So much FOOD so little time……..

I LOVE NYC!!!

Our primary goal was to take in as much food as humanly possible, in three days, as well as some sporting events and a site or two.

Are you ready?

Here goes. I will give you the unedited, and quick low down on ALL the places we ate, and MOST of the sites we took in. Did you take your TUMS? Don’t say I didn’t warn you!!!

Bagels had to be our first official foodie stop. Sunday morning we walked a few blocks(10 or 12) to this AMAZING bagel spot. Ess-a-Bagel.

The bagels here are perfection. Crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. HEAVENLY…. It’s not the typical place you would find tourists taking pictures of their bagels. ie. Me. We each had an everything bagel that we watched grandpa making in the cozy baking area behind the bagel bin. Noah had his plain. I had to try the olive cream cheese. It was a beautiful thing. We took a plain bagel to go. Just in case we were held hostage somewhere or something, you never know….

We did not eat flowers. But you know how I LOVE flowers. They are everywhere in the city in abundance. If I were a New Yorker I would have a flat full of flowers and my tummy full at all times.

Next stop… the same morning was Doughnut Plant. We walked, so we kinda walked off our bagels….that’s what I was telling myself. We arrived before 9am on Sunday morning. We got in just ahead of the masses. I had been here before. I knew it was worth going again. I once told Kenny that it was just a short walk to “this donut place”….Er..Umm, we ended up walking about 50 blocks!!! OOps.

What are the chances that the Tigers would open up the season with the Yankees, while we were there. We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and then high tailed it via the subway up to the Bronx to catch the last half of the game. We had some french fries and a Pop, I don’t think New Yorkers say Pop. I recieved a concerning look or two.

Tigers 10/Yankees 7 WHOOhooo!

Another great recommendations by Justin at Just Cook NYC, Keste‘ Pizza & Vino. This little place was on Bleeker St in Greenwich Village. It was fantastic. We split the Rustica Salad and the Prosciutto and Parme pizza.

The next morning my boy was hungry for a “real” breakfast. So I found this place on Yelp.

Johny’s Grill and Luncheonette, would never have gotten a second glance from me if it hadn’t garnered 4 1/2 stars on Yelp.

This place was a steady stream of regulars all picking up their bagel sandwiches to go, and exchanging lots of eavesdropping worthy conversation. There is only counter seats, it’s great, you can sit and watch all the action. I was so fascinated by the joint that I forgot to get any insider pictures. We had pancakes and bacon, but if I went again I would get one of their Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches.

Monday, was our Food and Cultural walking tour through Greenwich Village. I’ve done a food tour the last two times I’ve visited and would highly recommend doing it. Each time I’ve used the Foods of New York Tours, it is money well spent! It’s a great way to get the history of a neighborhood and get the scoop on all the best places to eat and their background.

First stop was a nice hot cup of Lobster Bisque at Lobster Place-Seafood Market. The bisque was incredible but what I really wanted was some of the Sushi that they were making behind the counter.

We didn’t actually eat in Amy’s Bread, but we had her bread with the olive oil and other delicious accompaniments at O &Co. I purchased myself a souvenir from this heavenly little shop, I had them ship it, silly airlines won’t let you transport jugs of olive oil on the plane these days. Drat. I am waiting patiently for my package to arrive. I bought this and this.

Next stop Soy and Sake. We were able to have a seat and enjoy a generous sampling from this vegetarian restaurant.

It is a cultural walking tour so we were guided through the Village and given many interesting facts. This is just a little spot that I decided when I grow up I’m gonna live here.

More Pizza. Noah was in heaven. This time it was from Bleeker Street Pizza. It was very different from Joe’s, but also good. Crust was thicker and the sauce was more like a marinara than a fresh tomato. It apparently was voted Best Pizza by the Food Network. It’s easy to find right on the corner of Bleeker and 7th.

Rocco’s Pasticceria. Here we sampled, filled to order, cannoli’s. They were the perfect treat to end our tour.

Oh whoops! I missed a few stops. I’m getting ahead of myself, and a little out of order. I hope you will forgive me. After we left the tour we headed to Grom because we couldn’t leave the Village with out partaking in this amazing gelato. Which was amazing….but we found one better.

And I forgot to tell ya, we made a stop at Murray’s Cheese Shop. For a little cheese sampling and some luverly olives. I have just one thing to say. Buh-bye Kenny….Murray will you marry me???!!!

Look at that Blue Cheese selection. I started singing “heaven I’m in heaven….”. My son ditched me.

Then I saw this and I started singing again. He told me if I didn’t get a grip he was gonna call dad. Ok, I get it. I took a deep breath and regained my composure. It was not easy. The things we do for our kids.

We headed right over to Chelsea Market, home of the Food Network, and lots of wonderful food shops and Anthropologie. Basically a very good place to go.

Here we(or should I say I) felt the need to sample milk from RonnyBrook Farms...which by the way is the most fabulous milk on the planet, and a brownie from Fat Witch Bakery.

This completely pushed my son over the edge. He actually put his head down on the table and said STOP, I feel sick. I know. Call in child protective services on me…..I’m out of control sometimes, especially when my hubby isn’t around to reign me in.

So I left my child to chill at a table and people watch while I did a little shopping. Jacque Torres chocolate bunnies anyone?

