Earlier this year when I was still living in Philly, Alex W and I thought that it would be a wonderful idea to do a food day around NYC. I decided that New York, the food Mecca of the US, was the place that I needed to be. I packed an overnight bag and hopped on the bus, in great anticipation of the culinary adventure that lay ahead of me. It's a pity that there are only so many meals in one day. Well then again, maybe that's a good thing.
So the first stop on our food adventure was Petite Abeille, a belgian restaurant that was on Alex W's radar. Arriving for a late brunch (lunch.), Alex and I were ready to devour the place. The first thing that caught my eye was the Moules Marinieres, a fancy way of saying steamed mussels in a pot. They were cooked in a white wine and celery garlic broth, ooh la la! This took the cake in seafood appetizers! Talk about fresh, these mussels were practically picked from the sea and placed on our tables. We were both really impressed by it, and then discovered that we could do an all-you-can-eat mussel night with a Stella Artois on Wednesdays. YUMMM...
And the best part is that they definitely do not skimp on the portions. By the time we were done with the mussels, we weren't sure if we could finish our sandwiches.
Right. L:ike that's ever a problem.
Next up were the sandwiches... I decided to try the daily special of curried chicken sandwich with apple and tomato slices. I was a bit apprehensive about trying a curry sandwich. I mean curries are messy and they go on rice right? WRONG! The chicken curry sandwich was surprisingly tasty. And I guess they must have boiled down the curry so that it was all messy and dripping all over as I ate. And who would have thought that sliced apples were a great condiment? I wonder how chefs just decide that "Hey, this fruit is going to go great with this spicy gravy..." or "Hey this Indian meal can be turned into a great Belgian sandwich...". Well whatever they were thinking, it sure paid off. I was very pleasantly surprised by how all the ingredients came together to complement the sandwich. It's like they were made for each other.
Alex decided on the Croque Madam, a ham and gruyere cheese sandwich, topped with two sunny-side ups. I have got to say that any sandwich with gruyere cheese is almost a sure winner. It's only my favorite cheese :) Well that being said, I had to take a bite out of her sandwich. It was good! I know I know.. it's a ham and cheese sandwich, how ordinary. But no, it was done perfectly. The ham was perfectly grilled and the cheese was melted just right. With some magic, the bread stayed perfect and not soggy despite the fact that the eggs were just sitting right on top.
I think this is a place that we can definitely visit again. Especially when we get friends from out of town. And this time, we're going to plan to be there on a Wednesday so that we can check out the magnificent mussel madness.
Next stop on our adventure was the Chelsea flea market. Probably every New Yorker has heard of the Chelsea Market. But alas, I'm from Philly. So I was like a kid on Christmas Day when Alex told me that it was where the Food Network offices were located! We stopped by this really colorful cake shop and were just amazed at the talent behind the cake decorating! I've only seen such cakes on Food Network, but never in real life.
Yes, those are cupcakes.
Wayyy too cute to eat.
Amy's Breads. What an aroma.
We also decided that the visit to the Chelsea Market would not be complete without eating something (duh). So we stopped for some crepes with nutella and bananas. The guy was thrilled when we took his picture while making crepes. Though we were full from lunch, the smell from the crepe shop made us forget that we just had something to eat haha. So these little piggies had a crepe. To lessen our guilt, we shared :)
We were hoping for a celebrity spotting in Chelsea Market. For foodies like us, celebrity spotting involves seeing Rachel Ray, Ina Garten and Booby Flay shopping in the grocery aisles... we're sooo cool. But yes, we still wanted to see someone on the Food Network! Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to rub shoulders with these culinary gods. This time. :)
Anyhoo, check out this weird tomato! Someone's been playing in the nuclear reactor again...
Escargot ready for cooking
To end our gluttonous day, we stopped by the Shake Shack for the one thing on the menu that WebMD warned us against, the Shake Stack. The Shake Stack was essentially created for the people like us who couldnt decide on what they wanted on the menu. It is a combination of the cheeseburger and the veggie burger: a solid beef patty and a fried portobello, topped with all the usual condiments. By this point, our stomachs were just overloaded with unhealthy goodness, but still we pushed on. Why do we do that?? Well anyway we did. And while it was so good and tasty, there was only so much that we could eat in a day.
Yes, we still had fries with that.
So after a gruelling day of food, Alex and I decided that it might be a better idea to space out our food adventure over a weekend. haha. But at the end of the day if you asked me which food I would have given up for the mercy of my tummy, I would have just told my stomach to "Suck it".
