We just got back last night from a whirlwind trip to NYC to see our son, Micah, who is an MBA student at Columbia.  I can not say enough about our trip and trust me—there will be lots of posts highlighting the sights and sounds of the city.  I was a little nervous about going for some reason but once we go there it was fabulous.  Simply fabulous.  I love the city and I can not wait to go back.  Maybe it was because we had not seen him since May and I was missing him.  Maybe it was just that feeling that a mom has that she has to know that her “kid” is okay all settled in and doing well.  I did not need to worry one bit.  All is well.  All is better than well.

We stayed at an apartment only 5 blocks away from where Micah lives so it really was convenient and it could not have been easier.   Our time there was brief but honestly—we saw so much in such a short time that we got the NYC overview.

View from our balcony was pretty spectacular .

A cloudier day and a different look.

The night look.

The fabulous sunrise.

The food—oh the food.   Micah is always really good at finding great places to eat and he has scoped out quite a few places in his short time in NYC.  We were not disappointed with any of the choices and we crammed a lot into our gastronomical adventure.  My favorites from trip one had to be Joe Shanghai’s in Chinatown, Dinosaur BBQ  in Harlem, and Casa Mono at Irving Place and 17th Street.   Oh my my my.  First of all –we ate a lot of great food.  A lot!   I was usually too involved in the actual food eating to take great pictures but here are a few.  Thanks to Micah for the Casa Mono pictures.

We ordered some fabulous food at Dinosaur BBQ.  Great wings with just the right amount of heat, pulled pork, brisket, a slab of ribs with sides of mac and cheese, greens, salt potatoes and beans.  Yum.  It wasn’t North Carolina BBQ but it was pretty great, in my humble opinion.

Casa Mono was a delight and the tiny place was packed full when we got there but even without reservations we were able to be seated at the bar area and enjoy the fabulous cuisine with dishes from all corners of the Iberian Peninsula.  I love the small plate way of eating—I tend to not overeat when there are lots of choices to share.

Sweetbreads with Fennel al Mono (I think)

Crispy Pig’s Ears with Kohlrabi and Montcabrer

Razor Clams a la Plancha

Foie Gras with Cinco Cebollas

Grilled Beef Tongue with Smoked Tomato

Another delightful dish i can’t remember what it was but it was wrapped in swiss chard.  YUM!

The other fabulous place that we visited was Joe Shanghai’s in Chinatown.    We took Micah and his two roommates and it was quite an adventure. First of all we couldn’t read the number on the ticket that they gave us and the guys were “crowdsourcing” to try to figure out what it was.   There did not seem to be any consensus so we chose to go with the lowest possible number combination and about a half an hour later we were shown into the crowded noisy restaurant.  The thing to get here are the soup dumplings which were by far the BEST dumplings I have ever had—even compared to the ones I had in Shanghai last year.

The thing about these were that there is actual soup inside the dumpling so care has to be taken in eating them.  Micah taught us the proper technique and we devoured a double order in no time and were ready for our entrees.   I didn’t get a great picture of the entrees because we all dove into them pretty fast but it was a nice combination of fried rice, shrimp, some wonderful kind of crispy beef and chicken.  Yum.  There were no leftovers.  None.

What a fabulous food eating trip we had.  These were the highlights but there is obviously no shortage of wonderful eating experiences in NYC.   Next trip we will explore even more.

If you have a few minutes this video is a great one to watch to show exactly how to properly eat a Soup Dumpling—-and take note—this place is packed all the time—they had to have cleared the place for this video!!!