Day #10- Friday

Friday morning we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the local coffee shop, brought it back to the apartment to eat, and worked for a few hours.

Going on right now in NYC is Restaurant Week, where a lot of high end restaurants lower their prices for a pre-fix lunch or dinner. We had made lunch reservations at a Danny Meyer restaurant called Tabla, which serves gourmet Indian cuisine. At 2:00, we sat down to have this:

We each chose to do the pre-fix course, but chose different starters and desserts. To start, I had the chicken terrine (which is a pate of chicken, served cold), and Scott had the cucumber yogurt soup (also served cold). We both agreed that mine was the better choice. His soup was delicious, but extremely rich… too rich for a whole bowl of it. We had the same entrée, which was a chicken pasta. Oh. My. Goodness. This was phenomenal! The pasta was handmade, light, chewy, and perfect. The chicken was expertly cooked, moist, and juicy (there’s nothing worse than dry, overcooked chicken- yuck!) From what we could discern, the broth had coconut milk, parsley, coriander, cumin, mustard seed, and caraway seed. This flavor profile is distinctly Indian, very light yet rich and extremely flavorful. This dish was in one word, amazing. We could both eat this every day.

For dessert, Scott chose the semi-fredo, and I had the lime cheesecake. Semi-fredo is an Italian word meaning half frozen. His dessert was like a semi frozen pudding, not too sweet, but with a nice light texture. It was topped with candied apricots, nuts, lavender, and a drizzle of honey. Very tasty!

My lime cheesecake was the definition of what a cheesecake should be- fluffy, light, airy, creamy…basically a little piece of lime flavored heaven. It was accompanied with pieces of candied lemon and topped with blackberry compote.

Each of our pre-fix courses cost $24.07; a total bargain for 3 course decadent gourmet food. I love restaurant week!

After that satisfying meal, we walked over to Macy’s. This Macy’s is HUGE; it’s literally the whole city block in length. If you can’t find it here, it doesn’t exist. We spent several hours in the womens shoe department (Scott entertained himself with magazines). I didn’t mean to take so long, but there are 2 floors completely full of shoes, and that takes a long, long time to look through! After Macy’s, we walked home for a much needed break.

After a rest, we changed clothes, and went out for a quick, light dinner of sushi at Tomoe, which has reviews of being the best sushi restaurant in town.

I’ll have to say, it was definitely authentic. You know it’s the real deal when 75% of the diners in the restaurant are Asian, and the wait staff barely speaks English.There were none of those fancy American frou-frou rolls here… this was straight up raw fish, and extremely generous portions of it.

While it was hands down some of the freshest sushi we’ve ever eaten, we still prefer Blue Ribbon Sushi to this place. We haven’t eaten at Blue Ribbon yet this trip, but definitely plan on going. I want a little frou-frou to my sushi. I enjoy the raw sashimi, but I also want a couple of fancy, artsy rolls, with wasabi mayo on top, and maybe lit on fire. I guess I’m just too American for the real deal.

For the evening, we had bought tickets online to see a comedy show at Carolines. The comedian was Tom Papa, who is currently hosting that show “The Marriage Ref”. He was absolutely hilarious, and we had a great time, laughing until we cried.

We had read that a DJ we really like was spinning at Pacha, so we decided to go check him out. There is almost no house or trance music scene in Louisville, so we didn’t want to miss out on a rare opportunity to hear the music we love. Pacha is a huge club with 4 floors of awesome house and trance music. Matt Darey was who we went to see, so we went up to the 3^rd floor to look down onto the 2^nd floor where he was spinning.

He was so good, the music was amazing. While the music was great, we were definitely some of the oldest people in there, as this club is 19 and over to get in. Nothing makes you feel old like hanging out around a bunch of 20 year olds. It was fun, but we have definitely had our fill of going out- we're just too old! We got home around 3:30, exhausted, with extremely sore feet from standing in 4 inch heels all night (me, not Scott) haha :-)

Nonetheless, it was a fun night out on the town!

