The Brooklyn Bridge

The last time we walked the Brooklyn Bridge on a hot day was in August - from Manhattan to Brooklyn. This time we walked from Brooklyn to Manhattan, again on a very hot day. The best time to do this is in the cooler months like Fall.

Brooklyn Heights Esplanade

This past Saturday, we went to Brooklyn Heights, one of New York City's most historic neighborhoods. The first thing you notice when you get off the Clark Street stop is how calm, relaxed and clean the neighborhood here is. Our street almost, in contrast, seems like a war zone. You could probably eat off the streets. More amazingly, we only heard a car honk its horn once. Yes, tranquility and serenity can exist in New York, if you can afford it.

We took a nice walk on Brooklyn Height's Esplanade in the 85-degree-weather. The long boardwalk has some of the best views of New York City. We can only imagine how beautiful it must be with the city's night lights. In 1965, Brooklyn Heights won designation as the city's first historic district. There are streets here that are the same as it was in the Civil War. Brooklyn Heights was once the neighborhood of many writers including Walt Whitman, Arthur Miller, Tennesse Williams and artists like Bob Dylan and Mary Tyler Moore.


You look to one side, you see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

You look to the other side, you see the Brooklyn Bridge.


Below, you see this - the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.


And at the heart and center of it all, you see this - one of the most famous skylines in the world.

What's lacking from the image above is what was once the skyline that included the Twin Towers (shown in the photo in the photo below).

Equally amazing are the beautiful and seemingly large unique apartments right at the promenade. Not only do they have the zillion-dollar views shown above, most of the apartments also had terraces, great outdoor space, beautiful windows and intricate details. We're sure these apartments are inhabited by the high income bracket or the very lucky, but this is the place we'd like to move when we're ready to have kids - quieter and cleaner than Manhattan but just minutes away by Subway when we need more action (because the area is a bit too tame for people like us that just moved to the city and actually enjoy the sensory overload).



When we see apartments like these, we wonder "who are they? what do they do for a living? what the hell is their income? what does it look like inside? do they appreciate it?" Sigh.








And here's something you rarely see.

We were disappointed by the restaurants on Montague Street and the surrounding streets. We finally settled on Taze Turkish restaurant. This is their outdoor seating with sweeping views of . . . other peoples' apartments.



We decided to go with their lunch special, which includes either soup or salad, one appetizer, and one entree for $14 (a great deal considering for all these items, the total would be about $31). We started with a delicious hot weather salad - Taze's Turkish Shepherd's Salad ( finely diced tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, onions, and parsley tossed in olive oil and vinegar). Taze's refreshing iced tea was also extremely sweet and tasty.


This is one of the best stuffed grape leaves (stuffed with rice, pine nuts and currents) that we tried. The flavor and texture were absolutely perfect.


Their Sigara Boregi (filo scrolls stuffed with feta cheese and fresh dill).

Their chicken kebab lunch plate. Nothing exceptional but decent.


Their Kofte Kebab (char grilled Turkish meatballs). The only bad thing we tasted here was their house salad, which was made disgusting by their "salt" salad dressing. Someone had the very bad idea of thinking vegetables smothered in nothing but a lot of salt would be a tasty choice.


We were glad we got our food fuel, because our next stop on this warm Saturday was to walk back to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge.

Just strolling along

Great Gothic details at The Dakota building.


A few other things that catch our attention while walking around.

Remembering Golden Girls

Actress Bea Arthur passed away today. She was born in New York City in 1922. Long live the Golden Girls and fond memories of Bea Arthur. We know we can't forget the show, which we appreciate more as we get older, especially with the lack of witty, funny well-written shows on crapavision.

We took this photo in November at a store near our home in Chelsea that sells an "interesting" mix of things and by "interesting" we mean you won't want to bring your kids here. But we saw all things Golden Girls in the window and decided to venture in. Glad we did because I scored myself a great Golden Girls T-shirt which I've been happily wearing at home ever since.


What's great about living in a city like New York City is there are literally all kinds of theme parties, including Golden Girls tribute parties with, as you might guess, a Golden Girls look alike contest.

Good cheap wine

Our usual under $10 wines from Chelsea Wine Country. Casal Branco is our standard dinner wine.


Talus is one of our new at home favorites. Very light, good for drinking alone without any food pairings.

