Things I have eaten:
1. Seaweed salad, spider roll, shrimp udon at some Japanese place I can't remember the name of
2. Ordered in breakfast of French toast and bacon, which came with 3 little containers of syrup (3!)
Jessica and Sean order in a lot because it is so convenient here. You can get everything from breakfast to Ethiopian food. It's magical.
3. The Great Iberian Peninsula 3 wine and cheese flight from Artisinal; also 1/3 of a bottle of Prosecco and a pot of Fontina, garlic, and rosemary fondue with crudites, apples, and kielbasa - I highly recommend any of this, but especially the flights of paired wine and cheese. They have 12 different flights, one of which is all sparkling wines and another of which is beer. Delicious.
4. A chicken bowl from Yoshinoya, which is like the McDonald's of Japanese fast food. So it was a little bowl with rice, veggies, and some chicken. Very quick and so-so-tasty.
5. A feast at Suba, a Basque tapas place that was oddly decorated, but served us a plethora of media raciones for a steal of a price. $49 gets you the chef's tour of the menu, so dishes that he selects, although you can specify any dietary restrictions. Before I get to the food, I also must mention that they have a flamenco show every Sunday night and if you dine in the grotto, you are seated on a giant platform, situated in the center of a moat. Really, you're in the middle of a pool, and the seats don't have backs so the light bounches up from the water all around you. The effect is lovely, but strange. I agree with the waiter that they need a shark or two in there. So, the food - we had a tour for 3 and we got to taste half the menu:
1st course:
blistered peppers with coarse sea salt
embutidos - bread with tomato served with 3 types of thin-sliced ham
tres croquetas - breaded goat cheese balls with ham or cod, and a 3rd kind made from bleu cheese
wee lamb skewers on toasted bread
2nd course:
ensalada de remolacha - beet salad
hijada de atun - tuna with a variety of toppings (my least favorite, as all the flavor was in the topping and almost none in the fish itself, a real disservice to tuna
bravas peludas - crispy baby potatoes in a creamy sauce
3rd:
fideua de gandia - a noodle paella with various kinds of seafood mixed throughout, topped by a majestic shrimp head
pulpo a la plancha - lightly grilled squid on a bed of various green things - by far my favorite, even though I'm not usually a squid fan. This was cooked perfectly, tender, but without even a hint of chewiness.
some kind of mackeral dish that's not on the online menu - much better than the tuna
4th:
arroz al caneton - rice cooked with almonds, plums, and fava beans, topped with exquisitely roasted melt in your mouth duck
Dessert:
Nino borracho - cookie flavored ice cream topped with a sweet sherry
Crema catalina - like a creme brulee but with a light lemon flavor; the sugar on top was caramelized in a perfect crust that cracked perfectly upon my spoon edge
Binuelos de chocolate - chocolate filled Asian style donut holes with rice milk ice cream
And with all that I had the most amazing pomegranate sangria. The pomegranate shines through but the red wine cuts through the sweetness to produce a balanced sangria that went well with every course, even dessert.
6. An apple and pear tart from Le Pain Quotidien a Belgian chain that serves bistro style cuisine as well as take-out pastry and coffee. You can also buy Belgian sugar waffles by the stack, something I am sure will appear as gifts for a few people when I get home.
7. A vanilla filled creme puff that got filled in front of my very eyes along with an iced tapioca peach flavored milk tea. If you've never had one of these, they are delicious, and at the bottom they have these tapioca balls that you can suck up and chew. There's nothing too decadent about it, but it's practically a dessert. These came from /eks/, a locally owned fro-yo place.
Incidentally, Suba, Artisinal, and /eks/ are all New York Magazine critics' picks and so far they haven't steered me wrong. /eks/ I found today on my walk up Broadway from the South Street Seaport to 10th street. I was home alone today, so I had nothing better to do than walk. I have now seen the East and West Village on foot, Soho, the financial district and everything in between. I also bought a fabulous hat from a street vendor, and had to call my sister for directions because once you get South of the numbered streets I find it much too easy to get lost. Plus, the streets in the financial district are much less griddy. Danger Will Robinson, Danger!
