Category Archives: places

Philly Food Fest

Hubs and I were in Philly this weekend for our anniversary – we decided to turn it into a food fest weekend – scouring the fine cities culinary offerings. This is a list of my favorites.

1. Gadzooks Ice Cream, Bassetts Ice Cream, Reading Terminal Market

Chocolate, peanut butter brownies, caramel. Pure chocolate peanut butter chunkiness. Rich, decadent, delicious and chocolatey.

If this ice cream was available in NY, I would weigh 175lbs. They ship, if you are interested in a 6 pint minimum

http://www.bassettsicecream.com

2. Grilled Prime Natural Rib Eye, Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse

This was by far the best rib eye I think I have ever had. The first bite, literally melted in my mouth. A little pricey, 42 – but worth it. Its marbled, fatty meat heaven. Also, notable – the Mac & Cheese with truffle oil – yum.

3. Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie, The Famous 4th Street Cookie Company

If you’re going to pick up cookies from this famous cookie store in the Reading Terminal Market, go later in the day – the store starts selling cookies for $1 each towards close. I tried the Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookie, and I will say this was truly inspiring. Great chocolate to macadamia nut ratios, not too soft, and not at all hard. Just a perfect large thick cookie – and whats more – they ship!

http://www.famouscookies.com

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The Amish Market NYC


One of my coworkers, who I now have dubbed “Mama Rose”, has been showing me great little shops around work.. I’ve been working in this office in NYC for almost 4 years, and its only now that I am exploring the neighborhood. So today, she introduced me to The Amish Market.. and the produce at this place is awesome.. and so many good brands of healthy stuff. We went to the Murray Hill location, 240 E. 45th St., I found the BEST hummus here, and my fiance agrees and has told me to keep the house stocked with it (Review to come shortly, im sorry its late and Im tired). If you haven’t checked this place out – please do.. Cant wait to try some of their hot foods!

My Favorites from my trip to DC

I traveled down to DC and Annapolis MD last weekend to visit my sister and family.. We went to view her Barack Obama Painting on exhibit at the Manifest Hope Gallery in DC. We had a very fun (but cold) trip. I love Washington DC with all its history and majestic architecture, there is so much to see. One of my favorites, was our tour of the Capitol Building.. Just walking through its corridors, and imagining our forefathers, gathered within its walls, shaping America and its politics.. its an absolutely stunning building! Looking up from the inside of the dome, there is a fresco painting – The Apotheosis of Washington, on the ceiling.. Its like Washington looking down on you from the heavens – somewhat intimidating when you realize how high up it is..

We walked through the Crypt, and the Statuary Hall – where we saw where John Adams desk once sat (very cool).. we also saw the old supreme court chamber and Nancy Pelosis office. Definitely worth the trip, if you are into politics.. Just make sure you dont bring bags of candy with you when you go through security.. they are strict in these buildings.. and made me throw out all my candy!! i was upset for the rest of the day!

5 Napkin Burger

I thought I knew what burger love felt like until I tried the 5 napkin burger at the restaurant bearing its name.. I know now.
Its basically a gourmet, brilliantly simple burger that has so many familiar tastes that you normally don’t experience on a burger.. Aioli, and rosemary, delicately caremelized onions and a thick juicy hunk o meat.. after taking the picture of it – I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish, it was so good that I did anyway..cutting it into pieces with the huge knife they gave me.. Regardless of my stomach now stretching to uncomfortable levels, and the fact that I had to take a more spread out position in my chair, I wanted as much in my tummy as I could put in there. Yum yum.
Five Napkin Burger on 45th and 9th ave in Hells Kitchen.

Sheckys Girls Night Out

Last night Monica and I went to Sheckys Girls Night Out event.. Basically its a shopping party that you pay 30 dollars to get into (and you get a big goodie bag) and there are all sorts of cool freebies you can score while you shop a lot of local boutiquey type shops.. Loads of fun, I got my eyebrows threaded, got a hand massage and played some nintendo while sipping tgi fridays fruit mojitos. Yum! The pic is of the contents of my goodie bag, so you may see some of these products in future blogs (we’ll see after I get to try them all)
I think this will be an event we will regular each year.. While im not a big fan of jewelry, and they have lots of jewelry vendors, they also had a lot of clothes and specialty shops that really caught my eye.. I will write about the winners of my money later.
http://www.sheckys.com/
A website with lots of fashion, beauty, food and pretty much everything trendy you need to know about.

Philadelphia!!

Philadelphia – one of my new favorite places to visit

So, we arrived by train from Rahway to Trenton, NJ to Philadelphias 30th street station and started walking down Market street.. It was suprisingly easy to navigate through the town, and mike was amazed at how good i am with a map and little direction. We got to the hotel after a quick dunkin donuts run, dropped off the luggy bag I brought and then explored downtown a little to buy a backpack and some drinks to bring back to the hotel. Dropped that off and went to the Franklin Institute, which closes after 5pm and it was now 530p, but we were able to see the star wars exhibit and ride the millenium falcon, which is a simulator of hyper drive.. not worth the $5.. we went back to the hotel and I did a lil research on dinner and chose the City Tavern, a tavern built in the 1700’s where George Washington once held as the continental army home meeting spot.. It also hosted a huge list of historical big names like John Adams, Ben Franklin, etc.. etc.. make sure you try the Secret Recipe Thomas Jefferson sweet potato and pecan biscuits.. those were DELISH.. and i had a very filling Martha Washington Turkey Pot Pie, the pastry was all melty on the bottom, and nice light and flaky on top… to make the whole thing even better, you drink out of historic looking goblets, and dine in these beautiful old rooms, and the waiters are dressed in the garb of the times.. so after that, very full, we walked around and found the old philadelphia merc. exchange and walked around the cobblestones.. and did a little picking at the pillars which were very worn away.. then we walked past the first bank of the US.. (im not sure if that is the official name).. and then walked all around town, marveling at Phillys sites and buildings.. we eventually caught a cab back to the windsor hotel, and watched snakes on a plane.. a very cheesy movie.. but it was fun and we didnt take it too seriously. The next morning, I woke up and ran to dd and got us some coffee and donuts, we checked out and got bfast at the marriot on market street, where we found breakfast to be very expensive.. then we jumped on the subway and jumped back off after some policy activity and overall confusion was taking place.. We walked a little down to Consititution Hall and found that the Consititution wasnt there, so after a little shopping at the museum shop, we walked back and saw Ben Franklins grave and threw some pennies on top.. we walked to independance hall, then sat for a while, then jumped on the trolley tour bus, took a 90 minute tour, jumped off at south street, ate dinner at Bridget Moys (SP?), then walked back to subway and made it home.. very nice time