Food Crawl Through NYC '11

As you read this post you are probably going to laugh your butt off because it is basically a food pictorial of our day in NYC. We decided that we would skip going to a show so that were able to just walk, shop and eat for as long as possible without having to worry about rushing anywhere and that is exactly what we did.

We stayed at the Downtown Marriott which was about two blocks from The World Trade Center Site and the view from our room was priceless. Do you recognize the lady in the harbor?? We totally checked for bed bugs and thank the flipping lord there were NONE!

The tower that you see being built straight ahead is one of the newly reconstructed World Trade Center Towers.

From the WTC we took the subway to Canal St./Chinatown. All I could think about while standing and waiting for the subway was the book that I had read about two years back titled The Mole People. It is a nonfiction book portraying the life of the people who live in the old subway tunnels. If things like that fascinate you it is a must read and I could not put it down once I started reading it.

Metro Cards!

I have been to Canal St. before and it hasn't changed a bit. Tons and tons of Chinese people trying to sell you knock off hand bags, jewelery and scarves. It is such an experience and the people watching is off the charts!

1st stop on the food crawl...Vanessa's Dumplings

Becky had been to this dumpling place before and said that the food was amazing and dirt cheap. We ordered 4 orders of steamed and fried dumplings, Chinese pancakes and I can't remember what the round things are on the plate plus drinks. I said that I wanted to take everyone to lunch so when the lady totalled up our order and said $12 I almost fell over. It was hysterically cheap, BUT amazing food!

We were super excited to see that it had been ranked one of the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the United States too!

2nd stop on the food crawl...Ferrara's

One of my favorite things about NYC is all of the Italian bakeries. I love fruit tarts so whenever I am given the opportunity I jump on it!

Check out this display case. Is your mouth watering??

They had small, medium and large tarts and I got the largest one that my mouth would fit around! This is a food crawl...go big or go home!

I had no idea that NYC had a gigantic Scholastic Store. We spent probably 45 minutes in there and I even got Kristen and myself 25% off since I brought my teacher's retirement card!

3rd stop on the food crawl...some random cupcake cart

As we walked the streets we noticed that you can buy just about anything right on the street out of some sort of cart or truck. They had yogurt trucks, taco trucks, street meat and when we passed this cupcake cart we were in heaven!I also have a new favorite cupcake...red velvet!

The Flat Iron Building

This is Mario Batali's new endeavor. It is an all Italian market, supply store and it also has various mini cafes inside of it. It was quite an experience to walk through.

Our first of three taxi experiences.

4th stop on the food crawl...Crumbs Bake Shop

When we semi planned out our trip we said that we definitely wanted to hit one of the famous cupcake shops so after asking around we decided to stop at Crumbs and we were not disappointed.

Check out this display. I went home with two large cupcakes and three small. They are delicious AND they ship anywhere in the USA. YIKES!

The bull on Wall Street

5th stop on the food crawl...Buddakan for dinner

Becky sent us a huge list of fancy restaurants to choose from and we all decided that this one looked very interesting and Kristen was secretly hoping to meet one of the chefs who was on the show Top Chef.

The theme of the restaurant is basically "family style". So we ordered three appetizers to share and four meals plus two sides to share for dinner.

One of our appetizers was called Potato Chive Pancake with Brazed Short Ribs. It was amazing! Who knew you could do so much with pancakes beside put syrup on them.

Charred Asparagus and some sort of Lobster and Spicy Shrimp Bowl

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pine Nuts

Lobster Fried Rice and Crab Hot Pot

Side note... Kristen and I warned both Becky and Laurie that we were treating them to dinner. Somehow, Laurie spoke to the waiter and he gave the bill to her so we told him he was on our "shit list". When we asked him to take our picture instead of telling us to say "cheese" he told us to say "shit list" so that is why we are all laughing in the picture.

6th and final stop on the food crawl...a random cafe/bakery for dessert

Of course when given the chance to order fruit tarts again I jumped on it! This time I stuck to two mini tarts.

A pic of the cupcakes from Crumbs!

Peanut Butter Cup, Red Velvet and three white on white for the kids!

Are you full just reading this?

I have to tell you my pants were pretty snug on Monday morning, but it was well worth it!