That's All for Now Folks!

It's time to leave New York City for a new summer adventure.  While I'm sure to see things in Austin, it's difficult to take pictures from a car and you just don't have the same overwhelming amount of craziness to see.

I may take a select few photos here and there and make a "best of" post when I return to NYC in August.

I'm sure my next year here is going to be as "interesting" as the first.  I hope I can share it.  Until then, text/call/email/facebook me.

Have a great summer!

One Last Set

The time has come to pack for Austin.  Before I go, I'll post the rest of my picture collection from the week.

Yes, I'm taking a picture of you.

This guy is blocking the subway stairs.  He got in my way on the way up, so I took a picture of him.  He still didn't move.  Clueless.  There are twenty feet of open space against the wall to your right!

A pack of...springy people?

Does anyone know what these contraptions are?  A pack of people were running (bouncing?) down the street wearing them.

Why?

Let's take a perfectly good boot and cut the toes off.  There, now it's no longer waterproof.  This was on a day it was raining heavily outside.

No thanks.

I'll just have a sandwich.  Hold the CPR.

Random Events

After leaving the food festival, I headed to see a movie.  While walking, I ran into this madness.

Hello, up there!

I needed to cross this street to get to the theater.  I heard loud music, but couldn't see what everyone was cheering for.

Oh, of course.

There were tons of Mexican-style dancers in colorful uniforms.  I'm not sure if this was a competition or a parade or something else entirely.

Please let me through...

It was not to be.  I had to walk the long way to get around.  I was almost free and then...

A farmer's market.

ARGH!  I'm happy to have such booming cultural activities, especially in the rain, but the timing is just terrible.

The farmers market crowd lost me another five minutes as I tried to weave around everyone.  I suppose these are good problems to have.

Food festivals, parades, farmer's markets...construction?  On the way back from the movie, the subway stations were closed for construction, so I walked four avenues in the rain.  Yuck.

Food Festival Day Two

After the great time I had on the first day, I made Erin come with me for the second day.  However, it was raining and she was not pleased to be going on this adventure.

Build-your-own ice cream sandwich truck.

Erin likes her fried Oreo.

Fried Oreo.

Balls anyone?

Wow.  Looks like Wilbur.  Hide the kids.

The pouring rain prevented me from staying as long as I wanted, but I did get a nice selection of items.  No pictures were taken because holding an umbrella, a drink, food, and a camera would require me to be an octopus.

9th Avenue International Food Festival

9th avenue was closed for a food festival, so of course I had to go.  It dropped from 70 to 50 randomly, but that didn't seem to affect turnout.

Raw clam booth.

Walking in the street.

Candied apples, candied everything!

Meatballs!

Seafood roll!

The cake+burger people.

A random psychic.  Weird.

Cookies everywhere!

Huge mass of people.

I'll only comment that the seafood rolls were amazing.  Lobster spring rolls?  What a great idea.

The Last Supper(s)

I'll be leaving NYC for a summer internship in Austin very soon, so I'm taking the opportunity to eat all my favorite things.  Austin has a good food scene, but I'm worried about missing some of my favorites.

I decided to go eat them.

Larb Gai

Thai food has become commonplace over the years, but mostly pad thai, pad kee mao, pad see eiw, and other noodle dishes.  One of my favorite dishes is a deadly spicy salad, called larb gai.  I'm sure most US restaurants tone it down, but the full-on Thai version is great as-is.  It has a ton of different contrasting flavors running through it, as most Thai dishes do.

Blue Fish

It's not really blue fish in particular that I like, it's all fish.  It's not like you can't get fish elsewhere in the country, but the variety and quality can be suspect.  Sure, you can get fried catfish everywhere, but that's not what I'm looking for.  Great grilled or blackened fish is actually difficult to find.  Everywhere you go, it's always tilapia, salmon, and catfish.  Dedicated seafood places sometimes have trout and mahi-mahi too.  But the fish markets here have everything and the restaurants have all sorts of fish daily specials.

The meal above was at a place right by the apartment.  It's cash only and very small, but they have a different fish every day.  The blue fish had a tomato-caper sauce on it with a side of grilled endives.

Blackened catfish, collard greens, shrimp grits, and salad.

OK, I threw this picture in because I ate it this week.  It wasn't my favorite, but why hold on to the picture until I return?  It's actually from a famous restaurant in Harlem, called Red Rooster.  It's owned by Marcus Samuelsson, another Top Chef, Iron Chef, Chopped, Food Network guru.  The onion broth was a nice touch.  It might be the most expensive restaurant in Harlem and it had a fun feel to it.  Overpriced if you ask me, but it was worth going to see it.

Shish Tawook, rice, hummus foul.

OK, this might be the most important picture I have ever posted.  Ignore the chicken and rice for a moment. I've probably posted a full plate of this hummus previously because I eat here twice a week.  Everyone knows what hummus is.  Foul is spiced fava beans.  It's a popular dish in the Middle East on its own, especially in Egypt.

I am addicted to the stuff.  It's one of the best things I've ever had and I eat it constantly.  Maybe I should move to Israel.  (Or just live here forever so I can keep eating it.)  Normal Americans eat potato chips as a snack.  I eat hummus and pita bread.

On this occasion I decided to enhance my hummus by adding some chicken and rice.  I suppose most people would focus on a meat and add sides, but I do it the other way around.

