Food, Art and Animals

Eek holiday blogging backlog.  Bad blogger.


Oh my.  I didn't get a chance to sort through photos for a week, and I have, literally, hundreds and hundreds.  So I will do a couple of blog posts.  I haven't bothered to include photos of things such as the Empire State Building, Times Square etc.  I figure that most people are familiar with these images, and besides, you can see better photos of them on any postcard or tourism website.  Therefore, all I present here is a vague collection of slightly disjointed photos.


We went out to lunch at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station.  It is a famous landmark restaurant - I had heard very good things about it.  It was a beautiful space.  Twinkly fairy lights, open, long rooms, and interesting architecture.  I can't say much for the food, however.  It was, I can say, the ONLY 'bad' meal we've had yet in the US.  By which I mean, the meal was a disappointment.  The price was moderate to high (one of the more expensive meals we've had here) and I can say with certainty that it was the worst meal.  A $12 or so 'seafood cocktail' was simply a piece of lettuce on a (somewhat grubby) plate, with 6 really average, tiny dry and even slightly off-tasting plain prawns.  A small dish of nasty 'seafood sauce' which tasted like ketchup mixed with vinegar.  That's all.  The Daddy had a lobster roll that was passable - but certainly the 'bottom' of any we've had here - and I had a soft-shell crab and crawfish dish which was really pretty bad.  The vegetable side was overcooked, looking like something scooped out of a bain marie at a boarding school.  All in all, I would not recommend dining here!

We made the obligitory trip through Times Square.  Lots of colour, lights.  People everywhere.  Plenty of white-sneakered tourists.  We poked our heads in at Toys'r'Us and saw the giant Ferris Wheel - I believe it's 25m tall or something like that, housed within the store.

On the walk home from Times Square, we dropped in at the Carnegie Deli for lunch.  Amongst foodies and New Yorkers, there is much debate over whether Carnegie or Katz is the better deli (with some people throwing in the Second Avenue Deli as a contender).  The last time I went to Katz was several years ago, so I reserved judgement while at Carnegie.  The matzo ball soup was nice - incredibly richly flavoured broth, perhaps a little salty for my taste.  The matzo balls were flavoursome, however not in the style I prefer - I like small, light, fluffy matzo balls, whereas these were the enormous, tennis-ball-sized, stodgy variety.  Still, the soup was good!

The pastrami on rye was very nice - plenty of meat, a good amount of mustard, very fresh bread.  The pastrami was rich in flavour.

Deli sandwiches are always served with pickles here.  One could not complain about having an insufficient amount of pickles!

Tabitha, below, pauses to consider whether she would prefer to eat a matzo ball, or some potato Latke with applesauce.

We finished with blueberry cheesecake.  You know that your diet is seriously out of whack when you order blueberry cheesecake to 'eat some fruit'.  The cheesecake was fine, though not the best I've had in NY, and (though I am biased) not as good as my own.

While in NY, we had the great pleasure of catching up with my Godmother, Kathie, and her husband George, who live in Connecticut.  They are wonderful, hilarious people, and spending half a day with them was a real joy.  Tabitha was thrilled to meet her 'grand-godmother', and enjoyed playing patty-cake with her.  Kathie is a wonderful (really, really, really good!) knitter, and Tabitha has some lovely purple booties and a jacket knitted by Kathie from when she was born.


We ate at DGBG, a fabulous, relaxed restaurant in SoHo, owned by Daniel Boulud.  The food was excellent - simple but brilliant.  The restaurant was pleasantly noisy and full, perfect for lunch with a baby.

Tabitha had such fun that she started to 'freak out', bouncing up and down and waving her arms and body all around, shrieking with joy - 'twas very cute!

The next day, we took a walk around the Upper West Side, by the Dakota, and visiting Strawberry Fields in Central Park:

We also saw the beautiful Bethesda Fountain.  I adore this fountain - it's so majestic against the trees behind it.  On a warm day, people roll up their trousers and wade around in it - I have in the past.

We sat and listened to two incredibly talented musicians, playing in front of the fountain - a cellist and a violinist.  The backdrop of the fountain made for a beautiful half hour.

We took Tabitha to the Central Park Zoo - here is the size of her paw against a polar bear paw:

Here is a polar bear.  Looks super cute and cuddly, right?  Apparently not.  I do love their giant paws though...

Here is a lovely red panda relaxing in a tree.  Tabitha glanced at it, but she was much more interested in cooing over the cute picture of the red panda, located at the front of the enclosure:

I have always really loved Central Park Zoo - I love standing in the middle of a zoo, surrounded by tall trees, with glimpses of the incredibly skyline of the city poking through.  When we were at the zoo, it was a little foggy:

I am fond of this sea lion - he is blind, yet kept coming right up to the edge to 'perform' for the camera, waving his flippers and barking at the people.  He really looked like he was laughing!

