Weekend in NYC, Part 1

Dr. S and I went to New York City for a weekend trip to celebrate her father's birthday. Our afternoon flight on Air Canada landed late at LaGuardia, and we immediately hopped in a cab to go to Carmine's in the Theater District. This boisterous and crowded restaurant was in full swing by the time we got there at 20:00. Everything was served family-style, with massive platters of salad, eggplant parmesan and veal scallopine weighing down our table. Our dessert selection ended up being a gigantic banana split/cake/ice cream concoction shaped like a ship, fittingly named Titanic. Pretty tasty, great for a large group.

In the morning, we left our hotel and headed for the Union Square Greenmarket. With a bright sky overhead, we perused the stalls, many selling many local and organic items. I was impressed by the range, say, of lettuces or herbs or tomatoes. It's amazing that this market runs four days a week, 10 hours per day. We noshed on olive bread, cheeses and giant peaches... an unconventional but tasty breakfast!

Our next stop was at the Essex Street Market, an enclosed market building in the Lower East Side. We were told of a shop that sold chocolate-covered bacon by a New York friend at dinner and had to check it out. Roni-Sue's Chocolates is a tiny shop with barely enough room for a dozen people to stand inside. The display featured about 20 kinds of chocolates. Interestingly, I recognized a few pieces from the recipes in Peter Greweling's Chocolates and Confections. We learned that the bacon is purchased in the market, then deep-fried by another restaurant, then dipped in chocolate on the premises. And now, dear reader, is when you find out that your inexperienced traveller made a crucial error. He did not sample any of the bacon-chocolate, nor purchase any. I had thought we would be back the next day and didn't want it to melt on our walk. Oh well.

Later in the day, I decided to walk down Fifth Avenue towards Central Park. It's a fancy street, full of high-end fashion retailers and lots of tourists. Near the golden statue of Sherman at the edge of the park, I met up with Dr. S and spent some time watching a breakdancing show before heading into the park.

As one of the most famous landmarks in New York City, I only knew of it by name and didn't realize it was so big: 4.1 km from south to north, spanning 50 blocks. It has a pond, a zoo, horse-drawn carriage rides and spacious avenues. We only spent about 20 minutes walking around, but it's a charming green space in the middle of Manhattan.

For dinner, we went to Vong, a French-Thai restaurant. I didn't get any photos of the food (partly out of embarassment, partly due to poor lighting) but let me say that it was superb. Lobster-daikon rolls full of plump sweet flesh with zing from slivers of finger. Duck breast in a tangy tamarind sauce. Vegetarian pad thai. A piece of salmon perfectly cooked. And for dessert, warm Valrhona chocolate cake with coconut sorbet. Fantastic.

Our evening entertainment was a show at the Music Box Theatre called August: Osage County. The set was incredible, a three-story miniature house that let you see the characters go up and down and in and out. The story was dark but with lots of humour, an Oklahoman family drawn together after a death. I recognized Madeline Martin in the cast from her role in Showtime's Californication. IMDB tells me she is just 15, incredible! Dr. S and I walked home with the fading neon lights of Broadway behind us.