Bouchon Bakery

After our afternoon of walking around on 9/11,
we stopped by Rockefeller Center to check things out.

Across the square was Bouchon Bakery.
Lindsie is a fan of the owner/chef, Thomas Keller, so we had to stop in and have dessert.

We ordered a pistachio macaroon, 2 parfaits, and hot chocolate.

The pistachio macaroon was very flavorful and had a rich pistachio flavor
and not overly sweet.

The Cookies n Cream parfait was very good and
my favorite part was the crumbled cookies on top.

The Strawberry parfait had a gel on top with an intense strawberry flavor which was quite addicting. Out of the two, the strawberry was my favorite, which is saying a lot as I am a chocoholic.

We both enjoyed our hot chocolates.

After our pit stop, we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral to listen to a
special choral concert in honor of 9/11.

We actually lucked out on this concert. We were walking around after dessert and thought we'd just look inside. There were a lot of people inside and the choir had just walked onto stage so we decided to stick around awhile. The pipe organ rocked!

Katz's Deli

After church on 9/11, I ate the best pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli. I told Greg he needed to visit this place when he was visiting Lindsie back in February. They sent pictures to my phone of these beautiful sandwiches they ordered, a pastrami and a Rueben. Since they are so big, Lindsie and I opted to split one, which was more than enough for us along with the pickles. Greg said if he had to pick one, it would be pastrami. Hence the reason we went with the pastrami over the Rueben. He said both were very good, just that the Russian dressing was a tad sweet for his liking.

Upon entering, each person is given a ticket on which the sandwich makers write your order on, so you can pay on your way out. You do not want to lose this ticket! As Lindsie and I only ordered one thing, we turned in the blank ticket at the register on our way out. Otherwise they'll charge you a hefty amount. They try to prevent people from 'losing' their ticket so they don't have to pay their fair share.

Lindsie knew the trick for getting samples while waiting for your sandwich, something she picked up from her last trip with Greg. You tip the sandwich makers a dollar or two and they'll cut off slices of whatever meat they are cutting for you to sample.

Isn't it beautiful? Thick slices of succulent pastrami on rye. The pickles were good too.

I can't wait to dig in!

I hope you're hungry!

The pickle I'm eating (thanks for the most flattering picture Lindsie) wasn't pickled very long as it still tasted mostly like cucumber. It was a nice refreshing compliment to the rich pastrami.

Here are a few pictures of our afternoon after Katz's Deli.
This officer is certainly packing some heat.

Brooklyn Bridge

Near Ground Zero

An empty subway train car! I had to document this.

After our adventure downtown, we stopped by Little Italy to have a slice of pizza.

More posts to come of the wonderful food I had in NYC!

Fette Sau

I went to NYC for a week (Sept 9-Sept 16) and spent time with Lindsie before school started up again for me, and before Lindsie flew to Portugal for lab. We ate at some amazing places while I was there. The first place we went to was Fette Sau in Brooklyn. The train that takes us almost directly there was not in service that Saturday so we took a less-direct route and definitely built up an appetite.

The name means 'fat pig,' so naturally we had to get the pulled pork. It was the best pulled pork I've ever had. We also ordered some beef brisket, a sausage which reminded me of pepperoni in flavor, homemade baked beans with chunks of pork swimming in it and sauerkraut. Our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs but we made a good dent on the food.

On each table there was a selection of 4 sauces. One was spicy, one was your traditional tomato based bbq sauce, one was vinegar based, and the last one was a mustard/horseradish combination. My favorite out of the bunch was definitely the vinegar as it cut through the richness of all the meat quite nicely.

Lindsie enjoying the 'pepperoni' sausage.

We washed it down with water and now had the energy for 9 more hours of walking around NYC. It was a long day but well worth it.

Here are a few pictures from the trip before we made our next food stop that evening.

Because the 10th anniversary of 9/11 was the next day, the city was covered with NYPD and the ferries also had the coast guard escorting it to and back from Staten Island. I thought it was awesome.

Manhattan in the background.

At a near by park from the ferry building, there was a 9/11 memorial where each flag represented a life that was taken that day 10 years ago. It was quite sobering and made the events that happened that much more real to me.

This is a picture of the most massive Reese's peanut butter cups I've ever seen. Each cup is 8 ounces and 1150 calories. I bought it just because it was so ridiculous. I've yet to crack it open.