We then went next door to the Children's Zoo, where there are farm animals for the children to pat.  I tried to take a photo of Tabitha with her face in the rabbit statue, but it didn't work so well:

Tabitha has learnt to drink from a regular straw - she really enjoys doing it.  The problem is, she blows in and out so all the water that has been in her mouth ends up back in the cup!  Luckily The Daddy and I don't mind.

Don't you love the Art Deco elevators in the Chrysler Building?  The Chrysler is one of my favourite buildings in the world.  To see it sparkling in the sun is truly spectacular.

Tabitha and I in the lobby of the Empire State building.  She has been spending much of this holiday in the Ergo.  When I get a chance, I am going to write a post discussing babywearing, different carriers, travelling with the Bugaboo, pros and cons of bringing a pram etc. for the holiday.  Hopefully will be useful to other parents planning on travelling with a baby.

The Flatiron Building - another of my favourites.  One of the first ever 'skyscrapers', people mocked it when it was first built, predicting that, because of its height and shape, it would never remain standing.

We have fallen in love with the Shake Shack.  I will write a blog post when we get back, all about the food on this trip - so I will tell you all about the Shake Shack, if you are unfamiliar with it.  The Shack also does excellent thickshakes.  Below, you can see the reaction when Tabitha discovered she was not allowed to drink a thickshake.  Unimpressed!

Delicious:

Juicy goodness:

Crinkly = more surface area for fat = tastier fries.

Chocolate Malt:

We went to MoMA.  Sadly, my favourite floor was closed (4th floor, with all the Pollocks, Rothko and Warhol) but we saw some beautiful art:

While I know that Monet's red period was due to his developing blindness, I actually really love some of the work from this period:

I adore Matisse:

While this is a beautiful painting in reproductions, seeing it in real life is so uplifting - the paint on the canvas seems to be applied so joyously!

We had some chicken wings at Hooters.  The waitress fell in love with Tabitha - lots of cuddles.  I'm sure there were some jealous men!  Surprisingly, there were plenty of families at Hooters.

We moved down to an apartment in the West Village after our week by the Park.  We are totally and completely in love with the West Village, and both agreed that we would move their in a heartbeat if given the opportunity!  We started off our stay with the Original Greenwich Village Food and Culture Walking Tour.  I had heard nothing but top reviews, and sure enough, it was excellent - 2.5 hours, incredibly informative, a good mixture of food and local history.  We learnt about the brickwork used in the houses, films shot in the area, the best risotto in the area...  and all with a good dose of laughter.  Below is a little strip of Bleeker St - you can see Amy's Bread, a seafood store, Murray's Cheese and a famous Italian smallgoods producer ('pork store' in the US vernacular).  Most people in the area shop in the European style, buying their food from individual suppliers every day or so, instead of doing bigger shops at a supermarket.  I prefer to shop most days too.  See, I would slip right into Village life!

Tabitha enjoyed the tour - we were required to purchase a ticket for her (all children need a ticket) so she got to eat her own samples everywhere we went - breads doused in flavoured oils, arancini balls, smallgoods, mushroom risotto, chocolate chip cookies, pizza, cheesecake...

One of our favourite spots was a store called Milk and Cookies.  The cookies are just amazing - crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.  You can also get them to whip you up a batch of cookies - tell them what you want in them (chocolate, nuts, marshmallow, toffee etc) and they will bake you a dozen+1 in under half an hour!  They also sell cookie dough, so you can take it home for midnight cookie emergencies.  They are open really long hours from memory - til after midnight I think.  They have a book, available on Amazon, called Milk and Cookies.  I will be purchasing!

This is the narrowest house in Manhattan - 3m wide!  The address is 9 1/2, or something like that.  Many famous people have lived here, such as John Barrymore and Cary Grant.  I imagine it's more of a novelty than anything - apparently no one has lasted more than a few years.

Here is where they shot the exterior of the apartment building in Friends:

Tabitha fell asleep while we were on the walking tour - isn't she cute, tucked away in the Ergo?  I could watch her sleep for hours.

I sent some postcards - really lovely vintage-style ones:

We played with Hugh Jackman's French Bulldog pup, Peaches.  We didn't realise it at the time - we just asked a nice lady out with her young daughter, if we could take a photo of their beautiful dog, since I adore Frenchies.  After we walked off, we both realised that the friendly lady was in fact Deborah Lee Furness, HJ's wife.  Sure enough, I googled Hugh Jackman and French Bulldog and pulled up loads of cute photos of HJ carrying Peaches around the Village.

We also sat right by Sarah Jessica Parker at Cluny Cafe.  She was just gorgeous in real life, incredibly delicate and well dressed.  She is sort of New York City Royalty, so we were quite pleased!