2 more from NYC.....

I realized that I forgot to write about two places we visited in NYC. The picture you see about is from the Streits Matza factory. It wasn't listed on the self-led walking tour of The Lower East Side, but we just happened across it. As a very proud Jewish girl, I love me some good matza. I even eat it when I don't have to, sometimes I just feel like having Matza Brei, even if it isn't Passover.

It was pretty cool to see the Matza falling off the conveyer belt, but I was a bit disappointed that I didnt get to see it actually being made. I did get a piece to sample and was surprised because I've never had hot matza before. I took a bite to be nice, but I was sooooooooo FULL.

I had a nice chat with the Russian Jewish lady who was the cashier while watching some orthodox Jewish women coming in to buy Matza ball mix(????). I was a bit dismayed about that since I never use a mix, preferring to use matza meal instead.




Another bakery we went to that wasn't on my tour of the UWS was Crumbs. I was standing on the corner, waiting for Robin who was in an antique shop when a woman approached me and asked me if I knew where Crumbs was. I said " No, I dont live here". I asked her to address, but then a delivery man overheard and pointed it out. Robin and I ended up walking by so we went in. The cupcakes looked better than Magnolia's, but I was put off by the 3.75 price tag for 1 cupcake. Robin however, spotted a Peanut Butter cupcake, and wanted that. She asked me if I wanted one and I said no( I was full again!!). She knows I love coconut so she got me one anyway. I brought it back to Ontario and it was still pretty moist the next day. Definitely better than Magnolia, but not worth the price.

New York City in Food( Day 3 and 4)...

Robin and I love to travel. Prior to going away, I do all the research on where to eat, what to see, what not to miss etc. I didn't think I had anything to learn, but I was wrong. Robin turned me on to Grey Line Tours. The second time Robin came to visit me in California, she brought her mom and aunt with her. They took a tour of LA and dragged me along for the ride. I can't say that I really enjoyed it all that much, because I fell asleep!! However, we've taken tours in San Francisco, Halifax and most recently NYC. The tour we took in NYC was a 2 day unlimited hop on/hop off tour. It worked out well because we never took a tax the entire time we were in the city. If we wanted to go somewhere, we figured out what part of the loop it was on and then just hopped off. The tour included uptown, downtown, Brooklyn, a night tour and a water cruise. We didn't have enough time to fit in everything so we missed the night tour and the water tour. On Wednesday, we hopped back on the downtown tour where we got out at the stop for the Brooklyn Tour. I was determined to eat pizza in Brooklyn. We enjoyed about 10 min of the Brooklyn tour until we got off at the stop for Grimaldi's( right under the Brooklyn bridge). The pizza was amazing..... and thankfully, we didn't have to wait for a table. The weather still wasn't fantastic, but it was better than Tuesday.

When I was growing up in S. Fl, my parents would bring in Pizza fairly frequently. We only ever got 1 topping on our pizza( Mushrooms). I still prefer my NY pizza with only mushrooms. Robin has come to see my way too. When we first started going to FL together, she wanted to load toppings on her slice, but she soon realized that in order to fold the slice in half, it can't be weighted down with toppings.

The seating in Grimaldi's is communal. The foursome next to us was from another country and they ordered their pizza with 5 toppings. It was so weighted down that I was sad for them. They could not enjoy the simplicity of the dough, sauce and cheese!! It was really hard for me to resist butting in, but I held my tongue and ate my heavenly slices. Ask me how much I want a brick oven in my backyard? The pizza only cooks for TWO minutes. Amazing.


After lunch, we went back to the bus stop to wait for the tour bus to get us. This time, we had a different tour guide than the one that dropped us off. This man brought the people off the bus to show them the bridge. As we were walking back to the bus, another tourist asked the guide where Grimaldi's was. He said( in a thick NY accent). That's garbage, I wouldn't feed it to my cat, total tourist trap. I kinda laughed and said " we just ate there and we loved it". He said " well, then you don't know good pizza". Hahahaha, I laughed at that.

I don't care what he said, it was great pizza and considering how expensive NYC is, a relatively cheap lunch at 22.00 a small pizza( 6 slices) with 1 topping and 2 diet cokes.