Other things I have done/seen:
* Upright Citizens Brigade Saturday night improv show
* International Center of Photography's Museum, where there was a large showing of photographs of Nicaragua during the 70s and 80s that were truly excellent and made me really "homesick"
* Museum of Arts & Design, including the Second Lives exhibit featuring over 250 international artists who took something old and made it new again. Some of them literally just reused stuff, and I felt that those were rather shallowly interpreting the theme. Then there were others that manged to make rather magnificent statements, like the picture of the first African American female millionare in the US who made her money selling beauty products. It was made from combs that intersected and were suspended from a frame. The photo was formed by removing teeth from the combs in the lighter regions and leaving the teeth to form the darker areas. It was quite masterful. My favorite piece, which you can see at the museum's website, is a portrait of a sweat shop worker made from the clothing labels of designer clothing. Different color labels are used for the different regions of the picture, and the millions of labels are sewn together. The piece took over two years to complete and is based on a photo taken of a real texttile worker. The artist realized that designer clothing is covered in names, but none of them are the names of the anonymous workers who actually make the clothes. The picture was both beautiful and meaningful.
* Bodies: The Exhibition at the South Street Seaport. This is the most amazing thing to see if you have any interest in human anatomy. Using over 200 donated bodies, painstaking dissections are preserved in silicone, and walk you through the major body systems as well as the process of fetal development and the body's response to disease. The most amazing exhibit is the circulatory system, where the arteries and veins of the body are preserved and suspended in liquid, but with everything else removed. It's a site you just can't see anywhere else. This exhibition is not for the squeamish, and the knowledge that all the dissections are real bodies is a little strange, however, it is reassuring to know that everyone there gave their bodies for the purpose of educating others. The exhibits are tasteful and educational, set up much like a museum, so a sense of dignity is also preserved. Also, because no two bodies are identical, and everything in the exhibit is real tissue, no to exhibitions are exactly the same.
Now I'm safe at home with the doggies and we're going to order in dinner!! 3 days down, 4 more to go!
1. Seaweed salad, spider roll, shrimp udon at some Japanese place I can't remember the name of
2. Ordered in breakfast of French toast and bacon, which came with 3 little containers of syrup (3!)
Jessica and Sean order in a lot because it is so convenient here. You can get everything from breakfast to Ethiopian food. It's magical.
3. The Great Iberian Peninsula 3 wine and cheese flight from Artisinal; also 1/3 of a bottle of Prosecco and a pot of Fontina, garlic, and rosemary fondue with crudites, apples, and kielbasa - I highly recommend any of this, but especially the flights of paired wine and cheese. They have 12 different flights, one of which is all sparkling wines and another of which is beer. Delicious.
4. A chicken bowl from Yoshinoya, which is like the McDonald's of Japanese fast food. So it was a little bowl with rice, veggies, and some chicken. Very quick and so-so-tasty.
5. A feast at Suba, a Basque tapas place that was oddly decorated, but served us a plethora of media raciones for a steal of a price. $49 gets you the chef's tour of the menu, so dishes that he selects, although you can specify any dietary restrictions. Before I get to the food, I also must mention that they have a flamenco show every Sunday night and if you dine in the grotto, you are seated on a giant platform, situated in the center of a moat. Really, you're in the middle of a pool, and the seats don't have backs so the light bounches up from the water all around you. The effect is lovely, but strange. I agree with the waiter that they need a shark or two in there. So, the food - we had a tour for 3 and we got to taste half the menu:
1st course:
blistered peppers with coarse sea salt
embutidos - bread with tomato served with 3 types of thin-sliced ham
tres croquetas - breaded goat cheese balls with ham or cod, and a 3rd kind made from bleu cheese
wee lamb skewers on toasted bread
2nd course:
ensalada de remolacha - beet salad
hijada de atun - tuna with a variety of toppings (my least favorite, as all the flavor was in the topping and almost none in the fish itself, a real disservice to tuna
bravas peludas - crispy baby potatoes in a creamy sauce
3rd:
fideua de gandia - a noodle paella with various kinds of seafood mixed throughout, topped by a majestic shrimp head
pulpo a la plancha - lightly grilled squid on a bed of various green things - by far my favorite, even though I'm not usually a squid fan. This was cooked perfectly, tender, but without even a hint of chewiness.
