Risotto”, Mini Steamed Buns, Hoisin-Plum Jus – Bass once again, very popular on NYC tasting menus.

Apricot Sphere, Fig, Sour Cherry Pearl, Candied Angelica – this was an amazing burst of flavor.  Really good

Gianduja Mousse, Hazelnuts, Honey, Banana, Brown Butter Ice Cream – no bananas for me obviously.  Yummy otherwise…

Bonus desserts!  I can’t remember what they were though…

So, dinner was really good – everything was perfectly cooked, perfectly served, perfectly matched.  With all of these dishes it really came down to the sauces – you know that’s where they spend the time on flavor, and then the techniques with the fish.  But in the end I think I enjoyed Blue Hill & WD-50 better overall because of ambiance – Le Bernadin was just so nice, but also big, so I always felt like I was being watched an judged a bit.  Even though Alinea is pretty formal, our room was more intimate so I felt a little freer.  Here I felt a little out of place – I have, however, now eaten at 4 of the top 50 restaurants in the world in the last 15 months.  craziness!  Would probably be 5 except Dan Barber from Blue Hill is on teh selection committee so they aren’t eligible…

New York – Day 7

Had a lazy morning at the apartment before finally tearing ourselves away for lunch at MacBar - a small store devoted entirely to Mac & cheese, all different kinds.  BK had Mayan Chipotle which had a kick to it, while I had the Carbonara with peas and pancetta.  Both were super yummy and served in an adorable yellow plastic elbow macaroni container.

Afterwards, we caught the Metro up to our favorite tourist destination, piers 84-86, where all of our activities seem to leave from.  Today’s highlight:  Brooklyn Bridge Bike Tour.  Starting at 2:00pm – current temp about 97.  awesome.

Despite the heat it was a great ride – our tour guide, Bob, had grown up in the city, moved to Florida in his 20′s to teach, and had now returned home after retirement.  We went down the Hudson to Battery Park, across Wall street, up through Chinatown, across the Manhattan Bridge, down into DUMBO, and then home across the Brooklyn Bridge and Tribeca.  I think we each went through 5 bottles of water in 4 hours and pants were glued to me by the end.  Fun though!

Home to shower and cool off and then fancy dinner at Le Bernadin with Mark & JJ.  All of us love Eric Ripert so we were looking forward to this as his restaurant supposedly had the best seafood in NYC.  It was delish – separate post to come.

To cap off the evening we headed down to the Brandy Library in tribeca for a nightcap.  JJ splurged and did a cognac tasting while I just had a glass of port and the boys enjoyed some nice scotch…

New York – Day 6

Lazy morning, then down to Little Italy for Scott’s Pizza Tour  (Thanks Tom & Bette!).  It was great!  We wandered Little Italy and Greenwich Village for three hours, visiting various pizzerias, grocery stores, supply stores and bakeries to get a very thorough overview of pizza in NYC.  Scott is an enthusiastic guide and I recommend the tour to others visiting the city.

From there we train-ed it up to 42nd street and walked over to the Intrepid (again) with plenty of time to spare this time.  They remodeled the museum in 2006 and it’s really nice – very interactive for kids and seeing all the different planes on top of the carrier is pretty cool.  They also have a submarine to explore – tight quarters down there!

For the evening we headed up to the Bronx for the Yankees game versus the Oakland A’s.  We arrived a little late so the A’s were already up 3-0 when we got there, but the Yankees quickly caught up and clobbered them by the end.  Yankee Stadium is huge and palatial – beautiful.  Joe Lieberman was there and we saw Donald Trump sitting in the first row using the Yankee dugout as his arm rest.

On the way home we stopped at Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock.  It started out fun with a clear elevator roof and crazy disco lights flashing as we shot up 67 floors.  The views are really nice – fun to see all the lights at night.  The Empire State building was all lit up in yellow for some reason.

A long, hot, busy day!

New York – Day 5

Traveled to the Upper West Side sunday morning to shop at Zabar’s (thanks Kerry!), picking up goodies to have a couple friends over later.  Along the way we had to transfer at Columbus circle where we could luckily grab breakfast at Bouchon bakery (thanks Tricia & Jeff!).  Sadly the quiche wasn’t ready yet, so I had to console myself with a ham & cheese croissant and a couple of cookies for later…

Zabar’s is great and we had fun poking around each aisle.  BK loved that there is an entire section devoted to smoked fish.  Goodies in hand, we cruised home via teh Chelsea Market to pick up some bread and wine to go with it all.  The wine shop wasn’t open yet, but my new favorite spot was, especially on a hot day:  People’s Pops.  A small little stand, they have popsicles and shave ice in unique flavors  – in the morning I had corn (yes, a corn popsicle) and BK had roasted peach-ginger.  Later when we came back in the afternoon, I had watermelon-lemongrass and BK had sour cherry shave ice.  Yum!  Check them out when you are in NYC…

In the afternoon we met Mark & JJ at Grand Central and then trained out to Queens for the Mets game (thanks Tom & Bette!).  The Mets have a new stadium so it was fun to explore – they’ve done a really nice job.  We watched the first couple inning then walked around to grab hot dogs and beer (they have Hoegaarden – perfect on a hot day) and Nathan’s hot dogs, so we knocked that one off the tour list (thanks Nicole!).  Both were delish.  We watched a couple more innings then did a loop of the stadium to explore and get some shade for awhile.  BK also had some Italian sandwich that looked pretty impressive for a ballpark.  We eventually surrendered to to the heat & sun in the middle of the 8th when the Mets had a comfortable lead.  It was so hot…

Back in the city we rested for a bit then laid out our spread and waited for a couple friends to join us un eating it all.  We had a super fun evening catching up with Courtney & Grace, Minda and Mark & JJ as we watched the sun set over the Hudson.

