My NYC Food To Do List

The other day I wrote about the fact that I ignore my NYC to do list and instead focus on my to do lists for other parts of the country or the world. I want to hopefully change that. If you have eaten at any of these places please let me know about your experience. If you are a friend of mine and have been wanting to try one of these places please let me know. So here is my food to do list for NYC:

1) Max for their Gnocchi

2) The Harrison for their ice cream brownie sandwich and birthday cake

3) Bubby’s Pie Company for their mac n cheese

4) Atlantic Chip Shop for all their deep fried goodness

5) Brown for their mac n cheese

6) Panade Cafe for their cupcakes and cream puffs

7) Macbar for their mac n cheese

8) Shopsin’s for their ebelskivers, mac n cheese pancakes, s’mores french toast

9) Tiny’s Giant Sandwich Shop for their grilled cheese

10) Beauty and Essex for their doughnuts and grilled cheese dumplings

11) Little Muenster for their grilled cheese

12) Jane  for their vanilla bean french toast and gnocchi

13) Caffe Dante for their cannoli

14) Clinton St Baking Company for their brunch

15) Cucina Di Pesce for their pasta

16) Murray’s Cheese Bar for their grilled cheese

17) PDT for their speakeasy experience

18) Cake Man Raven for their red velvet cake

19) Veselka for their pierogi

20) Chat n Chew for their mac n cheese

21) The Green Table for their grilled cheese

22) Milk Truck for their grilled cheese

23) Melt Shop for their grilled cheese

24) Brooklyn Bowl for their chocolate chip bread pudding, cheese fries, and mac n cheese

25) Morris Grilled Cheese Truck for their grilled cheese

26) Artisanal Fromagerie and Bistro for their grilled cheese and mac n cheese

27) Comfort Diner for their grilled cheese, sweet potato fries, french toast and mac n cheese balls

28) Schmackary’s for their cookies

29) Donna Bell’s Bakeshop

30) The Smith Restaurant for their gnocchi and smores in a jar

31) Gazala Place for their burekas

32) Papa Perrone’s Food Truck for their rice balls

33) Eatery for their mac n cheese

34) Bouchon Bakery for their grilled cheese

35) UVA Wine Bar and Restaurant for their gnocchi

36) RUB for their deep fried oreos

37) Laurentino’s Pasticceria

Making Music in Seattle

6/12/13

After Pike Place Market we headed to the Westlake Center to catch the monorail. You have to walk through the “mall” to get to the monorail on the third floor. We passed a Claire’s and I bought some items.

We purchased our tickets to the monorail and waited about 10 minutes for it to come. The monorail took about 10 minutes to get to the Seattle Center. The monorail was packed, which surprised me.

We walked across the street from the Seattle Center to the Space Needle. There was a small line. The admission price was a bit pricey ($19 a person), but it was something we wanted to do. After getting our tickets we waited on another line. Then we got our picture taken against a green screen. We were given a ticket to download the picture. We waited on another line for an elevator. A video of our elevator ride is below:

We got lucky because it was a beautiful clear day. The view was amazing! We took tons of pictures. We watched the monorail for a bit. We also tried to find our hotel. We found a table inside and looked at the view for a while. Then we used the machines and scanned our picture ticket to pick our green screen image.

We waited on line to take the elevator down. Video is below:

We stopped at the gift shop so I could get a press a penny, but it wasn’t the normal 51 cents. We left and headed right next door to EMP.

I had bought my tickets online and was able to save a couple of dollars. The guy scanned my phone and we were all set. They had the Game of Thrones throne which we took a picture on. We went to the Fantasyland area first. They had costumes and props from Snow White and the Huntsman, Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, The Wizard of Oz, The Princess Bride, etc. I was beyond excited to see the costumes and props from the Princess Bride since it is one of my favorite movies. I love Inigo Montoya. They had his costume and sword. There was also a dragon that if you pulled his tail he woke up. However, it wasn’t working so they closed it.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Percy Jackson

Wizard of Oz

Princess Bride

Chronicles of Narnia

Princess Bride

Harry Potter-Sirius Black

Princess Bride

Chronicles of Narnia

Then we headed to the horror film area. We saw props from Frankenstein, Blair Witch Project, the Shining, Thriller and many more.

