Jessica Eats: JESSICA EATS NEW YORK: Part III 2011

Dear 1 Reader, and my Mom!

This long weekend i went to NYC!!!! for a whirlwind 72 hour trip. 19 of those were in a car... was it worth it? HELLS to the YES. after one bite into my long awaited long lost love, Shake Shack's Double Stack (i do not normally bite my loves..) mannnnn. Why can't they open one on EVERY BLOCK!!!

I promised to do all of my NYC trips, and i will!!! I'll start with this, like, Star Wars style, going backwards, plus, this is the shorter trip, so im tired/lazy right now!

DAY 1: 8 AM after 3 hours of driving.

Man. exit and exit, couldnt get the coveted mcmuffin, and our stomachs were eating themselves so we settled for something american. Roy Rogers. ever had it! tried it out!

Their breakfast fries are like baked in oil think slices of potatoes.

Got their sour dough ham, egg and cheese sandwich

What i realized after. was that they put 2 kinds of cheese at both ends of the bread. kinda awesome.

3PM: made it to manhattan! Love the hotel, situated at 54th and Broadway, right by the Letterman show!

SHAKE SHACK

I walked my ass to the closest shake shack:

691 8th Avenue, SE of 8th and 44th

I was THISCLOSE to getting the MONU-MINT Concrete, the last time i was around, i got the um.. the museum of natural history one with balls... and that itself was a meal, and i really wanted to savour my burger. I probably shoulda got it anyway. haha.

Got my usual of the double stack, which i first mentioned on my blog back then, if i could i would talk about it every day! And this time i got the fries too!

If only these were both for me...lemme break it down to you again, the Shack Stack: Shroom patty (Crisp-fried portobello mushroom filled with melted munster and cheddar cheese), plus juicy burger topped with cheddar, topped with lettuce, tomato, and ShackSauce. Holy Crap it is by far the best burger i have ever had. Even though my stomach was see-thru after, cause of the oil. i would do it again.

And that shake. was amazing.

Here's a scene outside a pizzeria that i did not visit :(

8:00PM

Unrelated to food, but related to awesome, we caught the 8 o clock to the new musical, Catch Me If You Can. And can I say, i thought it was great! I can go into a whole thing so i will stop, but it's a great show go see it! And I love Aaron Tveit!

11-11:30PM

One of my food scavenger goals from NYer DC, was to send me to find this Chicken and Rice street cart on 53rd and 6th, so we went to check it out after the show. And saw this cupcake cart! did not stop :(

Shietz! this line is only like 1/4th that my camera could capture.... I mean how could any chicken and rice dish for $6 bucks be THAT good.... and i was starving, so we werent gonna wait for however long... so we started looking for something else..

And found an unlined cart like half a block away, we were like. HA HA. arent we smart!!! suckas! but it turns out, i think this is a fake cart, or at least that's what DC said... But they wear the same yellow polos! I guess NYC is infamous for fakes... awww scammed ...

Well! here's the dish! I loaded up on white sauce as per DC's comments, and also some of that hot stuff... I went on my assumption that it was the normal kinda hot sauce... boy was I WRONG. that shit must have been like habenero and ghost chilli extract cause after one bite my entire throat closed out and my taste buds left home for the night. they were like. FUCK YOU asshole we're out of here.... ended up tossing the rest of it away :(

DAY 2

I wanted to have a nice brunch, and since our wait time was 30-40 mins, decided to take a walk up Amsterdam Ave., as it was Sunday, and the street was a roaring.. with kinda the same stuff on every block, (gyros and corn), and the occasional specialties.

MMM some ROASTED pork

Amazing looking cupcakes... i was saving myself for brunch... i shoulda just bought some!

Coils of street meat! I was seduced the first time i came to New York, if you check out my profile pic, that's what i'm eating! More on this on my next posts!!!!

I tried taking so many pics of this gorgeous husky, he was wagging his tail at me at first, but after the 10th shot, he was like, "Lady, just take the FREAKING picture". hey. side-eye doesn't become of you pretty dog!

Lost the battle to hunger and caved to the $3.00 corn on the cob. totally worth it.

