I Want To Wake Up In A City That Never Sleeps...

Sunday in NYC, we woke up fairly early after getting a good night's sleep due to pure exhaustion from Saturday's activities. Our hotel was in Chelsea, and I really wanted to make a stop at Chelsea Market to check it out. Not only is the market filled with gourmet stores, but it is also home to Food Network. Be still my beating heart!

Stop #1 in the market: Eleni's Bakery. With displays like this, would you be able to walk by without stopping? Yeah. Didn't think so.


NYC themed cookies. Yummy.


I vant von! I vant von!


We meandered along, and had a fabulous coffee from Ninth Street Espresso. After tasting this coffee, Starbucks can suck it. Walking along a bit farther, we came upon a nice sized Italian market. They had everything from soup to nuts, including such delacacies as lemon olive oil and this ginormous container of Nutella.


Look at all these gorgeous barrels of different pastas, nuts, seeds and dried fruits.


Just around the corner....


Unfortunately for me, the headquarters are actually on the 3rd floor of the building. But I consider it a brush with fame!

A few hours later, we found ourselves in the West Village where we met up with one of my college besties, Erin. She took us to partake in all the glory that is Murray's Cheese Shop. This place was heaven. Thank the Lordy we couldn't take pounds of cheese in our suitcases, because I could have easily dropped a few hundy there.


Then we popped across the street to the warm and cozy Blind Tiger where we enjoyed a few stouts fireside. We had to wait until 4pm for our next destination to open, so we killed time by, um, drinking more. Our 4pm was a date with the Belgian Beer Bar, a little nook that's tucked back off the street and purposely hard to find. They had a great selection of beers and much to my delight... pomme fritte with various dipping sauces. Served in a paper cone. (Say hi to Erin in the background.)


We wrapped up our day with a delicious Shabu-Shabu style meal at LAN in the East Village. Two of our friends from KC, Sarah and Joe graciously showed us around and introduced the joys of Shabu-Shabu to us. Very tasty... if you ever have the opportunity to try it, do it!

How can you not love this city?

And the award for fugliest home decor goes to...

This table! This could be yours TODAY if you simply respond to this ad!

These Little Town Blues... Are Melting Away...

New York, my city crush. I have had an obsession with Gotham since my early twenties, and I can say with 100% confidence that it is my absolute favorite city in America. I don't think I'll ever give up my thoughts of living there someday. All of these things are what makes a visit to the Big Apple so sweet! We had a great weekend getaway for the Mister's birthday... it was fa-reezing, but the weekend couldn't have been more perfect. We took a bunch of pics, so in the interest of time (and your continued readership), this post will be dedicated to our Saturday in the city.

We started off the morning by exploring Soho. Mr. Soup needed an additional layer, so we ended up at Eastern Mountain Sports where he snagged a pullover. The buildings in Soho are incredible. I could have walked & shopped around there all weekend, but alas we had schit ta do. So, we hopped the 6 train to City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge. I was super proud of us for using the subway system all weekend... I have used the subway in the past, but for this trip, I took the time to really familiarize myself with the lines and stations in lower Manhattan (more confusing than upper, IMO) so that we could get around without having to take cabs everywhere. The 6 took us right to the base of the bridge in Manhattan.

The Bridge was once the tallest structure in New York and was one of the first suspension bridges in the US.

A stroll across the bridge is rewarded with a freakin' fantastic view of lower Manhattan.
After our walk, we were ready for a warm up. On the Brooklyn side of the bridge, underneath the bridge on Old Fulton Street is one of New York's most famous coal-oven pizzerias:I will admit that the Mister and I are quite the fans of pizza, especially super-thin, crispy New York style pizza with fresh mozzarella, crushed tomatoes, and tons of basil. For years, we'd been going to Lombardi's in Little Italy for their coal oven pies. After hearing raves about Grimaldi's, we thought it might be time to compare and contrast the two. Once we got to the restaurant, we were greeted with a 30 minute wait...outside. It was a bit of a PITA to stand there in line, but totally and 100% completely worth it in the end. We got to Grimaldi's about 30 minutes after they opened and the line only grew after we arrived. If you're planning a visit and don't want to wait in the cold, definitely try to get there as close to opening as possible. They're pretty good about turning tables over quickly, and before we knew it we were crammed into a charming back corner of the restaurant. Here's the Mister cross-eyedly enjoying some of Brooklyn's finest pilsner:

We ordered our pie with coal-oven roasted red peppers (omg) and italian sausage. 15 minutes later, here's what we got:


O.........M.......Gawwwwwd. One bite and I knew I had arrived at the Shangri-La paradise of pizza. Amazing is all I can say. Definitely a must-visit next time you're in New York.

