The United States Of Eating - US (and Toronto) Aug/Sep 2016

[NoName]

Toronto Day 2 - Continued.......


All that faux-athleticism had made us hungry so it was time to eat (again)! Toronto has one of the largest Greek communities in the world and at the suggestion of my aunt we had decided that a Greek feast would be the ideal choice for our final meal in Toronto. After a quick shower and change back at the hotel we hopped in an Uber and headed over to The Danforth which is the main street of Greektown. I had done some research looking through the literally dozens of Greek restaurants in the area and had ended up choosing Ouzeri which seemed to have good reviews and a menu that appealed to us. Unfortunately what started out with both of us being filled with excitement at the prospect of fantastic Greek food ended in extremely disappointing fashion.

We were quickly seated inside and given menus which we took a look at. A couple of minutes later an older waiter came over to take our drinks order. From the outset he put out a mildly aggressive demeanour, he was swaying constantly giving the impression that he was either drunk or had no interest in being there (or both), he was mumbling to himself the whole time. When I asked for a particular beer he mumbled “no” without offering to explain why not or suggest an alternative, when MrsNoName asked for a lemonade he sternly said “we don’t have”, again without offering an explanation or alternative. I’m not usually one to get irritated easily but this pathetic attitude p!ssed me off no end and with him still bumbling around at the table I got up and told MrsNoName that we weren’t putting up with this garbage and stormed out. Again, I’m not usually one to make a scene but with my temper sky high I told the waitress at the entrance that she needed to deal with the extremely rude waiter and made sure the rest of the restaurant heard it. Mrs NoName did much the same on her way out a few moments later. As I said, we had been looking forward to dining here so to have an experience like this was very disappointing.

Thankfully, with The Danforth being chock full of Greek restaurants the walkout didn’t pose any issues whatsoever in terms of getting the meal we were after. We had walk around for about 10 minutes before deciding on Mezes. We were taken straight in and given a great table outside looking out onto the street. With the great weather the table really was perfect. A beer for me, a wine for Mrs NoName and we proceeded to order far too much food – bread and dips, calamari, lamb, chicken, sausages etc. The table of food we ended up with was delicious but far too big. What we ordered could have probably satisfied four people. All in all a great experience and a great restaurant.

Website is here: Mezes Restaurant | Toronto, ON | (416) 778-5150






The Danforth - apologies for the poor photo



From there it was a stagger into another uber and back to the hotel to enter into our eating induced coma.

 

[clazman]

Have you lowered your standards and tried the street meat?

 

[NoName]

A while between drinks due to some other commitments. Apologies for the delay.



Toronto – New York City

The previous evening Mrs NoName had asked me to confirm what time we needed to be at YYZ for our 6am flight to JFK the next morning. Perhaps I was reading the Delta website incorrectly but what I interpreted from it was that YYZ-JFK required me to have checked my baggage in 3hrs prior to scheduled departure. So they want us there by 3am? Really? A quick call to confirm and yes, please have bags checked by 3am.

So up we got at the ridiculous hour of 1:45am for what I knew in my heart was a totally unnecessary 2:30am cab ride to YYZ. Arrived just before 3am and yep, check in desks not open. What a surprise! Stood around for about half an hour for the desks to open and then pretty quickly was checked in and ready for security/immigration. Not a very exciting thing to be doing at 3:30am when you could be still in bed and with immigration not opening until 4am I was even less impressed. However, there was one ongoing piece of entertainment that livened up the morning and made it more bearable. A belligerent young American refusing to follow directions, trying to jump the queue and generally being an rude, arrogant @ss towards security & immigration staff was a genuine highlight. When he refused to get off his mobile phone in the immigration queue even after the entire room heard him being yelled at by security (“if you want to fly today GET OFF THE PHONE”) the show was on! Instead of just hanging up and keeping a low profile he decided to audibly argue with staff. Would he be dragged away and refused boarding? We were hoping for it but sadly he eventually shut up and made his way to the departure lounge with the rest of us.


YYZ-JFK DL2837 Seats: 12A/B

A minor relief after being up unnecessarily early was a little more space courtesy of Comfort+ tickets I had bought. This was the only flight of the trip that we paid cash for so it was quite the score when I found that Delta were selling Comfort+ on this flight for approx.. $30 per ticket CHEAPER than economy (C$209 v approx. C$240). The crowds massed at the gate in anticipation of boarding. We also got up knowing that we would have priority boarding and were confronted by a woman deliberated moving into our path so as not to let us in. Got a dirty look from her when priority boarding was called and we excused ourselves as we went straight past her.

