Eating and Shopping in NYC

For Presidents' Day, Raisin Bread and I spent the long weekend in NYC for a combined Christmas and Valentine's Day present. Since moving to DC two and a half years ago, I have not purchased much in the way of clothing, mostly due to a lack of time, so my sweet husband decided to give me a shopping trip as a gift. Thank you, honey!

We arrived early Saturday morning and made our way to downtown Manhattan, where we checked into the Andaz Wall Street. Now, I've spent the night in my fair share of NYC hotels and this hotel rates very highly in my book. The rooms are huge (!) and comfortable! Plus, the staff is amazing.

We were able to get our room before check-in time so we dropped off our bags and then headed out for breakfast at Made Fresh Daily.

My stomach wasn't feeling great, so I just had a fruit salad.

Raisin Bread ordered the Farmstand scrambled eggs with broccoli, corn, avocado and feta. We both found it to be super salty. 

After breakfast, we went to our first shopping stop: the madhouse that is known as Century 21. Even though this place is always a complete zoo, I am still usually able to snag some good pieces here. Next, we headed to Little Italy for lunch at Banh Mi Saigon. While we were enjoying our sandwiches, a lion came inside to pay a visit.

Chinese New Year lion at Banh Mi Saigon

We hit up a couple of sample sales before heading back to the hotel for a break and to change for dinner at Vitae before a night at the theatre!

I started with a "Northern Lights," which was kind of a twist on the French 75 with vodka, lemon juice, blueberry puree and prosecco.  

The bread with duck fat and sea salt was so delicious and fluffy. I wanted to fall asleep on them.

Next, we received a risotto ball amuse bouche. I'm not a fan of the risotto ball, so I wasn't impressed by this little bite.

Raisin Bread ordered the beet salad for his appetizer. I particularly liked the pistachio-crusted goat cheese. Yum!

I had the squid ink papparedelle with lobster for my main course. No complaints here! I don't understand how this dish can not be good.

We decided to forgo dessert since we were planning to get dessert after the show. After dinner, we got a little citrus palette cleanser in a tiny Coke bottle.

Finally, our meal ended with chocolate strawberries!

Then we were off to the Richard Rodgers Theatre to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof featuring Scarlett Johansson. This was the second time we've seen ScarJo on Broadway. We had previously seen her in A View from the Bridge a few years ago. I wasn't expecting great things from this play because the few reviews that I read were mostly mediocre. Despite my low expectations, I was quite happy with the play.

After the show, we headed to Kyotofu for dessert. There was quite a line and I remembered that the last time we went there, they had already run out of the desserts that we wanted. We decided to check to see if they even had what we wanted before we waited half an hour to be seated. It turned out that they did run out of what we wanted for dine in but they still had some for take out. So we settled on taking our desserts to go. 

Back at the Andaz, I enjoyed my black sesame panna cotta with hoji-cha syrup while watching Bridesmaids.



The next morning we headed to Chelsea Market for brunch at Friedman's Lunch and shopping at a pop-up shop.

Latte at Friedman's Lunch

I ordered chilaquiles, a dish I ordered quite frequently in Los Angeles but don't often find on menus in DC. These were amazing! Just look at that egg and those avocados.

We had another fruit bowl.

And Raisin Bread had some gluten free pancakes with berry compote.

The majority of the day was spent shopping again. For dinner, we went to Beyond Sushi...a vegan...sushi...place. Huh? Yes, that was my reaction as well when we first got there. To be quite honest, I was slightly unhappy about the prospect of eating vegan sushi but I shouldn't have poo-pooed it so much. It was quite tasty and filling even if the mushroom sauce did look like little dookies.

From back: Mighty Mushroom, Pickle Me, and Crunch N Munch rolls

We stopped by Tu-Lu's to pick up some dessert for later before heading to the Anthology Film Archives to see Modern Romance.

Andaz Wall Street                                                     Kyotofu (CLOSED)
75 Wall Street                                                          705 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10005                                                  New York, NY 10019

Made Fresh Daily                                                     Friedman's Lunch
226 Front Street                                                       Chelsea Market
New York, NY 10038                                                  New York, NY 10011

Century 21                                                               Beyond Sushi
22 Cortlandt Street                                                    229 E 14th Street
New York, NY 10007                                                   New York, NY 10003

Banh Mi Saigon                                                        Tu-Lu's Gluten Free Bakery
198 Grand Street                                                      338 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003                                                   New York, NY 10003

Vitae                                                                        Anthology Film Archives
4 East 46th Street                                                       32 Second Avenue
New York, NY                                                             New York, NY 10003                                  

Christmas Time in NYC

After finals were over and done with, Raisin Bread and I decided to pop over to NYC for the weekend! The weather was still mild so it made for a wonderful time for a celebration of another successful semester.

We arrived very late on Friday night and checked into the Aloft in Downtown Brooklyn. Thank you, SPG! Although it was convenient to the subway, I found it to be a pleasant hotel in an odd location.

It was close to midnight but of course, this being NYC, we found some late night grub at Bijan's. This place was low-key, welcoming and friendly.