some kind of mackeral dish that's not on the online menu - much better than the tuna
4th:
arroz al caneton - rice cooked with almonds, plums, and fava beans, topped with exquisitely roasted melt in your mouth duck
Dessert:
Nino borracho - cookie flavored ice cream topped with a sweet sherry
Crema catalina - like a creme brulee but with a light lemon flavor; the sugar on top was caramelized in a perfect crust that cracked perfectly upon my spoon edge
Binuelos de chocolate - chocolate filled Asian style donut holes with rice milk ice cream
And with all that I had the most amazing pomegranate sangria. The pomegranate shines through but the red wine cuts through the sweetness to produce a balanced sangria that went well with every course, even dessert.
6. An apple and pear tart from Le Pain Quotidien a Belgian chain that serves bistro style cuisine as well as take-out pastry and coffee. You can also buy Belgian sugar waffles by the stack, something I am sure will appear as gifts for a few people when I get home.
7. A vanilla filled creme puff that got filled in front of my very eyes along with an iced tapioca peach flavored milk tea. If you've never had one of these, they are delicious, and at the bottom they have these tapioca balls that you can suck up and chew. There's nothing too decadent about it, but it's practically a dessert. These came from /eks/, a locally owned fro-yo place.
Incidentally, Suba, Artisinal, and /eks/ are all New York Magazine critics' picks and so far they haven't steered me wrong. /eks/ I found today on my walk up Broadway from the South Street Seaport to 10th street. I was home alone today, so I had nothing better to do than walk. I have now seen the East and West Village on foot, Soho, the financial district and everything in between. I also bought a fabulous hat from a street vendor, and had to call my sister for directions because once you get South of the numbered streets I find it much too easy to get lost. Plus, the streets in the financial district are much less griddy. Danger Will Robinson, Danger!
Other things I have done/seen:
* Upright Citizens Brigade Saturday night improv show
* International Center of Photography's Museum, where there was a large showing of photographs of Nicaragua during the 70s and 80s that were truly excellent and made me really "homesick"
* Museum of Arts & Design, including the Second Lives exhibit featuring over 250 international artists who took something old and made it new again. Some of them literally just reused stuff, and I felt that those were rather shallowly interpreting the theme. Then there were others that manged to make rather magnificent statements, like the picture of the first African American female millionare in the US who made her money selling beauty products. It was made from combs that intersected and were suspended from a frame. The photo was formed by removing teeth from the combs in the lighter regions and leaving the teeth to form the darker areas. It was quite masterful. My favorite piece, which you can see at the museum's website, is a portrait of a sweat shop worker made from the clothing labels of designer clothing. Different color labels are used for the different regions of the picture, and the millions of labels are sewn together. The piece took over two years to complete and is based on a photo taken of a real texttile worker. The artist realized that designer clothing is covered in names, but none of them are the names of the anonymous workers who actually make the clothes. The picture was both beautiful and meaningful.
* Bodies: The Exhibition at the South Street Seaport. This is the most amazing thing to see if you have any interest in human anatomy. Using over 200 donated bodies, painstaking dissections are preserved in silicone, and walk you through the major body systems as well as the process of fetal development and the body's response to disease. The most amazing exhibit is the circulatory system, where the arteries and veins of the body are preserved and suspended in liquid, but with everything else removed. It's a site you just can't see anywhere else. This exhibition is not for the squeamish, and the knowledge that all the dissections are real bodies is a little strange, however, it is reassuring to know that everyone there gave their bodies for the purpose of educating others. The exhibits are tasteful and educational, set up much like a museum, so a sense of dignity is also preserved. Also, because no two bodies are identical, and everything in the exhibit is real tissue, no to exhibitions are exactly the same.
Now I'm safe at home with the doggies and we're going to order in dinner!! 3 days down, 4 more to go!
Comments
I can't read anymore blogs about food though - every meal here for the rest of the week will just be woefully inadequate now.....I have enough cravings without reading about such yummy sounding things!
Glad you're enjoying yourself! : )
That list of food makes me want to hop on a plane right now...