Onto the plane (717-200 I believe) and into our seats. I had selected the A/B side of the plane as the configuration was 2-3 in Comfort+ and not having anyone sitting next to us was a big plus at this time of morning. Pretty quick boarding process and we were away on time spot on 6am. Very uneventful flight and we just took the opportunity to close our eyes and get a few more minutes sleep. Landed at JFK in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Off pretty quick, down to baggage retrieval and to our surprise were among the first half dozen bags onto the carousel. Would we pay for Comfort+ again? On a short flight like this probably not unless we found a similar situation where it was cheaper than Y. Maybe on a longer flight it would be worth it but the differences weren’t noticeable on this particular flight.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 1

Straight into a yellow cab and that was it, we knew we were back in our favourite city in the world – New York City! Interesting cab ride as we seemed to be driven by the next F1 champ. Sped the whole way in and out of traffic and managed to get up to our hotel in midtown in less than 30 minutes. An extraordinary effort given the amount of traffic on the road. Our hotel of choice this trip was Hotel Edison on 47[SUP]th[/SUP] St in between Broadway & 8[SUP]th[/SUP] Ave. It was a fantastic spot, literally 100m from Times Square and a very reasonable price coming in around A$1200 for 4 nights (Sunday-Thursday). The hotel itself is old but still scrubs up pretty well. Rooms were small as expected in NYC but were comfortable enough and definitely suited our needs - queen bed, large TV and small bathroom maybe 20sqm. We didn’t take any photos unfortunately but there are a few on their website (https://www.edisonhotelnyc.com/) if anyone is interested.

No room was available when we got there at around 8:30am so we just left our bags and took off for the first stop of our stay – Chelsea Markets. For some reason we hadn’t been here on our previous visits and needed something to eat we thought it a good place to start. Down into the subway we went for the ride downtown but also to pick up a 7 day unlimited ride metro card. Individual rides are US$2.75 but given we would be using the subway plenty of times over the next 4 days a 7 day pass was going to work out cheaper. The website says the cost was US$31 each but for some reason I thought we paid more. Must be my memory going.

The market was interesting with a variety of different types of shops but it wasn’t anything we were blown away by. We ended up stopping for a quick coffee & breakfast muffin at a café called Sarabeth's Bakery. The food was pretty good without being anything special. Perhaps more time spent choosing our venue would have resulted in a better experience but it is what it is and we were happy enough.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 1 – Continued……


With food in our stomachs we walked a few blocks to somewhere else where we had not been on our previous visits – The Highline (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_(New_York_City) ). As many probably know The Highline is basically parklands with various pieces of art built on a now disused elevated train line and runs from around 14[SUP]th[/SUP] St in the Meatpacking District all the way up to 34[SUP]th[/SUP] St. Its an enjoyable walk with some pretty sites along the way. A nice relaxing way to spend an hour or so working off a meal.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 1 – Continued……


By the time we got the Highline out of the way Mrs NoName was itching to do some shopping. Despite the fact that she had spent a couple of days in NYC the previous week doing nothing but, she felt the need to do more. What’s more she felt the need to do it FOR ME with my money! I’ve been around long enough to know that arguing is futile and the best tactic is to go along with it for a bit and try to limit the financial damage. Told her I would only consider a pair of jeans and a pair of shoes which surprisingly she agreed to. Walked along 34[SUP]th[/SUP] St and up 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Ave for maybe a dozen blocks and then having bought just a single pair of jeans we were done. Successful mission IMO.

Jumped on the subway again and headed towards The Boathouse at the lake in Central Park. For those who haven’t been here its a popular (and it seems on a warm summers day, a little TOO popular) restaurant and bar situated on the lake in Central Park. This is also where you can hire row boats and go rowing on the lake but having done this previously and with it being a pretty hot day we decided not to do it. Instead we miraculously managed to find a spare table outside and enjoyed some cheese and a couple of drinks next to the lake. The drinks were cold and refreshing while unfortunately the cheese was average at best. It was a real disappointment at what is an otherwise great venue. Unsure on exact pricing but it was at the high end of what I would consider reasonable.



Following this we went for a walk back through the park towards a dining destination we had talked about and craved since our last visit over 4 years ago…….