New York – Day 4

Saturday was a tough day – we had to sleep in and yet manage to wake up in time for our massages at Bliss (thanks Piazza’s, Navarro’s and Nelson’s!) down on the 4th floor of our hotel.  Super rough, we barely made it   Massages were awesome – during the Blissage 75 they not only massage but also paraffin dip your feet.  Nice…

Relaxed, we trudged upstairs to pack up, check out and taxi over to our new digs in Chelsea.  We hung out for a bit exploring Bernie’s super stark white apt with an amazing view of the Hudson and cityscape until heading to the West Village to meet BK’s friend Kimberly for brunch.

Kimberly used to live in Seattle and after many years of touring with musical shows is now ensconced in NYC as the company manager for the new Green Day musical, American Idiot.  It was fun to hear about her job as we ate at the Little Owl – conveniently located at the bottom of the building which is the exterior for Friends.

After brunch we strolled through the West Village, Meat Packing district, and along part fo the new High Line park which is really cool – we need to explore it a bit more.  Then Kimberly split off and we checked out Chelsea Market to fill our fridge a bit.

We enjoyed the view from our living room for a couple hours, then met Mar & JJ for early dinner at Minetta Tavern (thanks Bernie!). Me & JJ had yummy halibut while the boys devoured the burger and steak, the classics of the Tavern.

Satiated, we skirted uptown for American Idiot which was great.  Kimberly had saved us 7th row seats and afterwards we got to go backstage and ONstage.  We even had our second “celebrity siting” backstage:  Camryn Mannheim from The Practice.  The show is really good, exciting and in your face.

Afterwards we got a drink with Kimberly and her boyfriend (also the associate conductor of the show), before wandering over to Times Square to see all the lights.  We enjoyed a piece of smooth cheesecake from Junior’s and then called it a night.

Dinner @ Blue Hill at Stone Barns

This was a really amazing meal (thanks Mars Bar!).  It was especially fun to go with Mark and JJ and also have a little field trip outside of the city.  There is a Blue Hill in Manhattan but we wanted to visit the farm too.  So, we met up at Grand Central and narrowly missed the 3:48 train.  The next one was at 4:15 and an express so we arrived in time for our 5:00pm reservation but unfortunately didn’t have anytime to wander the farm first.

The menu arrives as a list of ingredients currently in season and then you choose 5 or 8 courses and food starts arriving.  So this was truly a blind tasting menu, but JJ & I both specified pescatarian so I wasn’t too worried about what might arrive.

We started with cocktails – mine was black currant martini.  All the drinks had fresh farm ingredients in them:

to start, citrus spritzers and fresh veggies:

Tomato burgers:

Tempura veggies:

Charcuterie for the boys, sage-potato crisp for the girls:

Peppered melon for the girls, bone marrow and caviar for the boys:

Summer veggie salad:

Onions baked under coals overnight served with various condiments:

Potato-Onion bread (Sallie, you would have devoured this!)

Striped bass:

Poached egg in curry soup:

Lamb brains for the boys, Ratatouille Cannelloni for the girls:

more lamb for the boys, lobster for the girls:

Transition time – local cheeses:

and the first dessert, Strawberry milkshake:

fruits and corn ice-cream:

mmm, chocolate:

and finally, some grapes and honey:

Everything was so fresh and clean.  my favorites were the lobster, the canelloni and the grilled onion.  The bread was delish and the service impeccable.  We were full and happy as we zipped down to the train station and headed back to the big city.

New York – Day 3

Up early and out the door to the west side for a bike tour leaving from pier 84.  Along the way we stopped at H&H bagels for a quick breakfast which was yummy.  Today’s bike tour was along the greenway belt and through Central Park, led by Cliff, a middle school teacher in East Harlem.  It was a great tour and a great way to see the park since it’s so huge.  There was so much to see in fact, that the tour ended almost 90 minutes later than we thought it would!  This took away some of our afternoon relaxation time before dinner which was sad, but worth it.

We ended up up in an even bigger rush once we returned to the hotel and discovered our dinner reservation was at 5:00, not 5:30pm.  This wouldn’t normally be a problem except tonight we were headed to Blue Hill at Stone Barns (thanks Mar!), which we needed to take a train to, up the Hudson.  We scrambled to get dressed, met Mark & JJ at Grand Central and missed the 3:48 train by about two minutes.  Luckily there was an express train at 4:15pm, so we made it just in time.  Unfortunately we had wanted to arrive early to walk around the farm a bit, but…

Dinner was amazing – separate post and pictures about it to come…