Pictures and notes from a recent trip down to New York City. Lace up your walking shoes!
Stop one - Kalustyan’s, an overwhelming emporium of spices, dried fruits, chutneys and all sorts of goodies. I was saving room for other stuff so I did not go up to the deli on the second floor but they say over on Yelp it’s good stuff.
Stop two - the original Shake Shack. Oh God, Shake Shack. Believe the hype. As a long-time lover of smaller, thin-pattied, griddled burgers I’ve been drooling over a taste of Shake Shack for quite a while, and the wait was worth it. This was everything I wanted in a burger, close to my ideal, and a lot closer to me than In-N-Out, for sure. Profoundly delicious.
Stop three - Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar. As in, David Chang, hottest chef in the known universe, Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar. Intriguied by what I had read about the green curry banana bread, I picked up a loaf for eating the next day, which was just divine. It sounds weird at first but I mean, really - banana and green curry. These things go together. Putting them together in an American standard like banana bread takes a leap of logic most of us mere mortals would never be able to make, but still it makes sense, especially once you taste it.
The famous banana cake is killer, just killer. If it sounds like I’m gushing here, it’s for good reason - it just may have been the best slice of cake I’ve ever had. It was so good I completely failed to get a picture, but a picture would not have done it justice anyway. Speaking of pictures,
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one is worth two: Pork. Fat. Yes, the bun was pillowy and soft and probably would have been delicious on their own. And that green stuff they throw in there is all fine and dandy, but for anyone who knows the wonders of pork belly, you know what I’m talking about. The belly was cooked almost to the point of being unctous, melt-in-your-mouth pork Jello, except delicious because whe you type it out like that it sounds kinda gross. But it’s not, trust me on this one.
Time for dessert at Laboratorio del gelato for a small cup with peanut butter on the left, bracingly bitter Guinness on the right. Both were exploding with flavor, and a perfect way to cap off a calorie-packed walking lunch around town.
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