To start day two, we purchased coffees and wandered to the many riverside walkways for views of Manhattan. We had never stayed anywhere other than Manhattan on our trips to NYC, preferring to stay right in the heart of the action. But staying in Jersey City (and later Queens), we enjoyed the Manhattan skyline and were minutes away from via subway.

The first time we visited NYC the twin towers stood tall. The second time was after 911. So glad to see a new tower in this place.

But we were on the move again, dropping our bags at the Wyndham Midtown and deciding what to do with on an overcast day. I have long been fascinated by NYC and have taken many guided tours, wanting to see and learn about it all. It turned out that D had never experienced a double decker bus tour with the corny, wise-cracking  NY tour guides speaking over the tinny sound systems. So we were off on a quintessential tour of Manhattan.

You may not recognize the Empire State Building from this angle and without the characteristic spire in the photo. D and I had visited the building on one of our previous trips including views from the outdoor observation deck.

The spire of the Marble Collegiate Church caught my eyes with the Empire State Building spire in the background. Here is the history of the church cut and pasted from the churches website.

In 1628, four years after the founding of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, Reverend Jonas Michaelius arrived from Holland to organize what is now known as the Collegiate Church of New York, whose oldest remaining building is Marble Church. As the first ordained minister in New Amsterdam, Reverend Michaelius conducted the first worship service in a gristmill on what is now South William Street, when the entire population of the city was less than 300. The first church elder was Governor Peter Minuit, who had recently purchased Manhattan Island from the Native Americans. Peter Stuyvesant, Director General of New Amsterdam, led worshippers to Sunday service and would impose a fine on anyone who did not attend church!

When the British took over the city in 1664 and renamed it New York, they allowed the Dutch Reformed Church to continue its worship traditions. King William III granted the church a Royal Charter in 1696, making the Collegiate Church the oldest corporation in America.

The iconic Flat Iron Building. This is what I learned about it from Wikipedia.

The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story  steel-framed landmarked building located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902, it was one of the tallest buildings in the city at 20 floors high, and one of only two skyscrapers north of 14th Street – the other being the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, one block east. The building sits on a triangular block formed by Fifth Avenue, Broadway and East 22nd Street, with 23rd Street grazing the triangle’s northern (uptown) peak. As with numerous other wedge-shaped buildings, the name “Flatiron” derives from its resemblance to a cast-iron clothes iron

The Woolworth Building

 Designed in 1926 by Cass Gilbert, who also designed the landmark Woolworth Building, the massive building, which was inspired by Salisbury Cathedral, rises forty stories to its pyramidal gilded roof and occupies the full block between 26th and 27th Streets, Madison Avenue and Park Avenue South, a rarity in Manhattan. The building stands 615 feet (187 m) tall and contains 40 floors. It was the last significant Gilbert skyscraper in Manhattan.

The building was completed in 1928 after two years of construction at the cost of $21 million. It combines streamlined Gothic details and distinctly Moderne massing. The gold pyramid at the top consists of 25,000 gold-leaf tiles

I have long been fascinated by the numerous water tanks on the roofs of Manhattan. This is how they came to be:

According to Kate Ascher, author of The Works: Anatomy of a City, as the city underwent vertical expansion in the late nineteenth-century, the need for technological innovation in the realm of water supply soon became evident. Prior to the escalation of skyscrapers and multi-storied buildings, the water would naturally rise to the height of six floors due to the natural pressure of the street mains system. However, with increasing urbanization, a solution quickly arrived — the rooftop water tank.

In short, the municipal water supply system delivers water to a basement pump which then sends the water to the roof. There, rings made of galvanized steel encircle the barrel and apply pressure in order to prevent leakage. Without any type of adhesive, these tanks can last 30-35 years.

Now you know too.

Of the numerous places we have stayed in NYC, our favourite is a brownstone in the East Village. We past through the hood on our tour.

We love the tree-lined streets and the low rise buildings.

We also love the fire escapes on Village apartments. I thought that this one looked like the exterior shot in Friends. See the similarity?

With the new World Trade Centre spire in the background, I love the contrasts to these in the foreground. Can you help me identify them?

The St. Paul Chapel Church that played such a key roll post 911.

I have never seen the New York Stock Exchange Bull look like the above image, only the way it looks in this image, crowded with tourists getting their pictures taken with it.

