NYC Noms: Day 1 and 2

Day 1:

On our first day in New York, we woke up slightly bleary-eyed but excited. We slept in our BFC penthouse suite with the windows open, and...well...I've never heard so many sirens, horns, cars cranking, engines running in my entire life.

Our first stop was the Brooklyn Bridge which offered some great views of downtown and Governor's Island where Britton spent his magical childhood. I got wacked a couple times by uber sweaty joggers, but luckily, I was too distracted by people-watching and trying not get hit by stray cyclists and rogue toddlers.

After that, we headed over to the GI (Governor's Island) ferry terminal to make the 2.5-min voyage over to the island. It was once a Coast Guard station where Britton and his family lived in suburban-bliss right next to Manhattan. Today it is a national park, and one of the best places I have ever seen for biking, jogging, and exploring historic buildings.

One fantastic thing about New York is that there is plenty of street food and the varieties are endless. (Being a health inspector, this would be a nightmare for me back in Gwinnett, but since I don't work here, I am 100% for street vendors.) They have indian, thai, italian, tex-mex, korean, pakistani, greek, turkish, iranian, venezuelan, brazilian, el salvadorean...you name it, you will find it on the streets here. It is the biz-omb.

Above is the curry chicken roti from Veronica's West Indian on GI.

Before heading over to the Film Forum to view Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder in "3 Dimensions," we watched some awesome street performer's in Washington Square with a live accompaniment. (A video of the grand finale is at the very very bottom.) For dinner, we ate NY style pizza with all the trimmings at John's Pizza in Greenwich Village which everyone besides me seems to just call "The Village." I am trying to be an undercover tourist, but it's not working so well.

The pizza was great - not too greasy and very fresh. Unfortunately, I do hate black olives and now, I've discovered recently, also hate anchovies. I feel self-disgust. I should not be writing about these awesome foods using the word "hate." I guess you can't love everything, and to give myself some credit, I probably ate more olives and anchovies than I've ever eaten before.

Day 2:

WE HAVE HIT THE MOTHERLOAD. After a gleeful 30 min wait in the lobby of Jing Fong Restaurant in chinatown, we headed up the escalator with Britton's sister to a land of red-colored wonder and delight. Dim Sum is loosely translated as "Heart's Delight" and that is exactly how I felt here. We immediately started ordering despite the fact that we hadn't gotten our paper bill yet. One of the servers came up to our table after we complained about having neither tea nor pay slip. He chuckled, smiled, and said "No bill? No pay! Ha ha!" I wasn't laughing. I know a little bit about Chinese people, and one thing I don't see a lot of is comp-ing a meal. Britton's sister whispered, "Oh we'll pay. One way or another."

Above is leftover (as in hadn't been consumed in the initial rush) sui mai (best I've ever had) as well as taro bird's nests (my favorite kind of dim sum.) The three of us easily scarfed down every morsel.

A photo above of Pearl River Mart, where I purchased some gifts for my family and where we huddled away from the rain. I highly recommend a stop at this store. It is just so much fun to peruse, even if you don't want to buy anything.

Shadow cat. A resident of BFC brownstone. She is so sweet except when she isn't...like most cats! I adore her and so does BFC.

The best meal I had in NY so far was not at a restaurant at all. BFC ex husband lives on the lower level of the brownstone and made an insane meal. I had chilled chardonnay, dutch and french cheeses, heirloom tomato salad with basil, new potatoes with thyme, and a pork tenderloin cooked medium rare (uh-oh inspector) pork with fennel, curry, cumin, chives, and brown sugar. OH MY GOOD GOD. It was fantastic. Lots of the ingredients for this meal came from their backyard herb garden as well as from their vacation home garden in PA. Nom nom nom.

More to come!