Sarabeth's

423 Amsterdam Avenue # 1, New York - (212) 496-6280

Made it finally to Sarabeth's. Damn. well apparently we got a table 15 mins in and they gave it away so another 30 mins of waiting and wondering is this the best damned brunch i will experience? Why are so many people waiting for this!!!???

Classic Eggs Benedict - $17.00

After minutes of mulling, and i always mull over the brunch menu, even though i always always ALWAYS end up ordering the eggs benny everywhere i go, i went with it. Man, for $17.00 this better be the best damned... and actually.. it was really good... but not $17.00 good. But the hollandaise were perfect perfect. The eggs were perfect, i coulda ate 2 plates and asked for more.

Fluffy French Toast - $15.00

The French toast looked amazing. And it was really good... thought i eat my by dipping each individual bite in the butter... so the butter was really good.

Ferrara Bakery and Cafe

195 Grand Street, New York - (212) 226-6150

After a long day of shopping, we found our way into Little Italy, supposing to meet my friend but got kinda lost and needed a pick me up in a major way... and found ourselves here!

The foamiest Cappuccino EVER

We were suppose to go for dinner, so we got this little sampler to settle me down. and oh-mi-goodness were the cannoli's amazing! Got a chocolate covered cannoli, this shortbread thing with cannoli custard, and this blueberry tart. fantastic!... but expensive... but good! but $$$. what do you want?

Momofuku Ssam Bar

251 E 13th St, New York - (212) 254-3500

I keep hearing that i have to go visit this momofuku, which is funny, cause now that i do, i found out there's one coming to Toronto in 2012

steamed buns – pork belly, hoisin, cucumbers, scallions

Their famed steamed pork buns, which you know, the next chance i get, im gonna try to make these, cause besides the steamed pac-man buns, i think i can make everything else! plus the yumness, besides the super fatty pork belly, is the hoisin sauce! But they were pretty amazing....

My GF got this Geoduck appy, it was a special of the night, and in some cilantro or herby sauce, it was super fresh and tasty.

For her main, she got this rhubarb concoction that i am not to interested in, cause it's all veggies. damn you vegetarians.

grilled trout – artichokes, sicilian pistachio, sunchokes

She originally wanted to get the trout, but we ended up getting it, and it was really really really good.

roasted duck and duck sausage

And this was mine, super tasty, the sausage was amazing. i would also like to use my money and buy a full duck in chinatown and eat it on the sidewalk. but this was nice as well.

16 Handles

after dinner, and foregoing more expensive desserts, we were brought to this cool lil place called 16 Handles, where there were 16 handles of low fat, and non fat, different flavoured yogurt to choose from. You pull it yourself in 2 different sizes of cups provided, load up whatever you want in the toppings bar, weigh it, and eat!

See what combos we came up with! it came to around 6 bucks for each. and multitude of toppings to choose from as you can see. as for the yogurt, i think between us, we got cheese cake, vanilla, red velvet, chocolate, etc etc etc

Day 3

Carnegie Deli

I wasnt gonna leave without having my deli fill, and lucky, this place was a block away from our hotel. score!

I was feeling under the weather, as the weather was CRAP. and i was under it. and got some sniffles, and since i never had Matzo ball soup, i gave it a go. HOLY CRAP those are huge balls. it was very homey, and the chicken stock was super good. Its kinda just like dough in soup. or a giant pasty ball. someone pls expain to me. but it was good.

Obligated plate of pickles! I like how there were different flavours, i wish there were more.

This was a special on the table.... hmmmm... tempting

So, the first time i went to NYC, i went to Katz Deli, and ordered a Reuben and fell in love. And wanted to recreate it here at Carnegie, their menu is crazily extensive, and when i saw Reuben, i stopped looking, and did not realize the $23.00 Open Face Reuben, was THIS MONSTER (btw extra $3.00 for sharing! WHAT?)

Where is the bread?

We worked our hardest but this conquered us... this was what was left over... this mountain of corned beef and swiss cheese... defeated...

You're situated in long tables so it gets really cozy, my neighbour had this monster BLT. Where it really should be called BBBBBBBBBBBBBBLT. cause really all i see is the BBBBBBBB.

Before leaving, i caught a look of their dessert display. and damn it if i wasnt so full of meat (no jokes), i took some pics. this is for you Kristine! Shout out! xxx