Taking a Bite Out of The Big Apple

We spent the day roaming around NYC yesterday - no shows, no "true" shopping, no touristing - just walking around, enjoying the sites (love this piece below - it's paper), relaxing, and eating.

We were actually in the city to visit with our daughter Olivia - making certain she was ready for her sophomore year at Parsons School of Design where she is a fashion design major. She spent the summer in NYC in a fantastic internship with the designer Lyn Devon. The apple didn't fall far from the tree - she loves to sew (garments, not quilts), and she loves to cook. For our visit she made us a picnic lunch in Central Park. Meet Liv (without her new pet rabbit - surprise Mom and Dad!!!).
She made us delicious pulled pork sandwiches on ciabatta rolls and a yummy side of orzo and vegetable salad with feta cheese, and finished off the meal with her homemade candied almonds. She has no fear in the kitchen - her latest craze is the "waffleizer" - a web site dedicated to cooking everything on a waffle iron.

While Olivia's pork was amazing, I know that even she would agree that Porchetta wins the best pork, hands down. Just walking past this place makes me weak in the knees.
This postage stamp of a restaurant makes pork and pork fried potatoes sprinkled with cracklin's (crispy pork skin) and little else - seriously - what else do you really need? It is to die for! Liv's pulled pork holds a close second!

After lunch we spent hours AT&T'ing - yes, AT&T'ing is now a verb. Liv's cell phone "broke" - arghhhh! We spent a frustrating afternoon resolving the issue, and thankfully we were successful. We deserved a reward - off to Butter Lane! Not just another cupcakery - a cupcakery that actually creates cupcakes with flavor. This whole cupcake craze has somewhat puzzled me - for the most part the cupcakes that I've had were a whole lot of sweet and way short on texture and flavor. Enter Butter Lane.
We sampled 4 different cupcakes (clockwise from top left) vanilla cake with salted caramel frosting topped with sweet and salty popcorn, vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting, vanilla cake with an incredible raspberry frosting and a chocolate cake topped with peanut butter frosting - all delicious!
Rounding out our food excursion for the day was dinner. We tried to get into the Meatball Shop, again, but the wait was too long, 90 minutes - next visit. The kids suggested The Tuck Shop - an Australian eatery featuring meatpies of many flavors. This is another one of those hole in the wall restaurants, focusing on one food that they make expertly - meatpies. We tried the beef and stout pie, a lamb and vegetable, the daily special of a pulled pork pie (can you really have too much pork), and finally a mac and cheese pie (get me my heart pills!). Yum to all of them. And, in case we weren't stuffed after our pie feasting they brought us a sampling of their special cake - Lamington Cake - a sponge cake filled with strawberry preserves, dipped in dark chocolate, sprinkled with toasted coconut and topped with whipped cream - call a cardiologist! It was so decadent!

I wish I could say I have the strength to fast for the day, but sad to say I already have dinner planned for the evening and it's not yet noon. I'll try to fit in some exercise. Later this week a visit to my oldest daughter Meredith.