New York Day Two: Greenwich Village, Food Tastings, and a Turkish Dinner

Hello! Like I said in the last post, this post will be about the second half of our day. After exiting the High Line, we walked to Li-Lac Chocolates in Greenwich Village on 8th St. We were given the 72% chocolate, which was delicious. I generally prefer dark chocolate and this was the perfect mix of sweet.

After tasting the chocolate (and saving some for later) we headed towards our next food stop: Hamilton's Luncheonette for some egg creams. The restaurant itself is adorable and classic. I imagine that it would not look out of place if it were open 50 years ago.

Before going to Hamilton's I had heard of a New York Egg Cream but didn't know what was in it. One of our favorite restaurants back in Florida, Lenny's, had egg cream on the menu but it didn't have a description!! Now after knowing what makes an egg cream (and no I am not telling you, you'll have to try it and find out) and drinking it, I can safely say that it is surprisingly delicious!

The menu at Hamilton's looks delicious and I want to go back to try their turkey dinner (and another egg cream!).

Before heading towards pizza, we walked through the Village and Gary told us about how filthy and crowded New York was in the 19th and 20th century. We talked about the origins of "piss poor" (which is quite disgusting) and why the Ralph Lauren store in the Village has its own exclusive collection.

We ate pizza at Bleecker Street Pizza on 7th Ave, which has been voted the best pizza in New York by the Food Network for three years in a row. We had a slice of the Nonna Marie that has fresh mozzarella, homemade marinara sauce, Parmesan and basil. While I really liked the toppings, Mom, Dad and I weren't crazy about the crust. We agreed that we have had better pizza before (sorry Food Network).

By this point we were feeling pretty full, but we had two more stops to go! So we had to KBO (as Churchill said). The next stop was Murray's Cheese on Bleecker St for some grilled cheese. They have a secret blend of cheeses for their melts. And let me tell you, that was one great grilled cheese. All I needed was some tomato soup do dip in!

The last stop of the day was Pasticceria Rocco for some coffee and cannoli. My favorite cannoli are from Mike's Pastries in Boston, but these were darn delicious. One side was dipped in pistachios and the other side in chocolate chips. I also had a cappuccino to go with the pastry.

And that was the end of our tour! Mom, Dad and I agreed that it was one of the best tours that we have ever done. They have other food tours and the Hell's Kitchen one sounds like a lot of fun. Gary was a great tour guide and recommended the Turkish restaurant that we ended up going to for dinner, ABA Istanbul Restaurant.  

Even though it was fourth of July we decided that wanted to try something new for dinner and ABA was perfect! Our waiter was super helpful in recommending more traditional plates and he even gave us a traditional dessert on the house!

For the starter we had some hummus and an eggplant in tomato sauce dip. The eggplant dip reminded me of ratatouille, another cold dish made up by roasted or grilled vegetables.

For my entrée I went for the Sultan's Delight, which is what Gary gets when goes there so I had to try it! It was a lamb and vegetable stew on top of eggplant purée. I didn't think that I would really like the eggplant purée, but it was amazing! I want to try and recreate it!

Both Mom and Dad got grilled whole fish with pickled vegetables. Dad got the dorado and Mom got the branzino. They both thought that the fish was a bit overcooked, but it was still yummy.

We split three desserts: a custard with a caramelized base (kazandibi), sweet potatoes in a syrupy sauce and pistachio baklava. All of them were delicious!

ABA was such a good choice for that night and it made me want to find a Turkish restaurant near us in Massachusetts. After that we wandered around before getting a cab back to the hotel to watch the fireworks.

The next post will be about our last morning in Manhattan with Central Park and brunch. At the end of this post will be other photos of the day of things that we walked by.

See you soon!
Kara

Summer Plans: Volunteering, Movies, and Going to India!

Helle everyone! I hope your summer is going well so far. I am so excited for the rest of my summer because I have a lot of fun stuff lined up!

Three times a week I volunteer at the Crane Estate in Ipswich. The Crane Estate is one of the many Trustee of Reservations properties. There are tours at the great house, a tour of the grounds, and picturesque views from almost any place on the property. I work at the Casino, no, it is not a place for gambling. It was a place for the Crane's and their guests to relax and have a good time. Outside of the Casino there used to be a saltwater pool that was filled in by Mrs Crane, so the Casino was the place to cool down after a fun afternoon in the pool. Here are some pictures of the estate that I've taken during the last few weeks. 