I am fairly sure that the image below is the Brooklyn Bridge but the Manhattan Bridge above also connects to Brooklyn. Is it called the Manhattan bridge?

We concluded the tour, headed back to hotel for a little break and then were off again to New Jersey to see our Winnipeg Jets play the Devils in their 2015/2016 home game opener. Jets won!

Kath’s quote: “It comes down to reality,  And it’s fine with me cause I’ve let it slide,  I don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside,  I don’t have any reasons, I left them all behind,  I’m in a New York state of mind.” –Billy Joel

Love never fails.

 

 

 

 

 

Another restaurant that I had the pleasure of visiting in NYC.

On our many visits to New York we have always stayed in Manhattan but this time we discovered how easy it is to get in and out of Manhattan and enjoy the more affordable lodging in the Burroughs like Queens. More about this fascinating neighbourhood in a future post. In the mean time I made a solo visit to Thai Son while D was on a Brewery adventure.

The spot was busy with solo diners who I imagined were business people on their lunch breaks. Service was efficient and the dishes were proudly served by the kitchen staff.

I was tempted by the Com Suon Bi Cha (grilled pork chop and shredded pork) that I had seen raves about but in the end opted for my favourite Vietnamese dish-Banh Hoi Thit. This noodle dish (which is then wrapped into clingy rice paper) makes a great little packet that can be eaten on the go. In Viet Nam the dish is a breakfast one-kind of like their version of an egg mcmuffin. Given the two, I would rather have the former, any morning of my week.

Rice vermicelli noodles are lightly steamed and become extra sticky so that the toppings of your choice will adhere together when wrapped into the rice wrapper. The strings of noodles are as thin as a toothpick but the texture is firm enough so the noodles do not fall apart. When topped with what I call “candied” pork, that is thin pork strips that have been marinated in a sugary sauce and then char-broiled, I am crazy about the taste. The sugared peanuts add another dimension and are perfect when offset by the variety of vegetables that accompany: lettuce leaves, cucumbers, cabbage, carrot, mint and pickled onions. When the packet is plunged into fish sauce you are treated to another hit of sweetness.

Sweet/salty is my favourite taste profile.

Thai Son is one of the many ethnic restaurants found in Jefferson Heights-a foodies’ dream come true.

Kath’s quote: “New York is a gothic Roquefort.”-Salvador Dali

Love, that is all.

 

Sometimes when I am organizing my expenses (which I do quarterly) I realize that I have dined at an amazing place that I have forgotten to write about and share the adventure with you my loyal readers. Such is the case with this iconic place.

On our arrival day in NYC en route to Milan and then Tuscany, we had a picnic in Central Park in the late afternoon just as the sun was “setting” behind the urban landscape of skyscrapers. We stayed in New Port that evening and we were reluctant to leave all of our favourite sites in Manhattan.

So we wandered through the park and decided that it might be nice to stop for a thirst-quenching beer. We thought of crossing the street to the Upper West Side when we accidently came upon Tavern on the Green.

There was a private reception taking place in the courtyard and because we had already had our picnic, we didn’t want to go to the dining room for a full meal (besides we were dressed for a picnic, not Manhattan dining). So we opted for the quaint Beer Garden appointed with picnic benches overlooking the “green” and the beautiful and historic apartments of the Upper East Side (think The Dakota) as the backdrop.

October evenings are still fair in NYC and it was the perfect choice.

I let D do the beer selecting and whatever it was he chose for me was refreshing and delicious. Nothing quenches my thirst like a cold beer. You?

The food menu showcased simple fare and we selected a Polish Kielbasa

and Potato Latkes. The latter were a bit overdone and greasy for our liking but hey, it was our first evening in NYC, we were not inclined to make a fuss and send them back.

Simple food, served in a garden in Central Park in one of our favourite cities in the world. What could be wrong with that?

Kath’s quote: “There is nothing yet which has been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.” –Samuel Johnson

Love, that is all.

 

 

I live in the part of Winnipeg known as Little Italy but these days you’ll find more sushi shops than Mom and Pop Pizzerias.  But in cities like New York and Chicago there are Italian restaurants everywhere not just in their vibrant Italian neighbourhoods. We ate a lot of Italian on our recent trip to New York, even having two Italian meals in Chicago on our stopover on the way.

