A few of Viv's favorite NYC things

Frequent travel is one of the perks and downsides of my new job. Downside = Detroit and San Diego in the same week. Perk = a week in NYC with visits to some of my favorite restaurants, unseasonably warm weather, and a Sunday evening BBQ at Kim and Josh's impossibly large and gorgeous Washington Square apartment.

The Shake Shack

My first few days in NYC were spent working, but I got done early on Friday and decided to start my weekend festivities with a late (4 p.m.) lunch at the Shake Shack.

I had a Shack-cago dog (Vienna all-beef dog on a poppy seed bun "Drag it through the Garden," i.e. topped with mustard, relish, onion, cucumber, pickle, tomato, sport pepper and celery salt), a black & white milkshake and fries. I even managed to exercise some restraint -- I abstained from half of my milkshake and most of the fries so I would still have an appetite for dinner.

Blue Ribbon Brasserie

Saturday night, we hit Blue Ribbon in Soho (Sullivan between Prince & Spring), one of my all-time favorite NYC restos. Known as a late-night chef hang-out (it is open until 4 am daily), Blue Ribbon is a noisy, no-reservations (except for parties of 5 or more) spot with an eclectic and well-executed menu that includes, among other things, fried chicken, caviar, paella and a pupu platter. The food is without fail delicious (I'm a big fan of haute comfort food), the staff is friendly, and the atmosphere is completely lacking in pretension.


By far my favorite thing on the menu is the beef marrow with oxtail marmalade, which we all shared for an appetizer. Sounds weird I know, but it tastes like the love child of olive oil and butter, with a little meaty kick from the oxtail marmalade, that you can eat as-is or spread over warm toasty slices of baguette. Unfortunately, I was so busy hoovering my share of marrow that I forgot to take a picture.

We also had a seafood platter, with oysters, scallops and clams; fried chicken, with mashed potatoes and collard greens (with a little honey on the side to sweeten things up); the "cheeseburger deluxe"; salmon with asparagus, mashed potatoes and mustard sauce; and the pigeon with toasted barley, sweet potatoes and apples (which I wasn't brave enough to try but everyone else seemed to enjoy).






We left around midnight. In true Blue Ribbon fashion, the place was still packed.


Murray's Bagels



Sunday morning, we had bagels from Murray's on 6th Avenue. Murray's has the quintessential NY bagel -- boiled, chewy perfection. Also enormous -- Kim & I couldn't quite finish our lox sandwiches. I had mine on pumpernickel, she had hers on an everything bagel.



The End.

Adventures in NYC: Calexico Carne Asada

I was traipsing around Soho today during meetings in a fit of nostalgia for my NYU days (i.e. snacking and shopping) when I stumbled upon Calexico Carne Asada on the corner of Wooster & Prince. While vendors selling candied nuts, hot dogs and/or pretzels are everywhere in NYC, a carne asada cart is quite rare. This may seem odd to us Los Angelenos, living as we do in the land of the taco truck and Kogi-mania, but tacos and Soho don't normally mix outside of Dos Caminos and La Esquina (which is arguably in Little Italy).

According to the website, Calexico "is owned and operated by three brothers from Southern California who are obsessed with bringing high quality Cal-Mex cuisine to the streets of New York." The cart has received a lot of press, and recently won "The Top Street Cart Award" at the 2008 Vendy Awards. How do you become a judge for an event like that?!? Yum!

The cart only serves lunch from 11 am to the earlier of 4 pm, or when it runs out of food. Luckily I happened by around 3:30 and was able to sample the wares.

There were a bunch of guys in line when I came, salivating as they waited for what looked like some seriously overstuffed burritos to come off the grill. However, I eat burritos at Poquito Mas, not taco trucks, and I couldn't bring myself to deviate from that habit for a Soho food cart.

I tried a carne asada taco ($4), served with pico de gallo and avacado crema (Calexico's purported specialty), and a chipoltle pork taco ($3) served with pickled onions and Mexican crema. Both were excellent, and in a rare victory for beef, I preferred the carne asada to the chipoltle pork. It was lean, sliced thin, and seasoned perfectly. The portion was just right too. With dinner only a few hours away, I didn't have enough room to try to the chipoltle "crack" sauce or a rolled quesadilla, but the week isn't over yet. And I wonder why I'm having a hard time buttoning my pants . . .