new york, part 1

okay, here we go….

we flew in early friday morning and made it to the apartment by 10am.  our gracious friends allowed us to stay at their apartment while they were away in sweden for a couple weeks.

we dropped off our bags, got some coffee and headed straight to central park.

we walked past the met and did a lap around the jackie onassis reservoir.

we left the park at west 93rd and walked over to the new(er) whole foods at 97th and columbus for lunch.  we wandered down broadway, window shopped, and stopped at grom gelato (at 76th) for dessert (pistachio and coconut chocolate).  we walked down to 72nd and back through the park to the apartment for a late afternoon nap.

we woke up thirsty and wandered into brasserie 360 at 60th and 3rd for drinks.  we walked over to bloomingdale’s and shopped around for a bit (who says shopping while buzzed isn’t fun?  well, it kinda isn’t…) before heading to dos caminos midtown for dinner.  we shared plantain and black bean empanadas,  hutch had the asada tacos (supposedly the spiciest thing on the menu) while i had the dos enchiladas’ (one topped with mole sauce, the other topped with poblano pepper sauce).

dinner ended after 10 so we decided to drag our jet-lagged asses home to bed.

on saturday, we decided to head to brooklyn for the day.  we took the subway down to city hall and got off at the base of the brooklyn bridge.

we got to the bridge around 10am and it was already pretty packed.

when we got to brooklyn, we spent some time wandering around the waterfront/dumbo area.

we took the subway over to park slope (please  note: our visit to park slope completely changed my attitude about brooklyn.  it was awesome.).  we wandered around 5th avenue, stopping at the chip shop for lunch.  we shared a salad and the cod and chips.  we had the deep fried snickers bar for dessert.  wow.

after lunch we walked and walked and walked.  when we finished on 5th, we headed over to 7th and did some more window shopping and exploring.  i picked up the new lucky peach magazine to read in our downtime.  around 5, we decided to take the train back to the apartment and let our feet get some rest.

we headed back out around 7pm.  we walked down lex to 59th and over to columbus circle.  we walked up broadway over to columbus and decided we were getting hungry for dinner.  we finally ended up at Patsy’s Pizzeria on 74th and columbus and had the pizza bianca for dinner.  when we left the restaurant, we walked a couple blocks and it started raining.  we ducked under the awning at a bodega to wait out the heavy rain but, yea, it didn’t stop.  after 20 minutes or so, we grabbed a cab and headed home (actually hutch stood in the in street getting sprayed while i laughed from under the awning).

sunday, we started the day at frankie 17 for brunch.  we ordered the egg and cheese breakfast biscuit (added sausage) and then the french toast.  the food was incredible.  frankie’s serves stumptown coffee which was also good.


from brunch, we headed back to brooklyn to check out the williamsburg flea.  we took the train to 7th and beford and walked up to the park on the river where the flea is hosted.  we walked around and shopped and sweated.  it was so hot, i felt like my sandals were melting.  right, and as you can tell from the picture above, i wore jeans (jeans?  in august?  uh, what was i thinking?!?).

we figured a stop at people’s pops for some shave ice was only appropriate, considering we were on the verge of heat exhaustion.  the daily flavors were red plum and rhubarb, we got one of each and shared.  we sat by the water for quite awhile, people watching, taking in the view, and sweating.

we walked to grand street to check out sprout and moon river chattel.  we stopped at marlow and daughters on broadway and ended up running into a girl hutch grew up with working behind the counter.  we stopped at s&b restaurant on bedford for lunch where we had decent food (salads and wraps) but really terrible service.  we sat at the counter and were neglected even there.  although, it was a little endearing as it appeared to be owned by a polish family and several different groups came in and spoke with the waitstaff in polish.

although we hadn’t done as much walking as we normally would (note previous mentions of sweating), the weather was so hot we decided to head back to manhattan for a break.  we did stop at artists and fleas on 7th before heading back to the park to catch the east river ferry.  we were dropped off at 34th street and hopped on the subway and headed back to the apartment.

after a short rest, we walked over to the upper west side to fatty crab for dinner.  wow.  it was one of the most memorable meals we’ve shared for sure.  we sat out front and started with cocktails.  i had the upper west side with gin, cucumber, lemon, thai basil, and ginger beer.  hutch had a rogue fatty crab red ale.  both were great.  we started with the roasted corn cob with peach butter and chili sugar salt.  we moved onto the fatty dog- sausage made up of pork, shrimp and scallops (i think it was scallops), pickled chili, pickled radish, cucumber, aioli.

our next course was the roti- malay-style flatbread served with curry lamb shoulder and potatoes.  we scooped our meat and potatoes onto the bread.  oh, man.  our final course was the nasi lemak- chicken curry, coconut rice, otak otak, slow poached egg.  when we split the egg yolk open and let it run all over the rest of the food, it was magic.

we ended the night by taking a late night walk back around the park to the apartment.

jodi and fabian were scheduled to arrive around noon on monday and we wanted to make sure we were gone for the afternoon so they could settle from their long journey.

there was a heat advisory on monday so we were looking to do something that didn’t require a lot of walking or being in the sun. we decided to head to the american museum of natural history for a few hours.  we walked through the park and stopped at chipotle where we split a burrito before heading to the museum.  we walked past levain bakery and couldn’t not stop for a chocolate peanut butter cookie (one of two repeats of the week as we’d gone there twice the last time we were visiting).

we decided to pay for the extra museum packages which enabled us to go to the special exhibits.  i’m not sure we would do that again as you had to reserve your times for each of the exhibits when you buy your tickets.  we were not planning on spending the day at the museum, just a  couple of hours and we wanted to check out the rest of the musuem as well.  we did watch the tornado imax video and went to the world’s largest dinosaur exhibit.  we left the museum around 3 but decided it was too early to head to the apartment.

we walked back to columbus and went to the hummus place for lunch.  we split the hummus platter with grape leaves and also got a plate of olives and pickles.  the total for lunch was $13, so worth it.

we walked to the park and spent some time sitting at the mall people watching.  we sat there for over an hour and then decided it was time to move on.

we headed out at 63rd and walked over to madison to window shop.  we got back to the apartment around 6 to find the family sleeping except for anna, who immediately woke everyone up when we walked in. we stayed for a couple hours to visit and catch up before leaving for dinner.

we took the train down to 23rd and over to madison square park for shake shack.  we got there around 830ish and had to wait for about a half hour, not too bad.  we enjoyed a hamburger (me) and a shack burger (hutch), fries and chocolate malts.


from there, we walked up to grand central station.  we walked around briefly as everything was closed (it was after 1030) and then headed home.

tuesday morning we woke up and had the whole day to spend with jodi and fabian.  we went to go burger for lunch and stuffed our faces.  it started raining while we were walking home (where we saw a construction worker singing frank sinatra with a microphone on the side of the road) and proceeded to rain, and rain, and rain all day long.  we stayed inside for the rest of the day,  hung out with the kids, looked at pictures, watched movies, played video games and ordered italian for dinner.