My Visit to NYC

Fifth Installment: Eats

My first day in New York I met Stephen at his office at Martha Stewart Living. After a happy greeting and a huge hug, Stephen said to me, “I hope you came with your eating hat on, because I’ve got some great places to take you for fabulous food!”

Stephen, I always have my eating hat on my friend.

We did indeed enjoy some fabulous eats while in New York. It was good to be with Stephen, Emilie, John and a few other New York residents who know where to get the best NY grub. There are many a restaurant in NYC, the choices are endless, and you don’t want to choose unwisely. We didn’t.

Here’s just a few places we dined and some pictures of the delicious food to get your mouth watering…

I was on my own during lunch on Thursday. Stephen lead me via my cellular telephone to a favorite spot of his called the Shake Shack. What a great place! I had a good old fashion burger, fries and a shake, best I’ve had in forever!

Before we headed to the MOMA on Friday, Marc and I hit the Doughnut Plant. I’ve been wanting to try this place ever since I saw this post about it on Emilie’s blog. Doughnuts are by far my favorite treat, and the doughnuts here were the best I’ve ever had (we had Doughnut Plant twice while I was there). The coconut was the hands down favorite, dipped in a coconut speckled glaze, filled with coconut cream; but the blackberry jelly-filled ran a close second….

The décor at the Doughnut Plant was very cool; huge doughnut pillows hanging above you, and a gigantic screen on one wall where classic movies were showing. We watched Liz Taylor in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” while we ate the sweet delights.

The fanciest joint where we dined was the Standard Grill in the Meatpacking district in Manhattan. This is a favorite dinner spot of Stephen and John’s, for good reason. This place was amazing. I copied Stephen and had pan seared trout with pine nut and currant chutney, the best snow pea and radish salad ever; and for dessert, the most divine, intense chocolate mousse, served in a deep glass bowl with spatulas for serving and eating. Wowza! Every bite was superb.  We had a fun incident with a waiter there too, right Emilie? Good times.

Saturday night we decided that Stephen should make dinner for us because he’s a good cook and had a pasta recipe up his sleeve that he wanted us to try. We stopped at Mario Batali’s new Eataly, a very popular Italian market (huge too) that contained every Italian food item you could ever want, and the most amazing produce. We bought fresh pasta coins, many a pound of heirloom tomatoes, Uncle Rob-like amounts of garlic, sweet basil, olive oil, crusty bread, aged-to-perfection parmesan cheese, some Italian sausage to eat with our crusty bread and cheese, and a few other delectable Italian items…

Look at the pasta selection alone!


Go Stephen go!

… then we subwayed it back to Emilie’s kitchen for a cooking and eating extravaganza. I think this was my favorite night in NY. It was perfect hanging out with some of my favorite peeps, cooking, eating, talking, laughing, listening to music, relaxing. I was happy.

Look at this feast we concocted. (Well, mostly Stephen concocted)

Everything about this meal was great. The pasta was so delicious and very simple to make. Perfect for summer. The recipe will be in the August issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine. You’ll want to pick up a copy for yourself and try it.

Sunday brunch was at the Hampton Chutney Company. This lovely Dosa was filled with a Indian spiced potato filling which I then topped with peanut sauce and some mango chutney. Amazing flavor. Stephen even shared his mango lassi with us.

When my cousin Sara lived with my parents last summer, she would make a copy cat version of the famous Lavain Bakery Co.’s chocolate chip walnut cookies. Sara’s version was to die for, so of course I had to try the original. Check out that cookie! Have you ever seen a more luscious looking morsel? I testify that it tasted even better than it looked. I now can say from experience that the copy cat version is pretty darn close. You can find the recipe here if you want to try some at home. I’d recommend it.

Everyone has been asking me what my favorite thing I ate in NYC was. Answer: Aside from the coconut doughnut at the Doughnut Plant I would say that my favorite thing was the falafel pita I had at Tiam, a place near Stephen’s apartment in the West Village. I can still taste the deliciousness.

Eating in NYC is such a delight! I would have gained ten pounds after just four days if it hadn’t been for all the walking. The problem is, I tasted all kinds of things I will now crave, but my cravings shall go unsatisfied unless I hop on a plane to NY. This is a problem.