The driver took us to another bakery where I had the most amazing halavah ever. It was so fresh and tasty( another item Robin doesn't like).

Dinner was in Chinatown where we were accosted by little Chinese women whispering DVD, DVD, Prada, Gucci, Chanel in our ears as we walked by. We ate dinner at Joe's Shanghai( I forgot to take pics). We walked back to the World Trade Center Path station and took the train back to NJ.

On Thursday, we were left to our own devices for transportation. Robin quickly figured out the subway and we took it uptown to the Upper West Side for another self-led walking Foodie walking tour.




After checking out of the B and B, we took our luggage to Penn Station. If you have a ticket on Amtrak or the Long Island Railroad( to get to JFK) you can store your luggage for 4.50 a bag. This was a huge time saver as we originally thought we'd have to go back to the B & B to pick up our bags.

Our First stop was Jacques Torres. We shared a CCC. Honestly, I was expecting more. It was OK, but not worth the 2.50 price tag. Granted, I was still full from the amazing breakfast we had at Jersey City's Best Bed and Breakfast.



We had this amazing double choc. pb cookie at Levain. This was a great, very dense cookie. I could only eat 1 bite of my half( I brought it back to Canada and it was still good the next day).

We skipped Grandaisy bakery on 72nd and B'way because nothing there appealed to me. We also skipped Soutine Bakery on W 70th between Broadway and Columbus (closer to Columbus)and Silver Moon Bakery at Broadway and 105th. We went into those places, but I was so full that I couldn't not fathom getting anything.




We did hit Magnolia Bakery where I was sorely disappointed. I had the plain vanilla cupcake/w vanilla frosting( 2.50). It was sooo sweet and kinda dry. Call me a conceited, but I think I'm a much better baker than the majority of what I tasted.

We went to the much lauded H&H bagels where I was shocked at the 16.80 pricetag for a dozen bagels. I did buy 5 to bring home. We walked thru Fairway( amazing grocery store) and a few other shops.




Robin tried a Beard Papa. I'm not a big fan of Choux paste so I skipped that one. She enjoyed it.


I thoroughly enjoyed this gelato/sorbet I had at GROM. Omg, too die for. The lemon was so intense and the hazelnut gelato was amazing.

We had a late lunch at Viand. We both enjoy diners and this one did not dissapoint. Its hard to find good tuna salad in this area so I never order it when I eat out here. This tuna salad was good and a bargain at $6.25


Robin had a turkey burger that she enjoyed very much.

We headed over to Central Park to enjoy some much needed sun. Our last meal in NY was at JFK and it was so horrible, its not even worth mentioning.

New York City In Food( Day 1 and 2)........

We arrived in NYC on Monday. We took the supper shuttle to Times Square where a friend from High School( she lives in New Jersey) was meeting us. We had originally planned to go for pizza, but she suggested the Junior's Deli across the street from the Marriot Marquis( where we met her). I quickly forgot about the pizza, because like another blogger friend I also own the Junior's Cookbook. I mentioned to Robin " Oh, I have this cookbook". She didnt recognize it at first( I have a lot of cookbooks), but after awhile, she said she remembered it.

The soup you see above is NOT from Juniors. I'll get to that soup in a moment. I didnt pull out my camera for Junior's, but I wish I did. I had half a turkey sandwich and matza ball soup. The matza ball was so fluffy. I much perfer my matza balls fluffy. I know others prefer sinkers!! The turkey was a tad dry, but the bread was fresh. I'm not a huge fan of Cheesecake( 1 bite will do me), so I had a black and white cookie. I absolutely love Black and Whites. Growing up in S. Florida( the 6th bourough) they were commonplace. The black and white from Juniors, was the freshest B&W I've ever had. Robin had a slice of the original cheesecake and she said it was really good.

The soup you see above was from Katz's. We went there on Tuesday. I find a self-led foodie walking tour of the Lower East Side( LES) of NYC. The one thing I most miss about living in S. Florida is the Jewish Community. There is none in my small town and very little in London, ON. Most of the kosher products the grocery store in London carries are brought in from Toronto. Anyway, I digress.