Plaza Hotel:

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 1 – Continued……


Ma Peche is one of several venues by Momofuku and is located on 56[SUP]th[/SUP] St in-between 5[SUP]th[/SUP] & 6[SUP]th[/SUP] Avenues. It has a Noodle Bar towards the rear which is an actual sit down restaurant as well as a Milk Bar at the front which is a takeaway which specialises mainly in desert type dishes although you can also request takeaway items from the Noodle Bar menu. While not as upmarket as Momofuku itself, being in the same ownership (David Chang) and with a similar general style and quality of cuisine it is pricey for what it is but what they serve up makes it more than bearable.

We had visited this place in 2012 to have their famous pork buns and had been hanging out for them ever since. They truly are fantastic and if you are ever in the area I would highly recommend popping in for some.





We arrived about half an hour before the noodle bar kitchen opened (scheduled to open at 5:30 from memory but check their website) so we had to wait around in the milk bar for a while. We had a good chat to the staff there telling them how much we had been hanging out for the buns for so long which was a compliment they seemed to appreciate. They were great to talk to and while we waited they gave us a sample cup of their Cereal Milk soft serve – WOW! This is soft serve with the flavour of corn flakes through it. They also sprinkle corn flakes on the outside for addition flavour.

The much anticipated cough buns came out earlier than expected and we thought it was nice that the kitchen had made them for us despite not being officially open. What was even nicer was when the guy in the milk bar gave us a full sized serving of the Cereal Milk soft serve to apologise for us having to wait. A totally unnecessary gesture but one which was appreciated nonetheless. We would have returned next time we’re in NYC anyway but following that it will be near the top of our list.

Cereal Milk ice cream – yum!



Pork Bun (and some guy’s head) – hard to do these justice in a description so lets just say amazing. If you like Asian cuisine, particularly char siu, then you will find it hard to beat these.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 1 – Continued……


Although we hadn’t had a proper dinner, we were thoroughly full. All we really needed now was a walk around back to Times Square to work off the food. Back through the street and soon enough we were back.








It’s probably been going on for a while but we found that Times Square seems to have become a haven for “entertainers” plying their trade of borderline scamming people out of money. I don’t recall anything like this going on last time we were here but there were a large number of people dressed up as tv/movie characters suckering in people for a photo only to basically demand a tip afterwards. If there were only a few of them and if they asked you beforehand I probably wouldn’t have a problem with it but they are everywhere and these people rush in at you when you’re taking a photo, almost shoving their way into the picture and then shame you if you even baulk for a second at given them a tip. It was quite off-putting.

With my rant over it was time to escape the throng and head back to the hotel for a much needed sleep.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 2


As I mentioned in the first post of this report, Mrs NoName and I both enjoy watching the tennis each summer. We’ve been to the Australian Open in Melbourne a couple of times and loved it so the idea of going to the US Open in New York definitely appealed. Tickets are pretty popular with ground passes for each day being quite limited compared to the demand. I joined the USTA back in April (??) so that I would have first bite of the cherry when tickets came out. USTA membership is US$60 from memory and gives a variety of things which I wasn’t interested in but also the ability to purchase ticket packages beginning in early May as well as individual tickets a week before the general public. So, with membership in hand I logged onto the ticket website when they went on sale in the last week of May and secured our place.

We were up at a reasonable hour for once, maybe 8am and out the door a short time later to look for a place to grab a quick breakfast. Just a less than memorable bite and fruit juice at a café in Times Square. Nothing spectacular and nothing that inspired me to take out the camera and capture. Stomachs fullish, we made our way down to Times Square-42[SUP]nd[/SUP] St to get the 7 Train out to Metts-Willet Pt and to our destination – The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre. About half an hour later and we were here!








I had bought a couple of cheap reserved seats up in the nosebleeds of Arthur Ashe Stadium (centre court) to avoid having to line up for ground passes which are on a first come first serve (I believe) basis each day. These cost approx. US$70 each which wasn’t too bad and which became an even better buy (in Mrs NoName’s opinion) once we learned that Nadal was scheduled to play. We wandered around for a bit taking it all in before deciding to watch the start of a match on one of the outside courts.

Gasquet v Edmonds – amazing how close to the action you are!




