Or in this case, Pho, cheesecake, baked eggs, mac and cheese, and waffles!
So some of my friends here in DC like to tease me that I spend more time out of DC than in DC. This is not entirellly true, but I do enjoy traveling, especially to New York, home of many of my favorite people in the world and much of my favorite theater in the world. This past weekend, Arielle G. and I ventured northward for a jam-packed 48 hours of friend-and-theater visiting. It also featured a lot of ridiculously good eating, which I describe here for your reading pleasure.
Despite a slightly difficult start (our bus was 45 minutes late, and we took a long stop AND there was traffic – boo!), we got to New York mid-afternoon on Friday ready for food and friends and good times. We had originally planned a 2nd Avenue Deli lunch with Sarah K, but that had to be delayed, so instead we met Mat S., best friend and New York Tour Guide extraordinaire, for Pho at Saigon Shack. I had never had Pho before, so was excited to try (especially since the Courthouse crowd talks about it all the time), and it did not disappoint. I went for the classic Pho with beef, and piled on the fun food-accessories– thai basil, sprouts, and lime!
We went back to Mat’s apartment for a brief relax, and then went down the block for Arielle’s first Wafels and Dinges truck experience. I first enjoyed the fabulousness that is the waffletruck back in December, and have been vigorously talking it up ever since. It turns out we were a little early for the truck, so we ducked into a liquor store to pick up some wine for Shabbat, and while we were there we tried cucumber vodka (surprisingly refreshing). Anyway, we eventually got our waffles, which were just as delicious as I remembered (the trick, I have learned, is to get NO toppings, that way you can maximize delicious-sugar-crystallization-flavor). This time, I also got a side of spekuloos, this spread made from cookies (how they make a spread from a cookie I don’t know, but when something is this delish, you go with it).
Saturday night was a fabulous Shabbat dinner at Casa Jonathan/Ruthie/Naomi, which was wonderful and full of friends and yummy food. Mat and I hopped to an Outlaw event at Bartini, which was mostly unremarkable, except when we got back later that evening and I realized there was still glitter in my clothing. Oof.
The next morning, we met the lovely Sarah K. and Katherine C. for brunch at Centro Vinoteca, right in Mat's neighborhood! Mat, new fan of Web 2.0 tools and eater extraordinaire, wrote a fabulous blog post on his blog Waffles, Fries, and Beer (which you should read). He covered most of the wonderfulness, but I'll add that a. complimentary things (especially warm pancake with a lemon curd) are the WAY to my heart, and b. my food, the Three Baked Eggs Amatricianna, with crispy guanciale (a kind of Italian bacon), sourdough, and parmesan, was out-of-this-world yummy.
The wonderfulness of the trip continued with some Broadway (to be discussed in my next post), and in between we went southern, J.T.-style, at Southern Hospitality in Hell's Kitchen. Apparently, in addition to being excellent at making my heart throb in the late 90's, Justin Timberlake is also good at picking a menu for his restaurant. Our choices of creamed spinach, mac and cheese, honey cornbread and pulled chicken were a WIN for the evening.
After the last show, we ended the weekend with a little Junior's cheesecake (and a chance to see Missy M.!). A seriously perfect weekend full of eating. I'm full just thinking about it again!
