New York With a Fork!

New York was a blur of beauty, musicals, shopping, research, etc, but in this post I want to talk about FOOD. We ate at some great NYC restaurants and such, but I did not have my camera at some of them. This post is all about a few of the delicious and delightful haunts we visited.PASTRAMI--Enough said. KATZ'S DELI is delicious! My husband and I struggled over cheating on our beloved Second Avenue Deli (which has moved from it's historical original location at 2nd and 10th --oy the heartbreak of that) but we decided to take a chance on Katz's. In addition to adoring my pastrami sandwich, I loved the sweet potato knish and the cole slaw with the sweet mayo. The cole slaw seriously tasted like ice cream. Can you even imagine? Leave it to a Jewish Deli to make mayo that tastes of ice cream. I think all my life's dreams just came true in that last sentence. Jesus, I love Jews.
My favorite hotel in NYC has to be the Peninsula on 55th and 5th. I have stayed in many places in NYC and for location, convenience, staff, and accomodations I more often than not choose the Peninsula.One night they brought me this to the room:

It was a trio of delicious sweets. I loved the presentation, and of course I loved the goods. It was gratis--cause that is how they roll at the Peninsula. When you are a return visitor, they treat you right.

One of the best things BY FAR of the whole trip was eating at PERILLA located at 9th and Jones right off Bleeker. It is the new venture (opened in May 2007) of Harold Dieterle--the talented and handsome winner of the first season of Top Chef. HERE is a little YouTube video tribute to Harold. The music choice makes me chuckle.

Perilla has a very cool, modern vibe. I would not necessarily call the food Asian-Fusion but it definitely has an Asian lean. The menu is original and delicious. We started with the pork belly. The name alone--pork belly- kinda made me cringe, but my husband assured me it was "just like thick bacon". Indeed it was like thick bacon--thick, fatty, flavorful bacon-what is not to love? For dinner I had the grouper with plantains and my husband had the roasted duckling. It was beyond the beyond. My husband's meal fit somewhere in his top 5 favorite meals of all time, which says a lot because my husband has eaten a lot of unique meals in many restaurants and many different countries. He even said that meal almost made him forget about the wreck (see post below) he had the day before. His only complaint was that "Harold carries cheap whiskey". Crown Royal, Harold--CROWN ROYAL!

This is me all proud of my Perilla meal (and my slight Merry Edwards buzz). To top the meal off we had the frozen chocolate mousse served on a graham cracker with a scorched marshmallow on top--DIVINE. I look forward to my next meal at Perilla--and next time I will be sure to book a manicure at JIN SOON natural hand and foot spa-which is only a couple doors down. Hopefully next time I can swoon over Harold too. I love a man who can cook.

Delicious day to all!

(all photos from MonkeyPosh LLC)