New York City, home of the death of Heath Ledger and Tom Brady's limping leg

Well, shortly after leaving New York City this weekend, the New York Football Giants made it into the Superbowl, Tom Brady visited Giselle Bundchen there, and Heath Ledger died in SoHo.



Our trip was excellent, and the best time I have ever had in the city. I think this is most likely related to the wonderful recommendations I received from so many great friends. All other times I had been to NY I stuck to the touristy and overrun Midtown side streets, which is a waste of time and money. Testing the goodwill of man, we sublet an apartment in Chelsea, which is just southwest of Midtown, and convenient to Greenwich Village, SoHo and Times Square. It was a totally different experience living in a studio for two days and not in a hotel, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting a city. W 19th Street and 9th Avenue was as quiet as home, and filled with charm. After our "landlord" gave us the key and we handed over the cash, we dropped off our bags and headed to Chelsea Piers for a brew. While this is a hot spot during summer months, complete with driving range and batting cages and deck sunbathing, it was fairly dead on a Friday afternoon in January. I had a cask beer of their brown ale, and we talked to the bartender/brewmaster for a few minutes about their sales to local restaurants and the brews we were sampling.

Later that evening came the purpose of our trip--The Lion King. As the animals poured into the Minskoff theater, and three beautiful African singers belted out melodies and harmonies, tears welled up into my eyes. We had wonderful seats, thanks to Erin, that put us right in the middle of an animal migration come to life. There were a few new songs that I had heard on the soundtrack, but didn't exist in the movie, but for the most part it exactly followed the Disney movie line which slightly annoyed me. However, the costumes and imagery that was created on the simple stage made it absolutely beautiful. There was also a strange disco medley for the hyenas that ranked on my "things that make you go hmmmm" chart. Must have been the Elton John influence...

The bar that Erin recommended right down the street Kemia was regretfully closed for a private party so we ended up just hitting a place called John's Pizza. This is where I began to realize how special New York was. Amongst all of the stiletto heels and Louis Vitton purses there were streets and streets of fabulous restaurants hidden behind a dreary facade of concrete. John's Pizza near Times Square looked like a crappy but regular pizza joint. When we walked inside we were astounded at the 3-level high ceilings, complete with stained glass dome and tiered seating. The pizza wasn't phenomenal, but it was pretty damn good, and we even left with a free sausage and spinach calzone which we gratefully ate for breakfast on Sunday morning. The advantages of dining at midnight. After having drinks at happy hour earlier, and pizza to put us to sleep, I was much happier with the NY I was witnessing while under the influence of a few good drinks!

The next morning we went to Chelsea Market a few blocks from the apartment, where we bought fresh baked bread and perused the Italian market and produce markets. Yes, I realized I could live there. We then took the subway over to Canal and window-shopped up and down Broadway, Chinatown and Little italy a bit before ending up at Lupa. Based on a lot of serious discussion we decided to get a giant lunch rather than fight for a spot for dinner. We were lucky enough to pop right in and get a table.

Our feast was as follows:
Coppa Cotto (housemade) & Sardines with cracked wheat
Buckwheat Chittara with Winter kale and prosciutto
D--Saltimbocca, K--Lamb short ribs with a mustard seed coating
D--Cinnamon Gelato, K--Tartufo

My impressions of Lupa--surprisingly loud and very casual in nature. It did not seem pretentious or high-end one bit, yet you knew you would get extraordinarily fresh and simply prepared food. The bathroom was more than simple, with CVS hand-soap. This made me chuckle considering I was spending $125 on an obese person's lunch. The lamb short ribs were not my favorite, with the lamb being a bit stringy and much too fatty, and the taste being much sweeter than I had anticipated. It wasn't bad, just not exactly what I was expecting I guess. I nearly finished the whole thing, and D definitely trounced his saltimbocca complete with fried sage leaves and lemon butter sauce. All in all, we were barely able to make it back to the subway and nearly collapsed in food coma. We were just chipper enough to make out the sounds of swishes and the winning score over UNC however.

Later that night we met with my cousin-in-law who just happened to be randomly in NYC for the weekend as well. They had close-up shots of Rascal Flatts in Madison Square Garden and bright shiny Texas-style belt buckles. Although we only ate a few pieces of fish, we joined them at Matsuri for elegant martinis and sake. The bites of yellowtail with jalapeno puree and the sake black cod were excellent, and i felt refreshed to being looking for a bar again. We then cabbed over to Death & Co., henceforth known as my favorite bar. As I looked for the slightly hidden entrance, the guy on the corner remarks "oh yeah, it's a trendy bar on 6th street" and I happily reply that said trendy bar is perfect for my current interests. I had a fabulous cocktail called The Conference, which mixed equal parts rye, bourbon, calvados and cognac, and topped it with angostura and chocolate bitters. Nearly every drink contained bitters, which although I've heard of a million times and seen them on drink menus, have never actually used when concocting my own drink. Point taken--I must delve into this to promote my obvious curiosity. We were able to get a seat immediately, which was phenomenal considering I guess there are often waitlists, and ended up closing the place down at midnight, which I didn't quite understand.

On Sunday, at a hefty $30 price tag, we visited the Museum of Natural History. Their wing on biodiversity was outstanding and I enjoyed that the most. It sure is nice to live where museums are free though. Perk noted.

Regrets of trip:
1. not getting to try gnudi, 2007's food of the year according to Bon Appetit. Oh well, on to 2008's food of the year--asian noodle dishes.
2. that I did not curse at more than those 2 people for letting a door slam in my face because they were just plain rude