A photo of the house during the kite festival 

The view from the house's cupola. Wouldn't this be nice for a summer home? 

Some of the salt marshes around the property

View from the Grande Allée (the rolling hills in the second photo)

On days when I am not working at the Crane Estate I am working with four of my fellow Northern Ireland students on a research paper for one of the undergraduate journals on campus. We all have our different sections to write. I am writing about some of the cultural challenges to integrated education. Going back through our notes and watching the videos (haven't seen them yet? I'll insert them below!) has made me nostalgic for one of the best trips of my life! The first video is the more academic one and the second one is the vlog style video.

Speaking of traveling, I am lucky enough to go to some amazing places this summer. First I am going to New York with my parents for Fourth of July weekend. We are seeing a Broadway musical (Hedwig and the Angry Inch with Darren Criss!!) and going on a cool walking tour of the High-line and Greenwich Village. I hope to take some amazing photos. In late July my mom is going on a business trip to India and I am incredibly lucky enough to go with her! We are going to New Delhi and Bangalore, with an overnight trip to see the Taj Mahal. Words cannot describe how excited I am for this trip! I have two trips in August. One is a four day family trip to Toronto, Canada (where I lived for three years) to see some of my mom's old colleagues and poke around our old haunts. Lastly, the four of us are going to Florida!! The first half of the week will be in Orlando to go to Walt Disney World and the second half of the week will be spent in St Petersburg to see friends! I want to see if St Petersburg has changed since I've last been there (last Thanksgiving). I can't wait to go on these four trips and to write all about them. 

As far as movies go, I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron three times (AMAZING!), Mad Max: Fury Road once (Go Furiosa), and Jurassic World (Chris Pratt!) . I am looking forward to seeing Ant Man and Inside Out. Any other movies that I should look out for? Let me know in the comments!

I know that this summer is going to go by super fast! before I know it I'll be starting classes back at American! I hope that everyone has had a good start to their summer and has fun things planned.

See you soon,

Kara

New York Day Two

Sorry that I didn’t post yesterday, I stayed at my aunt’s apartment last night and I didn’t have time to write up a post. But on with what I did on Saturday . . .

Saturday morning, Mom and I woke up at 8 o’clock to get a fresh start on our day. We went to Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast. I love this restaurant because everything is so fresh and made in house, and selection of spreads is wonderful. Mom and I both got the soft-boiled egg with bread, and I got a fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was a yummy breakfast but not too filling.

After breakfast we caught a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art because I had really wanted to see the new Charles James exhibit. We took some pictures outside the museum and in the lobby before heading into the exhibit where we could not take pictures.

The exhibit itself was amazing. The way that the Met did it was amazing. All the dresses had screens in front of them that explained how the dresses were constructed, what inspired them, who wore them and how James cut the fabric. It was really interesting.

Afterwards, we wandered through the galleries at a leisurely pace. Mom and I went through the European sculpture garden, Asian art, American art and Egyptian art. I love taking zoomed in pictures of the heads of sculptures.

There is a taxidermied deer inside the glass bubbles!

 Mom and I then walked through Central Park to Mom’s cousin’s apartment for a mini family reunion. I got to see family members that I haven’t seen since I was really little and Mom got to reconnect with her cousins.

Since we still had our Met stickers on, so we walked back through Central Park to the museum. We also stopped at the Grom food truck for some gelato. I got a small cone with chocolate-hazelnut gelato (my favorite) and Mom got pistachio (her favorite). YUM!

When we got back to the museum we immediately went to find the Impressionism gallery. I took AP Art History two years ago and Impressionism was my favorite era to study.

Mom taking a candid picture

Doesn't this look like Benedict Cumberbatch?

We stuck our stickers to the board and took a cab to the hotel before heading to dinner. 

I found him! 

What?

Instead of going far, Mom and I decided to go to the restaurant right next door to the hotel called the Barking Dog. For an appetizer, we got the mussels with a white wine garlic sauce.

For the entrée I got a bison burger with American cheese, French fries, and sautéed spinach. It was good, but not great.

Mom and I chatted for a little bit and then headed back up to the room to rest up for the busy day ahead of us!

Thanks for reading! Please check by tomorrow for New York day four!