Day #9- Thursday

After the huge, carb filled, fattening (but oh so decadent) dinner from the night before, we should have just skipped breakfast on Thursday. But of course we didn't. We justified eating again in that we had to walk 30 minutes to get to our destination. We wanted to go to a place we had read about, called Russ and Daughters. They specialize in smoked fish, caviar, and specialty foods. Since we love fish, we wanted to give it a try. I got smoked tuna, on a wheat bagel with dill and horseradish cream cheese, and wasabi salmon roe (this means fish eggs, for those of you who have never had it). Sounds kind of gross, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't! It was really good!

Scott got a poppy seed bagel with salmon and cream cheese. He said his bagel was really dry, so he didn't like it that much. I also got an Egg Cream, mainly because I'd never had one, and have seen Rachael Ray drink one on her Tasty Travels show and said she loved it. Basically, it's just milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer. It's kind of like a milkshake, but a much thinner consistency, and with just a hint of effervescence from the seltzer. It was good, even Scott liked it!

After our yummy breakfast, we walked around the Lower East Side for a while and checked out the neighborhood. This is historically a Jewish community, so we saw more smoked fish restaurants, and a lot of discount shops ran by men wearing the traditional Orthodox Jewish robes and hats, sportin the hair do's with the little curls on the sides. NYC is extremely diverse- it's cool to see how different people are, right here in the USA.

We then walked over to SOHO and walked around, took in the sights. This neighborhood is full of young, trendy fashionistas in designer labels. Expensive designer stores and gourmet restaurants are common in this area. So of course we only window shopped here. SOHO borders Greenwich Village (where our apartment is), so after a long morning of wandering around, we ended back up in the Village.

We decided that since it was such a beautiful day, it would be nice to have a picnic in Central Park. So, we went to Murray's Cheese Shop to get some different cheeses, olives, and bread. We also stopped in a wine store to get a bottle of white wine. This was a neat little place-they have miniature trains on tracks set up around the whole store! It was so cute!

They had different scenes along the tracks- this was a train running across a miniature Golden Gate Bridge, and another scene had little trees that were lit up, and grapes hanging along the track with a sign that said Napa Valley. You all know how I love little miniature villages; this one ranked right up there, it was just too cute!

After our picnic supplies, we went back to the apartment to pack our picnic basket and the towels we brought here just for the occasion. We took the subway uptown to the park, and went to this huge grassy area called the "Sheep's Meadow". Here are some pictures from our picnic:

It's nice that in the heart of this huge, noisy, busy city, there is a quiet and peaceful place to relax. We decided to walk through Times Square on our way back. So much for peaceful and relaxing- this place is INSANE! Tourist City! It is stressful just walking through there, it is so crowded and just jam packed with people. Even amongst all the madness, this really is a beautiful area, with all the buildings lit up. It literally is so bright that it looks like the middle of the afternoon, any time of the day.

After being bumped, prodded, and pushed through Times Square, we hopped on the subway back to our apartment.

We had dinner reservations that night for a place called Minetta Tavern. This is another restaurant where you have to either know someone or be someone to get reservations. As we didn’t fit into either of those categories, there are 2 times of the day the normal folk can get a reservation, either 5:30 or 10:30. Since we always eat late, 10:30 was the perfect time for us. We got dressed up in some of our new clothes we had bought this week, and walked on over to the restaurant.

We waited in the bar area for about 30 minutes before we were sat at a table. As we were standing there, Scott mentioned that this is another restaurant that celebrities often visit. So at that point, I was on high alert to try to spot one. Right about that time, he whispered to me, “Don’t look now, but I think that ‘s Brad Pitt standing right behind you.” I about passed out from excitement as I nonchalantly turned around to look. Sadly, it was not Brad Pitt, but he could have passed for his stunt double. This guy really did look like him, so much though that we looked at him for a good 20 minutes before deciding that no, this was definitely not him.

As we sat down at our table, and looked over the menu, I looked around the restaurant at the other patrons. And there, about 4 tables over from us, sitting at a table facing me, was an actual CELEBRITY! It was Lionel Richie, right there! He was not dancing on the ceiling, but eating dinner with some younger women and another guy. (That’s a reference to one of his hits, people, just in case you’ve never heard his music). Anyway, even though it wasn’t Brad Pitt status, I was still thrilled to have seen an actual, real life celebrity, one whom I actually recently watched on E True Hollywood story.

