In a city like New York, the food options are endless. This is very exciting for someone like me, and probably you if you are reading this. You can literally get the best of all food ethnicities on every other corner. It is actually quite overwhelming to decide which restaurant to eat at. In my mind I'm all like I think I want Italian...or do I want Mexican...maybe I want Thai...no, no definitely Italian...and then it starts all over again in my head.
Luckily, since my best friend lives there, I let her take me to some of her favorite places. And whew...what a relief... normally I'm a pretty speedy decision maker when it comes to most aspects of my life...except when food is involved. Mostly this is because I want it all! I want to literally go from restaurant to restaurant and ask if I can taste the best thing on the menu and then move on to the next. This of course is not possible, so it comes in handy when the decision making is taken out of your hands.
What is great about New York is that you have to walk everywhere making it ok to indulge on all of the sweet goodness that the city has to offer.
I had to share with you some of the amazing food that I had last weekend. I'm going to go ahead and let you know...we definitely went to Italy on more than one occasion, which suited me just fine!
The first afternoon we went shopping in the Gramercy area and stopped in at a quaint little restaurant to eat lunch and grab a cocktail. I ended up getting a grilled shrimp Caesar salad with a Pomegranate Rum martini and Sarah opted for the seared tuna salad and a Pimm's cup. Both the salads and the cocktails were delicious! We were glad we went light for lunch because we definitely went the more decadent route for dinner.
For dinner we went to a great Italian restaurant called Bocca di Bacco. This place had great ambiance for a rainy evening in the city. There were so many options that I could have ordered, but finally I decided on the Spinach, Fresh Ricotta, and Asparagus Tortellini (pasta homemade) topped with a brown butter sauce and fried sage! Holy Moly it was great. I will be testing this fried sage business out myself, because it was that amazing!
After dinner we headed to BEA Restaurant for cocktails. Apparently it is a fairly new bar/restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen area, but they have killer drinks, not to mention they play old black and white movies on the walls! Pretty cool.
I ordered the Lavender Monk which had ginger beer, cherry, orange, and lavender flavors, mixed with vodka. It was A-MA-ZING!
The next day we spent walking around Central Park for several hours, so by lunch we were pretty hungry. Sarah insisted on this place that served fried pizza...but not deep fried like you might think. This is a magical kind of fried that creates a fluffy yet crispy crust. Oh my goodness, I want to eat another one right now. They flash fry the crust after it comes out of a wood oven and then top it very simply with marinara sauce, smoked mozzarella (one of the best cheeses I've ever had), and basil! This made it to the top of my list as the best pizza that I have ever eaten and maybe my favorite thing I ate during the whole trip. To drink I ordered a fresh blackberry, lime, and soda vodka cocktail, it also did not disappoint.
Yeah this pizza deserves two pictures...
On the way home I made sure that we stopped by my FAVORITE cookie shop called Schmackary's! If you go to NYC, this is a must after your fried pizza, ha. My favorite cookie is their Scotchie which is a chewy oatmeal and butterscotch cookie! Sarah's favorite is the Maple Bacon cookie...either choice will make you very happy.
And that night, as if we had not eaten enough Italian on the trip (I did tell you I could eat it everyday), we ended up at another favorite on the list called Etcetera Etcetera. I was going to go for something a little lighter...then changed my mind, not surprising. I ordered a Crab Pasta with Roasted Red Peppers. Once again, homemade pasta and a delicious dinner! Not pictured (because we ate it too fast) was ciabatta bread with a fantastic olive spread and Rosemary hand cut French fries...yes please.
To round out my adventures of eating in NYC, we decided to eat brunch the next day at a new place that Sarah and her husband had been wanting to try called The Marshal. It is a tiny restaurant that is very cozy inside. Warning if you are visiting and want to eat there for dinner make reservations in advance! We tried, and failed, so we thought brunch was a good idea...turns out it was a great idea. I ordered Smoke Chicken Hash with bacon and Sarah ordered a Veggie Frittata with goat cheese and bacon. Also not pictured...because we ate it too fast...this is a theme isn't it? They had a zucchini bread that was a cross between a cornbread and soufflé texture served with a whipped honey butter that I could have eaten by itself. I'm sorry I failed you on the picture, you would have been drooling.
The price you pay for eating like calories don't count is when you get home you have to get back in the swing of things, working out and cooking healthy. But that's fine...it was so worth it...
If any of you are planning a trip to New York and are mostly concerned with what's on the menu ( you are my kind of people), hit me up and I will tell you where to go!
Bon Appetit friends!
