We went to New York for two days, but it felt like we were there for at least a week! This trip wasn’t really about the sight-seeing. Instead, it was about the people we wanted to meet and visit. Okay, and it was a little bit about the food. We took the train into the city and walked around practically EVERYWHERE because we were cheap and didn’t want to spend too much money on the subway, especially after we found out that they got rid of their one day fun pass! Of course it had to rain ALL day and that made us now weak-sauce Californians both catch some nasty colds, but it was fun and refreshing to visit our old stomping grounds again. Joe turned to me at one point and said, “I kind of miss this… the walking around.” Yeah, me too.
The first two stops were for Joe. He wanted to swing by Madison Square Garden to check out the “Linsanity.” Then we ventured into Grand Central Station to scope out the huge Apple store. If you haven’t seen it, you’ll be impressed. It takes up the whole second floor of the train station, and looks more like a museum or a library. I just stared at all the passengers standing around, waiting for their trains and secretly wished they would break out into a flash mob. If you don’t know what “Linsanity” or “flash mob” mean, you’re behind the times my friend. Get to googling!
Times Square was just a hop, skip, and jump away so we made it over there. Along the way, I pointed out all the fashion buildings I used to work at and all the places I used to grab my over-priced lunches.
Am I making this up or did the cast of “Glee” sing on these steps for one of the New York episodes? I can’t remember, but in any case, these bright red steps in the middle of Times Square are new to me, and they’re pretty cool. They also blocked off some of the streets to now make it only available to pedestrians.
After a few good pictures, I really wanted to go to Eataly, a huge new fine Italian market and eatery in Chelsea, which is the joint venture of my former boss, Lidia Bastianich, her son Joe Bastianich, and Mario Batali. It was so cool to see and I purchased a couple loaves of chocolate banana bread to give away.
One of the recipients of the chocolate banana bread was Kathy, in the middle. These are the ladies of Kokoliving, the online magazine I work with. Kathy is the Editor in Chief. They are all about Korean-American women doing their thing, and I’m happy to be involved. Kathy and I have exchanged many emails and talked on the phone a couple times, but this was our first face-to-face encounter. When we met, it was as if we’ve been friends for a long time, which wasn’t a surprise.
She treated all of us to a Korean dinner of seafood pancake, pork belly, and spicy rice cakes at Kunjip in K-Town. Every time I go to that busy small restaurant, I am amazed at how much they rush you in and out. They make you order before you sit down, and and as soon as the bill is paid, they start setting the table for the next people… yeah it’s rude and you feel frazzled while you’re eating, but the food is good and that’s the norm at that place.
The next day, Joe was on a mission. He really wanted to try a shake shack burger.
I already posted this picture on our facebook fan page because I couldn’t wait to share my excitement. We each ordered the shack stack which is a burger topped with a CHEESE STUFFED breaded and deep-fried portabella mushroom. You take one bite and it’s pure juicy, unctuous deliciousness. The burger alone is around $9.00, but surprisingly, it’s not as BIG as we thought it would be. But since it’s so fatty, it’s best that it’s not bigger. We ate it and immediately walked around some more.
We made it to Chelsea Market, otherwise known as the home of The Food Network. That’s where we chose to meet up with Robert from Artisan Snacks. Remember my Goggi Beef Jerky giveaway? Yeah, this is the man responsible for it. He drove from Connecticut to come meet with us in person. Robert and I had exchanged a few emails and Joe occasionally talks business over the phone with him, so we wanted to meet up and officially introduce ourselves. It was a short chat over coffee, but it was really nice to finally put a face with the name. Stay tuned for Robert’s exciting new product: dried green mango.
Have you heard about The High Line? It’s a new project the city has done to convert an old railroad track into something beautiful. It’s a park located on the west side. You climb these stairs and suddenly you’re in this urban park over looking the streets below.
It’s a stretch of wood, concrete, and architecture. There’s plenty of benches, lounge chairs, and tables so that busy New Yorkers can come by and eat their lunch in the Spring and Summer time. With all the trees around, I bet it would look gorgeous with their flowers in bloom.
They even have these step benches overlooking the street. Don’t worry. There’s glass paneling. Too bad it was drizzling there. We could’ve spent a longer time there, but we were wet and cold so we went off to eat dinner.
We met up with my long time friends, sisters Grace and Jessica. We’ve known one another since everyone was born. They had this GENIUS idea to do a food crawl, where you pop into several different eating spots within walking distance and buy just one thing… kinda like tapas. The first stop was at Porchetta for a pork sandwich. The next stop was at Luke’s Lobster for some lobster rolls.
The sweet garlicky, buttery lobster roll is pricey at about $17.00 a sandwich. It comes with a drink and chips and is worth every decadent bite. I love how it’s nothing but lobster, butter and bread. That’s the way it should be.
Yes you are reading the window correctly. It says Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. This is a tiny yet colorful place where ice cream makes you feel like you’ve died and gone to heaven. Apparently it started out as an ice cream truck and did so well that it became a shop.
This is the cone I shared with Joe… a vanilla cone with chocolate, crushed pretzels, and sea salt. DUH-LISH-US! Totally recommend, especially if you’re a salty-sweet fanatic like me.
Oh yeah and did I mention that Joe’s friends John and Heather decided to join us on the last leg of our crawl? Here’s the group shot, minus the photographer.
Food crawls are great, but what really got to me was visiting ground zero again. The last time we were there, they were just in the beginning stages of building this monument in memory of the victims of 9/11. This time, we had to order tickets in advance, go through security as if we were at an airport, and walk through the rain. But the rain was so fitting for this peaceful and glorious fountain.
We remember…
So with this last rainy day shot, I leave you for now. Fun, food, friends, memories and strength. That’s what this city means to me. Let’s hear it for New York!