After that little thrill, I then decided to take a look at the menu. This restaurant is known for their burgers, and is the main reason Scott wanted to come here. If you haven’t noticed by now from my other posts, he almost always orders a burger. He told me that he is on a mission to find the best burger in the city, so he usually gets one wherever we go. Minetta Tavern is known for their Black Label Burger, which is a special Pat LaFrieida custom blend of different cuts of meat, and he ONLY allows Minetta Tavern to have this blend. (Pat LaFrieda is a well known butcher here in NYC, and sells custom blends of meats to a lot of the high end restaurantuers. He created the Shake Shack blend for Danny Meyer, for example, and only makes that custom blend for him).

I am not as into burgers as Scott, so I got the Duck. My dish was good, but Scott said that his burger almost won the award for the best burger in town, still coming in 2^nd to the Shake Shack Burger, which is again, King of All Burgers. After reading my blog, if any of you come to NYC and don’t get a Shack Burger, you should be run out of town by the Pace Picante cowboys.(New York City!) It is literally a crying shame to come here and NOT get a Shake Shack Burger. I’m really not even that into burgers, and I literally crave these. Anyway, I’ll get off my Shake Shack high horse, and finish up this post with some pictures. I didn’t take any pictures in the restaurant of our food, as it was dimly lit and a flash would certainly be frowned upon, but I did sneak a picture of Lionel Richie with my phone! See, here he is:

Ok, you can't really make him out, but I promise he is there, against that back wall! Oh well.

Day #8- Wednesday

Today was a day of errands. We walked around town, and bought some household items that we needed. Nothing makes you feel like you actually live in the place you're vacationing like buying a 4 pack of toilet paper :-)

We had lunch at this great little Thai place called Galanga. One of the NYC books we have listed that this place had a lunch special, so we went to check it out. You could get an entree and a soup or salad for $7.50, which is great for New York prices. We both got the same thing, a noodle bowl with vegetables, except Scott added chicken to his and I added beef.

I also had this drink, which was sake, iced tea, mint, and lime.. how beautiful is this?!

After lunch (which was spicy, noodley, chewy goodness, by the way), we decided to do a little bit more shopping. We already had a big shopping day on Tuesday, but Scott decided that he wanted to look for a few more things, so we went back to Loehman's and Century 21. We spent several hours shopping, and ended up buying a few more things.

We had a big night planned out for that evening. A friend of a friend of ours works at this restaurant a couple blocks from our apartment. It's called The Waverly Inn, and it is a very exclusive place. They don't accept reservations, the only way you can eat there is to know someone who can put you on the list. Luckily, we had ran into this friend of a friend the weekend before we left for NYC, so they arranged the details to put us in contact with the guy who worked at the Waverly Inn. He told us that Wednesday and Thursday nights are the best time to come, as there are usually celebrities who dine here. So of course we wanted to make sure to be there during that time in hopes to see a celeb!

Sadly, we did not see any celebrities... well, none that we recognized anyway. There was huge, tall man that was seated close by who definitely looked like he could be a pro basketball player. But being the non-sportsy people that we are, we had no clue who he could be. At all of the tables around us, these did not look like your average, everyday people- these were all beautiful, fabulous looking people- any one of them could have been a B or C list celebrity that we just didn't recognize. This place had an understated elegance about it, it was definitely swanky, but in an unassuming way. The food and the service were both outstanding.

The menu listed "no photography allowed in the restaurant" (that just shows how many celebrities must dine here reguarly!) so I couldn't take pictures of our food. For starters, we shared the truffle macaroni and cheese, which had quarter sized truffles shaved ALL over it- I can never eat macaroni and cheese again any other way- this was THE BEST EVER! Seriously, if I had to choose my last meal on earth, this would be it. Unbelievably good. Scott had the burger, and I had the chicken pot pie. Both dishes were outstanding.. this was comfort food elevated to a new level. Even though we did not see any celebs, we were not disappointed. We had a wonderful meal, walked the 2 blocks home, and went to bed.