We had time for a quick lunch at the food court at O’Hare on our way through Chicago and I was lucky to find Reggio’s Pizza.  They serve traditional Chicago deep dish pizza with what they call their “butter crust” and I must say it was buttery.  I was happy that D was willing to share this with me because even though it was a personal pizza size, it’s depth meant it was full of rich tomato sauce, Italian sausage, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Our first night in New York brought the storm serge from a tropical storm. (Thankfully we were not there when Hurricane Sandy hit as this rain was fierce enough for me).  As a result, we chose not to wander too far from home and ended up at a cute little restaurant at the corner of our street called Finestra on the corner of E 73^rd and York. Its a real neighbourhood place with an extensive menu.  The service was good and the food was just what we were looking for on this damp, late fall day.

D had the capresse salad and bruschetta al Pomodori, while B and I were more indulgent with

Spaghetti Carbonara and

Penne Alla Vodka.

One evening we wandered to the Time Square area to enjoy dinner at Carmine’s for family-style Italian.  This restaurant is huge and there was a line up out the door.  Thankfully D had made a reservation weeks before.  If you plan to dine at Carmine’s be sure to bring your appetite.  All the dishes are served family style, so regardless if there are ten in your party or 3, as in our case, you still get the same gigantic platter of what ever dish you select.  Your entrée is served with a big basket of assorted bread and rolls as well as an equally huge platter of salad.  We had left over of both salad and pasta and could have feed ourselves an entire meal the next day had we not been leaving for the airport first thing in the morning.  The menu is simple – you choose a pasta, a sauce and a meat if you would like.  A tough thing to do if there are a number of you with different tastes all planning to share.

We were having a hard time making a selection when our server told us about that night’s feature; Farfalle with mushrooms, chicken, asparagus, roasted red peppers and black olives in olive oil and broth. It was delicious and the perfect choice for us.

On our way back from New York we had a bit longer to spend in O’Hare and decide to sit down for a meal at Tuscany Restaurant. The dishes featured fresh herbs and you could taste the quality of the ingredients.  We enjoyed the caprese salad, margherita pizza and fetucinni alfredo with chicken.

Comfort food for weary travelers.

Kath’s quote: “Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse of divine power, has that ability to comfort.” –Norman Kolpas

Love-that is all.

 

 

 

 

 

When planning this recent trip to New York, I not only thought about what shows to see, what museums to visit, what tours to take, what stores to shop, but what restaurants to visit.  I was so happy when I was able to knock off two on my wish list in the same afternoon.

We took a tour of Rockefeller Centre including at trip to the Top of the Rock-seventy stories in the air with a 360° view of Manhattan.

We were at standing in front of the NBC Today show set when I looked behind me and noticed Bouchon Bakery. I had planned to go to the one at Columbus Circle and had no idea that this location existed. I don’t think it was there a few years ago when my sisters and I were at NBC at the crack of dawn to see a taping of the Today show.  It was the perfect location to stop for lunch at the end of our tour. Bouchon is the invention of Chef Thomas Keller. Over the years I have discovered a few of his desert recipes that have become my all time favourites including his lemon tart and molten chocolate tart.  You can find them both easily via Google.  It is my dream to one day dine at his famous restaurant “The French Laundry” in California’s Napa Valley.

D and I ordered the grilled cheese sandwich, melted fontina and Gruyere cheeses on buttery bread served with San Marzano tomato soup.

B had the French ham and Emmenthaler cheese sandwich on baguette with the house salad.  Simple food but made with the very finest ingredients.

Another icon NYC bakery that I was lucky enough to come upon that day was Magnolia Bakery.  Again I had planned to visit their other location on Bleeker Street so was surprised to come across this location. This bakery became famous for its cupcakes when featured on Sex and the City.

I stopped in to scope out the place, thinking I would come away with one of their famous cupcakes but instead I was drawn to the tiny red velvet cheese cake. There are no seats in this bakery so you need to take everything to go.  My cheesecake and I then proceeded to walk to Macy’s for a “one day sale”, take the subway back uptown to the Upper East-side and walk the 10 blocks back to our apartment.  I then shared it with B in celebration of our birthdays.

It was a bit bumped around, but lovely none the less.

Kath’s quote:  “Food should be fun.” –Thomas Keller

Love-that is all.