2nd Ave Kosher Deli on 3rd Ave

2nd Avenue Deli is a Kosher delicatessen that opened in 1954. It's named after its original location (and location until 2006) on 2nd Ave in the East Village. This is their new location in Murray Hill (on 162 East 33rd Street near Third Avenue). What's more impressive than their hours (open from 6 am to 2 am on weekdays and from 6 am to 4 am on weekends), is that we were told this deli would have one of the best corned beef sandwiches we'd ever try. We were more than willing to confirm or dispute that statement.

The deli looked different from how we thought (or rather, assumed) it would look. For some reason, we thought it would look something like Katz's. It was a lot more cleaner and polished looking than Katz's but not as cluttered with celebrityism and tourism like Carnegie's. This was probably the most spic and span looking deli we've been to. The space was also very narrow; you will be elbow to elbow trying to get to a table here.

The tiled walls were coverd with Yiddish theatre images.


Before we even ordered our meal, we were treated to this - great load of pickles (which for two people was way too much), cole slaw (which I normally hate but this was pretty good - light and without that runny milky schtuff), and gribenes (our first time having these crisp thin pieces of deep fried chicken skin and semi-burnt onions). The gribenes were delicous and would better serve as beer companions than peanuts at bars. They also give you a ton of challah bread. We're not sure if they were trying to give your stomach a sort of warm up with all this food before the meat marathon. Question to ponder - if you only eat two pickles, what do they do with the rest?

The Matzoh ball soup with carrots and noodles were great (you can also choose rice or Kasha instead of the noodles). We loved that our waiter evenly split the soup between the two of us and mashed up the ball for us. We appreciate good service.

The most important part of the visit is tasting their sandwiches. When we saw the large Carnegie Deli-esque size of the sandwiches that the two men next to us had ordered, we knew we had to do some sort of split deal since we had a full day ahead of us and could not afford to be dragging our feet (and tums around). (Later, the two men who started out by saying the sandwiches weren't big enough for them could barely finish half their sandwiches). The perfect solution was to order their "Twin Double" where you get one corned beef and one hot pastrami on twin junior rolls for $19.95. This was the perfect portion for two people who just had Matzoh ball soup and the restaurant's generous free appetizers. The corned beef was delicious but we're not quite ready to say it's the best. The pastrami was incredibly moist and tender (one of the best, but for some reason we still preferred Katz's just a bit more), made more perfect by dipping it in the mustard. The sandwiches were great but not phenomenal only because they were served at room temperature. There's something to be said for sandwiches served hot. We actually loved this served on the junior rolls instead of the average deli breads because it allowed us to eat it easily without the bread breaking or crumbling, despite the size and weight of the meat. In keeping with the tradition, we would like them to create a rye roll.

As we received our bill, our waiter brought us this complementary chocolate soda. It was unique and a great way to end the meal. A very nice touch. Hey, one of the best last impressions a restaurant can make is with a delicious FREE treat. Getting back to our waiter, our waiter was how all waiters in the city should be - a friendly gentleman with great personality that kept checking in on us to make sure our food was good. When he handed us our bill, he said "take your time." We loved that we didn't feel so rushed and moved along like numbered cattled in this fast-faced restaurant.

When I was standing in the long line to the restroom (only two unisex toilets), the woman in front of me with an accent reminiscent of Stephanie Mangano in Saturday Night Fever was schooling a tourist who didn't know much about 2nd Ave Deli by telling her "this is the best deli in Manhattan period. You have to order the chopped liver or you don't know what you're ordering." I guess we have much to try, including the chopped liver. Other things on their menu: Gefilte fish, stuffed derma (kishke), ptcha, blintzes, pierogen, kreplach, knishes, tip tongue (extra lean) sandiwhc, center tongue sandwich, knoblewurst, three decker sanwiches like their roast turkey/brisket/chicken fat sandwich, boiled beef in a pot with mushroom barley soup, baked carp, and broiled chicken livers. Their recently added appetizing corner include fish such as sable, pastrami salmon, whitefish chubs, pickled lox in wine sauce, herring in parve cream sauce, schmaltz herring, and kosher crab salad. Their desserts include chocolate babka, rugalach, warm apple strudel, and halvah. They also serve beer and wine (both a bit expensive for a deli). But of all the things that were listed on their huge menu that stood out for me just becuase you rarely see it was their tongue omelet. When was the last time you went to brunch and ordered tongue omelet?