Day #7- Tuesday

Today didn't start off quite so fabulous. Scott and I stayed in the apartment and worked until almost 4:00 today...BOO! But, I did make a sale, so that was nice.

We did take a 30 minute break around 11:00 to go to Magnolia Bakery, which was made a favorite tourist destination due to the exposure that this quaint little bakery got from being on an episode of Sex and the City. Today makes the second time we've been to this bakery (we came here last summer as well), and both times it was jam packed with people. We each got a cup of coffee, Scott got a blueberry fruit cobbler, and I had a flourless chocolate cake. These were both bite sized pieces of deliciousness! Aside from that 30 minute venture out, we were inside most of the work day :-(

At 4:00, we realized that we were starving, so decided to get out and enjoy the day. We walked to Gray's Papaya, which is an all beef hot dog joint. They also serve Papaya drinks, which are papaya fruit shakes (kind of like a milkshake, minus the ice cream), and banana daiquiris. We each got a dog and shared a drink, and it was all delicious! Especially because you can get your dog topped with sauerkraut, which I absolutely LOVE!

This says Gray's Papaya, not Ray's Papa. I couldn't get a good shot of this as we were so close to the building! :-)

After our satisfying $6 lunch, we walked down to Loehmann's department store to do some shopping. After a few good buys there, we then caught a subway to Century 21. This is a discount designer store, and we totally racked up! Scott got a bunch of shirts and ties, and I got 7 dresses for $150! We got a lot of cool stuff, and had a great time getting some stylish discount designer outfits. Here are some picts of our buys:

This is the same dress, I liked it so much I got it in black and pink!

Scott got some good ties, all designer (Valentino and Yves St Laurent) ranging from $25-$43!

This place is great for some good deals! I'm sure we will be visiting here once or twice more before our trip is over.

After shopping, we were starving, so came back to the apartment to decide where to go eat. We looked through a few of our books and some online menus, and decided on this place called Home

To start with, we had the Maytag Blue Cheese Fondue. After our fondue at Artisinal the other night, I swore I'd never try fondue again- but of course when I saw it was Maytag Blue Cheese (one of my favorites!) I had to give it a try. Boy, was I glad I did, because it was phenomenal!

For our entrees, Scott had the burger, which was a combo of short rib, chuck, and lamb, topped with a duck confit, and sundried tomato-bacon spread (which Scott had them leave off because of the bacon). This was served with thyme gouda fries and homemade ketchup- OH MY GOODNESS! This was freakin delicious!

I had the halibut, which was pan seared, and sitting on top of kale greens, and came with root vegetable cake (looked like a crab cake, even had same consistency)- this was off the chart delicious as well.

I couldn't get any pictures as we sat outside, and the only lighting were tiny lights strung around the courtyard, and the candle in a jar on our table. As we were sitting there enjoying our amazing food, basking in the glow of NYC, and talking about how wonderful NYC is to have quaint little places like this to eat at with such good food, something in the corner caught my eye. Something small and moving...scurrying, actually.... IT WAS A MOUSE! And then I noticed, he was not alone! There were 3 or 4 tiny little mice running around the tree in the fenced in courtyard that we were sitting in. At that point, I passed out and died.

Ok, not really, but I wanted to! All of a sudden, I was no longer hungry, and all I could think of was WE HAVE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE! Thankfully, we were almost finished with our food at that point, and quickly got our checks to leave. As we were paying, we mentioned to the waiter that there were some mice scurrying about over yonder, and he said that yea, he had noticed one last week. As we were signing our bill, I noticed another mouse crawl out from under the bench I was sitting on, and that was definitely our cue to leave.

I'm sure that these were just little mice who happened to be passing by, and decided to wander inside the fence as there were many tables with plates of yummy smelling food on them. It was probably the cute little mouse Remi, from Ratatouille, who was coming by to check out gourmet food. This is what I kept telling myself as we walked home. However, by this time, my happy glowing, fabulous NYC bubble had been popped, and all I could do was imagine how many more mice and worse, rats, must live in this city. We could not get back to the apartment fast enough! And all night, I dreamed that mice were in our apartment. Ugh. Stupid mice. I hope that was the first and last experience I'll have with New York's other inhabitants. Ick.