The 'Did you save enough room for dessert?' food report

[2littleboys]

Great start!

Its all about the class when staying in a hotel, I remember drinking Asti out of teacups whilst getting ready for my nephews wedding, not common at all

Looking forward to the rest!

[duchy]

Looking forward to this ... great start (I read by iPad so I don't need a light)

[lolalolo86]

Looking forward to this

[Goldia]

Sunday 23rd July 2017 - Travel day Breakfast at Heathrow, Lunch on a plane, Dinner in New York

So, the others were asleep and I didn't want to disturb them. It was midnight and I hadn't been to sleep yet. I spent about an hour reading in the bathroom, pacing and checking for updates on potential delays. I went back to bed and I estimate that I had about 3 hours sleep. Oh well I'll sleep on the plane (and you know what, I actually did!).

In the room the kids and Dave had first breakfast. Yesterday I'd made some sandwiches with the leftover bread that I couldn't bear to throw away. So there were jam and PB&J sarnies wrapped in tin foil ready and waiting for the morning. No I didn't take photos I was somewhat distracted by the matchsticks I had popped in to hold my eyes open.

Of course, we were super early at the airport, I've noted that we were in the security queue at 6.56am, having done bag drop and printed out the boarding cards. We headed in to terminal 3 and it was definitely time for second breakfast. We ended up in the Bridge Bar at one of the 'tall' tables with stools. When DS sat down he managed to haul himself onto the stool by leaning on the table and oh my it tilted towards us both and there was a rather loud clatter of cutlery as it bounced onto the floor. oh dear, fortunately we caught the sauces and condiments and we were not covered in ketchup for the whole journey.

Now in this restaurant a moment of madness overtook both DH and myself. Looking at the menu and feeling happy (we're off on holiday you know), we both ordered a Bloody Mary, plus I hadn't really slept so it didn't feel like early morning. This turned out to not be the best idea in the world. But the conversation went something like this

Me 'Shall we have a little cocktail to celebrate?'
Him 'Celebrate what?'
Me 'We're going on holiday :angry:'
Him 'Err, actually I was just wondering about ordering a Bloody Mary'
Me 'I've never had one before, I was thinking of ordering a Mimosa' with hindsight I soooooo wish I had as they are delish and I would have actually enjoyed it
Him 'Ok then'

But then something happened that I can't really explain as when the waitress came to take our order I went for a Bloody Mary as I sort of thought it would be a good idea to try something I have never had before. NO. NEVER. AGAIN. the best way I can describe it is they are very ... savoury ... there is a definite umami-ness to them and it is not to my liking. They cost £7.75 each, and were in no way worth the pain.

The kids were sensible and ordered orange juice, £1.20 each, they were good size glasses too.

I'm not sure why I took 2 photos, probably trying to avoid drinking the BM.

Both DH and myself ordered the Eggs Benedict, £8.50 each.

Him 'you don't need a photo of mine it's identical to yours'
Me 'but, you're supposed to put ALL the photos on the food report'
Him 'hmmph'
Me 'I'll just tell them on the Dibb that we had the same meal and the plates were identical, I'm sure they won't mind'
Him 'hmmph'

I think it was about this point that he was beginning to regret agreeing to the food report. Or possibly that moment had already occurred when I took a photo of a can of G&T in our hotel room. 'You're not taking a photo of that? Why on earth?' Which is the real reason why you didn't get any photos of the tinfoil wrapped sarnies!

Both the kids ordered pancakes with bacon and syrup from the kids menu, bargain price of £3.95. (again there is only 1 photo, I promise they did look identical)

We all thoroughly enjoyed breakfast. It was very tasty and we all agreed we had eaten well.

I had managed about 3 sips of my drink, but it goes against the grain to leave food or drink uneaten. So I struggled on. DH wasn't over keen on the BM either. We'd been sitting for a while chatting about plans when DS asked what the BM tasted like. Now, I'm not proud of this at all but, times were desperate and there was no way I was finishing it...plus I (quite rightly) knew it would put him off alcohol for a goodly while...so I asked if he wanted to have a very small sip. Oh dear, he did NOT like it at all and had to have a large glug of water to try to wash away the taste. After lots of huffing and puffing I finished the drink and off we went to scour the shops in the terminal.

I have the receipt in my hand and the bill came to £42.80. We gave a £5 tip as the wait staff had rushed to our aide in the table spilling incident at the start and then hadn't rushed us at all by bringing the bill over during the meal or in fact until we actually asked for it (I don't think I can say that again in this food report, we never asked for a bill they were always brought over before we were ready) and we were in there for ages, we must have been in there about an hour. Honestly it took me ages to drink that hideous drink.