This might be the single biggest thing I will miss about NYC this summer.  I'm going to start searching as soon as I get to Austin.  Maybe a Middle Eastern place can make it special.  Otherwise I'm going to have to learn how to cook it.

The Best Lunch Ever!

I decided to celebrate being done with the semester by treating myself to one of New York's best lunches.  There are a few top-notch places that charge $100+ for dinner, but are much more reasonable at lunch.

I went down to Chelsea and entered Morimoto.  Yes, it is owned by Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.

While there are other lunch options, I went specifically to get the Sea Bass Bento Box.

The box.

The box had a salad with fried onions, vegetable tempura with a blue cheese sauce, miso soup, grilled sea bass, three nigiri, and freshly made tuna rolls.

Each and every bite was delicious.  It's hard to see why there is such a difference in quality from other restaurants.  How hard can it be to flash fry vegetables in a tempura batter?  Maybe it's the quality of the raw ingredients or maybe other places pre-cook some items.  Regardless, even the salad was superior.  How can you make such a simple salad taste better than the average salad?

Perhaps the most surprising was the tuna rolls.  Spicy tuna rolls are a staple at any American sushi bar.  Normally, they pull out a container from a refrigerator with a pre-mixed concoction.  At Morimoto, you can tell the rolls were made just for me and with the absolute freshest fish possible.  In fact, I know this is the case because I watched them make each and every item with loving care.  The chefs treated this box as if it were artwork.

Even the miso soup was better than the norm.  I guess they made it fresh and other places use a concentrated version?  Not sure.

The meal wasn't cheap, but I can see why.  The green tea was excellent and tasted just like it did it Japan.  I was slightly miffed that I was charged $8 for a pot of green tea.  Normally beer is not cheaper than tea.  Still, it's hard to find true Japanese green tea, so it's acceptable.

Then comes dessert...

The mango mousse.

I'm not a huge sweets person.  This might convert me.  It was incredibly light and fluffy and provided the perfect light finish to a light meal.  (Are you figuring out that this was a *light* meal?)  Yet, it kept me full.  It was the perfect amount of food.

Great meal.  Amazing service.  There must have been a person standing behind me that was dedicated to making sure I had everything I needed.  Morimoto did a great job and I hope to be back when I actually have an income.  :)

An unexpected find

I explored more today and found a really great area that I wish I had discovered sooner.

Sort of like a botanical garden.

You can see the GWB on the left side of the picture.

West side highway near the Hudson.

The stunning Bronx skyline!  (Sorry Bronx...)

I also found something a little out of place.

A medieval abbey?

Interior courtyard.

View from another courtyard.

Enclosed courtyard.

Driveway.

Exterior walls.

Inside.

I would have had more pictures of the interior, but there were guards in every room and I wasn't sure if photography was allowed.

I apparently chose to visit at the same time as some dignitaries because there were security guards in black suits with earpieces all over the place.  I don't think I look too threatening, but I was watched very closely for a few hours.

The Cloisters are part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In the 1930s, they disassembled structures in France and rebuilt them brick by brick in Manhattan.  Impressive!

It's tough to believe that all this parkland (and the museum itself) occupy a giant hill in Manhattan.  It's amazing what you find on this island.  Did any of these pictures look like what you would expect to see when someone mentions NYC (much less Manhattan)?

Food

It's time for an obligatory food post.  Nothing too crazy today.

Hummus, chickpea hummus, chicken hummus, and tahini hummus.

I eat a lot of hummus these days.  Normally not this much though.

Hot & Sour soup made from scratch.

I have probably never had a fresh bowl before.  I'm sure most places make it from a can or make a giant vat early in the day.  This place took 15 minutes to get me my soup because they made a small bowl just for me.  On the downside, the soup costs $14 regularly, although I paid less as part of a fixed price lunch.  I recommend the fresh version if you can find it somewhere.

Arctic char with horseradish.

It may not look impressive in the bowl, but it's a cool-looking fish before it gets sliced up.  It tastes like a sweeter version of salmon.

Angry red arctic char.

Drinking on a boat

For our year end party, we rented out a boat.  This boat happened to be moored in a harbor in Chelsea, but it was rocking back and forth like a real moving boat, so it counts.  Also, we discovered that after consuming alcohol, you no longer notice the boat is moving.  Neat trick.

View from the boat of Jersey.

View of the new cruise ship.  (Norwegian Breakaway) 

Yes, there was a caboose on tracks on the harbor next to the boat.

This boat crashed into the pier.  I think (?) it was intentional.

The anchor may need some refurbishing if we're going out to sea.

View of the ESB from a rooftop bar later in the night.

Crazy Sights

Here's a roundup of things I've seen this week.

His hair.

Bird man.

Look closely.  This man has a bird perched ON HIS HEAD!  Not to mention all over the rest of him.  He threw bird feed all over himself and sat on a bench.  The woman next to him doesn't seem to mind although the black guy is looking for a new seat.

New York City beach.  (Well, it's what we have to work with.)

Men in black.  (Common sight in NYC.)

She has hooves?

That concludes the people I was able to capture.

I want to know where the secret subway door leads to.

Not willing to jump on the tracks to find out, although I'm sure someone has before.  The subway warnings always remind us that hundreds of people are struck by trains every year.  It neglects to mention that most of these are suicides, crazy people, drunks, and dumb kids.

Very old Coke.  (some from the 1960s)

Very old Pepsi. (No idea)

Which empanada is not like the others?