Wishing We Were Still There...

Sadly, we are back home in Mississauga. Not that we don't like our home and everyone here, it was just sad to have left NYC on a beautiful Friday morning. Next time we go to NYC, we will be including a weekend. We were just talking about what we liked best so I thought I'd finish this segment of the blog with those thoughts.
On leaving the city, we were a bit nervous about time. Those who know us, me especially, know that we tend to be early for things. And I get very antsy at the prospect of being late. We were told to allow lots of extra time to get from Manhattan to Newark on the Express Bus. We left just after 9 and the taxi ride seemed a bit circuitous but the guy took the FDR expressway instead of going through the city. I made sure he knew I was looking at the gps and knew where we were going. I think it was faster in the end. The bus ride was slow as we hit numerous traffic jams and construction sites. We finally arrived at Newark and had lots of time to spare. The Porter people then said there were openings on the flight before ours and we ended up leaving 50 minutes after getting to the airport. Not bad!
Here we are in the Lincoln Tunnel. This is another scene that reminds me of tv shows and movies that have used the tunnel.

One of the things about the city that we loved was how most people are genuinely helpful. Once again this time, we were approached if we had our map out by someone who wanted to give us directions. Just after we'd arrived and were getting our bearings in the subway, a young police officer came over to us 3 times to make sure we were ok.
We never felt unsafe while walking around. Yes, it's a big city and we're used to that, but we felt like we could walk pretty much anywhere we wanted. We didn't do the dark, back alley tours or anything but you get the idea. Times Square was the busiest place we visited. It was ok but more touristy that we liked.

We preferred the smaller places like Washington Square Park. This little band was playing in the afternoon of St. Patty's Day. There were 3 or 4 others bands playing in different areas of the park.

No matter where we walked we saw interesting views and architecture. This is from the courthouse on the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge.

And this was a building that caught our eyes in Soho. It's actually near our $3.75 million future loft home.

We found the subway pretty amazing. It was quick and seemed to go everywhere. It was great that you could actually hear and understand the stop announcements too. The one thing we did notice often was that the stations were pretty run down. This stairway was a common sight.

It was also amazing that you could go to the beach on the subway. We saw Coney Island, and Brighton Beach and Rockaway were close by as well.
This is the view of Coney Island from the long pier.

Of course, the food was amazing. I think we walked enough not to come back 5 pounds heavier, but it would be hard to live there all the time and not overeat. Our favourite had to be DBGB but everything we tried was good. As usual, eating out in new places is inspiring me to try some new things too. After dinner at Mesa Grill I want to get some dried ancho chilies to make some sauces. I expect that this blog is going to morph into some sort of a food related blog in the near future.
And finally, our hotel was an incredible experience. We were very impressed that they upgraded us and then were more impressed when we found out the new room actually goes for over $700 a night! I can't imagine paying that much ever but we certainly enjoyed it. This is the side of the building we were on - 1401.

 You get a good idea here of how they fit the new hotel right into the space that used to be a derelict building.

 Yep, the room really was pretty much all white. And, I did not spill a drop of wine.

The room came with an ipad that mostly accessed hotel information. You had to use your own computer to access the internet. Seemed kind of odd but that's how it was.

 The room was small but all the mirrors and brightness made it look bigger.

 I guess that's it. We had a great trip and will definitely go back again. Thanks for reading. I'll let you know when this turns into a food blog.

The Last Dinner

For our final dinner in NYC, we decided to go to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. It was a good choice. Although the place was noisy, we had a great meal.

 This is my appetizer of blue corn tortilla with bbq'd duck with habanero sauce. Very good!

 Marilyn's appetizer was shrimp and roasted garlic tamale.

 My main course was red and black pepper crusted filet mignon with mushroom, ancho chili sauce.

Marilyn's main was pan roasted venison with roasted jalapeno sauce and wild rice tamale.

