Turkey in the City

For Thanksgiving this year we opted for a quick trip to New York City. Our bus travel proved to be what we expected - a little chaotic at boarding time, a little unreliable with late and unknowledgeable bus drivers, but overall a great choice - you can't beat the $17 each way fare.

Part of the sweet Hilton bennies include VIP status - which was offered to us at the Millennium Hilton in the form of a corner suite room upgrade with floor to ceiling windows - score! Past NY trips have included stays at rooms comparable to dark closets at the going rate of a car payment. We had a great view of the World Trade Center site from our room, where workers are working around the clock (and conveniently banging on metal for hours on end) to build new towers and memorials for 9-11.

Once we decided there was more to see in NY besides the amazingness that was our room, we headed out for some Thanksgiving dindin. We missed out on a home cooked meal and time with family and friends, but tried to re-create the meal as much as possible. In the prior days I had perused opentable.com extensively, and found a few restaurants which were ultimately vetoed by Bobby because the Thanksgiving price-fixe menu was missing stuffing, green beans, gravy, or some other (secondary in my mind) Thanksgiving staple. Eventually we found a casual sports bar, Legends, which offered all of the traditional foods. Here is Bobby eagerly anticipating his second course:

Good choice Bobby, the food was amazing! We rolled into a cab and spent the evening watching Gopher basketball in our room.

The next day was of course the holiday of American consumerism, the legendary Black Friday. While we didn't plan on doing much shopping, we still got caught up in the holiday spirit. We made the mistake of entering the Macy's store, where we were herded like cattle through the store and up the escalator - I couldn't imagine actually trying to shop there!

Next we met up with my cousin Sam and his girlfriend Romy at Kunjip Korean B.B.Q restaurant. We've realized that a restaurant in NY is great when there is a line out the door - this certainly held up to that standard! Romy and Sam ordered for us and kindly saved us from the exotic selections, involving tentacles, tongue, or who knows what else. Next we headed to a karaoke bar, where both Romy & Sam wowed the crowd with their vocals. We had so much fun hanging out with you two! See you later this month!

Our last day in NY was spent much like the first two - walking around and eating, except this time we were doing it in an organized fashion, on a Flavors of NY Food Tour in the East Village! We used this company on a food tour in Philly and loved the hilarious tour guides, laid-back format and chance to try foods at various mom & pop establishments you could easily walk by and never appreciate. Our NY tour was all about traditional NY food, so some of our stops included samplings at Pizzanini, Papaya Dog (contrary to my original reaction, this is thankfully just a hot dog which is to be consumed with a separate tropical drink - no papaya flavoring in the dog), an amazing egg cream, some delicious mystery meat at an Eastern European meat market, and a stop at David Chang's Milk Bar for some creative desserts such as ice cream flavored like cereal milk - tasted just like the real thing but sugary sludge free!

We had a great time in New York & hope to make more trips there!

-Laurie