Since there was a lot to taste on this tour, we shared the soup and a turkey sandwich. I forgot to ask for the cold turkey, so it came warm. It was very good, but expensive turkey. This sandwich was $15.00. We also shared an order of fries. I was pretty full after this meal. The weather was so horrible last Tuesday. It was cold and rainy and Robin's umbrella broke so I gave her mine. I was stuck wearing a disposable rain poncho we got from the bus tour. It was not attractive!!



The next stop on the tour was Russ and Daughter's. I love, love, love me some good bagels and this didnt dissapoint. We shared one with Nova and cream cheese. They asked me if I wanted any onion, tomato or caper. I asked for a very teeny slice of onion and that added .25 to the bagel.

I was really, really full at this point.



The next stop was Yonah Schimmels for a knish. I knew Robin would not like these, so I ordered a kasha knish. She refused to even have a bite. LOL. It was good, but I really couldnt appreciate it because I was soooooo full. I took half with me. I later tried to give it to a homeless woman who refused it.



Are you full yet? Wait, cause there is more. The next stop was for an egg cream. The quintisential NYC drink. I grew up with them, so I enjoy them. I had a feeling Robin wouldnt. I ordered a small( 1.25) chocolate. There are tons of other flavors avaible, but chocolate( and maybe vanilla) are really in my opinion the only ones you should get. The other flavors are pretty artificial tasting. In fact, I've never seen other flavors sold at deli's, etc. The place that sells these egg creams also sells belgian fries. I think Robin was pretty full, but she couldnt resist a familar food. The order you see about is 1.00, a variatable bargin for NYC.



We waited awhile before we hit the Doughnut Plant. We shared 2 doughnuts, a chocolate(valhrona) glazed and my personal favorite a coconut filled, coconut glazed. Robin had a small coffee too. She said the coffee was very good. The doughnuts were good, but expensive( 2.50 and 2.75). The shop is so much smaller than I thought it was.

Next door to the doughnut plant is Kossars for bialys. A bialy is like a bagel, except its not boiled first and it has the same topping( onions and poppyseeds). I was way too full, so I took it to go and ate it for breakfast the next day.



Later that night, we ended up back in Times Square. I did NOT want to eat there, but the weather was still horrible and we had to get our bus back to NJ at Port Authority so since I wasnt that hungry, I just said " whatever". We found a pizza place that wasnt so great. Its not even worth mentioning, because we had amazing pizza the next day.

To be continued......

Chicken Sausage Manicoti( cuisine@home). and NYC!!...

Oct 13th was Canadian Thanksgiving. Because I cooked a big turkey dinner for the Seniors the previous Thursday, I went a little untraditional with the meal.

The dessert was the Black Forest Cake I'd previously blogged about. The main dish was this wonderful chicken and sausage manicotti. The recipe uses those Barilla no boil noodles. You do boil them though and they act like fresh pasta. You roll those around the flavorful filling of diced chicken breast, sausage, red pepper, mushrooms, garlic and ricotta cheese. The whole thing gets covered in a bechamel sauce. My MIL has a red sauce aversion( she gets an upset stomach) so I looked for a recipe using a white sauce. Robin and I both love my marinara sauce( using San Marzano tomatoes) so the next day we covered ours with the red sauce and it was spectacular!!

Speaking of Red Sauce, we're off to NYC on Monday. Before NYC, we'll be spending the night in Lewiston at my friend Stephanie's house. I see some Buffalo wings in Robin's future( not mine, I abHOR chicken wings).

There wont be any high end dining on this trip to NYC. I planned a self-led walking tour of the Lower East Side( where my grandparents grew up and grampa worked). The LES is home to most of the great Jewish culinary treasures such as Katz's, Yonna Shimels, Russ and Daughter's etc. We'll be eating our way thru these shops on this tour!!

I also have a self-led walking tour of the Upper West Side where thanks to Anna, we'll be visting some bakeries and other shops. We'll also be taking a GreyLine 2 day hop on, hop off tour where we hope to eat many a Slice and find some fabulous Red Sauce Italian restaurants.