This time last month...

I can’t believe it is one month since Christmas Day, when I was presented with a New York guidebook in a box.  One month since I discovered, via a series of obscure clues, that my New York based general knowledge is utterly pitiful.  Although would anyone here have known who Allen Stewart Konigsberg was?

 

I’ve primarily talked on here about some of the meals we had.  My thoughts on New York itself are…well.  I’m not quite sure.  It is a wonderful city, and one to which I would (I will) return again and again.  Blisteringly vibrant, it sweeps you up with its sense of immediacy and bustle.  And I love that it feels strangely familiar, where so many of its aspects have appeared so many times on well loved television shows that they’ve become inscribed on my consciousness.   But the scale of it is just so big, so sprawling and yet so soaringly tall, that it can be – it is - overwhelming.  I don’t think I could live there, for all I joked to D about settling down in a Greenwich writers’ commune.

 

But yes, I definitely need to go back.  Aside from anything else (and let’s be really clear what is important here), there are so many things that I never got round to eating!  We were, for example, frustrated in our final day quest for a slice of proper baked cheesecake – the carefully selected bakery had sold out when we arrived (we took some solace from their cupcakes which were very good indeed.

 

Cupcake!

We dipped our toes into the (mayonnaise) pool of NY deli by taking a trip to Katz’s.  It had to be done but I think both of us feel that we wouldn’t go back – while the juicily pink beef in the Reuben sandwiches was, undoubtedly, very good, the sandwiches themselves were not necessarily special enough to counterbalance the slightly scary experience.  Next time, we want to check out Barney Greengrass “The Sturgeon King”, whose deli apparently inspired a couple of the dishes we ate at EMP.

 

Reuben!

I can’t believe I didn’t get round to having a hot dog!  And while we did have pizza, I don’t think it was an example of NYC’s finest.  Mind you, if you want somewhere to escape the press of crowds around Times Square, Osteria al Doge is a welcome retreat and not ridiculously priced considering its location.   Worth going for the deadpan waiter alone.  But in terms of street food in general – a bit of a fail this time around, definitely an area to sample more widely. 

 

Pizza!

Oh, and thank you for the tip Beth, I now actually NEED to sample crack pie.  I may end up making some at home it looks…just…D, meanwhile, quite fancies trying to get into David Chang’s two Michelin star joint.  He is currently buying lottery tickets with feverish resolve.