Fat and happy, the Mister and I walked over to the High Street Station and hopped the A/C/E train back to the island. Our next stop? The Museum of Sex!


Ummm, different? Interesting? Perplexing? Confusing? Tittilating? All of these things and more! There are some eyebrow-raising exhibits, some that are still making me scratch my head, but overall it was an interesting look at sex in history and modern culture.

To top off our day, we had reservations with Liberty Helicopter Tours for a sunset flyover of the city. Mr. Soup loves helicopters and all things airborne, so he was giddy at the thought of riding in the chopper. Here's us, dorkin' out in our sweet headphones.
It was a little tough for me to get any quality pictures of the city from the 'copter, but this was the view:

We ended our day with a delicious dinner and bottle of wine at The Mermaid Inn in the East Village, which included the most delicious fennel and fig risotto with a lovely reduced balsamic vinegar.

And they lived happily ever after.

My Year In Cities

Inspired by May December, I have decided to post my Year in Cities. 2007 was a great traveling year, and I hope 2008 brings more of the same! In (mostly) chronological order: Chicago Kansas City Breckenridge New York City Rome, Italy Naples Pompeii/Sorrento/Positano Athens, Greece Rhodes, Greece Istanbul, Turkey Ephesus, Turkey Cinque Terre, Italy Atlanta (became our new residence in July 07) Denver Savannah, GA West Palm Beach

Sushi Xanadu

Bluefin Sushi has just opened up right across the street from my office, adjacent to Cafe Intermezzo. The space that used to be City Garden Chinese has transformed into a sleek, shiny new sushi paradise. (Please excuse picture quality - taken from my phone.)

The selection on the menu is very extensive, from traditional rolls to BF Premium rolls with inventive ingredients. They also offer a selection of salads, pizzas, soups and grilled items. I went for lunch with my coworkers and was delighted to see that they have a Bluefin lunch special for the low low price of $9.95. This is a you-pick-two type of concept, with about 18-20 different selections of sushi and grilled items. I had the Sundae California Roll and the seared tuna with sesame seeds and peanut sauce. For 10 bucks, the portions were enormous, something you don't typically see at a Japanese restaurant. The kitchen was having a bit of an issue with the timing of the grilled items along with the sushi, namely because everything is made fresh to order and none of the rolls are premade (to avoid seaweed sogginess.) Both of my dishes were excellent, and I had plenty leftover. The tuna was perfectly rare in the middle and peanut sauce is one of my favorites, so I couldn't go wrong there. The Sundae California Roll was your traditional Cali roll topped with a light crab salad and ruby red fish eggs. Quite good.

Alvarado was generous enough to let me try a piece of his hurricane roll, which was equally outstanding. I wish I could remember all the ingredients, but it was a tempura roll topped with a creamy spicy sauce... and who doesn't like tempura.

I'm sure I'll be spending many a lunch/happy hour at Bluefin. While we were there, we saw three other tables of folks that work for our stations, so I'm sure we'll keep the place in business, at least for awhile! I haven't been able to find a website for Bluefin yet, but as soon as it becomes available, I'll link you up.

Back in Black

We're back from the most fab weekend in NYC! It was truly a great trip - the only part I didn't like was leaving. Now I have to get all of our pics uploaded so I can then get them on here. Why oh why is there no way for me to wirelessly upload pics yet?

It's Up To You, New York....

The Mister is turning the big 3-5 this weekend, so in order to have a proper celebration, we decided to make pilgrimage to our #1 favorite city... New York! (Also topping the Mister's favorites list are Washington DC and Hutchinson, KS; but we will say NYC for the sake of this post.) Anyway, yippee! I am beyond excited. This is all kind of last minute, which makes it so much more fun :) I think it's the energy of the city that really gets me going. It is impossible not to feel completely ebullient ($10 word) when walking the streets of the Big Apple. In order to make the most of our trip, we've started planning out some of the things we're going to do... which I'm hoping will pay off since we will be there for just a few short days. Apparently my anal nature transfers over to my traveling self as well. The city is just so big and there is so much to do that it's easy to let the day whiz by without feeling like you've actually done a thing. However, sometimes those are the best days too. Since we've already done quite a bit of the sightseeing/touristy type of NY stuff, this trip will be more centered on enjoying the neighborhoods of lower Manhattan... where all the character is if you ask me. :) Some of the places we'll be visiting:

• Dinner with friends at John's of 12th Street in the East Village. Red & white checked tablecloths, classic Italian food, lots and lots of flowing vino. Is this heaven? No, it's New York.
• Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and take in the magnificent view. Lunch at Grimaldi's Pizzeria at the base of the bridge afterwards. Sunday lunch will most likely be at Lombardi's at 32 Spring Street back in Manhattan so we can compare pies. We go to Lombardi's every time we go to New York, and now it's time to test the pizzas of the two of the oldest places in the city. The diet is obviously out the window for this weekend.
• Visit the Museum of Sex. What can I say...only in New York.
• Self guided walking tour of Greenwich Village, including a visit to the narrowest house in NYC (9 1/2 feet) and also a stop & salivate in Murray's Cheese Shop. (Am I sensing a culinary theme here?) Hoping to get in for a tour of their under-street cheese caves, but I hear it's a hard ticket to come by.
• A stop at one of our favorite NYC pubs, McSorely's Old Ale House, founded in 1854. Their is a 1/2 inch thick layer of dust on some of the stuff behind the bar, not kidding.
• Experience gourmet euphoria with a walk around the Chelsea Market. I am so excited to see what they have in this million-square-foot industrial/chic warehouse... most notably, home of Food Network!

I promise to be a good blogger and come back from our trip armed with lots of pictures........and perhaps a pair or two of new shoes. Cheers!

Iomoi Deal

A fab friend of mine got me the most lovely french bulldog stationery for my bridal shower last February from iomoi. Lucky for you, iomoi is currently offering 25% off notebooks, matches and custom paperweights with the code iomoicandy.

Look how freakin' cute these matches are!

And check out these cool ass paperweights... what a great gift they would make. Darling!

and of course the frenchie paperweight...

I Love It

I was just stalking myself on Sitemeter, and found that someone Googled the following: liberator bedroom adventure gear georgia november 2007 And gal darnit, wouldn't ya know Google pointed this lost soul to Blog Soup. What did we ever do without the internet?

Re'solutions'

The holidays were very good to me this year, but unfortunately, party time is over. More or less, I have been off work since the 21st of December, and have been lucky enough to spend my days lounging in pj's, shopping online , munching on cookies, and imbibing with friends. As much as yours truly enjoys said activities, the new year is upon us and tomorrow marks my first official day back at work in 2008. It's time to buckle down, recommit, resolve and restore. On the same note, I think many of us find ourselves committing to healthy eating plans as the new year dawns. I am most definitely one of them. There is no question that I feel better all around when I eat healthy, so there's no reason not to! Below are a few of the recipes I'll be using to keep the good-for-you stuff full of flavor and interest. Liquid Gold Salad Dressing 2 c. fresh lemon juice 3 whole cloves garlic 3 T. minced ginger 3 T. soy sauce 3 heaping T. organic honey Salt & pepper 1.5 c. extra virgin olive oil Place all ingredients except oil in a blender. Begin blending at a normal speed and add the oil gradually until it's completely blended. Add herbs as you wish. Makes 4 cups. Avocado Veggie Sandwich 1/2 avocado sliced 3 slices tomato or 2 slices roasted red pepper handful of sprouts or a few leaves of lettuce 2 slices sprouted grain bread, toasted splash of salad dressing or mustard Assemble sandwich, cut in half and enjoy! What are some of the tips, tricks and/or recipes that you'll be using to keep yourself healthy this year?

Back from the dead...

Greetings all! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We spent New Year's Eve in West Palm Beach with some good friends of ours. They were way too good to us and made us the most sumptuous NYE dinner, complete with filet mignon, lobster, champagne and all the trimmin's. Needless to say, healthy eating is back on full force now that we have made it home to Atlanta! Less than a month to go until we go on a destination wedding cruise with all of our friends and I want to look svelte! ;) While we were in South Florida, we did attend the Orange Bowl and celebrated a win for the Kansas Jayhawks. The game was at Dolphin Stadium in Miami...we had great seats in the first row of the club level, right behind the KU Marching Band. It was definitely a party, and although I am a tried and true Missouri Tigers fan, it was nice to see KU representing the Big 12 with a sweet win. Hopefully I should have some pictures to post in the next few weeks. (I am a bad blogger and forgot the camera. Oops.) Cheers to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008!