Frankenstein

Blair Witch Project

Blair Witch Project

The Shining

The Mummy’s Curse

Thriller

After that we headed to the science fiction area. We saw stuff from Star Wars, Star Trek, MIB, Matrix, etc. You could even go in front of a green screen and put yourself on Mars.

Star Trek

Yoda

Star Wars

Superman

MIB

Me on Mars

Then we headed to the rooms on Jimi Hendrix. They had some of his clothes and guitars. There was also a room filled with guitars from the 1800’s on. It was interesting to see the evolution of the guitar. I knew my coworker Bob would love it. We found out that there was going to be an exhibit on women in music, but it wasn’t ready yet. I would have liked to have seen Gaga’s meat dress. See pictures at the bottom of the post.

We then headed to the third floor where you could play some instruments and record music. I messed around on a guitar for a bit. Next we headed to the gift shop. I wanted to buy some postcards but they didn’t have any. Instead I purchased a blue guitar mint case for Bob. I got a press a penny. We used the ladies room and headed to find our bus.

We got so lost! Google maps was surprisingly not very helpful. It didn’t help that the bus stop markers just say bus and don’t indicate the number or direction. Someone had to tell us. We got on a crowded smelly bus that made our NYC cross down buses feel fast. We were going to be late to our dinner reservation!!! We called Spinasse and explained.

We finally got off the bus and walked for what seemed like forever until we found the restaurant. They weren’t busy and were nice about us being late. They gave us a table by the bar. We ordered their famous Tajarin al burro e salvia aka fine hand cut egg pasta with butter and sage. We ordered a full portion ($22). They brought us crostini with anchovies and cream cheese. I didn’t eat it, but my mom tried it and didn’t like it. Our pasta came right away and it was clear that it wasn’t enough food for two people to share. However, it was so good! I could see why it is featured on a million food shows. The pasta is made by hand in the restaurant and you clearly tell. I could have had multiple bowls of it. We paid (almost $30 after tax and tip for a small bowl of pasta) and searched for the bus. Again we got lost, but eventually found it. Turns out we really didn’t need the bus. It was like 10 blocks from our hotel. The maps made it seem far away.

We went to the Regency Club for a second dinner. The selection was awful. 😦 I had some cheese and bread. I pulled out my prioshky from earlier and ate that with a bowl of whipped cream. I also ate like 4 cookies. I did enjoy reading about the Louvre in this book that they had.

After dinner we were bored so we wandered the neighborhood. We went to Ross where I got a pair of shoes and several pharmacies. We also went to Escala where Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey lives in the book.

My mom at Escala

Escala Lobby

Nirvana Section

MTV Moon Man

Plymouth

We walked over to PF Chang’s from our hotel. This was the meeting point for our bus to Plymouth. My mom and I boarded the bus and sat in the front. The driver seemed nice and told us about a great Cupcake place called Cupcake Charlie’s. We couldn’t wait to try it.

Our first stop was Plimoth Plantation. The first area was about the Native Americans. There were hollowed out canoes and wigwams. They had actors inside that were making blankets and other items. We walked further and came to the wall and entrance to the settlement. It was like immediately stepping back in time. There were all the hatched houses. There were men and women walking around in costume. There were animals wandering around. Some homes you could look around and some had actors completing chores in them. Some of the actors were building a roof for a house. Some were taking care of the animals. Others were farming. The homes were in a long row. It was informative and a lot of fun. You could even see the spot where they originally landed all the way out in the distance. We saw the meeting house and the canons on top of the meeting house. We went into a workshop where the actors were making furniture.

There’s a cafeteria and two gift shops. I did a press a penny and bought several things at the gift stores. We even bought fudge. I enjoyed the stores they were a step above many I have been to. We boarded the bus and were headed to see the Mayflower. The bus driver took us to the town of Plymouth which has the famous Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower II, and a bunch of shops.