By the way, we love this recent New York Times article on 2nd Ave Deli. We love that it's like having a meal with Nora Ephron and thanks to her we've got another place we'd like to explore.

The worst part of this 2nd Ave Deli experience for us was exiting the restaurant. For some reason, we hadn't noticed the $100,000 Reward Poster on its door asking for help in solving the 2006 murder of the 2nd Ave Deli's founder Abe Lebewohl.

One half of us has a cholesterol problem so we wont' be making frequent trips here (nevermind the fact that we'd much rather have visted it in East Village than the snoozeorhood Murray Hill location); however, we're determined to go back. There's a lot on the artery clogging menu we'd like to try and although the pastrami might have been better at Katz's, 2nd Ave Deli made you feel more welcomed and appreciated for giving them business. We get the whole "rude deli counter person" schtick but sometimes you just want to be treated with respect when you're paying for your meal. And that's what we got at 2nd Ave Deli.

Meatpacking

Some pictures we took from a walk through our neighboring Meatpacking area - some very industrial spaces, rows of expensive bars and restaurants and hotels, and stupidly expensive designer boutiques (likes of Alexander McQueen) that always look empty. Got a great picture of my love standing next to this.








Tasted one of the most delicious margaritas on the rocks at Los Dados. The problem was that it was too expensive so we couldn't order more than one. But damn. It was good stuff.


Los Dados also has these savory beef picadillo mini tacos with a delicious sweet sauce drenching the meat. They also had a very unique non-spicy salsa that went perfectly with the margarita. The perfect afternoon in-between meals snack.

Sadly, one of the few reminders of why the area was once called "meatpacking." The people we've seen in their high-end gear in the area don't look at all like meat eaters.

Pizza Delivery: Rocco's Pizza Joint

This cardboard box often contains our dinner and next-day lunch.

When we want affordable fast food delivered to our door, we turn to Rocco's Pizza Joint (7th Ave). We started by ordering their large Italian Vegetarian with roasted peppers, onions, olives, fresh garlic and mushrooms ($16.50).

Then we got into their damn good Low Fat Pizza with tomato, basil and 75% Fat Free Mozarella (large for $13.75). This pizza has a delicious thin-crust, the tomato sauce is plentiful (very important), the bits of basil adds the needed extra flavor, and we love that it's not too oily or greasy. Who knows if it's 75% fat free mozarella or not, and really who cares - it's filling and satisfying. Tomato sauce = lycopene = anti-cancer properties. Cheese = Calcium = strong bones. Yes, here's the rationalizations again.

Their baked Ziti with turkey meatballs ($9.75) isn't anything special, but the portion is huge, and like the large pizza, this lasts us two days - more bang for the buck. For pasta freaks like us, size definitely matters.


What's great about ordering from Rocco's is that on their delivery menu, there's a $2 coupon, which we thought we could only use once, but the delivery person never asks for the coupon, so we've used it every time we ordered. That covers the tip. Since finding Rocco's Pizza Joint, we haven't ordered from Mezza Luna around the corner.

Elephant and Castle (Not the Chain)

One thing you're constantly reminded of while living in New York City is that there is never enough time in the day. We just realized that we have such a backlog of restaurant photos (some from the summer) that we've been meaning to share, starting with this one on Elephant and Castle on 68 Greenwich Avenue. The restaurant opened in 1973 then opened its second location in 1989 in Dublin, Ireland. Due to its name, I almost got this restaurant confused with the Elephant & Castle chain of restaurants (opened 1977 in Vancouver), which this definitely is not. I've been to one of the Elephant and Castle chains in San Diego and the food was awful.

One of the best things about Elephant and Castle is this appetizer: The Grilled Calamari. It's simply the best calamari appetizer we've tried. The lemon pepper vinaigrette sauce and the extremeley tender calamari made this dish perfect.

This is one of the few times I've eaten a burger without ketchup. The Guacamole Burger (guacamole, cheddar and tomatoes) was juicy and as you can tell by this photo, they did not skimp on the guacamole. I can't complain about combining two of my favorites - guacamole and meat.


