NYC, Part 1

No Broadway shows, no Times Square, no shopping, no giant double decker red bus, no Empire State Building observation deck, no Statue of Liberty, no Central Park horsey rides. I was going to New York for one reason. To eat. 10,000 miles (roundtrip) and countless thousands of calories later I can say, that I did it the right way and I didn't miss out on one thing.

After arriving in New York ahead of my baggage that was still sitting in the belly of Chicago's O'Hare airport and briefly settling in at CK's apartment, we soon set out for Katz's Delicatessen.  Katz's was founded in 1888 and has been feeding masses of New Yorkers and tourists alike ever since. 

Corned beef on rye.

Katz's has a unique ordering process where you actually order from the guys that cut the juicy slices of meat from the massive briskets and assemble the stacks right in front of you. They then mark a ticket which you use to pay at the front on the way out. CK and I split a corned beef and a pastrami sandwich so I could get a taste of both. Katz's serves some of the best corned beef and pastrami that I have ever had.

Pastrami, Corned Beef and Sour Pickles (There's our friend LO's pastrami in the background [sans condiments, of course]).

Whats a good Jewish deli meal without latkes?

Potato pancakes, apple sauce & sour cream

Despite us all proclaiming our level of fullness to each other and just to set the tone for the rest of my week in New York, we decided to make our way over to the Doughnut Plant to eat some more and try some of their world famous creations.

As seen on the Food Network, countless other blogs, and somewhere in Tokyo, the Doughnut Plant's signature doughnut is the Tres Leches.

Tres Leches Doughnut. Yum.

New to their menu was the Creme Brulee doughnut with a delicious crunchy sugary crust on top.

Creme Brulee Doughnut

At this point, I still dont think we fully grasped what we had gotten ourselves into. But satisfied, for the moment, we headed back to CK's apartment to rest, recover, and wait for United to deliver my luggage.

After a good nap and a 10PM visit from the courier with my bags, we finally headed out on the town for dinner. I learned pretty quickly that a Saturday dinner at 11:00 PM isn't to out of the ordinary as LO had gotten to the restaurant a bit ahead of us and informed us that they were full, but would have a seat for us in half an hour. Like all good things, it was totally worth the wait.

Lupa ~ NYC

This was the special pasta of the evening.

Housemade fettucini, duck ragu

Next was one of the best pastas I've ever had. "One of the best ________ I've ever had" was quickly becoming a running theme on this trip. Especially since I was able to try a lot of different things for the first time.

Bucatini All' Amatriciana

The carbonara, our waiter explained, was "aggressively seasoned." The rich sauce thickened with cheese & egg yolks and studded with chunks of crisp pancetta was especially warming and comforting on that below freezing New York night.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Now onto the mains, well the sides for the mains...the potatoes were particularly remarkable. Cooked like tostones (twice fried plantains ~ fried once, smashed, and fried again) then seasoned and served with sage.

Potato; eggplant

Unfortunately, the restaurant was out of lamb shortribs by the time we put our order in at about 11:30PM, but the kitchen was able to scrounge up something and throw these things together for us...

Pork shoulder with Treviso and Aceto

While not the most tender pork shoulder I have ever eaten, I loved how the vinegar helped cut through the richness of the meat. 

We also ordered the skate (also delicious).

Skate with Clams and Rabe

Then we moved onto deserts....

Black pepper panna cotta & fig

Lupa Tartufo

It was only my first 14 hours in the city, but I had already experienced great food with even better friends. I had an inkling I was going to have a good time before I got to NY.  But after my first day I knew for a fact that this trip was going to be one to savor.