NYC in Winter

How do you enjoy NYC in the winter? It's too cold to walk up and down long avenues. It's too cold to shop outdoors. It's too cold to even wait for the subway underground. After staying out of the city for most of the holiday season, J. and I finally got a chance to venture outside.

We started out with a trip to the Natural History Museum which is always packed but fun. I'm not sure when they put up the space center because I don't remember it at all. It's the first section we stumbled upon after entering the museum from the subway. One of the fun features that we got a kick out of was the "weight yourself on __". Apparently we're incredibly heavy on Jupiter but super light on the Halley Comet! J. says he doesn't remember the whale room. I've always liked that ocean room so he clearly missed that section when he was younger. The museum is incredibly big and most kids probably only remember the dinosaur room (my favorite!).

Some of my favorites at the museum are:
gem and minerals hall - dazzling rocks and gemstones. I've always loved the star sapphire there.
meteorites - one of the few museums that lets people get a hands-on experience on meteorites
north american forests - look for the giant tree trunk cross section.
ocean hall (whale room) - almost as good as an aquarium. impressive displays.
fossils (top floor, dinos) - stegosaurus (see pic)

Not sure where everyone else goes for food after the museum, we decided not to go for dino-nuggets (even though we were both very fond of them when we were younger) at the museum food court (do they still have them?) If you walk west you can find the Upper West Side Shake Shack (all indoors). If you walk west and north you can find plenty of diners (very crowded for weekend brunch as expected) and other eats. Note to self, there is a Hale & Hearty's nearby if I crave soup one of these days. J. and I went to Arties and ordered a pastrami and corn beef sandwich each. Also enjoyed the potato pancakes with apple sauce immensely. Their pickles were as good as I remembered but the pickled tomato wasn't as impressive. We really wanted to split a huge poppy hamentashen for dessert but they only had prune flavor that day. Have to wait for Purim...

After the last snow storm that came through midweek, most of NYC already melted and cleared up. Luckily Central Park still stayed cold enough to keep its beautiful winter scene. We walked along a path on the west side and saw a bunch of kids with sleds. Apparently the park offers some nice slops. If the path got icy, I would go on the main road (along with runners/bikers etc) which had been cleared much better. Most people probably visit the park during summer (great concerts) and autumn (famous orange leaves), we actually have seen the park in winter for the past two years. When there's snow on the branches and ice over the lakes, it's very easy to forget that we're in the middle of the city. 

When we reached Columbus Circle to catch a subway downtown, I found the best booth in the park: Ferrara! Who knew they had a outpost in the park? A chocolate cover cannoli was a real treat after walking in the cold. If I wasn't freezing my fingers off eating the cannoli, I would have gotten a latte or something warm too. 

Go out and enjoy the sunny and icy winter!

Boston Wrap Up

Clearly I've been slacking on the updates...

Quick notes for one day when inspiration hits and I get organized with the contact info and so on.

NYC
GO (St. Mark's, awesome plum riceballs and vinegared sashimi)
Riceball Omusubi (near Grand Central, plum riceballs are good but not quite GO quality...or I'm just picky about my plum riceballs. they offer a punch card for riceballs...I have to go back!)
TONY's (yay for seafood linguini, nay for Italian beer, yay for passionfruit sorbet, still weird in Time Sq. and full of tourists though).
Suba (tasting menu is amazing, Spanish ham and "Napoleon" sherry are my two new loves, bring a lot of appetite. One of the desserts had ice cream with a sweet liquor. Another cool tapa was a bunch of wings stuffed with chorizo.)
Arties (pickled tomatoes and cucumbers for the win, also loved their chocolate shake. learned to eat potato pancakes with apple sauce, feels "cultured" now)

Boston
Avoid food court chowda even if you're starving. Avoid convention sushi, it'll probably kill you (unless you're trying to lose weight?)
Highlights:
Sam Adams Brewery Tour. After chewing roasted barley, smelling hops, and listening to the tour guide talk about beer, we got three different samples. I liked the Boston Ale and Boston Lager. Previous night had Winter (or was it white?) and thought it was ok. We also got free Sam Adams glasses to add to our glassware collection, pretty cool. The guide also told us the 5 steps of tasting a Sam Adams. Think wine tasting and you're not too far off. I like the idea of enjoying a fresh crisp beer slowly, as opposed to sucking down some cheap stuff. Anyway, totally worth it for the beer. We even went to a store they recommended to get a few variety packs. One thing I have to say though, Boston cards too much. We're not criminals or underage! geesh.

