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Published: November 3rd 2010
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Famous Fat Dave arrived in his 1984 (circa) Checker Cab to start our Five Borough Food Tour in style. The car was not only a gem to look at but spacy and comfy inside. Dave prooved to be very informative (a history major), really friendly and he certainly knows his culinary way around NY.
First stop, Luke's Lobster in Maine for a super fresh lobster roll - 1.5 pounds of lobster meat with lashings of butter on a yummy hotdog sized roll with homemade mayo, my favourite of the whole day. Next stop downtown was for a Polish blueberry blinis - ricotta and stewed blueberries in a crepe like pastry lightly grilled and covered in icing sugar. We ate this from a great vantage point with views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Two dishes down and sights seen, we jumped back in the car destined for Red Hook (where On The Waterfont with Marlo Brando was filmed). Defouti's sandwich bar was like walking into a movie - larger than life Italians with thick accents serving enormous (foot long type) sandwiches with the most amazing combinations, we shared half a rare roast beef / Italian cheese /
eggplant parma sandwich which was still huge and very tasty. Dave was recognised in the store by a customer (apparently he's been on local TV) and the guy (another larger than life Italian) said "Hey, you guys on Dave's tour today hey, ahhhh 6 months ago I would have joined you, but ahhhhh now, now I'm on a freeken diet!" LOL
Sandwich down it was over to Steve's key lime pie store for a traditional key lime pie and the gourmet version - key lime pie covered in dark Belgian chocolate on a stick and frozen. Both were good, Mum and Dad loved these. It was whilst devourering the pies that Dave pointed out a bridge in NY that is similar to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, photo attached. Apparently the bridges were designed by the same people, ours is much better though.
Next stop was a Sunset Park in Brooklyn which has a great view of Manhattan, Staten Island and beyond. It was a busy day at the park, full of kids as it was a holiday for the election, and I guess mainly because it's one of very few play areas in NY. It was here that
I saw my first squirrel and OMG how cute was he chowing down on nuts before hibernation!!!!!
Cute things aside, more food needed to be eaten so we set off to the Mexican / Asian side of town to grab a Mexican pork thingie, not a taco, not a burritto but more like a bun with lots of spicey, braised pork, stringy cheese, advocado, tomato and hot, hot salsa. It was the business. We washed it down with a rice milk drink which tasted exactly like rice pudding with lots of cinnamon put into a blender until smooth, Dad loved it.
Our tummies getting tight Dave suggested we take a detour and drive some 20 minutes to Coney Island as the day was so lovely and clear, to have a Nathan's hotdog (the original and best we were told). The drive to Coney Island was great and as we drove through Jewish, Russian and Polish communities we watched the groups of old men playing games on the footpath change from chess to checkers to just sitting around smoking and chatting.
Nathan's original hotdog store was pumping and we had a traditional hotdog with tomato and mustard and
a contemporary dog (add onions) - they were good, smaller than those things we have and the 'dog' was smokey and snapped when you bit into it. Dog down, we walked in the sun along the Broadwalk, listened to a few old Italian guys talking about cracking someone in the head years ago (kept walking) and jumped back in the cab for our last destination, ice-cream.
Mum had a lemon ice (like sorbet) and Dad and I shared a pistachio / chocolate / vanilla scoup and it was really, really good, very creamy with lots of pistachios but not rich. We managed to shove in a 'slice' here too and the thing about NY pizza is it's tasty because of the tomato sauce. The tomato sauce on real pizzas here is thick, sweet and delicious.
Feeling like a nanna nap and so very full, Dave drove us into Chelsea where we departed the tour and walked across the new High Line Park - an old railway line converted into a walkway and relaxation area.
Back in Manhattan, it was off to FAO Schwartz toy store which was disappointing to be honest. Anyway I've put a few pics
up of the highlights. Sorry kids, no presents from here.
At 8pm we asked the concierge for a local joint to grab a salad and / or a light meal, she recommended 5 Napkin Burger down the street. This is NOT your average burger place folks. We arrived to funky music, an even funkier interior, and a 25 minute wait for a table. No probs we said and sat at the bar. Sitting at the table we ordered the Hell's Kitchen Wings (wings are everywhere and we wanted to know what the fuss was about), Mum had the shrimp salad and Dad and I got the original burger with onion rings. The wings were awesome but firey and the rest of the food was great - warning, Jenny Craig is NOT giving this the tick of approval. It was cheap and cheerful and it was home to beddie byes after that.
Today we're off to Central Park, the oldies want to go back to Macy's (think they need shoppers anonymous) and Mum and I are going to see Mary Poppins this evening.
Xxx
😊
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