Being a self avowed gourmand...that is to say, one who enjoys eating anything and everything, or should I say, a glutton?...as distinguished from a gourmet...one who recognizes and enjoys only the best and most refined of any and all cuisine...I embraced any and all occasions to try and savor any gustatory experience. There was never a dish that I didn't like.New York is also home to an enviable assortment and gallery of culinary options. There are as many types of cuisine as there are immigrants who have flocked to this city in the land of milk and honey, in hopes of a better place to live in, and a rosier future for themselves, and their families.
So it was that in my brief New York rendezvous, eating was a critical component of the adventure. Four days, twelve meals, was really not enough opportunity to try even a fraction of the epicurean possibilities found in this city...but I did try.
Breakfast in the big apple is just not the same without bagels and cream cheese. First stop was H&H Bagels, where one could find half a dozen varieties of bagels...and 18 kinds of cream cheese filling. It was a jaw dropping encounter. My host had cured salmon from Bemiji, Minnesota, so combining the salmon with the cream cheese on freshly baked ginormous bagels was a total lox and schmear experience. In between bites, I learned that bagels, also spelled as beigels, were originally developed in Poland by Jewish families...and have since been a chewy delectation of Jewish people and Gentiles alike!
Lunch on the go in the big apple is unique because of the choices between Shake Shack burgers or Papaya hotdogs. Light, but oh so right. Oozing with ingredients, chock full of condiments, enhancing the taste of the burger and the hotdog, not hiding it at all. My choices were the whopping cheeseburger, the southern comfort dog(slathered with chili), and the upper east side (full of pastrami) hotdog. Each order was light...but altogether, all three was overkill! But my excuse was...so much food, so little time!!!
Dinner in Irvington overlooking the Hudson River was a spectacular meal. Cool winds of autumn provided the nip in the air, and the sky was the perfect setting for a sun that set itself down regally. The venue was a tony place called Red Hat, the cuisine was French Continental, and the time was right in the middle of Restaurant Week, where each restaurant offered set meals at a fraction of the normal cost! It was a dream occasion...great food, outstanding ambience, and best price!
Some choice notes about the meal.... A splendid start with moules frites... Duck rillettes...and salade nicoise. Just as these three hit the spot perfectly, a bowl of rich onion soup warmed the palate and belly for the pieces des resistance to follow...classic French favorite Beef Bourguignon...that looked and tasted suspiciously like Kalbi Jim, said my dinner companions. There was another dish, Sea Scallops grilled in butter to perfection, accompanied by wild rice and quinoa...and veal sausages that packed a tasty wallop, with a honey mustard dip. All washed down with an airy flute of cava from Spain. And for dessert, profiteroles dipped in chocolate, just dying to stimulate my endorphins!!! And coffee served with a stick of encrusted rock sugar--oh my the details. What's not to love? I literally died and went to culinary heaven!
No I didn't eat all this by myself. Horrifying our French maitre d' a little, we ordered the dishes to share, family style, so everyone could taste a little bit of everything. It was a wonderful and fitting last meal for this traveller, who after lunch had to head for the airport to return to the imprisoned splendor of my life back home in Asia.
Each day of my four days in New York was a sensory explosion of delight, with a highlight that was like a lustrous precious pearl to make a figurative necklace of memories I would wear close to my heart. My 4-day New York State of Mind was unbelievably short, undeniably sweet, unabashedly sensual, and thoroughly memorable...and just the shot in the arm that I craved, and the kind of trip that I couldn't really afford...not to have!!!
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