It was hot in the sun so after the first set we took off to the bar for a couple of refreshments. Beer for me and one of the US Open signature coughtails – The Honey Deuce (grey goose, lemonade, raspberry liqueur, honeydew melon, ice) for Mrs NoName. The coughtail was fantastic, refreshing and came in a souvenir cup which given the price of all the other merchandise they were selling, was a great memento option.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 2 – Continued…………


Satisfactorily refreshed, we decided to head up into Arthur Ashe Stadium and get ready for the Nadal game. First up was the conclusion of a women’s singles match and when the underdog decided to retire after the first set it was time for the boys. Nadal v Istomin was also over pretty quickly as Nadal crushed him in straight sets in around an hour and a half.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 2 – Continued…………



With the tennis done and dusted for the day it was onto the 7 train again and back to the hotel for a quick refresh and change of clothes before heading out again for dinner. Our choice for the evening was The Spotted Pig which is a gastro pub in Greenwich Village (cnr W 11[SUP]th[/SUP] St & Greenwich St). I had done a little research about what would be a good gastro pub choice and this one came highly recommended. It didn’t disappoint. The venue is relatively small with a downstairs dining area consisting of maybe a 15 or so tables and an upstairs bar area. The place does not take reservations and is pretty much always packed. Luckily we managed to get a table within 20 minutes (reference point: 8pm on a Monday night) which wasn’t too bad. The couple sitting on the table next to us basically said if it’s the weekend then forget it, you’ll be waiting a long time. Apologies for the photos, unfortunately the lighting both inside and outside was quite poor and we only discovered the flash half way through!





I believe the menu changes daily so unfortunately I can’t provide exact descriptions of the dishes we ordered.
We started off with a dozen oysters which were beautiful and fresh. Yum!



For main I had the beef burger & Shoestring Fries. This was delicious! The burger was cooked exactly to order and came out nice and juicy with plenty of flavour. The shoestring fries were actual shoestring fries. I find that usually fries advertised as shoestring and just thin “McDonalds style” fries. These were much thinner and were fantastic!



MrsNoName had the fish (type escapes me) which was served on a bed of greens and tomatoes. Fish was a little overcooked but overall still very tasty.



Total cost of the meal (including a wine & beer) was about US$150 including tax and tip from memory. Maybe a little expensive when you think of “pub” food but this is upmarket so probably reasonable under the circumstance. Overall it was a great dining experience and I would definitely come back next time I’m in New York.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 2 – Continued…………


The final stop for the night was one of NYC’s speakeasy bars about half a dozen blocks away. Employees Only is an upmarket coughtail bar in the West Village located on Hudson St in-between 10[SUP]th[/SUP] & Christopher. As mentioned it’s a speakeasy style bar and you would certainly be forgiven for missing it as you walk past the lady giving psychic readings in the front window. We wandered inside to find a long elegant bar with tables up the back for dining. We also found a large crowd gathered for what apparently was just your standard Monday night. The venue was great despite the crowd and we enjoyed a couple of coughtails each before deciding to call it a night.










Back on the train to Times Square and around the corner to the hotel for a much needed sleep.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 3

Day 3 in NYC and we were up around 7 or so for the train ride to our breakfast venue. Over the previous few months I had seen several episodes of Man Vs Food in an attempt to get some inspiration for this trip. There had been a few places which interested me but for one reason or another we didn’t end up getting to them. This morning however we were going to visit one of the diners featured in the Harlem episode. Grabbed the 2 or 3 train (can’t recall which) from Times Sq-42[SUP]nd[/SUP] St to 116[SUP]th[/SUP]St and out we hopped. Walked across the intersection and about 100m away was our destination – Amy Ruth’s. This is a small restaurant famous for its soul food. While they do serve other things, at breakfast time this means waffles! And oh how good they were! I had enjoyed the waffles in the QF F Lounge a couple of weeks earlier but they didn’t hold a candle to The Reverend Al Sharpton (waffles and fried chicken)! MrsNoName had The Carl S Redding (their original waffles) but while they were great in their own right, when she had some of my chicken she wished she had gone for that as well. If you were wondering about the names of the dishes, everything on the menus is named after famous African Americans.



The Reverend Al Sharpton:


The Carl S Redding:


Menu can be found here: Amy Ruth’s Dine In Menu | Amy Ruth's Harlem – Best Chicken and Waffles in NYC

Amy Ruth’s is located at 113 W 116[SUP]th[/SUP] St in between Malcolm X Blvd & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.

The restaurant is not much to look at and you could easily be forgiven if you took a look at the exterior/interior and decided to give it a miss. The food was great however and we would definitely come back.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 3 Continued......