I had their signature drink, the Bijan, which is vodka with pineapple, mint, elderflower and cayenne. Additionally, we shared some appetizers: eggplant and crushed walnuts, assorted olives, yogurt and shallots and Persian-style chicken wings. Those were some of the most excellent chicken wings I've had, both tangy and spicy.

The next morning, I went on my Brooklyn to Battery Park and back run. Afterwards, we journeyed over to Chelsea Market. This was my first time to Chelsea Market, but the crowds were so thick that we weren't able to explore that much. Instead, we really just wanted to duck in somewhere for brunch.

We selected The Green Table. We shared pigs in a blanket while I lunched on the vegetarian mushroom pot pie and Raisin Bread had the chicken pot pie. Yum!

Our afternoon was spent at another location that I had never visited before: The Highline. Let me just say that I love this place and think it is such a special place that everyone can enjoy. Later, we braved the crowds for some shopping at my favorite store, Century 21, before returning to the hotel for a nap.



The weekend happened to coincide with SantaCon. From what I gathered, this consists of dressing up as Santa Claus and drinking. The funniest thing I heard that weekend was said while we were on the subway, heading for dinner. Two well-spoken men were having a conversation, but when we approached a subway platform near midtown, one of them looked over and said, "Stupid Santas. I hate them."

For dinner, we met up with some friends at Yakitori Totto. The food was good but I was expecting life-altering yakitori. Alas, it wasn't to be. Three of the things we ordered: tuna and avocado salad, chicken skin and galbi. 

Next, we were off to Radio City Music Hall to see The Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular. How can this show not get you into the holiday spirit? 

We were able to make it to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree five minutes before they switched off the lights! 

Christmas smooch!

Late night dessert at Kyotofu in Hell's Kitchen rounded out our evening. I had no idea that Japanese tofu desserts existed, but they sure were yummy! I had the warm chocolate mochi cake. They also gave us green tea cookies afterwards, which were not exciting. 

The next morning we had brunch at Cafe Luluc before heading home. Here's my spinach and goat cheese omelette.

Until next time, NYC!

Aloft New York Brooklyn
216 Duffield Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Bijan's
81 Hoyt Street
New York, NY 11217

The Green Table
75 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10011

Yakitori Totto
251 West 55th Street
New York, NY 10019

Kyotofu (CLOSED)
705 9th Avenue

New York, NY 10019

Cafe Luluc
214 Smith Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

At #BlogHer12 - Avenue Q the Musical

Thanks to MamaDrama I had the opportunity to attend an off-Broadway show during my visit to New York for BlogHer 12 this past weekend. On Thursday night, I found myself at the New World Stages to see the multiple Tony-award winning musical Avenue Q.

Exactly ten years ago next month, two girlfriends and I packed up a U-Haul and moved to an awful street in Brooklyn called Avenue U. Avenue Q took me back to that time when I was fresh out of college and trying to find my purpose. It turned out that my purpose was not to live in New York City, but that is a different blog post all together.

Avenue Q follows the journey of a new college graduate named Princeton who moves to New York and finds himself on a street named Avenue Q. While my neighbors were new immigrants from China and Russia, Princeton's are furry monsters and a couple of people.

This musical is hilarious and completely inappropriate. You should expect puppet sex and tunes with titles like "The Internet is for Porn" and "If You Were Gay." There is something to be said about cute, fuzzy puppets singing these songs. I was rolling with laughter.

Plus, the cast is awesomely talented. The puppeteers played multiple parts each and moved seamlessly from one character to the next and sang beautifully. The concept of the musical clearly takes its cues from Sesame Street with people and puppets living together, but this show is not for kids.

If you happen to find yourself in New York and need a just for adults night at the theatre, I highly recommend Avenue Q. Trust me, you won't stop laughing!

Tickets are available at Telecharge.
Follow MamaDrama - @MamaDramaNY
Follow Avenue Q - @avenueqmusical

Disclosure: MamaDrama provided me with tickets to Avenue Q. No monetary compensation was received for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure policy.  

Eat and Drink: Resto (New York City)

I get a day off for Cesar Chavez Day, so Matt and I planned a short trip to New York for the weekend. We didn't have any luck with the two restaurants that I wanted to try. When the original restaurants had entirely too long of a wait, we wandered some back streets, looking on Yelp for possibilities. We wound up stumbling upon Resto in Murray Hill, and I am glad that we did.

Resto is an adorable, homey Belgian restaurant. It was very quaint and unpretentious for a New York restaurant and was just comfortable. I ordered the chicken and waffles. The citrus chili syrup was kind of a strange addition and I wasn't particularly fond of it. But the gravy, chicken and bacon waffle were amazing. 

Chicken 'n Waffles
(bacon waffle, peppercorn gravy, citrus chili syrup)

Matt ordered the traditional Belgian dish of steamed mussels and fries, but with a twist. Resto has three different kinds of broth you can choose from, so he picked the Thai-inspired one. It was absolutely delicious. The frites were also great. Big and fat, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. They also come with a ton of options for dipping sauces, and he picked an Indian-inspired cumin, yogurt one. Yum! I do wish I had ordered this dish now!

Moules & Frites
(green curry, lemongrass, coconut milk, kaffir lime broth)

Resto
111 East 29th Street
New York, NY 10016