Brooklyn, Coney Island and Back Again

This morning we woke up to a brilliant blue sky and endless sunshine. Our plan to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge was a go. We left here and grabbed coffee and tea at Starbucks and decided to walk from our place to the bridge. With a stop to look around the court houses on the way, we got there in about a half hour. The bridge walk is very interesting and we'd highly recommend it. The views back towards Manhattan are great. You just have to keep to the right as the bikers go flying past on the left. There was one section of the bridge that was under construction.

 I was pretty much fascinated by the patterns made by all of the supporting cables.

 This is one of the views back towards Manhattan.

Once we reached the other side of the bridge, we decided that we'd go to the parks that were supposed to be under there. The first thing we found was another Jacques Torres chocolate shop so, naturally, we bought more chocolate and had another wicked hot chocolate as it was still a bit cool out. From there we went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park which gave an excellent view back into the city. We also saw the famous Riverside Cafe. It is literally on the edge of the river. It was too early for lunch so we had to move on. We did, however, witness a photo shoot for some hip hop guy that I didn't recognize. Not the major highlight of the day.
This was a highlight. Although we didn't eat here, it was cool to see another of the famous NYC coal burning pizzerias. Grimaldi's is right under the bridge.

 A view from Brooklyn Bridge park.

 I was trying to balance the camera on a rock to take this picture when a nice couple came by and offered to help.

 Jacque Torres's cookies. We had a chocolate chip yesterday.

 This one shows the derelict area of Brooklyn that is being rebuilt with the bridge in the background.

 Looking up from the park area.

  This shot is from the garden at the Riverside Cafe. Next time, we're eating here!

 Manhattan with a police boat in the foreground. The police presence is very obvious most of the time.

  Looking back towards the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan from the park.

After we finished walking around the park, we decided not to go back to Manhattan and brave the St. Patty's day throngs. So, we hopped on the subway and headed off to Coney Island. How cool is it to be able to take the subway to the ocean? On the way I realized that we'd have to eat at Nathan's Famous Frankfurters. We have seen this iconic hotdog joint on numerous food shows. They've been around since, I think, 1916. The hotdogs are done on the flat top griddle. They aren't fancy, but they were good. After eating, we walked on the boardwalk and the beach. We even went out on the long pier. It was really nice to feel the sun warming us up.
Here are our Nathan's hotdogs. I had the chili dog of course. Marilyn had the basic one.

Here are a few images of the beach area at Coney Beach.

Once we got back to Manhattan, we decided to walk around and see what was going on. We found quite a few loud, noisy bars with over indulged yahoos in them. So, we went to another of Mario's places called Otto Enoteca. It's a pizza place but we had beers and bruschetta pepperonata. It was a great snack but, sadly, Mario wasn't there.

Little Italy & NYC Pizza

We managed to do quite a bit more walking tonight. Our first area was little Italy which is pretty much Mulberry Street. The temp hit about 11 this afternoon and all of a sudden, every Italian place had its sidewalk seats out. And every place had a guy with what sounded like an official Italian accent trying to get you to come into his restaurant. They were quite insistent at times. One guy told us about coming to Toronto, after he asked where we were from, then recited the dishes we needed to have in about 20 seconds.

We kept walking and explored Union Square Park which was very crowded and had all the stalls for the market just closing up. We also checked out Mario Batali's Casa Mono and Bar Jamon. Both were very small and we decided not to try to get into Bar Jamon tomorrow. It doesn't take reservations and there seemed to be about 10 seats. Next we looked at McSorely's Old Ale House for beer and dinner but it was packed and we moved on. In the end, we went all the way back to Little Italy and had some real NY pizza at Lombardi's. It's a NY institution and they say they were the first pizza parlour, established in 1905. We had the basic margherita pizza. I had always thought I wouldn't want a pizza with no meat, but I was wrong. This one was great. Perfect, chewy crust, great sauce and excellent mozzarella. We'll try this one out at home too.

 Here's my first slice with a pint of Brooklyn lager. Perfect.

Does the chef come here often?

The title of this post is what I asked our server after seeing Daniel Boulud actually come out of the kitchen at DBGB, his restaurant in the Bowery. But, more on that later.
We started off in a fairly steady rain this morning and found that our rain gear actually works, which is a bonus. Ended up at Chelsea Market for coffee, scones and people watching. It was good to see the market again as we had a private tour group thing there on our last trip.

