New York - Places I have Eaten

In talking to my bestest friend Lilea the other night we decided it would be a good idea for me to draft up a list of all the restaurants I've eaten at in Manhattan. I've broken them down into Brunch, Lunch and Dinner categories and places with a * are in Queens and a ^ Brooklyn and # in Jersey I'll update as I remember/have more to add. So here goes:




Brunch
L'Express
Sushi Samba
Balthazar's
Boqueria
The Cub Room
Alice's Tea Cup
Essex
W Hotel on 51st
Calle Ocho
The Cupping Room (Dave Chappelle sat across from me)
Pastis
La Isla#
Fatty's*
Bar 33*
Brooklyn Bagels* (yes in Queens LOL)
The Kettle*
Bondi Road
Balu*
Telepan

Lunch
Lemon Grass Grill
Ulysses
El Brigante
Duke's
Slaud
Earth
John's Pizza (West Village)
Ray's Pizza
The Libertine
Toloache
Suponi Gardens^
Grand Cafe*
Max Brenner
Pop Burger
Shake Shack

Dinner
Sushi Samba
Il Postino
Balthazar's
Fiama
Dos Caminos
El Brigante
Papatzul
Buddakan
Craft Steak
The Park
Casaville
BLT Fish
BLT Prime
Nobu (Howard Stern and his new wife sat across from us)
Tamarind
Fiddlesticks
The Cafeteria at the Hudson Hotel
Stanton Social
Pipa
Gramercy Tavern
Spice Market
Vento
Son Cubano
Lucky Strike
Toloache
Yerba Buena
Cantina Mercadito
Agave
Dandana*
Miss Favela^
Spice
Grand Cafe*
Avenue*
Favela Grill*
Novo*
Sidetracks*
Sri Pra Phai*
Cotazingo*
Frescas Tortillas*
Jo's
Florencia 13
Casa Colombia*

Concept - Hailing a Cab

Seriously God bless the person that thought of Cab service. I mean coming from California you have a lot of pride in your car and not having a car in CA is just NOT an option. However in moving to New York the whole cab concept is genius! You never have to worry about who your DD is, you never have to worry about parking and you never have to wait until your damn friend that drove is ready to leave. In NY you come and go as you please cause all you have to do is walk outside raise your arm and poof! Your chariot has arrived. HOWEVER there are things to know regarding cabs.

1. Cabs only run regularly in Manhattan.


2. Cabs will take you from Manhattan to Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx - however finding a cab in one of the outer boroughs is nearly impossible (that's when car service comes into play).


3. Cabs take cash, debit and credit cards. LOVE IT. (Car service only takes cash.)

Most importantly when hailing a cab NOTE the sign on top of the cab. There are basically 3 options that will help ease your frustration(s):

1. All numbers lit up - this means available.


2. Numbers not lit up at all - this means the cab is already occupied.


3. Numbers are lit up, however to the left and right of the number the sign reads "Off duty" which - you guessed it! Mean the cab off duty and not picking up.

Street Meat

God! Get your mind out of the gutter! Soooo what is 'Street Meat' you might ask. If you're not from New York this concept probably sounds a little X rated but really all it implies is meat bought on the street. Items falling into this category include:

• Hot Dogs (aka dirty water dogs)


• Kabobs (Chicken, lamb or beef)


• any other meat bought at a street fair

And that my friends is what street meat is.

Christmas

In such a big city, with so many places a few but familiar faces, a girl can really feel homesick when the holiday's come around. I've been extremely blessed to make such amazing friends in such a big and sometimes lonely city.

Christmas here was actually pretty cool. Mishelle, Boushra and I started the day at my place with crepes and cocktails, then moved the festivities down to the LES and Chef Polo made some amazing salmon and we all ate drank and were merry.

As much as the city shimmers in glitter and lights, this year I'll be in the good ole 9-0 for Christmas will surely it'll be the best ever.

Montreal

Oh Canada. I'd never been to Canada - EVER. Nonetheless on my first adventure there (and I say first as I will be back) I went to Montreal.

Montreal is simply gorgeous. It definitely nods at France with it's replica of the Metropolitan signage, the Basilica Notre Damn and the fact that EVERYONE speaks French! It was crazy! So many places literally only had menus in French, every place we went to they greeted us in French first - always French. It definitely was a culture shock to some degree - well more linguistic shock but being able to read in Portuguese helped a little in understand the menus.

Montreal was more of a relaxation trip as we went in November and it was rather cold. However should you ever go to Montreal get ready to eat - AMAZING, amazing, AMAZING food and wine and bourbon :) We stayed at the W Montreal which was gorgeous and what made it even better was that we got upgraded to the penthouse! It's was out of this world. Apparently Celine Dion had stayed in our room the week before.

It gets REALLY cold in Montreal - I mean for a couple months its under 0 degrees! They have this whole underground city! Literally a city with stores and restaurants and business offices - its was crazy. Being from CA and having earthquakes you would never see that back at home!

Montreal - go for the food, the shopping and definitely the culture.

Being Sarah Palin

I didn't vote for her - but walked a night in her shoes. Let's just saw it was AWESOME and too bad she didn't win LOL. However I think we're all better off and damn people love to buy Mrs. Palin drinks!

Side note - Halloween in NYC is a must. We celebrated at the Rivington Hotel in the Lower East Side. It was soooo much fun. Started at Polo's and ended up with brunch at Essex. Can't really ask for a better night out :)
http://www.hotelonrivington.com/

Titans v Ravens 2008

Oh irony. Had a written this when I went to the game I would have been all about the Titans winning the Super Bowl this year. But alas - I lagged and now I tell a tale of better days. In seeing the Titans play the Ravens in Baltimore it was a beautiful sunny day. Actually one of the nicest days we had in October.

Baltimore was great. We stayed at the Inner Harbor and had some awesome seafood. Of course we had crabcakes! Isn't it a sin not to when in Baltimore? After a nice night out and some casual site seeing we went to our place of Sunday worship the M&T Bank Stadium ;)

LET me tell you. These Raven fans are the East Coast equivalent of the Raider fans. Just not so urban ghetto - more hick. And in the sea of purple and black I had on my red, white and blue and sat next to one of the only other Titan's fan there.

After an intensely defensive game - finally in the last minute and thirty the Titan's scores a touchdown and won the game 13-10. It was freaken AWESOME. As soon as they scored we RAN out as I didn't want to be killed.

However the tale of great defeat is bittersweet as then the Ravens beat the Titans in one of the last qualifying games of the season with a the reverse score in the same time frame - talk about dejavu.

Here's to the 2009 NFL season!