Not only is New York the nation's melting pot, it is also the casserole, the chafing dish and the charcoal grill.
Mayor John V. Lindsay
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| From left: Amanda, Me, Caitlin |
As you may know I recently traveled to New York to visit with some of my closest friends. Three of us had been trying to plan a girls trip for a while and with two of us getting married recently, one of us becoming pregnant (NOT ME!) and one of us preparing to move overseas we felt the pressure of now or never. So we joined forces, saved our money and prepared to have a blast in New York City. One of the highlights of the trip was my sister in law taking us on a food tour and I swore I would share the food and locations when I got back. So in keeping good with my promise I have included a TON of pictures below along with the names and locations (included in the links) of each place we visited. So next time you're headed to NYC print out this list and stop by a few. I'm sure you'll enjoy them as much as I did!
DAY 1:Times square area followed by Upper West Side
Our first day consisted of wandering around the city (which we did very well) while it was raining on and off and then attending the Tribeca Film Festival that evening.
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Amanda(left) and Caitlin (right) getting ready for our first big day out in the city, breakfast at Lenny's
Lenny's is a great stop if you're looking for a typical New York bagel breakfast. The bagels are provided by the famous H&H bagel providers that distribute to much of NYC.
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Amazing Mexican at El Centro outside Times Square. One of the complaints when Caitlin moved to NYC was that she could not find a great Mexican restaurant that she liked. Then a friend took her to El Centro and she was hooked. Just about 3 blocks outside of the center of times square this restaurant boasts a mix of authentic and eccentric when it comes to Mexican food. I had the chorizo nachos (pictured above) which were delightfully spicy and the guacamole is sure to please guac lovers looking for a new twist on the old classic.
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Best Cheesecake at Roxies
Amanda had suggested that after we were thoroughly stuffed from El Centro we walk around enough to work up an appetite for Roxies. She was the only one of us who had been there but promised it was amazing. I have to admit I am so thankful we took her advice. After strolling Times Square, listening to a Colbie Caillat concert they were having in the center of the square, and darting into the M&M factory we stopped by Roxies to pic up three cheesecakes to share.
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Flavors of the day clockwise from bottom left peanut butter fudge, heath bar, and caramel apple(mine). Great choices but warning the peanut butter fudge was SUPER rich. The caramel apple was probably our favorite though as proof by the picture below...
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Yes we did finish ALL of my caramel apple cheesecake, NYC is not the city for diets!
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That night my amazing sister-in-law got us tickets to go to the Tribeca Film Festival (don't be jealous) and we started out our evening with a stop to a restaurant she recommended called Olio. I must admit after having amazingly authentic pizza in Italy and Paris I am definitely a snob when it comes to Italian style pizza (not American style I'll pretty much eat any American style pizza). Olio's pizza was very good but was definitely a little on the greasy side, however, their salad (below) was amazing.
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| Roasted vegetable salad from Olio. A arugula mixture topped with roasted mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant and mozzarella cheese. The Italian dressing was perfection. |
DAY 2: Central Park area followed by rooftop restaurant on 5th avenue
Day 2 consisted of Caitlin and I getting up to go for a run in Central park (this is how I manage to eat so much without being completely obese) during which my allergies decided they hated something that was blooming so needless to say despite my sneezing protests we didn't run for very long. After our run we came back and got cleaned up. While I was getting ready Amanda and Caitlin decided they could resist the left over cheesecake no longer so they had a little dessert for breakfast (and left me out!) but when in NY all diets are off so cheesecake for breakfast is completely acceptable. As if that wasn't enough sweets we decided to head up towards Broadway, 5th avenue and central park and took a stop by an amazing candy store. Then we were on to biking in Central Park and a rooftop restaurant for dinner followed by Serendipity to finish off our night.
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| If you haven't been to Dylan's Candy Bar on 3rd avenue I highly recommend it, just maybe not with any children under the age of say 90 because anything younger than this means you will most likely exist on a sugar high for the rest of the day. |
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| Try guessing how many gumballs are in here... I love that they asked people not to eat them as if the fact of everyone reaching their hands in there wasn't enough to stop you from taking one. While we were at Dylan's we loaded up on bags of candy to keep us from coming off of our sugar high during our bike around central park. |
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| After leaving Dylan's we met up with one of my old college roommates for lunch at BRGR (cute name!). I have to say this might have been the healthiest meal I had while in NY, despite the tangle of fries, sweet potato fries and red onion fries you see above I ordered a turkey burger because I was feeling a little guilty from all the candy indulgence. Now a lot of places do not make turkey burgers well but this one was perfection. The burger was slightly crunchy on the outside and cooked all the way through, not the gooey mess you sometimes get from Turkey burgers. |
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| Biker Girls from left (Caitlin, Me-Court, Amanda) |
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| After lunch we rented bikes and biked Central Park. I highly recommend this to anyone visiting NYC it is a great way to see all of central park in under 2 hours. Although I don't know that I would recommend it to anyone who is pregnant (such as Amanda in the picture above). We would turn around to find her walking her bike up the hill and eating Twizzlers (gotta love that this girl is still only a size 6 half way through her pregnancy!). |
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| That night we went to the fabulous rooftop garden on 230 5th to split appetizers for dinner. We ordered the lamb and mint sandwiches, rice cakes, calamari, and curry chicken popovers. All of these were appetizers priced at around $12 each that we were able to split between the 4 of us. |
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| From left (Sarah, Caitlin, Amanda). The restaurant featured heat lamps so that it was open year around. Unfortunately that meant we didn't get any good pictures of the food because all pictures turned out very orange as you can see above. |
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| From left: Caitlin, Amanda and Court (me) at the famous Serendipity3. This is a must stop if you are visiting New York. No trip is complete without their amazing melty-concoctions. |
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| Kind of creepy but even after eating a hole out of the middle of one of the desserts it was still so big that it covered my entire face! |
DAY 3: Micah's Food Tour
On day 3 we wandered NYC and went on my sister-in-laws "food tour" this is all of her favorite places to eat around NYC. I won't narrate much below as the pictures speak for themselves.
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| Their chocolate chip cookies were to die for! |
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| We bought the salted caramel, snicker doodle, and heath bar. The heath bar cookie was probably the best of the 3. |
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| If you are looking for Italian specialties this is the place to go. I was able to get some homemade pasta and a tube of authentic Italian tomato paste for super cheap. But as a snack the risotto and ricotta cheese balls were so good I was glad I didn't live close by, otherwise I would be severely overweight from the frequent trips I would make to buy these. |
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| Yes, the age their cheese beneath the street, how awesome is that? |
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| This homemade yogurt was amazing. |
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| If you're looking for a burger without the frills this is the place to go! |
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| By the way I got this recipe which I will post in a new post later! |
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| Yes a restaurant devoted entirely to Mac N Cheese from the basic mac n cheese to mac n cheese with lobster or duck in it!!! |
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| Best cute coffee shop: Joe's coffee this was a morning ritual and SO delicious! |
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| Best Brunch: Nolita House I had an omelet with arugula, goat cheese, caramelized onions and bacon... delish! |
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| So thankful for these girls (Me, Micah, Caitlin, Amanda) |
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Happy Travels &
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