We did Cupcake Charlie’s first. Turns out they were about to be on an episode of Cupcake Wars with Duff as the guest judge. I got a cookies n cream one or something similar to that. My mom got a red velvet one. They were amazing! Some of the best cupcakes we’ve ever had. So we bought more to bring back with us. Next we headed to Plymouth Rock. We took pictures and heard a local tell us that the local teen males like to try to pee on the rock at night. Lovely. After that I bought a ticket to go on the Mayflower II. Why II? The first one disappeared and no one knows where it is. So they built a replica of it. I was able to walk around on deck and below deck. Such a tiny space for so many passengers! Glad I wasn’t a Pilgrim. After that we found first street, which is the first street in America. We also found the creek that the pilgrims used to use. We went into several tourist shops and I bought a black and white Mayflower shirt that was on super sale. There were statues commemorating the pilgrims and the Native Americans. We used the public restroom near the Mayflower and got back on the bus.

We then were brought to the National Monument to the Forefathers. It’s 81 ft tall and has the names of the pilgrims on it. It also shows an image of the Mayflower Compact. There’s a section for liberty, morality, law, and education. It was pretty interesting to look at. Once the photo opportunity was over it was back on the bus. The bus driver asked where he could drop everyone back in Boston. We told him we wanted to get off right where he picked us up since we were going to go to Maggiano’s for dinner.

The tour was great and so was dinner. We got fried zucchini and pasta to share. The restaurant wasn’t busy and the waiter offered us a free meal to go. We declined because we didn’t have a fridge at our hotel. We then went to see Make Way for Ducklings and Cheers.

Strolling down the Champs-Élysées

July 28 2012

We started walking down Rue di Ravoli. Everyone told us this was the street with great food and shops. Originally we had planned on taking this block all the way back to our hotel. However, that would have been an hour walk. We were tired and still had a lot to see. So we decided to take it until we got super tired.

We passed a lot of bakeries and picked up some water and sweets at Paul. Everything looked so good! I just wish things were cheaper. We went into some clothing stores and eventually decided it was time to take the metro. We hopped on the metro at Saint Paul and got out at the Arc de Triomphe. We took some pictures and observed the crazy traffic circle it was on. I knew from reading posts online that you can’t cross the traffic circle and instead you need to use the underground tunnel. Once inside the tunnel there was a long line. I was so glad we didn’t have to wait on it because we had the museum pass. The tunnel was hot and smelled. Once out of the tunnel we were rushed into the staircase to climb to the top.

There were several levels within the Arc. They contained a gift shop and a bathroom. We visited both. The bathroom was very small. The stairs weren’t as bad as Notre Dame. We got to the top and were greeted with the wonderful view. There were a lot of people so you had to be patient for a perfect picture. It had a great view of the Eiffel Tower.

We climbed back down and took some pictures at the base of the Arc. Then we intended to take the Ave des Champs-Élysées all the way back to the neighborhood of our hotel. We window shopped until we got to Swarovski. My mom had me take pictures of her on the very cool crystal stairs. We people watched and I was starting to get really hungry. We passed some teen clothing store that had two hunky guys outside to draw the girls in. There was a big group of girls standing outside flirting with them. We stopped to see the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, which we were supposed to see after Les Invalides, but were too tired to. At this point my feet were killing me so we decided to hop on the metro and take it to where we were going to eat dinner.

I read about a place called Pastapapa. It sounded and looked delicious plus it was reasonably priced. There was a deal for a drink, pasta, and dessert. I ordered a big bottle of water and got penne alfredo. The penne alfredo was huge!!!!!!!! My mom helped me out with it and we still had some leftovers. It was the best pasta I have ever had! My mom agreed. There was a couple next to us eating penne with salmon which looked incredible. They ordered a chocolate caramel ice cream cake. It looked good so we ordered it as well. It was so yummy! GREAT DINNER! We went back to the hotel and soaked our feet. Then went straight to bed.