Following breakfast we took a walk through Harlem. We hadn’t been here before other than a very brief drive through on a tourist bus in 2010 so it was a good opportunity to have a bit of a look around the area. The buildings were quite interesting as was the whole vibe of the area. Completely different from the parts of the city we had already seen. The basic route was up Malcolm X Blvd, left turn into Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd then down through Morningside Park to the subway station on 110[SUP]th[/SUP] St.





Apollo Theatre:


Morningside Park:



We jumped on the B or D train (again can’t remember which) for a ride down to Bryant Park. We’ve been here a few times before and find it a lovely place to sit an relax. Spent about half an hour just sitting and watching the world go by.

Bryant Park:

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 3 Continued......


Next we walked over to 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Ave for the walk down to our lunch venue at Eataly which is on 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Ave in-between 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] & 24[SUP]th[/SUP]St (opposite Madison Sq Park). One of Mrs Noname’s friends had suggested this to her and after andy2015 also suggested it at the start of this thread it was locked in! Eataly is basically a food hall with many different vendors and restaurants selling Italian food. It was really interesting to look around and see all the different options and with all the fantastic looking fresh produce, deciding on where to eat was tough. In the end we decided to head up to Sabbia on the roof. Might as well be out in the open relaxing instead of inside.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 3 Continued......








We finished our lunch and continued on down 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Ave for another 15 blocks to Washington Square Park and the Washington Square Arch which is a concrete arch built to commemorate the 100[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration as president (thanks Wikipedia). The area around the park is NYU and as a result there were a lot of students around which made it a lovely relaxing place to just sit and take a rest.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 3 Continued......

From Washington Square Park it was on the subway and back up to the hotel to freshen up for the show we had decided to see that night. Mrs NoName had found a cheap ticket website (todaytix) and we had managed to get seats (albeit bad ones) for around US50 each from memory for Matilda. The show was quite entertaining with catchy tunes and funny characters. It’s a show adapted from Roald Dahl’s book of the same name so anyone who has read it will probably have a good idea of the storyline. I believe the show is coming to Australia soon (or may already be here) and I would recommend going if you’re thinking about it.






With the show finished it was out the doors, back through Times Square, back to the hotel and quickly into our room for bed.




High stakes chess in Times Square:

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 4

Up reasonably early again for what was our last full day in NYC. We had visited the World Trade Centre site on our previous visits which were both prior to the 9/11 museum opening. I believe the memorial itself was open last time were here but we didn’t visit it on that occasion. After reading a couple of other trip reports on here which involved a visit I had put it on the list of things to do. I Was certainly glad I did. Mrs NoName was a bit sceptical about it being worthwhile but she too was glad to have checked it out.

After a small bite to eat at some long forgotten café near Time’s Square we jumped in a train downtown and before we knew it we were at the WTC site. When we were here in 2012 the new One WTC was perhaps 2/3 complete. As most would know its now fully built.



First stop was the reflection pools. These were very well done and were a great tribute to all those who lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Having each person’s name inscribed onto the side of the pools was an especially nice touch.





Next we went to the 9/11 museum itself and this was excellent. Probably one of the best museums I’ve been to as it provided a thorough narrative of whole incident from events leading up to, the day itself as well as afterwards. There were many items that were recovered from the site displayed around the museum which was interesting to see. We also went to a couple of short films in some of the auditoriums at the venue – one about a survivor and her constant mental and physical struggles over the years and another about the rebuilding on the site. Both were great. We had expected to only be in the museum for about an hour but we liked it so much that we ended up taking our time and staying over 2hrs.

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 4 Continued........

More 911 museum....

 

[NoName]

New York City – Day 4 – Continued………


We had planned on walking over to Brooklyn but the longer than expected time spent at the 9/11 museum, as well as MrsNoName’s desire to see another show meant that we rearranged the schedule a bit. It was late morning so why not eat? A quick train ride over Madison Square Park and it was time to hook into some Shake Shack. It had been much talked up by various different people but I have to say I wasn’t overly impressed. The food wasn’t bad and I would have it again but it just didn’t live up to the hype IMO. Maybe it was just built up to me to be something it wasn’t?





Flatiron building:



With stomachs full it time to head back to hotel for a quick freshen up before the matinee performance of An American In Paris. As with Matilda the day before, we purchased the tickets through Today Tix. Ended up right up the back again but was only US$39 each so not too bad I suppose. The show was only ok but that is probably just due to my tastes. I won’t go into the details but info about the show can be found here: OFFICIAL SITE- An American in Paris Broadway Musical