Impressions of NYC - Day 2

Aahh! What better way to spend a Sunday morning in New York than by having brunch with a famous movie star? Harvey Keitel, to be precise. I have pictures to prove it, but am too chicken to publish them here...
Now, my closer friends know that my movie knowledge is embarrassing to say the least: Firstly, I tend to not make it through a movie awake (especially not through action movies - car chases and fight scenes bore me to death), which means I can watch movies over and over again and never see how it ends, secondly, I always mix up actors (De Niro and Nicholson, to name but one example). But there was no mistaking Harvey! "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face" are high up my favourite movies list (even though there is little I remember after more than 10 years... but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and did NOT fall asleep for once) and of course I remember "The Piano" and many others.
On Memorial Weekend, Harvey was sitting just over a metre from us and seemed to enjoy the food and his cappuccinos as much as we did at Bubby's - excellent huevos rancheros, maybe not 100% authentic (all the time I lived in Mexico, I have never had them with sour cream!) but very tasty. And I got to finally understand the concept of pancakes. American pancakes, not the thin and crispy French version. At Bubby's *, a favourite neighbourhood restaurant famous for their sumptuous and child-friendly brunches, they come stacked, big, thick, and enormously fluffy. They're served with fresh fruit and maple syrup and are sooooo good that we had to go back there before we left - and have the same breakfast all over again! If ever I needed a reason to move there, this would be a compelling one!

(read on for shopping experience & a fabulous "Nuevo Mexicano" restaurant...

* Bubby's is located in Tribeca, at 120 Hudson St. (Franklin St. Metro station) - don't let the website put you off, it doesn't convey the atmosphere or quality of food served at all!!!

Although it was hard to move after such indulgence, we continued into Soho and the Village, exploring all the fabulous small boutiques and spending enough to alert the fraud detection department at my bank in the UK...
Highlights included Dean & Deluca, Kate's Paperie and, mainly for Carolin, the Apple Store. Our hands full with bags, we had to get a taxi back to the hotel, and set off again (after a $38 call to have my credit card re-activated) for a quick trip on a Circle Line boat, to see Manhattan from an entirely different perspective.
And as if our brunch hadn't been enough, we were spoilt with another culinary highlight in the form of our evening meal. "Sueños" (311 West 17th Street in Chelsea) bowled me over completely - a simply, but warmly deorated venue with Mexican fusion cuisine spear-headed and owned by a female chef (Sue Torres)... really intriguing. The fact that we had again discovered a restaurant frequented mostly by locals (the table next to us being a young couple with a toddler raving about the restaurant's take-away menu to their invitees) was another plus, of course, and with the service being extremely friendlyand competent, plus a Margarita to die for, I knew from the first minute that I was not going to regret it.
Do I have to talk about the food? I want to, because it's good memories only: I had 2 types opf quesadillas - huitlacoche, a favourite treat I hadn't eaten in more than 15 years, is a fungus that grows inside the corn cob, and duck confit with pears, accompanied by a salad of jicama and confit onion, Carolin went for a lovingly prepared guacamole, smooth and velvety, served with hand-made tomato tortillas and corn chips, and the most perfect chicken chilaquiles I have had in my life. Chilaquiles are what I like to call the Mexican lasagne: layers of tortilla (fried), interlaced with sauce (usually salsa mexicana, ie red tomatoes with jalapeno) and cheese. At Suenos, they're using salsa verde instead - which makes for a phantastically refreshing and utterly addictive dish. If only I had had space left for dessert, I would have gone for the coconut flan with rum-flamed pineapple and a passion fruit-chile de arbol purée, but that'll have to wait until my next trip to NY...

Comments

[Sherri]

Glad you liked our town. Next time you come, Norma's is inside the Parker Meridien and even better than Bubby's. More expensive, but amazing.