New York is an amazing food city. We were lucky to get a taste of it.
I will be brutally honest, I had never had much interest in going back to New York City. I’d been there twice, both times piggybacking on events in nearby Pennsylvania (a wedding, the 2016 Democratic Convention), and I had already seen all the big *must do* tourist spots. None of them, not even the Met, was calling me to return. So when Mike got tickets to see a live taping of the Stephen Colbert show at the Ed Sullivan theater in New York City and asked me to plan the trip for him to go see it, I didn’t immediately imagine me going with him. However, as I started to look into flights and hotels – and discovered the New York City is remarkably affordable in February – the idea of joining him grew on me. Mike and I had been thinking of taking a romantic trip alone for a while – after twenty one years of raising kids, we’re finally empty nesters of sorts – and while I had been fantasizing more along the lines of the Croatian coast, New York City could do in a pinch. Particularly, given that the trip would during St. Valentine’s Day week and would allow us to celebrate our anniversary early.
In previous trips, I had seen everything I wanted to see in New York City – but I had not had the opportunity to eat everything the City is known for – so slowly, the idea of turning this trip into a Foodie adventure crystallized. I haven’t used that word to refer to myself for ages and this blog has mostly been dormant, but I haven’t really discovered any new interests, so why not revisit my old ones? Plus, if there is one thing that Mike and I enjoy doing together is trying new restaurants and new foods.
My goal for this trip was to try New York City classic dishes, as well to explore the current culinary scene. We were only going to be there for six days, so obviously I wasn’t able to fully accomplish this. For example, I really wanted to try a traditional “red sauce restaurant” – I heard that Italian-American food in New York City just tastes different than elsewhere -, but I was unable to manage it. I also never made it to a speakeasy or got a black & white cookie. Still, I accomplished most of my goals – and blogged about it:
We had:
- New York style pizza (but not really) at John’s of Times Square.
- New York cheesecake at Junior’s
- A New York bagel from Pick A Bagel.
- A NYC hotdog from a hotdog cart
- A canoli from some place in Little Eataly. It was so good even Mike liked it.
- Halal food from a halal cart in front of our hotel.
- Knishes from Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery
- Empanadas at Empanada Mama and Cancun Deli
- The famous banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery
- Lox from Russ & Daughters.
- NYC’s award winning tap water
We got to dine at
- Katz’s Deli, the most famous Jewish deli in NYC
- Russian Samovar, a super romantic restaurant once co-owned by Mikhail Baryshnikov
- Daniel, the superb 2-Michelin star flagship restaurant by famed chef Daniel Boloud.
- Kochi, a Michelin starred Korean restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen.
- Tavern on the Green, the only restaurant in Central Park started as a sheep fold and has been featured in countless movies.
And we also:
- Enjoyed French croissants at L’Amie Pierre
- Had breakfast at La Grande Boucherie, a beautiful Art Nouveau restaurant.
- Hurried through a ridiculous milkshake at the Sugar Factory
- Had a less than stellar Thai meal at Dock Asian in Bushwick
- Had hit and miss Singaporean food at the Urban Hawker marketplace.
In all, this was all we could expect from New York City – and more!
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