I would put in a picture of the receipt, but I am not very technical and DH is at work... somehow, I think by some special Harry Potterish magic he got all the photos on my phone onto our PC at home and hence I have been able to include them in this report. It's all rather clever. But I didn't take a photo of the breakfast bill at the time and although I have the receipt in my hand now I have no idea how to get a photo of it onto the PC ... oh dear ... he didn't marry me for my technical skills.

We managed to find a few seats in the Lounge where I overheard an American family discussing Boots and the fact they sell absolutely everything...apart from boots...I wasn't eavesdropping on purpose. They were sharing a joke with each other and it was rather cute.

We didn't sit for long when we noticed the gate was up on the screens and we could go for boarding. Hooray, we're on the plane. I managed to select a rubbish movie (Before I Fall) which was perfect as it meant I could fall asleep and not feel like I was missing out. The dinner options were Chicken or Pasta, except there was no chicken left so we all had to have pasta, which was not good. No there are no photos, but you can all imagine horrid plane food without the photos.

After dinner I watched another dodgy movie and had another nap. When I woke up I felt much more refreshed and I was just in time for the pot of chocolate ice cream which was actually rather tasty. Again no photo.

Afternoon tea on the plane was a red pepper lattice pastry and a lemon sponge. Both were served hot. DS turned the pastry away in disgust it wasn't good but the rest of us did eat it.

And finally we were coming in to land. Imigration was nearly empty, bags were collected within record time and we were in the taxi queue waiting for our first journey in a yellow cab. We got really lucky and had a cab with a 'see through' roof. It was great to be able to look up and see the buildings as we journeyed into Midtown.

Our NYC hotel was the Sheraton Times Square, actually it's on 53rd and 7th, about halfway between Times Square and Central Park. We dumped our stuff and wandered up to Columbus circle and then into Central Park.

We were excited but feeling very tired, it was only about 5.30pm and we wanted to hold out as long as we could so we went to dinner in the diner opposite our hotel. Unfortunately I only have one photo of this meal and it's of the drinks, of course it is I hear you mutter . I have no idea where the other photos ended up?

I had snapple, the kids had cokes and DH had 2 beers. This was deli style diner where you order your food at the counter. There were lots of pasta and salad options and also a menu on the wall behind the counter of various burgers or breakfast items.

There was only one other group in here an elderly American couple and their grandson. DH noticed the old fella had dropped a roll of banknotes on the floor and returned them to him.

We were somewhat jetlagged and a little confused about the ordering process. Do we order at the deli? Do we sit and wait? In the end we hovered at the counter and after about 30 seconds the man serving asked if we were going to order something or not. Ok then, this is the New York brusqueness we've heard of. I ordered a cheeseburger and chips and the man explained it would be about 10 minutes as it was cooked to order. DH then made the mistake of asking if the spaghetti bolognese was fresh. Oh dear, the response he got was that of course, everything is fresh... DH and DD both ordered the spag bol, DS ordered the lasagne. We really shouldn't have ordered so much as the kids barely touched the food. It was all good food, but we weren't really hungry, DS didn't even ask for pudding. That's how tired he was...So $80 down for our first meal in New York and no photos. It does get better, honestly.

I did take a photo of the outside of the deli the following evening when I realised the total lack of photos of the previous day, so here it is our first NYC diner.

We were tucked up in bed by 8pm. The alarm was set for 6am (like we would need it!) as we had a date with the Statue of Liberty in the morning.

Coming soon, our first full day in NYC...coffee in Starbucks, they have free wifi hotdogs from a street vendor, pizza in Brooklyn, Katz Deli, Amorino ice creams for dessert and drinks in the hotel lounge...all with photos you lucky people.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by Firstxmastrip

Looking forward to the next instalment!

See more...

Oh you're in luck, DH has gone back to work today...

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by 2littleboys

Great start!

Its all about the class when staying in a hotel, I remember drinking Asti out of teacups whilst getting ready for my nephews wedding, not common at all

Looking forward to the rest!

See more...

Now that is a good idea, but how did you manage to get the Asti cold? I thought of bringing a bottle of Prosecco, but there is no way I'm drinking it warm! Even I'm not that much of a lush

[Goldia]

pm

Originally Posted by duchy

Looking forward to this ... great start (I read by iPad so I don't need a light)

See more...

Clever! DH has my mothers kindle as she bought a new one with a light but couldn't get on with it. Not sure why my mother gave him her kindle and why I didn't get it, but it came in handy for him a couple of times when we (ok read I) were all shattered and in bed by 9pm.

[Goldia]

Originally Posted by lolalolo86

Looking forward to this

See more...

I hope you will enjoy it. We certainly did! And it's too much fun to reminisce and languish in the adventure to just post food photos.

[duchy]

Take photo of receipt with phone, email photo to yourself, open email on computer ,right click on photo and choose save as or save image and it'll save onto the PC.

[Jaspercat10]

Looking forward to reading along, have a lovely holiday :-)