Foodie Trip Through NYC

This will be an extremely long entry.. Feel free to read if you're interested in my travels, but also feel free to just look at the pictures :)

So I recently returned from spending quite a bit of time in NYC. I went for work, but whenever I had a little bit of free time, I wandered out to see what I could see. Being who I am, the majority of these were food. I wanted to explore the new food trends, go to restaurants that I'd heard a lot about, and do research on pizza (duh!).

I ended up walking through many different areas of New York and learning about their food.. This blog post will be a journey through my eating/walking tour of NYC.

I began on the Upper West side. I wanted to see Zabars, H&H Bagels, Strawberry Fields, and the Carnegie Deli.

1st Stop- Zabars. A local gourmet food shop that's been around for years, this store has so many options crammed in to a little corner shop. So many selections of honey, jam, jelly, fish, crackers, bakery goods, knishes, cheese, cured meats, and the list goes on and on. Check out their cheese counter! I have never seen so many cheeses in my life.

Look at all of the different types of honey!! Who knew there were so many kinds?

One thing that shocked me was how small the store was.. I sort of expected Zabar's to be like the size of the Macy's in NYC. Tons and tons of floors of specialty foods, cooking classes, kitchen goods, etc, but it was very far from that. The store was very small and was hard to get around. I did buy a couple of very interesting things, and tried a lot of samples.

Right next to Zabar's is H&H bagels. Anytime you see people on TV with a bag of bagels, they're generally from H&H. They've been around for years, and have a special process for making their bagels. I didn't try one, but I had some pretty darn good bagels in New York so I figured I made up for it.

See Zabar's in the background?

Stop 2- Strawberry Fields

In all of the times I'd been to NYC before (~25), I'd never been to Strawberry Fields. This isn't a food stop (but it does have Strawberry in the name, so I guess that counts :) ), but it's a memorial to John Lennon, right next to the Dakota where he was shot. Strawberry Fields is an area of Central Park specifically dedicated to him, and is supposed to be a quiet area for relaxation- but it was far from that with all of the tourists. Here is the famous memorial:

Here is a picture of the entrance to The Dakota where John Lennon was shot

After The Dakota, it was on to my next stop.

Stop 3- The Carnegie Deli

The Carnegie Deli and Katz's are probably the two most famous delis in NYC. Katz's was a little less touristy for a long time, so a lot of locals thought it was much better. Usually once somewhere becomes really touristy, the quality of the products fails. Carnegie Deli has been touristy for quite some time, but they still maintain a high quality of food. The big allure about this deli is the size of their sandwiches. Some are stacked with a mountain of meat almost a foot high! I also found out what makes their special cheesecake soooo famous- instead of using graham cracker crumbs for the crust, they line their pans with COOKIE DOUGH! OMG!

Here's a picture of the deli

And in the front of the restaurant is a glass case displaying their famous cheesecakes. YUM

I went into the Deli, and saw customers inhaling BLT sandwiches that were without the L and T. 7 inches of bacon on a sandwich?! Oh my God... This place was packed, and had any sandwich you could think of on the menu. They also had much more than sandwiches- lots of gourmet food.

I got to looking at the pictures of celebrities on the wall who'd endorsed the restaurant, and who did I find but the famous..

Jerry Jones! HAHAHA Had to take this picture for Bobby because he hates him!

The next stop on my list is a wonderful French restaurant with an amazing patio. It was so beautiful outside that I HAD to sit on a patio.

Stop 4: Maison @ 54th and 7th

Ever since I had been working on interesting breakfast items at work, I'd been wanting to eat a croque monsieur. This is a ham and cheese sandwich grilled with melted mornay or regular cheese melted on top. So, I sat down to a dinner of a croque monsieur and a bellini. It was fabulous.. ahhh, how I love French brasseries!

Here's the patio:

At this point, I left NYC and went to Ohio for the weekend. The next week, I flew back to NY for work, and had one day of exploring the city.

The next stop on my tour of food:

Stop 5: Ristorante Il Cantinori on 10th st

A restaurant in SOHO, this restaurant is very deceiving. It looks like a little tiny quaint restaurant from the front, but once you get in, the restaurant goes alllll the way back, and also has a room in the basement. This is the restaurant from Sex and the City when no one shows up for Carrie's birthday. The restaurant has always been wonderful, but filming SATC there made it that much more popular .