Blue Moon Winter Ale "Full Moon" on tap was amazing. As I wikied blue moon I realized that it's actually owned by Coors?! Now I feel dirty. It still tastes great though, no matter who owns it. I'd also like to try the other Blue Moon varieties such as spring and summer ale. Harpoon IPA was ok I think. Yay for reasonable priced beer on tap though in Boston though. This makes up the fact that so many places closes at 10pm and we had to go 2 or 3 places before finding food. and they didn't have jalapeño poppers...only a "spicy" wing which was "mild". sigh.

Atlantic Fish Seafood Restaurant was excellent. It made our Boston seafood experience rather memorable. Can't believe it took until lunch on our last day to figure out seafood.
Drinks: dry gin martini with lemon twist, Bellini, and Scotch. you figure out who had what.
Starters: oysters (some raspberry kind with sweet finish from PEI), ahi tuna (looked good, I didn't sample this), clam chowda (not too creamy like other places, which is great).
Food: Tuna (bah overcooked), Mahi Mahi (light), some kind of burger (maybe not really a dish at a seafood joint? how dare they give bad pickle and onion with it!? miss NYC burgers that are more like $10+ with "organic" pickles and lettuce and heirloom tomatoes or something)
Dessert: Chocolate cake, Apple Pie with ice cream. I of course combined a bit of chocolate with ice cream from the other plate. Just heavenly =)
p.s. we didn't leave this place until around 4pm which almost meant we were fined for parking too long at the hotel valet.

Pourhouse Steak Tips were nice. we liked their mashed potatoes too. My chicken sandwich was so so but since it was so cheap I didn't care that much. The place was so cold though since the door kept on opening and closing. Why doesn't everyone just get the temporary room thing outside their place like NYC? This way the cold wind/air stays in the temporary room and does not bother the inside.

Chinatown China Pearl was a pretty place for dim sum I thought. Loved their tripe and rice noodle beef things. And of course the coconut jelly.

I think that about rounds up the places I've eaten so I can look back on this list next time for reference. The convention was a tad crazy and the line for our badges took 3-4 hours. not sure if I want to come back, but may change my mind next year, who knows. I do love Boston though, even if we missed the touristy sightseeing (unless you count Sam Adams?) Back Bay is a pretty neighborhood. Next time I shall walk around more.

Artie's

2390 Broadway At 83rd
212-579-5959
arties.com

This restaurant is a favorite of my friend "Wine Cartel in a Half Shell". Yes, the nickname is long, but without listing the whole thing, it just doesn't sound right.

appetizer (came with table?)
pickled plum tomatoes and pickles. Very salty. I like pickle wedges more than whole pickles. There was some kind of cole slaw too.

beverage
I tried a black cherry coda thinking it was the bottled variety. It came out in a can. Needless to say, I was somewhat annoyed but at least the flavor was fine.

meal
Everyone else had a variation on Pastrami Burger Deluxe. 8 oz. chargrilled burger with strips of grilled pastrami served with fries, lettuce, tomato, and onion.
I ordered an Oversized Burger Deluxe. simply the above without strips of pastrami.
The burger was good, but those pastrami burgers looked even better. I may try one next time.

desserts
-cream pie
-oreo cheesecake
-black and white cookie

random dessert ramble
Apparently the black and white cookie caused quite a stir at the table. We had some who loved it and some who thought they loved it because the person who ordered it always made the cookie look delicious. Then upon trying the cookie, the people who thought they liked it decided that the cookie really wasn't so great. Were they mislead by the former black and white cookie lover who ate the cookie sexily? I have no idea. Clearly there's some sort of food voyeurism going on. I tried a piece and thought it was fine. I'm not crazy about it but I don't hate it either. The cream pie on the other hand was amazing. Chocolate wins any day.

atmosphere
open spaces, round tables, good service. Our waiter had a really nice smile, which is somewhat rare those days. Not one of those fixed smiles, but a smile that looked like he was having a good time. Maybe he's just a very skilled actor, who knows? Or he hasn't been driven crazy by customers yet. One annoying thing was we got shushed by the next table. Come on! It was a diner and everyone was talking loudly. People in the Upper West are uptight, I swear! We all had a great time, though.