Our Day Began with the Perfect Cup of "Joe"...

We started our first full day in New York at Joe's on Waverly and let me tell you they don't call it the "art of coffee" for nothing! These are real baristi, not kids who don't even know what a good cup of coffee is, let alone how to make one! Our macchiati were perfection in a cup, deliciously smooth and creamy without even a trace of bitterness. We were off to a good start!

From there we ran off to MOMA to catch the last day of the Pictures by Women, A History of Modern Photography which was an absolutely stunning show that charts the medium's history from the dawn of modern period to the present. It was really wonderful to see the show with Lisa, a professional photographer and understand some of the influences and inspiration behind her work. We really wished we had more time to see some of the other exhibits, but the food show awaits!

The show was overwhelming with over 2500 vendors and probably at least half of those represented Italian products. Needless to say that made us very happy! But the highlight of the day was meeting our culinary idol, Lidia Bastianich, at her booth where she and her daughter were cooking up some of Lidia's new pastas and sauces. A gracious hostess, it was really nice to see her working her own booth and talking about her products. We walked the show for hours and barely saw half so were going back today to check out the rest. I'll write more about the show in my next post...

Now back to eating...we asked Kerry's friend Kim Severson, one of the food critics for the NY Times, were to go for the best Napoletana style pizza and she sent us Motorino in the east village. Cool little space with small marble tables and a small but good wine list, we ordered the Sopresatta Picante, a very spicy, aromatic pie with garlic, oregano, red sauce, lots of pepperoncino and of course, sopresatta. I ordered a Rosso Piceno from Boccadigabbia, a 50/50 blend of sangiovese and montepulciano, simple, but perfect accompaniment to the pizza. The pie, and that great little fresh green salad, was delicious and my only regret being that we didn't order another, but I had to save room for dessert....


Lisa had missed the pizza so we walked down to meet her at 3 of cups, another great little Italian themed restaurant on 1st avenue. We sat at the bar and had a cocktail while Lisa ordered the Spaghetti Fresca, a nice room temp pasta dish with fresh tomatoes, basil, capers, olive oil and ricotta salata. Very cool place, loads of atmosphere, good food and great background music, we'd like to visit again...


Ready to go back to Carmine Street and put our feet up after a very long day, I opted to pick up my dessert at Rocco's Pasticceria, just down the block from the apartment. A traditional Italian bakery and coffee bar, it is touted the home of the best cannoli in NYC, I had to see how it compared to Brocato's. A really creamy, not too sweet, ricotta filling with a thin crunchy shell and dipped in chunky pistaccios, I have to admit, it was divine! Sorry Brocato's, but this was amazing!


Time to go to bed and get rested for another day! More later.....

New Shoes, Different City

One of my favorite things about traveling is taking off on a run, early in the morning and seeing a city on foot. Knowing this would be on my agenda on our trip to New York, I finally broke down a bought a new pair of running shoes, something I've been procrastinating about for months now. So at 6:25 this morning, I laced up my new shoes and took off down Bleecker Street towards the river. It's been 16 years since I've run in New York and I was really looking forward to a little less humidity and a different scene. I didn't have a plan except to check out the area along the Hudson and see where the morning would take me.

When I got to the river, I decided to go left and head toward the southern tip of the island. I hadn't been to the World Trade Center site since years before 9/11 and wanted to see what was happening. It is sobering to see the big gaping hole first had, such a large open space in the middle of Manhattan's sky line. It made me start thinking about the parallels between our two cities with their mighty rivers, both, in some way, wrecked by made man disasters caused by the failure of our government to protect it's people.

It's been almost 9 years since 9/11, nearly 5 since Katrina and a mere couple of months since the Deep Water Horizon explosion and with all of the other disasters, both natural and man made, happening in the world today, one might wonder if the Mayan calendar is right on track...

Coffee Talk on Carmine Street

Our trip to NYC begins with a great cup of coffee with Lisa in her little apartment in the west village. We're in town for a gourmet food show and a photography exhibit at NOMA. But, I'm sure there will be lots of great food, wine and fun while we're here, so we'll keep you posted!