It took a few hours and alot of walking, but eventually he was hungry again, and dyeing to try this quirky place right around the corner from our hotel. Perfect! My dogs were tired, so we got take out and took it up to our room. BrGr was actually pretty tasty. The sweet potato fries were worth going back for. If you had to go to a fast food type burger place while in NYC, I would say this is the place to go. BrGr…we couldn’t stop saying it BrrrGrrrr got a thumbs up!

Magnolia Bakery. I heard about this “to die for” cupcake bakery from my friend Dee a few years back. I have the cookbook. I really wanted to try their cupcakes…well what do ya know, we happened to walk right past their Bleeker St. store, stumbled right on it. It was meant to be….

Look at the window, full of gorgeous, fluffy cakes, and cupcakes. It’s so fun. You grab a box and fill it yourself.

I chose the flavor of the month, Lemon and the Red Velvet. Did I mention we stumbled on Magnolia after our food tour on the way to Chelsea Market? I carried these two cuppy cakes all afternoon. They made the perfect dessert after our BrrGrrs.

We slept off our food coma and headed out the next day to take in more NYC sites. We ended up on the top of the Empire State Building. The weather was cold and rainy, but I actually think this picture is kind of interesting. We were right up in the cloud line. It really looks like Gotham from this perspective.

We decided to buy tickets for the ‘hop on hop off’ buses. I am plus minus on this guided tour bus thing. If the weather had cooperated with our plans of walking we would have stuck to the streets but, I thought this way we would be able to see alot, while having a tour guide give us facts about the city, and keep out of the rain. We took the blue buses, BUT the Red busses seemed to be more abundant when it was time to hop on and off. There were two reds to our blue….of course.

We hopped off at Houston St to get ourselves some lunch at the FAMOUS Katz Deli. A scene from one of my favorite movies evah was shot here.

Anyone know what movie I’m talking about?

The rain let up so we decided to walk. We headed right to the Pickle Guys. We had seen these guys on the Food Network and my son is a pickle freak so we had to have a pickle.

This place was amazing. There was all sorts of picked deliciousness barreled up in this little shop. We controlled ourselves and only bought one dill pickle. It was the best dam dill pickle I’ve ever had….don’t tell my Grandma that!

We had lots of places to eat. We knew we were not going to be able to get in Justin’s whole list, but we were going to try our darndest! Next stop was Pommes Frites. I had also seen this place on Food Network. Plus, I always am first in line for some REAL european “french fries” with mayo.

Our last meal. We decided to have a nice sit down dinner. We decided to go with a cuisine that we had never had. Cuban. We went back to Greenwich Village to Little Havana.

It was perfect. My son loves black beans and rice. So it scored there and the flank steak that he ordered was melt in your mouth. I ordered the above, some sort of pork….my fortysomething noggin can’t remember what I ordered, but I do know it was exceptional. As was the service. And it didn’t break the pocket book!

One fun note: Noah had to use the Mens Room, he had to walk through the kitchen to get to it. He said it was like someone’s little apartment kitchen, just one cook, and one stove. He didn’t tell me this until later, or I would have checked it out for myself.

Well of course, we had a sweet tooth after our Cuban dinner. Little Havana had dessert but we needed to walk a bit. We ended up at Arte Del Gelato. THIS IS the BEST gelato I have ever had. It was perfect on so many levels. I had the Fresh Strawberry and the Marscapone. My son had the Peanut Butter and the Chocolate. The Peanut Butter tasted just like this peanut butter frosting I make….and if I do say so myself it’s scrumptious.

We had one morning left before we had to high tail it back to mo-town. We still had not gone to the 9/11 site or Wall Street.

Who woulda thunk that we would stumble upon Food Truck heaven on Wall Street. I guess those boys need to eat down there.

They were every where. I had to pinch myself!! We decided to partake of a tasty treat from Wafels & Dinges. They had a throw down with Bobby Flay and won. Rightfully so. I ordered the de Bacon Syrup Wafel, Noah had a Brussels Wafel. They both ROCKED!

I want a Food Truck. I am obsessing since I returned home about it. If I had a food truck what kinda of food would it be? Would anyone hunt me down. Would Bobby Flay want to throw me down. Oh Golly!

S’MAC was another place Justin recommended, but I had seen on T.V. and obsessed over. We made it our last hurrah! All that they serve is mac-n-cheese. And this ain’t no Kraft. This is serious macaroni.

We ordered three nosh sized portions (small), All-American, Buffalo Chicken (this one is great if you are a Buffalo Wing fan, it’s got a kick to it!), and the Alpine (with gruyere and slab bacon, I couldn’t pass up the bacon).

It was the perfect way to end our eating frenzy. Warm, comforting, oohey~gooey Mac-n-Cheese.

A few other highlights from our trip:

They now have a store front open that you can go into and view what the Memorial is going to look like. See video of the days surrounding 9/11. It brought back alot of memories. Alot of things I had forgotten. Heart wrenching. It was good to show Noah he was only in pre-school at the time, too little to remember.

The T-shirt my son wanted to buy his dad as a souvenir, but I talked him down from….cause I knew Kenny would think it was funny, but would never wear…now my father on the other hand would wear this everyday.