NYC: Intro & Day One

This summer, I was invited on a trip to NYC with some of my very favorite people, Casey & Laurel Smith. The trip was insanely wonderful and busy, and Laurel took crazy amounts of time out of her life to make sure she planned a trip with everything that I wanted to see! I hope you will go read about our adventures on her blog, like that time I made Casey throw the plate. 

On the way home from the airport, Laurel and I decided that I would blog food and she would blog..everything else. That girl takes care of everything. Love you! It was the most fun time and I don't think I can ever say thank you enough to either of you for letting me third wheel your vacation. I mean seriously. Who does that? The Smiths.

Enough with the non-food words. I think the easiest way to explain to you how much awesome food I ate is to tell you about all of it. I literally wrote down EVERYTHING I ate on this trip on a note in my phone. Most of my days revolve around food anyway, but I took it to a new level in the Big Apple. So, without further ado, Day One. 

Breakfast/Travel Food:

Bagel at Starbucks

My free pretzels from airplane. Plus someone else's pretzels because I don't say no to free food.

Lunch/Snack:

We were in line for the Daily Show the entire day pretty much, so we took turns going to this little store on the corner to get lunch. Think a gas station but with no gas pumps. A convenience store I guess you'd say. But it was nice, and they had basically a full sandwich shop. Plus air conditioning. I got an Italian panini that was pretty good but I couldn't finish it because it was sooo hot outside. Good pickle though. 

The Daily Show where we saw MELISSA. MCCARTHY. Just ignore our precious exhausted faces.

Dinner: 

Absolutely, without a doubt, in my top three favorite meals on the trip. See how definitive that was? We were at Mario Batali's Otto restaurant. So incredible. The entire meal was divine from start to finish. For our appetizer, we had a cheese plate that Laurel and her friend Jen (our super generous hostess) had already tried several times. If I went back, I would probably just order cheese over and over until I was full.  It was served with the most AMAZING peppered truffle honey and bread. Since my return, I have literally dipped sliced bread in honey with plain black pepper in it. It's no where near as good..but it's still better than no honey. Just trust me here.

Let's see if I can pull myself out of fantasizing about cheese plates long enough to finish this post.

My entree was Spaghetti alla Carbonara. It was SO good and different from any carbonara I've ever had. The pancetta added this deeper salty flavor that blew my mind. The scallions kept all the flavors from being too heavy..it was perfection in a bowl.

I'm checking flight prices to go back right now.

After dinner, we went to Laurel's favorite place in NYC, Molly's. This is where the infamous plate/shoe throwing occurred. I don't have a giant sweet tooth, but I like cupcakes pretty well. I liked the atmosphere of Molly's more than anything. It was so fun and cute! I had a Lemon Meringue Cupcake, which I didn't even eat until the next day. But Oh. My. Gosh. The icing. It was like if meringue and marshmallow creme (two of my favorite sweet things ever) had a baby. A delicious baby. Incredible. Someone get me a jar of Marshmallow Creme stat.

My eyes are open but it's like I'm not there.

I think this HAS to be pre-plate throwing based on my smile. I don't look embarrassed yet.

Several more NYC posts headed your way...but for those of you who've been, I want to hear the best thing you've ever eaten in NYC!