Girls' Trip to New York!

Hi Friends!

So sorry I have been so MIA in the last couple weeks. If you have been following me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, you would  have seen that I have been traveling quite a bit, first to New York City with a good friend from college, and then more recently to Las Vegas with Bryan for a whirlwind tasting of Asian food (more on that in a later post!).

My friend and I spent a simple, relaxing weekend in New York. Without any huge agendas (we've both been there numerous times), we ended up just walking a lot, eating a lot, and spending some good quality time catching up.

I will write about some of these restaurants in much greater detail, but for now, here's a brief summary of places we visited!
We spent a lot of time in the Village this trip, which I loved. The Village reminds me a bit of certain cute neighborhoods in London, as well as even Cambridge or Boston. It's got a different feel compared to the hustle and bustle of activity in Midtown (which is where we were staying). On a whim we decided to stop by Dominique Ansel Bakery on the off chance they had a cronut or a Dominique kouign amann, aka "DKA" (the pastry that is supposedly preferred by Dominique Ansel himself).

Alas, the cronuts were sold out. However, they still had a ton of kouign amanns left, and they were serving them as ice cream sandwiches! Even though it was only an hour before dinner, we felt compelled to get an ice cream sandwich.

So good.

We didn't miss the cronut one bit!

For dinner we ate at Mission Chinese Food, trying some excellent dishes like the green papaya salad pictured above, which reminded me of a cross between a Thai som tam and a Burmese tea leaf salad. It was excellent.

Asado taco at Los Tacos #1 @chelseamarketny #sogood
A photo posted by Jennifer (@tinyurbankitchen) on May 9, 2016 at 10:02am PDT

The next day, we explored the High Line, New York's ourdoor elevated "park" that's built along an old railroad line. We visited Chelsea Market, exploring the artisan jewelry market, the many fun food markets, and also the restaurants. Lunch was simple but so good - fresh tacos (with homemade wrappers!) from Los Tacos right inside Chelsea Market. Even though there wasn't any seating, people still lined up to eat at this place because the prices were very reasonable and the tacos were awesome.

Yum! Agnolotti del plin @eatalyusa - reminds me of the Piedmont region @travel_langhe #imissitaly
A photo posted by Jennifer (@tinyurbankitchen) on May 8, 2016 at 7:18pm PDT

My friend had wanted to check out Eataly, so we stopped by and explored all the tempting Italian products. Having just visited the Piedmont region in Italy not too long ago, I was especially nostalgic for regional pastas that reminded me of the region, such as agnolotti del plin.

For dinner, we ate at Uncle Boon's, a restaurant my chef friend David Punch of Sycamore and Little Big Diner said was one of his favorite restaurants in New York. The Thai food was excellent, and I was thrilled to find real Betel leaves on the menu for this traditional Thai dish. Definitely worth a visit!

9/11 Memorial & museum - definitely worth a visit #neverforget #paytribute #remember
A video posted by Jennifer (@tinyurbankitchen) on May 10, 2016 at 3:00pm PDT

Our final morning in New York, we visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. I highly recommend visiting, but definitely do give yourself enough time to go through the museum. There is a lot of content, and it can take hours to really soak it all in. I would recommend around 3 hours at least, if not more.

For lunch on that final day, I treated my friend to Le Bernardin, since it was her birthday just a couple weeks back. We enjoyed a phenomenal 3-course lunch tasting, which is really a pretty good deal at $85 compared to dinner prices ($147 for 4 courses and up). The food was exquisite, as always, and the service was perfect.

Ironically, right after finishing our lunch at Le Bernardin, we headed over the The Halal Guys to pick up a dinner to-go. My friend was heading onto a flight back to the west coast, and I was hopping onto an Amtrak train back to Boston. We would both be on the train/plane during dinnertime. The boxed Halal Guys lunch smelled amazing right when we picked it up. Unfortunately, we knew we would have to wait hours before eating it, and then it would probably be cold.

It still turned out quite delicious though!

"Better Nutter" @bouchon_bakery #dessert #sogood #cookie #peanutbutter
A photo posted by Jennifer (@tinyurbankitchen) on May 10, 2016 at 2:24pm PDT

Our last stop was a quick detour to Bouchon Bakery, where I picked up some TKO's (which are still better than my homemade version), Better Nutters, and other cookies. My friend picked up a ton of stuff to bring onto the plane.

Good-by Manhattan! Til next time!
A video posted by Jennifer (@tinyurbankitchen) on May 10, 2016 at 6:56pm PDT

And then all of a sudden, I was heading back to Boston.

My friend and I ended up eating our Halal Guys dinners around the same time on the train. The verdict?

"I just finished - white sauce is good and red sauce is really spicy!"

"My nose is sweating! But it was tasty. Reminded me of gyros . . ."

Trips to New York are always fun, and there really is no shortage of restaurants to visit or new foods to try.  Stay tuned for future detailed posts about some of the meals I mentioned above!