New York, New York – A Foodie’s Dream, Part 1

So, let me recap my lovely/rainy trip to New York City. My cousin Liz, and our friend Beth, and I took the train from Albany to Penn Station. Let me just say, I love food. This is the reason why I had to lose weight to begin with, I loved food too much. But since I’ve started eating healthy, I realized just how much I DO enjoy food, and how to control my eating and to still eat what I enjoy, but not go overboard. When I eat out, I try to pick the healthiest thing on the menu that I know I will like. I almost NEVER order pasta with a creamy (fattening) sauce or fried food. I stick to mostly vegetarian options, sometimes, seafood or chicken. So, one of the best parts of NYC is all of the GREAT food options, something I wish Albany had.  So let the fooding begin!

Monday

Monday morning can’t remember what I had for breakfast, I just remember packing apples and Luna Bars for the train, because I know sometimes eating habits get screwed up while traveling, and I didn’t want to ever be STARVING (thankfully that never happened) so I didn’t need to eat any except on the train. Here is the view of the train tracks from our hotel room.

Anyway, Monday afternoon we got to the city and had to trek from Penn Station to the subway to the hotel where we were staying, the Travel Inn. It had a LOVELY view (note the sarcasm) of the Amtrak train tracks! And it really looked grimy, because of the rain. But despite our view, the hotel wasn’t too bad. I would say the only negative aspect was the walk to and from the subway stop, about flourish blocks, which sucked hardcore in the rain. (Thank God for rainboots and a raincoat from Target).

So we were pretty much famished by the time we got back to hotel. We had plans to meet the girls’ friend Emily at her art school in Tribeca, and she knew of a great little place for sandwiches, called Pecan Café.

I LOVED this place. It was so awesome. And the sandwich was the best thing I’ve tasted in a LONG time! (maybe because I was insanely hungry at the time?) But I ordered a green tea and a sweet potato sandwich. The description from the website: roasted sweet potatoes, goat cheese, red lettuce and chives with sweet chili mayo on a French baguette. Toasted. DELISH!!! I would actually go back to NYC again to get this sandwich. Yummy. I wish I had taken a picture of the sandwich. (Note: I need to get over the fear of photographing my food in public! I’m always afraid people will think I’m a freak…I mean who takes pictures of all the food they eat?)

So after sandwiches, Emily wanted to take us to a bakery down the street, called Billy’s bakery. It was the cutest place. I ordered the chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, and the frosting was out of this world!! Extremely satisfying. And I got my cupcake fix! I am a SUCKER for baked goods…and I have an extreme sweet tooth, NOT a good thing! But it is extremely difficult to withhold eating cupcakes when everyone around you is eating them, I usually give in and make up for it later.

A little later on, we met up with Liz and Beth’s friend…and she took us to Saint’s Alps tea house in the East Village. I’m slowly getting used to the different areas in New York…maybe next time I will be able to find my way around by myself! It’s just one big grid. I swear, one day it will click! Anyway, this place was really cute and had a lot of different kinds of tea. I got the strawberry black tea, which was served cold. It was like sipping strawberries!! VERY sweet, so I don’t even want to know how many calories were in it.

For dinner on Monday we decided to hit up a Sushi Samba!! There are two in New York. I’ve been to the one in Miami and LOVED it!! The one in New York had a lounge dining area, which was where we decided to sit, and it was incredible. The lighting is awesome, and the music was so fun. Liz just wanted to get up and dance! If you look at the menu, they describe their food as a fusion of Japanese and Brazilian cuisine. It’s pretty cool, and the food is REALLY good.  I ordered a Pacific Samba Roll, which was king crab, avocado, asian pear, soy paper, wasabi-avocado crema. And a side of roasted veggies. Let me say, the veggies were WAY better than the roll!! I like sushi, but it’s not my favorite. The veggies were so good.  Liz and I decided to split a dessert afterward, and we got the warm chocolate banana cake, maple butter, banana chip, vanilla rum ice cream, divine!!!! Needless to say, I felt a bit guilty about eating too many sweets in one day, but I have to give in sometimes, especially on a trip like this! After dinner we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep!

And so, this was our first day in New York. I will continue the next post with Tuesday’s happenings!