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| Paul's picture from Top of the Rock |
Now that I am retired, I have a little more flexibility with my schedule. As a result, I wanted to do something I had only dreamed about doing before - celebrating my birthday in New York City. With the help of one current and a couple of former exchange students, I was able to do that a couple of weekends ago. Although we did many of the major must-dos for first time visitors (my exchange student) to the city, this post will center on the food highlights during the weekend.
The first food highlight was the pepperoni pizza from
Prince Street Pizza - pictured below. They are known for their squares of thick crust, fresh mozzarella, and lots of small, spicy pepperoni. There's no room to sit, so it's best to take out - since many have to wait for the pepperoni. When I arrived, the line was just inside the door, but the small room was packed. They were waiting for more pepperoni to come out of the oven, so when you ordered they gave you a number. The wait was only about 15 minutes and it was well worth it. It is really one of the only things I ate that I still think about.
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| Kenny Zhao and Paul eating their slice - not in the restaurant. |
Later that day, we met up with another former exchange student, Brian Han, and his sister, Sunny. They met us at
Carmine's in Times Square. They are known for their family style, Italian food. It was a great place for us to meet and visit. Does anyone know why Brian gave my a UCONN sweatshirt for my birthday?
After the show that night, we stopped by
Junior's Bakery for some cheesecake. I love their specialty cheesecakes that combine layers of cake and cheesecake. We tried several of the offerings. My favorite was the Red Velvet Cheesecake. In addition to a full service restaurant, if you just want cheesecake, they have two stand-alone bakeries on either side. There's some seating outside or you can take to go.
My birthday was that Saturday and I had two special meals that day. First, for lunch we went to Korea town and ate at a Korean Bar-B-Que restaurant,
Jongro BBQ. Since I was with two Koreans - they did not object and I wanted an education in eating Korean food. In fact, if you want to see pure joy - watch a Korean in America when they see or get to eat Korean food. Their food traditions are so different from ours that they really do miss the food from their home country.
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| Paul and Brian trying to decide what to order. |
Below is an example for the grill, meat, and accompaniments. After the meat is grilled, you wrap it up in a lettuce leaf with sauces and veggies. Then, as Brian demonstrated, you stuff the entire ball into your mouth. It was about the size of a softball. I tried but could not do it. I believe the purpose is to keep the juices in and get all of the flavors at once.
Surprisingly, my favorite dish was the Kimchi Pancake (pictured below). I was surprised, because I had only smelled Kimchi before and it smelled terrible. I also liked the Kimchi soup that we had. I guess I need to get over the smell and start enjoying Kimchi.
For my birthday dinner, I wanted to eat at one of the top-rated restaurants in New York,
Le Bernadin. A French restaurant that has three Michelin stars (highest rating) and is number 17 on the World's Top 50 restaurants list. Although very expensive, we chose the smallest and cheapest tasting menu. First, let me say the setting and the service were wonderful. They require a jacket for dinner, but this helps set the mood for a special occasion. It is the perfect special occasion restaurant. The attentive and personal service make you feel very special.
As far as the food, we did the four course tasting menu which included two appetizers, one entree and a dessert course. There were about 15 choices for appetizers and 8 for entrees. Almost everything on the menu was seafood.
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| First course: poached langoustines with truffles |
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| My entree was Japenese Wagu beef and Hawaiian Walu |
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| The dessert was call Black Forest and included variations on cherries and chocolate. |
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| This was the chocolate mousse cake that they brought to me for my birthday. |
There was another course - lobster - not sure what happened to that picture. I think I ate it before remembering to take a picture. Also included was an amuse-bouche at the beginning of the meal. This consisted of four small bites - including a very tasty tuna tartar and lobster with avocado cream. Every part of the meal was delicious. My only disappointment was the lack of bread service. I had read in reviews about the delicious fresh bread that was brought around during dinner service. Being a person that tries to avoid bread - except for special bread on special occasions - I had looked forward to this part of the meal. After getting my entree and still no bread, I asked the waiter about it. He said that a very usual thing had happened. The baker was caught in traffic and had not made it to the restaurant. We were at the first seating at 5:15. He apologized and said he would check with the chef to see what could be done. He came out a few minutes later with some focaccia bread and butter. Although not what was usually offered, it did help me get full. Also, after my dessert and my birthday dessert, they brought out a tray of small candies/desserts for each person. That was a little overkill - but a nice final touch. We probably should have gotten them to go. Overall, a very nice evening at a first class restaurant with great company.
My final food highlight was not as successful as I had hoped. It ended up being the one that was the most difficult to achieve. I wanted to take Paul to eat some soul food in Harlem. Looking on Yelp, I decided on
Amy Ruth's. Now don't get me wrong, it was very good, but being from the South and eating food like this all of my life - including some of the best in New Orleans - it was not worth the time and trouble it took. Part of the problem was getting to the location. The subway that went directly there was under construction - so running out of time - I decided we should take an Uber. That ended up costing about $15. Once we got there, there were lots of people waiting outside. It was one of those places where you put your name down and then wait. There was no indication of how long the wait would be, but being the optimist - and already having spend $15 to get there - I decided we should stick it out. Now this was the last thing we were doing before our flight on Sunday afternoon so we also had a time crunch. After waiting over an hour, they finally called my name. We quickly sat down and decided what to get. I ordered the fried chicken with macaroni and cheese and collard greens - see below. Paul ordered French Toast - so much for getting him to try some soul food in Harlem. LOL. Although I have had better fried chicken, the cornbread they served when we sat down was some of the best cornbread that I have ever eaten. Since Paul doesn't like cornbread, I was able to eat both large pieces. :)
After eating we raced to the airport to end this fantastic weekend. I did bring a bag of goodies home - cinnamon raisin bagel from
Toasties, a cinnamon roll from
Bouchon Bakery, and some pretzels I bought at a farmer's market. New York City is a wonderful food town. I'm glad I also live close to some great food because it is expensive to visit.
Thanks for reading and I hope you are having some culinary adventures of your own.
