On my final day before having to leave my food fantasy land for the real world of long work days, I woke up to the smell of fresh home baked bread toasting. Growing up with Betsy's family, there was no such thing as Wonder bread. My kid pallet didn't fully appreciate it then, but now as an adult, I was loving the breads Michele made for me.
This was a fresh orange cranberry bread that was dense, and scented with amazing bright citrus.
Another of Michele's special breads! Slathered with some French jam and butter...mmmm
Of course, you can't go to New York and not get a New York bagel!
My new best friend, Gomez. We snuggled all night.
There are a couple of places I can't miss when I am in New York, and Katz's deli is one of them. Fred and Michele have sent our family some of their famous salami and cheese for the past couple of holidays, and I can't get enough.
Apparently, old fashioned New York Jewish Deli's have been closing around the city and Katz's is one of the only left in town--a dying delicious art that they have perfected and owned for years.
This is Michele's favorite Knish shop that she has come to since she was a kid with her family. She said it was tradition to come every Sunday and pick up fresh knish. We blogged last December about the amazing knish we had over the holidays when it arrived with our Katz deli package.
I got a mushroom knish to take back to my Summerfield Suites hotel room to help nourish me through the long work week that followed.
We returned back to the apartment to find Gomez napping in my bed!
I had the most amazing hosts for the weekend, and they topped my weekend off with brunch at a newer restaurant that has received great press: Kin Shop. It is Top Chef Season 2 Winner Harold Dieterle's new spot that features contemporary Thai/Southeast Asian inspired food. My collection of Top Chef contestant restaurants/Chef's I have met is now up to 4...
For brunch, Kin Shop, offers a reasonable prix fix meal with three courses. We opted for this option and shared everything--which was a great call as we got to try more! This was the crunchy sprout and bibb salad with sunflower seeds and plum-peppercorn vinaigrette. I loved the crunchy seeds, which made the salad feel more meaty with its fatty savory flavor.
Whoops, I got too excited diving into the dishes that I forgot to take photos before we had nearly polished everything off! This is the last bite of Michele's fried pork and crispy oyster salad that was served with celery, peanuts, mint and chili-lime vinaigrette. It was absolutely scrumptious, and one of the best dishes of the meal.
Garam Masala and Tomato Soup with tofu, mung beans and holy basil...and holy it was. Not at all the kind of Campbell's canned soup you would have with a Kraft American grilled cheese sandwich. This was complex, smooth, creamy, spicy and different than any soup I have ever tasted.
The coconut curry sauce in this mussel dish was so addicting, I was literally sopping it up with the noodle dish in the photo below. Yes, I had no shame. Everyone was full and there was still a whole table of food left. I took those noodles and stuck them in the mussel bowl and made a new dish.
Yep, these were the infamous dunking noodles.
This was a vegetarian curry, that was more like a spicy soup as it had a clear broth.
This was an interesting spin on an Indian dish Kyle and I fell in love with in Singapore. It was a nan like pastry filled with ground beef and curry spices. It was sublime.
Fred, Michele, Betsy and I had to sit a bit before we could tackle dessert. As we sat, Sarah Jessica Parker (or a really good knock off!) strolled by. It was my quintessential NYC moment. If Fred had longer hair, we could have pretended we were Sex in the City girls.
For dessert, Kin Shop has amazing flavors of ice cream and sorbet like Thai Iced tea, Calamansi (Kyle and my favorite from our lime juice in Singapore!), Mango, lychee, Thai-coffee-chocolate. Unfortunately their ice cream machine broke, so we were only able to try the sorbets. However, they were delicious and it gives me an excuse to come back.
Thank you Fred, Michele, and Betsy for treating me to a weekend of fun and food! I had so much fun and can't wait to return.
Happy Eating,
Emi
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