I love you New York but I have to leave

A road trip! I love road trips. This is me all buckled in and ready for our adventure. Follow me dear people and I will tell you a tale of the City that Never Sleeps. I go to bed at 10:00 but the city doesn't sleep.



We got to Hotel Indigo at around 2:30. We went up to our room which was really nice. Very modern and clean. The view from the room was pretty cool too. I loved looking at this rooftop garden. We were in the flower district and it was fun to see all the plants. Then again I was having an allergy attack and major sinus infection. But what the hey. I am a trooper.



We wandered around a bit and visited a certain museum. We then went to dinner at Markt I loved this restaurant. I had my first Manhattan of the trip. I also had Mussels that were out of this world.



What is Dr. Food doing with a Butterfly shoved in his face? We went to the American Museum of Natural History. We visited the Butterfly exhibit.



The butterflies were beautiful but enough of the butterflies. Lets move on.



I wanted to take home that little guy and name him Barney but Dr. Food wouldn't let me. Ok ok, I see you rolling your eyes. This blog post will get better soon. I promise.



Don't tell Dr. Food but I was really bored at this museum. I amused myself by making up captions to the pictures I took. Childish I know but I amuse myself.



Heh, isn't this fun?



I don't remember what else we did on Friday. Took cabs....walked walked walked...subway....walk walk walk...whine whine whine... cab.



Oh wait! We had dinner at Sammy's Romanian Steakhouse This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I adored this place. They don't have a website. I wanted to move in and work here. I loved the owner and I loved everyone that worked there (all 5 of them). While we were there much moving of furniture was going on.


What is that? That my dear readers is Schmaltz. Chicken fat. It sat at each table in a place of honor.



There was table side making of chopped liver. Instead of a Cesar salad you got chopped liver made at your table. I didn't get pictures of the bottles of Vodka that were encased in ice but they served them. Dr. Food and I stuck to VO and coke.



Don't be frightened. No human could finish that. I am not even sure what it was. I had Sammy's signature which is the Romanian tenderloin, a skirt steak tenderized with minced garlic. Bummer was we couldn't take the leftovers home. We had no home to take it to.





I was excited for Saturday because I was having lunch with Amanda and her amazing daughters and her wonderful mom (no pictures because I didn't want to take any). I had to anchor the news before we went. Oy, this post is getting worse by the moment.




Dr. Food and I had a NY City Pass and decided to go to Times Square to the Wax Museum before lunch. It was free so what the heck.



Yeah, me and the man.



Wow, these look really fake.



Heh, I kinda like this one because I am not the one that looks stupid in it.



Oh wait, here I am looking stupid. I love Lucy.

So no more wax and we headed off to lunch with Amanda and her crew. We ate lunch at Print. What a great lunch. I hated not having more time to spend with all of us together.



We did more sightseeing. We also had Theater tickets for the evening. Me being me chose an off-broadway weird interactive play. But I am getting ahead of myself. Mainly because everything is blobbing together at this point.



We did get to Katz's Deli We also had dinner the night of the "Theater Experience" at some Tapas restaurant that I didn't like. I forgot the name. I am sure that Dr. Food remembers but it doesn't matter since I thought it was over priced and forgettable.



So this play... It was called Sleep No More It was in a warehouse that was made to be a Hotel. We ran up and down stairs and chased the actors for 3 hours. We still have no clue what happened. It was fun for the first hour but after that I just wanted to be sitting in a corner with a drink and some nice music playing. We had to wear these masks inside claustrophobic rooms. Hmmmm.



Ok, so follow me here because I am going to speed it up with just pictures and captions of the rest of the stuff we did. This is the New Amersterdam Market I wanted to take everything home with me.




A nod to the World Trade Center which became the tallest building while we were there.

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We walked around Eataly. What an amazing place.



Hey Mr. Calcagno, check it out!



A little Andy Warhol.



Some Falafel.



A little sleeping gypsy.

Ohhhh.... I also forgot to tell about the Korean restaurant we went to. Marja Vongerichten was kind enough to suggest Wonjo to me when I tweeted her about where to go. She is my new BFF. I loved the restaurant. We tried it for lunch. Marja (see? we are on first name basis) also suggested Kun Jip. We met my friends Ivan and Caroline for dinner there. I wasn't blown away with it but it was ok. It didn't really matter because I was so happy to see Ivan and Caroline.



So the whole point to my post is this. Dr. Food took me to 11 Madison Park for my Birthday. Happy Birthday to me! 4:00 the day of our reservation, 11 Madison Park was voted 10 out of 50 of the Best Restaurants in the World. I have to say that I was not disappointed in the least.



Hard to be discreet and get a picture. It was lovely inside.



It started off with a birthday card at the table. We then ordered cocktails (Manhattans of course) and were handed this box. Inside were black and white cookies that were savory. Good stuff.

Here is what the meal consisted of:



AMAZING. My favorite was the Clambake. I can't even describe it to you.



We were given Granola to take home for breakfast.



I was given a little birthday surprise to take home as well.



It was good. Ok, that is my story.