After Chelsea, we headed off towards Jacques Torres's chocolate shop in Greenwich Village. Jacques is a famous French chocolate maker who I've seen numerous times on various food shows over the years. I've even made his chocolate mousse. Anyway, the place is a factory and they were busy making Easter bunnies when we were there. Of course we bought some chocolate to bring home as well as a can of his Wicked Hot Chocolate mix. We sampled it in the shop and it's amazing. Hot chocolate is mixed with a bit of hot pepper to make an incredible drink. We are planning on adding some types of alcohol to it to add to the fun.

Leaving Jacques, we wandered through Greenwich village towards the Bowery where DBGB is located. We'd heard that the Bowery was a little less nice than other areas, and it's true. Not really scary but there were more dicey characters walking around. Oddly, there were a ton of restaurant supply stores in the area. We were in one and I found a giant cast iron pan that would be perfect for paella but it was suggested that carrying 30 lbs of pan around might not be a good idea. So, I'll see if they are available at home.
We got seated at DBGB and ordered some of the many craft beers that they had. Then Marilyn heard someone speaking French and I looked over to see Daniel Boulud coming out of the kitchen. Luckily I didn't yell out or anything. It was pretty cool actually seeing him and wondering if he would make the rounds and say hi. Some guys from the table next to us went over for pictures and so on but it turned out they were restaurant people from Chicago. I didn't want to look like a goof so I didn't go over. But, then he and a couple other guys sat in a booth not too far from us and all the chefs started coming out, each bringing a different plate. Daniel and the others started pulling them apart and writing stuff down. I think they were sampling new items. Marilyn went to use the restroom and had to go by their table. I suggested that she could stumble and kind of fall into them. That could have been a way to get introduced to the man. But, she didn't want to do that.
How was the food?? Amazing, of course. The flavours were incredible.
Our appetizers were spicy grilled calamari and a smoked salmon plate.

 Marilyn's main course was mussels in fennel and citrus broth with saffron aioli. We're going to make that one at home.

My main was one of their house made sausages called the Beaujolaise. It was made with pork, mushrooms, onion, bacon & red wine and was served with lentils du puy.
We walked for quite a while after and on 6th Ave. we found a Timmies!

We're headed back out now to wander around some more before finding McSorely's Old Ale House later.

Good Dinner... But Not Fine Dining!

So after a brief rest this afternoon, we ventured out again. The subway brought us to Times Square where we mingled with the fairly massive crowds for a while. It's really tourist central there and we have been trying to avoid that when possible. But, you have to see Times Square. This shows the mall section where they've banned cars. I was wishing that they'd banned obnoxious tourist types too, but no.

I thought this sign was pretty cool with the mini actually stuck up there. A four door mini begs the question, Is it still a mini?

Then it was off to Hill Country Texas Market for dinner. I gather that they do it this way in Texas. You go in and they give you a card. You take that up to the meat "bar" and select from a whole hog, beef and pork ribs, brisket, chicken and sausages imported from a market in Lockhart Texas. Then you go over to the sides bar and order those. We ordered. And then realized that they sure make beef ribs bigger than the ones we had eaten. And that half a pound of whole hog is a lot. And that we didn't need that extra side. Or the sausage for that matter. After most of that and a couple of Longhorns, we were done. Really done. I think we need to eat some veggies tomorrow!
The festival of meat gets wrapped in butcher paper. What you see here is only my portion. What were we thinking? I wish my friend Ben was there to help us!

And finally for today, here are a few shots from around our hotel. It is really a cool place and I'm glad we've had a chance to try it out. I'd highly recommend it if you can get a deal on the price.
This is one of the hidden patio places on the lobby level which is a couple of floors up. It would be a great place to lounge if it was a bit warmer.

There is a lot of blue everywhere. This is the hallway by the elevators. Subdued blue light, blue carpets and cool music playing in the lobby.

And finally, here's a shot of the outside. It basically goes straight up in a very tight space.