December 31st, 2006
Flew from St. Louis to Chicago to New York. Met up with Jenny at JFK and took a cab to my sister's apartment, located in the Upper East Side of Manhatten. We grabbed a bite to eat at Papaya King. They're known for a delicious papaya drink and great hot dogs. The former was not so good, but the hot dogs were excellent, although not as good as Top Dog, a Berkeley based hot dog vendor. We ate dinner at Mark Joseph Steakhouse, which is #1 rated steakhouse in NYC. Jenny and I shared the porterhouse for 2, which was more than enough. The steak was fantastic! Juicy, tender, and mighty tasty. These pictures don't do it justice, but it really was the best steak I'd ever eaten. Along with the steak, we got an order of tomatoes and onions, which was exactly what was written on our menu (we expected a salad), and a bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse, a dry white wine from France that my Dad had recommended I get whenever I had the chance. For dessert, we shared key lime pie, which was a very nice light sweet after all of the steak. I highly recommend Mark Joseph to anyone looking for a quality steakhouse in New York.
The outside of Mark Joseph. They had decorated for the Holidays and the place was packed on New Year's Eve.
Slices from our porterhouse for two. This steak was so good!
Our bottle of wine with dinner. :) After Mark Joseph, we met up with my sister and her boyfriend. It was already 10:30 and people were milling around the Times Square area. The police had barricaded the entire area, and were only letting in people with reservations at the $200+ club parties. Given the choice between going back to a house party that my sister's friend was having or seeing the ball drop over twenty blocks away from Times Square, the choice was obvious. So we watched the ball drop on TV yet again, but after seeing how hard it was to get to Times Square, the whole idea of standing out there seems a bit overrated. The people in the front were there in the late afternoon, and we wanted no part of that. Either way, we had 2007 in New York and our trip was off to an excellent start!
January 1, 2007
Things almost got off to a bad start, since we were supposed to have gone to the Dumpling House in Chinatown. Unfortunately, all of the area was closed. Our itinerary switched a bit, as we made our way to Carnegie Deli on Broadway. Here's some pictures from our lunch at the Deli:
As you can see, the Carnegie Deli is quite popular. Nonetheless, they seat people very quickly, in part because you're crammed in a small two person table shoulder to shoulder with people on either side of you. So while this is not a good first date spot, who cares? It's all about the food here!
The infamous "Woody Allen." Half pastrami, half corned beef. Piled high. I don't know how one person can eat this. We shared it and we were still stuffed.
We spent the afternoon walking around Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue, checking out the sales but refraining from purchasing anything. Of course, I had to take an obligatory photo of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center:
And when we got to Times Square and Grand Central Station, I had to take pictures:
In this picture, I tried to play with the shutter speed, keeping it low to try and depict the terminal without artificial flash. The result was blurred people who were walking, contrasted by others who were standing still. I found that best depicted in one section of the photo, which I zoomed in on below:
For dinner we traveled to Brooklyn to Grimaldi's Pizzeria, which had been the #1 rated pizzeria in NYC. It definitely lived up to our expectations. The dough was tossed fresh in front of us and our pizza was topped with fresh mozzarella cheese and sausage and mushroom. The slices were large, the crust was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and not dry at all. It was definitely one of the best pizzas I've had, but it took us over an hour to get there from the Upper East Side, and since they don't do delivery, I'd imagine that I wouldn't go here very often, since it's so out of the way.
This photo doesn't do our pizza justice. It was so yummy!
Being in Brooklyn offered us a chance to admire the NY skyline. There was light rain earlier in the day, and the remaining storm clouds provided some interesting lighting for this picture.
I like this photo because while I focused on Anthony in this picture, the slow shutter speed allowed me to show the fast moving train that we were waiting for.
Cones is one of the best ice cream parlors in New York. Located in Greenwich Village, they make all of their ice cream and gelato on site, and they have a bevy of flavors. Although I went with the typical chocolate, I'd definitely recommend coming back here again and again to try all of their desserts. Rich and creamy. Try it!
January 2, 2007
For brunch, we headed to H&H Midtown Bagels East, where we had their famed bagels with cream cheese and lox. It definitely lived up to the hype. The bagels are warm and chewy on the inside, the lox was fresh, and a large glob of cream cheese was smeared all over the bagel.
So good. We then went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
And saw a lot of art:
And the Tomb of Perneb
After some channel surfing, we settled on watching The Longest Yard, which was a total copy of the British version called Mean Machine which I had seen in December. But, it killed the time and we made our way down to Greenwich Village and ate at Mario Batali's restaurant, Babbo. Babbo only takes reservations one month to the day, and it's one of the toughest restaurants to get a table in, but Jenny woke up at 7am to try, and we were able to get in! We had a wonderful meal:Our first course was Warm Lamb’s Tongue Vinaigrette with Chanterelles and a 3-Minute Egg:
Followed by Beef Cheek Ravioli with Crushed Squab Liver and Black Truffles
And our main courses, Fennel Dusted Sweetbreads with Sweet and Sour Onions, Duck Bacon and Membrillo Vinegar and Grilled Lamb Chops “Scottadita” with Eggplant “in Scapece” and Lemon Yogurt. The lamb was excellent, but the sweetbread was a little too unfamiliar and I would have preferred to have gotten something else. Nonetheless, an excellent meal. Oh yeah, and we had our meal with an accompanying bottle of Zuani Bianco, which was an Italian wine that blended pinot grigio, tocai, chardonnay, and savingnon in a very fruity and refreshing mix.
