New York, New York – A Foodie’s Dream – Part 2

Okay, since I’m writing this post two months after my NYC trip which I took in April so I’m going to do my best to re-cap the rest of the trip. Here we go!

Tuesday

Tuesday morning we wanted to some shopping. Liz had a meeting with her agent, so we went to a Starbucks around the corner for breakfast. I got one of their spinach and feta egg white wraps, which was a perfect healthy breakfast! We sat inside to warm up and get away from the rain.

Beth and I then walked around Bryant Park while we waited for Liz. We had lunch at Pax Wholesome Foods. It seemed like an okay place to get a quick lunch. They had tons of different foods on display behind glass windows (with the calories posted! yay!) I’m pretty sure I ordered a turkey sandwich. I remember the bread being really tough to chew. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had that’s for sure, but we weren’t too familiar with the places to eat around here so we settled for Pax.

After a quick lunch, we wandered around more, and found Le Pain Quotidein, a cute little cafe/eatery right on Bryant Park. Little did we know they had a place to sit down and eat real food! If only we’d waited and walked around the corner. Oh well! We went in anyway and sat down for some dessert. This place was so cute!

I ordered a chocolate mousse cake. And it was to die for. Here it is already half eaten.

Beth and I hung out here for a while and chatted (away from the rain) and when it let up a little bit we walked around and did some window shopping. I think we went to Gap and Barnes and Noble where we then met up with Liz.  Time to go back to the hotel and take off the rainboots for a little while.

We ended up meeting a couple of their friends at a cute little Thai place not too far from the hotel called Aura, which was nice. I ordered the lemongrass chicken: grilled marinated chicken with lemongrass sauce served
with a side of papaya salad and sticky rice. This was seriously some good chicken! If I were still eating chicken, I would order it again if I ever happen to go back to this place. I also tried the plum wine. It was a little too sweet for me, and that’s saying something! It kind of tasted like juicy juice! For dessert I tried the Fried Honey Banana with Coconut Ice Cream. Divine! I only sampled a bit of it though, but it was tasty.

After dinner we decided to see what kind of bars were around the area, and since we were staying in Hell’s Kitchen, we walked by tons of them. We decided on one that looked really cool called Zanzibar. The music in there was really funky and the lighting was cool. And it wasn’t too crowded, probably because it was a Tuesday night!

We sat down on the little couches and ordered our drinks. I got a Riesling.

I realized I am obsessed with huge wine glasses. 🙂 And Riesling. We hung out here for a while, but we were tired from walking around in the rain all day so the hotel bed was seeming nicer and nicer…

Wednesday

Today was the day we wanted to go to the museum! First we needed breakfast, so we went to a cute little cafe around the corner called Bis.Co. Latte. You can always find something good around the corner in New York.

It was lovely! We needed caffiene so I ordered a green tea and the girls ordered coffees.

For breakfast I tried my first bowl of steel-cut oats. It was love at first taste.

Sitting in this cafe on a New York City morning was delightful. I enjoy New York.

So, after breakfast, we went to the Jacques Torres chocolate shop! Mmm chocolate, my love. Jacques Torres was actually there at the shop too so it was kind of cool to see him! At first I only wanted to buy one thing, the breakfast bar! I was trying to be healthy! But a ginormous chocolate chunk cookie was calling my name, so I bought one and ate the whole thing! No regrets! I saved the breakfast bar for another time. 🙂

After chocolate, we headed over to the Rubin Museum of Art to see the Himalayan Exhibit, and that was really interesting. There is something relaxing about quiet museums. I don’t know what it is.

I’m pretty sure we fit lunch in there somewhere…I believe we went to this place called the Hollywood Diner, where I ordered a healthful veggie burger with no bun. But I remember it being pretty good.

We ended up going back to our hotel after the museum to get our stuff because we had a 4:00 train back to Albany. It was an awesome few days in the city! However, it does seem to rain every time I’m there. I’m really hoping the next time I go, which will probably be sometime this summer, it will be warm and sunny without a rain cloud in sight! 🙂