topaz119: (off to see the wizard)
topaz119 ([personal profile] topaz119) wrote2016-07-16 06:25 pm
Entry tags:

eating our way through ny (mostly midtown)

I am sous vide-ing pork chops for dinner, which is going to take about an hour. I'd planned to clean up the utter disaster that is my kitchen while that happened, but then I fumble-fingered an 8 oz container of dried thyme and artistically sprayed it across the floor and decided I should probably sit down and breathe for a while.

BabyBoy is off to camp tomorrow, so we've been doing laundry and filling out forms all day (really ALL DAY--I think the last time I really did concentrated laundry was somewhere in the middle of Beach Week. The 7th (and LAST, YAY) load is in the dryer now (not counting sheets and towels other than those necessary for camp) so the end is nigh, tfg) and there was a run to the grocery store early this morning, as every time I went to make something once we got home from NYC, I couldn't find half of what we needed and I am tired of take-out.

But! let's talk about food, yes? Mostly I want to talk about it b/c I want to whine about the reservations I ended up canceling when it was for sure BabyBoy coming with me, not D. I mean, on the one hand, BB eats very adventurously (much moreso than his father), but on the other, I'm not quite ready to take my 16 year old to restaurants with Michelin stars.

So, it was with Great Regret that I canceled reservations for Peter Luger Steakhouse (for D) and Le Bernardin (for me.) It's been more than 2 weeks since I canceled them and I still weep. An 8 p.m. Friday night reservation at Peter Luger! 8 p.m. (::weeps::) I don't want to talk about having to let go a table at Le Bernardin on Saturday night.

sigh

It was fine, I know, I know, this is hardly a real world problem. We shifted to a much more casual and open plan, and I think it worked really well. We did MoMA's free Friday hours (terribly crowded but still worth the walk) and then went to Toalache on Friday night, which was super-fun and very very good, even if we didn't find the courage to try the grasshopper tacos. (Apparently, BB can eat anything off an Asian menu, even if it has tentacles, but he drew the line at grasshoppers.) We mostly ate breakfast at the hotel (it came with the room, and ended up being room service which was a terrific timesaver, too.) On Saturday, we walked from Times Square down to the Strand, stopping at Bryant Park, where he wandered around and bought I know not what while I made the obligatory visit to the library. And then we spent some ridiculous amount of time at the farmers/green market at Union Square, where he zeroed in on anyone who had anything that looked immediately edible, especially the bakers. He did pretty good. But I did walk him a long way that day, so we had to detour to 8th Avenue on the way back, where there was a street fair in progress so he could eat MORE, despite early reservations for pre-theater dinner. 28" waists fall off him, too. So not fair.

Dinner that night was Becco on 46th Street, which satisfied some serious Italian cravings. (It was also walking distance from the hotel and the theater, b/c I was not taking any chances with the curtain time.) And somehow, after having spent the better part of 2 days with me (AND having Pokémon Go on his phone) he managed to behave well enough that the ladies at the table next to us (all 60+) felt the need to tell me what a well-brought up young man he was (I decided they probably hadn't actually heard our conversation, as it centered on League of Legends (he's ranked pretty high), Orange Is The New Black, and the afore-mentioned Pokémon Go. But hey, we'd already had our political and social conversation while sitting in various airport lounges with CNN on constant loops.)

Breakfast on Sunday included both the room service stuff and a uber down to Russ & Daughters for actual NY bagels and schmear. It was Good. And then we came back up to Times Square so my geeky, Daredevil-loving kid could say he'd walked through Hell's Kitchen on the way to the Intrepid, before we walked over to see Wicked. Spoiler alert: there were treats at intermission. We didn't eat an actual lunch or dinner (after all that, you're shocked, I know) but we hung out on the 8th floor, outdoor lounge at the Marriott Marquis overlooking Times Square and grazed through their (so-so) apps menu (but the view was great and our server was the nicest woman in the world), until someone who is not me had their phone die from too much Pokémon hunting while doing all this walking. The weather, btw, was amazing--almost too cool but just fabulous.

Also, the AmEx Centurion Lounge at LaGuardia is worth the hassle of getting to Concourse B if you need food/drink/a computer/printer. They have actual food. And they pour great booze, just sayin'. (That's a whole other story, one for later this week or next.)

So, babbling about all this calmed me down and got me back to where dinner was a possibility. (First time doing pork chops sous vide and omg, so freaking good!) Cookies to all of you who've made it this far! ♥ ♥ ♥
gwyn: (annie screaming grosserpepper)

[personal profile] gwyn 2016-07-17 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd cry if I had to give up those reservations too!!!
ancarett: (Break Time)

[personal profile] ancarett 2016-07-17 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
I haven't had culinary dreams on your scale. Even though the actual experiences were fun and your son such a good travel and dining fellow, I understand mourning what was foregone.

[identity profile] topaz119.livejournal.com 2016-07-19 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
Me & food... it's my real OTP, ;)

I'll just have to have another go at it--I'd forgotten how much fun it is to run around NYC as a tourist, and now I'm sort of looking at extended schedules to see if we can fit another long weekend in.

But, as you said, this was enjoyable in a different way and it was good to spend one-on-one time with this kid.

[identity profile] msktrnanny.livejournal.com 2016-07-18 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
The teenager is League of Legends happy himself. Recently he told me there were actual college scholarships to be had for this, but that he wasn't good enough to get one. I did the only thing a loving pauedo parent could amd told him to spend more time on his computer! He made a team at school, becoming the 1st kid in his family to be involved in a sport! There's even hilarious write-ups on facebook, apparently.

He and his cousin are doing the (semi?) finals in MSG in October. Wonder if he can learn enough Korean by then. Lol


I am so sorry about your cancelled reservations. Having had two NYC icons fold out from under me denying me the experience, I can only imagine having to make that choice!

[identity profile] topaz119.livejournal.com 2016-07-19 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
BB is some level of platinum ranking and is trying to decide if he is going to try to push to diamond before the ranking year ends. He will be jealous of tickets to MSG this fall, though I know they went to a local theater for live-streaming something last fall. (I know they're speaking English when they talk gaming, but the words do not make sense together, you know?)

I decided we will just have to go back and I'll see what I can find then. It is so much easier with Open Table and the internet--I can remember going to the library to get back issues of the Times and getting phone numbers from there as my best plan for finding restaurants on trips.

[identity profile] brandywine28.livejournal.com 2016-07-18 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
It's just as well you skipped out on Peter Luger. It's kind of a jaunt from Midtown, and you might've gotten lost, or at least turned around. (I have no love to spare for the Q train.) But Le Bernardin! Ah, well.

Omg, I go to the Union Square Greenmarket almost every summer Saturday! I bet we walked right past each other! :)

[identity profile] topaz119.livejournal.com 2016-07-19 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
I actually thought about keeping the Peter Luger reservation, but getting lost with my husband (who loves stuff like that--someday I will recount the story of how we ended up at the water treatment plant at Disney World, which is soooooo far out of guest areas that we can't really even find it on a map) is one thing, and is something very different with a semi-mature teenager.

He had more fun at Toloache anyway (and it was a LOT cheaper.)

We spent almost an hour at the greenmarket and then another half hour or so after we came back out of the Strand (he circled back to his favorite bakery stalls.) We absolutely could have walked past each other! Such a small world...