We wanted to try one of their Dessert Crepes and decided on the Grand Marnier crepe, which consists of crunchy sugar and Grand Marnier Liqueur. Normally, the desserts are cooked with the alcohol where you can only taste a hint of the alcohol. In this case, it tasted like they poured the entire bottle of Grand Marnier all over the crepe. And we could not taste the sugar anywhere. It was way too much alcohol. We should have ordered their Slovenian Wedding crepe.

There was nothing bad we could say about their smoked chicken sandwich (with roasted garlic, avocado, roasted tomato and horseradish mayo) but it wasn't quite a memorable item either.


Another good thing about this restaurant is they serve omelettes all day. What was awful? Their limited beer selection. Also, how can you have a sister restaurant in Dublin, Ireland and not even have Guinness on your beer menu? What the?

Another Sangria Sunday Stop

Here we go again. Another Sunday walking around the West Village and then it happens. The sign. We can't help ourselves when we see signs like this. Note to restaurants in neighborhoods with a lot of competition: put signs like this outside. It works.

Lima's Taste Ceviche Bar on Christopher and Bedford Streets.

We only wanted to drink Sangria and noticed there was no bar in the restaurant. Luckily, we were the only customers so we got a nice table by the window. And the waiter didn't give us attitude because we didn't order any food.


Since we had red Sangria on Friday night (the most unbelievable Sangria - later post), we decided on a white one. This Sangria was lighter fluid strong. We have pretty high tolerance for alcohol but we only ordered one glass each and it nearly kicked our butts. We were dizzy and woozy walking around after this one. The sun didn't help.

The crappy thing was that when we saw the sign outside, we thought there would be some sort of special or deal like the $10 pitcher at La Palapa. Unfortunately, just regular prices ($8 per glass). Still, we'll go back to Lima's Taste to try their Peruvian cuisine and maybe we'll just split one Sangria next time (light weights).

Riverside Park - It's Spring in NY

Today was 80 degrees. We needed to see and breathe in some nature and headed to the Riverside Park on the Upper West Side (located between the Hudson River and Riverside Drive). It's spring and in New York City that means gorgeous trees and flowers beginning to magically pop up in places you could have sworn weren't there just the other day. We're especially excited about seeing the cherry blossoms.



This is the Park's Crabapple Grove: Garden for All Seasons. It was a beautiful day for the families to bring their towels and blankets and just relax and enjoy the new views. Riverside Park also has great area for kids like the Dinaosaur Playground and Hippo Playground, and there's a dog area as well.

This is the 96 feet tall Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at 89th St. This was dedicated in 1902 in remembrance of those from New York State who fought in the civil war. Unfortunately today, we missed the Joan of Arc monument on 93rd Street.

The Garden People Garden located between 90th and 91st Streets on the Promenade level. Since it's the start of the season, the garden didn't look as lush as we'd seen in photos like these so we'll go back to see how the greens and flowers grow in May.

Before we moved here, everyone was telling us our first winter in New York would be hell. But with the exception of a few days, we didn't think winter here was bad at all. These spring time flowers seem like gifts for all the New Yorkers that had a hard Winter.



All the flowers were beautiful but these caught our eyes instantly.

The funny thing that's been happening to us after we return home from visiting the different places around New York is that night we'll turn on the TV to find a movie showing the place we had just visited. So tonight after we returned home from visiting Riverside Park, You've Got Mail was on and that movie (the story is set on the Upper West Side of New York) ends with Tom Hanks meeting Meg Ryan at 91st at the Garden People Garden. Riverside Park was also in the 1979 film The Warriors. That would be a funny to scene to see the street gangs fighting with the backdrop of cherry blossoms.

The Best Waffle in Town

Petite Abeille has one of the best Belgian waffles we've ever tried and the best way to try it, especially for the first time, is to try it plain, with only powdered sugar and maple syrup. Unbelievable! You can also get the waffle with whipped cream or sugar and strawberry sauce, with fresh strawberries, bananas, or with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.


Their omelets are also good but pretty standard. Stick to either the waffle or the croque madame (which looked unfreakin believably good).

We've been to Petite Abeille for both breakfast and dinner and never left without a smile on our faces.

Pearl River Mart

Pearl River Mart on Broadway between Grand and Broom St. We were surprised to learn this store has been in business in New York for 30 years because it looks like something that could have opened just last year. The store is a strange mix of items (mostly Chinese, but some Japanese and Korean products), some cool and unique, some expensive, some dirt cheap and some downright cheesy, weird and humorous (mostly located on its lower level). The store is more odd considering its located in SOHO. But it's worth a visit.