I went around 930pm after a long day of work. I walked in alone in jeans with a Pizza Hut laptop bag and my purse. Everyone else was in dresses and business suits and all dressed up, so I definitely felt out of place. But, I sat down and ordered a glass of wine. It was restaurant week in NY, so I could have chosen from a fixed price menu and gotten 3 courses, or order off of their normal menu. I wasn't incredibly hungry, so I didn't want 3 courses. I ordered off of the regular menu, and got whole wheat gnocchi. The meal came out about 15 minutes later, and it was SO GOOD. The perfect blend of sweet and fresh in the sauce, with just the right amount of fresh basil. The gnocchi were, of course, homemade, and it had freshly grated parmesan on it. It was just perfect with a glass of red. Great meal! Afterwards, I was so incredibly full that I walked 25 blocks back to the hotel!

Here's the restaurant from the street

The next morning was Friday, and I didn't have to work, so I explored the city.

It started with a visit to The Today Show with my Aunt Marianne. On Fridays in the summer, they have concerts outdoors, and The All American Rejects were playing, so we went to watch. We met at Dean and Deluca right next door for breakfast and coffee.

Stop 6: Dean and Deluca Gourmet Foods

As purveyors of fine wine, food, and kitchenware, I always stop here when I'm near Rockefeller Center. They have GREAT pastries and pretty decent coffee, so it ended up being the perfect spot for breakfast. My aunt and I went in and ordered coffee and pastries. We also ended up being able to score a great view of the Today Show. Here's a picture of the hosts:

Al Roker, the other woman?, and Matt Lauer

While I was in line, I snapped a couple shots of the pastries and food in there, as well as the racks of food before I got yelled at for taking pictures. Get a look at these quiches!!

Check out my scone I got. It was cranberry orange, and tasted so pure- like only a couple of ingredients: sugar, butter, cranberries, orange peel, and flour. It was heaven, and the best I'd ever had, next to the ham, gruyere, and chive one I had at the CIA.

For the rest of that day, I headed south to Chinatown, and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Because I was so full from breakfast, I didn't stop to eat anything in Chinatown. However, there are many interesting things there to write about- on every corner is a fresh fruit stand, where the product is SO cheap. Many a time down there I had gotten a pound or two of fresh Ranier cherries for $2.50 and munched on them while walking around downtown. They have great deals on food in Chinatown- you've just got to find a reputable place. I saw Dragonfruit for the first time at one of the produce stands, and learned how to eat it. You peel it like a banana. Here's what it looks like:

There are all kinds of shops in Chinatown that serve Peking Duck. However, the way they display their food is pretty weird, albeit ingenious. They display it through a window on the street, and it looks so weird that it makes you come look at it and go into the store. Here's the window with allll kinds of meat (some of them weird!).

After Chinatown, I walked down to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk across. I knew at the other side of the bridge was an ice cream shop, Grimaldi's, and Jacques Torres chocolate, so I'd be able to have a treat on the other side. I had to go to Brooklyn to check out Fried Pizza for work, but more about that will come later.

Stop 7: Jacques Torres Chocolate

Jacques Torres is known for having spicy chocolate. He puts chiles and all sorts of heat into chocolate. Now, I'm not one for heat, but I definitely am one for chocolate! So I went in and checked it out.

Look at this spread!

So, I got a Key Lime Ganache chocolate called a Lovebug, and a Rose Champagne chocolate. Both were SO GOOD. I heard they had amazing hot chocolate, but because it was 89 degrees I skipped that.

On to the real reason I walked to Brooklyn:

Stop # 8: The Chip Shop Brooklyn

I'd seen The Chip Shop on The Food Network multiple times. They're known for frying anything and everything- you can bring anything in, and they'll fry it! It's a British pub, best known for their fish and chips, but because they have only fryers, they started frying other crazy things. I'd seen them fry pizza on tv, so I had to go try it and see how they did it!

Here's the food :

It was so well done. It tasted just like pizza, except a little more crunchy. It tasted SO good.. But, because it was SO bad for me, I only took a couple of bites and just studied the batter :) After lunch at The Chip Shop, my feet hurt from walking, and I was so tired, so I quit for the day.

The next day was Saturday, and I had tickets to the Yankees vs. Tigers game at the new yankee stadium. My friend Shannon had told me that they had THE BEST FOOD of all stadiums, but boy was she right. They had Mo's Southwest Grill, Johnny Rockets, Nathan's Hotdogs, Famiglia Pizza, and a lot of other chains. They even had a Hard Rock Cafe. With all of these choices, I still went with the All-American favorite- a good ole hot dog.

Check out this packaging for the (all beef) hot dog!

The Yankees won, the hot dog was great, and it was a wonderful day overall.

After this trip, I had visited pretty much everywhere I've ever wanted to visit in NYC. I'm sure in the next couple months more hot spots will pop up that I'll need to visit, but for now, I'm finished.

If you made it to the end of this blog, I commend you. It's taken quite some time to write. Until the next one, keep it tasty!