New York, New York

Well we're back. Tired, with a lot of dirty clothes, and a lot of great memories, and more than a lot of pictures.

We did the normal touristy stuff, and ate at some of the normal touristy places, and a few local off-the-beaten path spots as well. We ate cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, hummus in Yonkers, Chinese in the Bronx, hotdogs and pretzels from vendors, and pizza pretty much all over Manhattan. Sadly it didn't occur to me to take pictures of the food we were eating for most of our trip, because I was so busy taking pictures of touristy hotspots. Plus, navigating mittens, food, and camera would have been a lose-lose situation for me. But I did take a few, so here you go:

This pizza is from Lombardi's, supposedly the best in New York according to some sources. It was good, but not great, and the lighting in the restaurant was terrible, making for this not so great picture. The crust was a little bit too dry for me, but the mozzarella was fantastic, which made up for a lot. Besides, it's pizza, and I love pizza in almost any shape or form.

This omelet was from An Beal Bocht, an Irish pub/cafe in the Bronx. It was pretty much amazing, and my plate went from the above picture to the below picture in record timing. The eggs were perfectly fluffy, stuffed with cheese and ham and peppers and onions, and accompanied by tasty home fries and perfectly toasted toast. Just don't expect them to actually serve breakfast at 10 when they open...we definitely beat the cook there by about 20 minutes. The food will totally make up for the wait though.

And last, but most definitely not least, is the wonderful, the amazing, the magnificent (cue trumpets) CREAM PUFF from Beard Papa's Sweets Cafe. Noel and I first discovered Beard Papa's on our honeymoon in San Francisco, and I had been salivating for another one ever since. These creampuffs are seriously the creme de la creme (ok, I know, that was a terrible pun, but really, you should've seen it coming). My memory was not wrong....they were just as excellent as I remembered. The choux pastry was flaky and only mildly sweet, and the cream was, well, creamy--with a sublimely rich vanilla flavor. Now if only Beard Papa's would open some locations in states besides New York and California...