Kung fu babies! We got the best one (not pictured).

Endless Winter Love

If you've been keeping up with us, you know we've spent a lot of time at Central Park. Here's a few misc images from the park from this past Winter. We love how this sun looks like an endless winter moon.


Not quite like the castles of Ireland we were hoping to see but the fact that there's a castle in the park, even as small as this one, makes you feel like you just walked onto the page of a Grimms fairy tale. Climbing the dark spiral staircase to get to the top of the Belvedere Castle to see the views is magical.


Well Ms. Ross can't be singing the blues when she's got a playground in Central Park. Mahogany, The Wiz, 'Aint no Mountain High Enough, and duets with one of THE greatest singers. So where the hell is the Marvin or Luther or Stevie playground?

Small Spanish Bites

Spanish tapas-style restaurants like Boqueria are perfect for those commitment-phobe nights when you want a taste of this and a taste of that. This is Boqueria's Flatiron location at 53 West 19th Street, between 5th and 6th aves (their other location is in Soho).


We arrived before the restaurant was officially open for the dinner menu. The waiters were getting prepped by the manager for the dinner shift. So we sat in the front bar area, which was completely maxed out by the time we left (around 7:30 PM on a week night). The restaurant was very modern looking with a lot of beige/taupe/browns.


Nothing wrong with some good old meat hanging in the window.


First up. Cojundo - Fried quail eggs and chorizo on toast. Love eggs any hour of the day.


Datiles con Beicon - Dates stuffed with almonds and Valdeon, wrapped in bacon. These were good (and very sweet) but I've tasted better bacon-wrapped dates.

Jamon Serrano - Spanish ham, aged 15 months. The ham was delicious but we wished they gave just a bit more olives to go with it.


Txipirones - baby squid a la Plancha with black olive vinaigrette. Considering half this dish consisted of greens, this was surprisingly my favorite tapas at Boqueira. The squid was so tender and delicious, made more delicious by the perfectly non-tangy and flavorful vinaigrette sauce.

The last squid standing . . . not for long.


After eating the above items, we were still hungry so we ordered the Poor Man's Rice. So good and the sour cream was a nice touch. Thankfully Paella is always filling.


We were pleased with all of Boqueria's tapas. The problem was that although the portions were normal tapas size, we're big eaters and the more tapas you order, the bigger the bill becomes. So, although we wanted to try more tapas and keep eating, we had to cut ourselves off at some point. The food was good but a bit too expensive for us, especially when you start drinking wine. We were envious of the table next to us with the large pitcher of Sangria. Sometimes money can buy some fun.

Family Ties

We've been gone for two weeks. Just returned this weekend after an unexpected trip back to our hometown to visit a parent in the hospital. This was our first trip back since moving to New York. It's hard to come to terms with a parent that's ill when they were seemingly healthy and strong not too long ago. As you get older, the reality of your parents becoming more fragile and dependent on you becomes clearer. We begin to worry about things we didn't worry about when we were, say, in high school or college - are they taking their vitamins? Is that cold more than just a cold? Are they going to the doctor's? Are they driving carefully? What about their finances? We've reached the point of role reversal. And now it seems like we're fighting with time.

It was excrutiatingly painful to leave behind an unresolved family situation. It's more so difficult when we live so far away, what seems like almost the opposite sides of the world. But one thing we understand is that there would never have been a good time to move to New York City. There will always be something that will act as your roadblock. So as much as it's painful to be away from our family at this time, our time in New York City seems more valuable than ever since our future seems so uncertain. A now bittersweet journey that we have to make count for something. Our intention has always been to appreciate every second here, to see everything with clear eyes, to listen and enjoy each new language or street sounds we hear. Now there is more sense of urgency - to do as much as humanly possible in the possibly short time left here.

Another thing we learned about our recent visit back to our hometown was the confirmation that time and distance did not make the heart grow fonder; in fact, our hometown appeared much smaller and quieter, and not in a good way. It just confirmed the very reasons why we wanted to move away in the first place. So the prospect of moving back to the city you know you never belonged in and moving away from the place you finally feel alive in is heartbreaking. But going back to see a loved one in pain is the most heartbreaking part of it all. That is the worst reason to go back "home."