For dessert was a chocolate hazelnut cake with hazelnut gelato. Not surprisingly, the gelato was a tasteful accompaniment to the cake.
Here's a picture of the front of Babbo restaurante.
January 4, 2007
Jenny and I were up early and headed down to the TKTS booth in the South Seaport area to get tickets to see "Spring Awakening." TKTS is great, because you can get tickets for a show that same day for 50% off. Shows that might otherwise have empty seats can now be sold out. So, after waiting in a long line and getting our tickets, we were off to the SoHo area of New York, where we did some hardcore shopping. It just so happened that today there was no sales tax, so that probably stimulated a lot of purchasing (there would have been a lot anyway - there were so many sales). We went to a lot of the typical stores - FCUK, Express, BCBG, Guess, Banana Republic, etc, and checked out some of the higher end boutiques, but they were all so expensive! I wanted this sweater at Ben Sherman, but they didn't have my size (and apparently they don't online either).
So after some shopping, we went over to Russ and Daughters and Katz's Deli:
Russ and Daughters is a great family owned specialty food store, with wonderful fish, cheeses, and as we found, bagels and roe:
Since we didn't want to get a whole fish, one of the workers suggested we try an onion bagel with horseradish cream cheese and flying fish roe with wasabi. Definitely not something you would pick up everyday, but we gave it a shot. And it was delicious!
We then went over to Katz's, which is probably best known outside of New York for being the place where Meg Ryan had a fake orgasm. But, it has one of the best pastrami sandwiches. After going to Carnegie Deli, and having Katz's version, I think I'd vote for Katz's as my favorite sandwich. The difference between the two seems to be that Katz's gives you thick, fatty slices of pastrami, while Carnegie Deli gives you slices that are thin and lean. For my tastes, I prefer Katz's. I mean, how could you not like a sandwich like this?
Even though we were quite full, we still had dinner reservations at Le Gigot, a small 12 table restaurant in the Village. The small restaurant atmosphere was quite romantic, although being the only couple in the entire restaurant was a bit weird, since the waiter staff outnumbered us. Nonetheless, our food was excellent. We started off with a crabcake salad:
Followed by seared sea diver scallops for Jenny:
And their venison special for myself:
After that, we headed over to Broadway where we watched "Spring Awakening." It definitely was not a typical Broadway musical - Duncan Sheik wrote the score, resulting in a lot of rock-type songs. But, the singing and acting was top notch, although the storyline was somewhat contrived and not completely resolved by the end. I guess for NY theater buffs, the musical was something new and refreshing compared to a classic like Mama Mia!, but for someone expecting conservative plot lines, they need look elsewhere. But, it was quite fun to see the musical. And since it was the "Best Musical of the Year" by NYT, USA Today, and the New York Post, I guess we saw something that will be talked about for year's to come.
January 4, 2007
Our last day in New York. We spent the morning in Central Park, allowing me to fool around with my camera tripod. The water in the lake of Central Park was quite gorgeous today:
A shot of the Belvedere Castle, which we later walked to and took pictures from.
A shot from atop Belvedere Castle, overlooking the Great Lawn on the left:
Here's a view of some buildings on the Upper West Side:
So after spending some time in the Upper West Side, admiring the architecture of the buildings and grabbing two hot dogs at Gray's Papaya, which basically tasted the same as Papaya King, we headed south to The Shops at Columbus Circle, where we did some shopping at A|X and J Crew. I found the hanging lights in the lobby quite pretty:
They also changed color, which was pretty nifty.
For a quick snack before dinner, we headed to the Village and checked out Pearl's Oyster Bar. Pearl's is actually located at the same address as Le Gigot, which we went to the night before. As a result, when I took a picture of the entrance, the man on the left was waiter we had the night before. I wonder if he recognized me.
For starters, we shared fried oysters. Oh my, they were good!
Any well-doer needs to get this lobster roll. It is the reason why Pearl's is so popular. It is a reason to visit New York alone. Well, maybe not, but it's so good! Just show up early, since we arrived at 5:45 and there were already people lined up to get inside at 6pm. They don't take reservations, so come early and get this!
We then walked over to Magnolia Bakery to have their famed cupcakes. As you can see, they have delicious frosting and a great cake texture, making them truly amazing.
Finally, we had our real dinner at Lupa, another restaurant that Mario Batali owns. For starters, we began with spaghetti with garlic, oil, and tomato. That might sound somewhat boring, but believe me, it was one of the best pastas I've ever tasted. The pasta was al dente, and the tomatoes, garlic, and oil were mixed to perfection. We also had an order of prosciutto, which was thinly sliced but really tasty. Everyone got a main course dish, which I did not get pictures of, so I'll just leave it to your imagination. It was one of my favorite meals in New York and I highly recommend going here if you want a moderately priced Italian meal.
And oh my goodness, after all of that food, my sister insisted on taking us to Pommes Frites, where they have Belgian Fries that you can dip in many different sauces. For example, we got an order of fries with mango curry sauce. The fries are really crispy and the sauces taste great, but we had finally eaten too much that day and could not finish the fries. We rode home on the subway and bus in food comas.
Jenny and I headed out the following morning and needless to say, it was quite a memorable trip. The weather was warm and we successfully navigated the subway and bus routes. Our meals were memorable and so were the few tourist things we did. I couldn't have asked for a better trip, although it wasn't really a relaxing experience. New York is a busy place, especially with all of the people running around. It's nice experience that for just a little bit before coming back to a quieter environment like school. On the other hand, I have plenty of cause to come back - more shows to see, more places to visit, and of course, more restaurants to visit!
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