Our trip involved three key elements: eating, walking and resting. Here's the recap:
Jason was already in town for a business trip, so I met up with him on Friday after my first Amtrak Acela ride! It's much more comfortable and low-key than flying. I arrived at Penn Station next to Madison Square Garden and navigated my way via the subway to our hotel just south of Central Park.
Another first is that I ate "street food." Jason had a lunch meeting with clients, so I got a falafel pita from the street cart outside the hotel. It was very tasty. We have mostly hot dogs and a few burrito carts here in D.C., but I've never eaten at them.
Our first adventure in New York was a stroll through Central Park.
Friday's dinner was at Tom Colicchio's craftsteak. He is the head judge on Bravo's Top Chef. We met up with friends Danielle and Chad (formerly of KC, now of NYC). They're doing the same two-year program we are - only in our World Financial Center office. Everything at craftsteak was served on the side with the idea of sharing. The best appetizer was a melt-in-your mouth tuna tartare. The steaks were good and came with four sauces on the side for dipping - horseradish, chimichurra, cilantro-vinagrette and bearnaise. For dessert I had a strawberry shortcake "soup." It was a biscuit and a dollup of ice cream in a bowl that the waiter poured a thin strawberry puree over.Saturday we slept in before heading down to the World Trade Center site via the subway. We walked all around in Lower Manhattan (I may make a second post with some pictures soon) and then took the train back up to Midtown. We got off at Grand Central Station and walked through Bryant Park, Times Square and Rockefeller Center. After Times Square, I was so exhausted that I stopped taking photos (and it started raining right after my video).
Dinner on Saturday night was at the China Grill - again, with dishes designed to share. We had a fabulous mixed green salad with tempura goat cheese. But, what's not to love about warm, fried cheese?! Another highlight was the trio of creme brulee - vanilla (the best), ginger, and chocolate-chai.
Sunday was another morning to sleep in as we battled a carb coma from the day before. Our first appointment of the day was with Bobby Flay at Mesa Grill for brunch. Unfortunately, Bobby wasn't around, but his team served up an excellent spicy scrambled eggs for me (with jalapenos, green onions, and more goat cheese) and a lovely mahi-mahi for Jason. Afterwards, we really needed some exercise, so we started the walk back uptown. More than an hour later (although we made several stops to watch the Pride Parade down Fifth Avenue), we had made it from 15th Street to 54th Street - and just in time! Another downpour blew in about 10 minutes after we got to our hotel. We had considered a trip back up to Central Park for a museum, but the storm discouraged us and we watched golf on TV instead.
Our last supper - yet another family-style meal - was at Carmine's in Times Square. This time it was an Italian feast with enough salad and pasta for a family of 8. We couldn't decide on what to order, so we got the Four Pasta Special: ravioli with pesto sauce, ziti bolognese, manicotti and vegetable lasagna. We hated for so much food to go to waste, but we were headed home and couldn't take any leftovers.
Now that we're home, we're having salads for the rest of the week!
