NYC Part 2: Food and Drink

To me, one of the best parts about being on vacation is enjoying the local food and drink. I'm the type who refuses to eat at McDonald's or any other place that you could eat while back at home.

A McDonald's in Chinatown, on our way to the Little Italy section of NYC.

We spent our first few hours in New York exploring Little Italy. Since my favorite food is Italian, I was pretty excited to try some pasta that night. We had an early dinner at Positano where we ate calamari, chicken Parmesan, and spaghetti with kalamata olives and anchovies.

(I was a little late in getting a picture of the chicken, sorry!)

Our weekend in New York was quite the whirlwind. We were pretty much non-stop the entire time, but we always found time to eat or stop into a local bar for a quick drink (and to wait out the rain).
After dinner, we took the subway to Rockefeller Center to pick up dessert at the famous Magnolia Bakery. The line was quite long, but the wait was only about 15 minutes. I doubt many bakeries have a doorman controlling who comes in!

Once inside we had to choose from the cupcakes of the day (hummingbird, smores, German chocolate or Japan) or any of their other tasty treats like banana pudding, cakes, and tarts.



Since they were out of Hummingbird cupcakes, we settled for the Japan cupcake which was vanilla with butter cream and a raspberry on top. One dollar from each cupcake benefited the Japan earthquake disaster.

It was yummy. If you are ever in NYC, definitely try Magnolia's.

For breakfast the next day, we ate at one of the many, ok, hundreds, of Starbucks in NYC. There really is one on every other corner. Later, we headed uptown to pick up our on-off bus tour tickets. After navigating the subway and getting turned around a couple, ok, hundreds of times, we decided to get some lunch. A co-worker of Cary's had recommended Carnegie Deli, so since we were in the area, we decided to try it out.

This line was even longer than the last one at Magnolia's. We probably waited around 30 to 45 minutes. They like to keep the tables completely full and pack you in. You may be sitting with another party of 4 or 6 depending on the table and the seats available.

Carnegie Deli is known for their enormous sandwiches. Meat selection includes pastrami, ham, roast beef, salami, turkey, and bologna to name a few. We split the "turkey dear" which is a turkey sandwich with bacon, lettuce and tomato on white bread (no substitutions).

The sandwich cost us $23.95 plus a $3 split charge. By the way, Carnegie Deli only accepts cash. Thank goodness our bank pays ATM fees (which in NYC can be up to $5)!

We also tried the famous cheesecake, which was literally THE BEST I've ever tasted. It probably helped that strawberries are in season, but it was soooo good! Well worth the $10.95 price tag.

Our last stop during our whirlwind New York tour was to Lombardi's Pizza. This famous restaurant had also come recommended by one of Cary's co-workers. Again, we waited, this time for over an hour, but this is a trend that we realized is the norm in NYC.


We took some pictures while waiting for our pie to bake. We also struck up a conversation with a New Yorker. We thought it was a pretty good sign that the locals eat their pizza here, too. Again, bring cash because no credit cards are accepted.

The pizza is baked in a coal-burning oven, and it was very good. The crust is thin and all of the ingredients tasted very fresh. There were no leftovers.

(a photo from Lombardi's website)

Hopefully, I'll be faster in writing the next part in our New York re-cap. Next up, sights and sounds.