A Healthy Foodie's New York Dining Adventures

Notes from a five-day visit to a culinary wonderland:
TOP MEAL was at the marvelous Le Bernardin in midtown. The restaurant is renowned as one of the best seafood-oriented restaurants in the world, and it didn't disappoint. (We had been only once before, for lunch a few years ago.) As fine as the food was, by the way, the wine that I had with my meal was even more memorable. Photos show first course (favorite of the three) of fluke with a jalapeno/lime sauce; crab salad; and a lobster entree. The wines included a deeply satisfying Meursault (white Burgundy, some of the world's best chardonnay), a fine Barolo, and with dessert a Sauternes.

First course @ Bernardin: fluke fish

Crab salad, 2nd course

Lobster entree at Le Bernardin

Trout with fava beans @ Met Museum

Other fine dishes sampled along the way include a scrumptious roasted artichoke appetizer, redolent of truffle butter, at Isabella's on the upper west side, near our hotel. (No photo of that.) We enjoyed lunch at one of the restaurants inside the fabulous Metropolitan Museum of Art -- including this trout with a lovely medley of summer veggies.





I had lunch at one of Daniel Boulud's places at the beginning of New York Restaurant Week (going on as I write, in fact), and loved this "Summer Old Fashioned" cocktail. Finally, here's a shot of a favorite Italian appetizer (beef carpaccio) at a theater district spot before we saw the wonderful, Tony Award winning musical, "Once."

Summer Old Fashioned, yum

Appetizer at Osteria al Doge

I wasn't too "bad" as far as eating rich food in mass quantities -- a hazard of visiting a great restaurant city like New York -- but I did have a few indulgences. I guess the worst in that regard was dinner at Carmine's near Times Square (fried calamari and penne in a tomato cream sauce) followed by cheesecake across the street at Junior's. We were with my brother and his son, and the food choices were for the kid, so we kind of had to go with the flow. I must say, the calamari was excellent and the chocolate cheesecake on my plate wasn't half bad, either.
Back home now -- picked up a cold along the way,  alas -- and getting back to regular exercise and eating.

More food, cocktails, and fun in NYC

Got to move on from the fabulous New York City adventure we had before Christmas, and focus on how to make 2012 a Healthy New Year.
But here are just a few more photos from the Big Apple.....

View from hotel room (Excelsior)

At Eataly

Cake at Fiorello's, near Lincoln Ctr

Antipasto plate @ Fiorello's

Fall Classic Cocktail @Gramercy Tavern

Antipasto bar at Fiorello's

More good eats in New York City

Merry Christmas to all!
Our pre-Christmas trip to NYC included these wonderful dishes from Gramercy Tavern. Appetizers of beef carpaccio and melt-in-your-mouth smoked trout....

Beef carpaccio

Smoked trout

We also had a great cocktail with the apps, called Fall Classic: bourbon, apple cider, Calvados, thyme and lemon.

For my entree, I tried their lamb, which was amazing -- the plate included several different cuts of the lamb (in small pieces, thank goodness) and a bit of tasty lamb sausage as well.

Gramercy Lamb Entree

Christmas is upon us, and I have house guests and lots of cooking to do, so the rest of my NYC foodie adventures are still to come.........

A few NYC foodie highlights

Guess I couldn't have been too unhealthy in food choices, because my bathroom scale today says that I didn't gain any weight living it up in wonderful, exciting Manhattan, NYC.

Fab breakfast at Nice Matin

We loved our hotel, the Excelsior on the Upper West Side. It's a half block from Central Park and faces the small park adjacent to the American Natural History Museum, where you catch the B or C train downtown. Some people say that's too far away from Midtown (it's at 81st), but its remove from the craziness is what we love. You can easily get to the touristy things but come home to a residential neighborhood at night. Our morning routine--coffee at arguably NYC's best cafe, Joe's the Art of Coffee, followed by breakfast at Nice Matin (in the Lucerne Hotel, on Columbus at 79th)--had us interacting with few tourists, and we made friends with a couple of New Yorkers who gave us great tips about where to eat and shop.

Joe's has several Manhattan locations

Without making this a super long post, here were our favorite foodie finds (aside from the aforementioned Joe's and Nice -- photos of them above, including my scrambled eggs with smoked salmon breakfast.

1. Dinner at Gramercy Tavern, one of Danny Meyer's flagship restaurants and a favorite of many Manhattanites. (No photo now, as I have temporarily misplaced my regular camera -- these are all from the cell phone camera) Everything about it -- ambiance, service, drinks and food -- was perfection.

Tacos at Red Cat in Chelsea

2. Lunch at Red Cat (amazing shrimp tacos, in photo) in Chelsea. The tacos melded flavors wondrously, and the Campari spritzer I ordered with it was a great accompaniment.
3. Dinner at Calle Ocho, adjacent to our hotel, was surprisingly good. My husband's "vegetable paella" (in photo) was excellent.

Veggie Paella

Once I retrieve my camera and download those pix, I'll post part 2.
Finally, the Christmas window displays in the city are always worth a detour. Our faves were in Bergdorf Goodman. Here is a photo of one of them.

Fanciful window display