What I Ate In NYC

Just returned from the most fabulous weekend in New York City. Shopping, dining, drinking, dancing, and spending time with some of my favorite people....what could be better?

And since this blog is about being lean and green, yet still eating yummy food, thought it would be appropriate to share some of the goodness I got to eat while in NYC.

Friday - first day there - after waking up at 4am, flying, subway-ing, and shopping, was definitely ready for a nice lunch. Katie and I found The Cub Room with a great prix fixe lunch for $15. We first demanded wine (!), then started with a fennel salad with apples, walnuts, and bleu or gorgonzola cheese. Second course was salmon with green veggies and fried mashed potato balls (hush puppies?). This salmon was just so pretty, I've never seen it rolled up like this!

Then we ended the meal with dessert - chocolate lava cake for Katie, cheesecake for me (and maybe another glass of wine?). Good start to the weekend!

That night, Cassandra took us to Indochine, the painfully obvious fashion model hotspot. She tried to tell us the portions were small...yeah right! We started with some sauteed asian greens and a green salad. For the entree, Katie had some very spicy shrimp.

I ordered the fish special, which was grilled striped sea bass on lemongrass and green veggies. It was HUGE, and really, really delicious.

We then made our way to the Thomson LES hotel and the new "members only" bar on 7th floor called "Above Allen." Apparently, they will soon be issuing membership cards and people like me won't be able to get in (without people like Cass and Katie to help!). But it was a great ending to a great day!

Saturday dawned beautiful and sunny. We made our way to Central Park for a lovely stroll in the sunshine. (NOTE: this marked the first time we were mistaken for locals and asked for directions, which was awesome and would only have been cooler if I actually knew where the Plaza was...who doesn't know where the Plaza is???? Duh, it is of course on 5th Ave and Central Park South). Then a tour of the World Trade Center site, and Battery Park.

Lunch on Saturday was at Kampuchea, the first and only Cambodian restaurant in the City. I had a great roasted cauliflower sandwich that I really enjoyed, especially when complemented with a lychee martini.

Dinner with Cass and Ben Saturday night was at some sushi restaurant - maybe I had too many lychee martinis at Verlaine's happy hour but I have no idea what this place was called. However, I do remember that the sushi was really super delicious!!! Here are some gorgeous pictures:

The rest of this night is a blur, but there are some embarassing photos that include pink heart sunglasses to indicate that I didn't just go to bed early.

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Sunday was a rough morning. Katie and I found somewhere to eat breakfast/lunch and read some trashy gossip magazines and try to get our brains unscrambled.

Cass re-charged our batteries with a sugar rush with some really fabulous cupcakes to celebrate Katie's birthday!

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Sunday dinner was truly memorable at Zucco's Le French Diner. Zucco himself in indescribably cool, he makes me wish I'd been to France. I ordered a Pan Bagnat sandwich (like a Nicoise salad, only on a baguette with fries). It was really good. But the ambiance....the ambiance was the best. Teeny tiny restaurant, kitschy decorations, authentic French owner. LOVE this place. No wonder Cass and Ben are regulars. I have no photos because that would have been terribly gauche.

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The weekend ended so perfectly. Just as if we were celebrities, Katie and I hit up the nearest Pinkberry (next door to our apartment!) for a fro-yo snack. YUM! Expect our photo to show up on Perezhilton.com soon.

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Bottom line: one of my best vacations ever. Had a blast. LOVE NYC!!!!

PS - all photos courtesy of Katie Hanson. Thanks girl - you are GREAT! Let's do it again someday!!