It's Pints Kim, But Not As We Know It! NY - 13/02/18

[Leyfy]

Day 03 - Watson Hotel NY/Foods of NY Tour/Chelsea Market/The High Line/Shake Shack

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So today we were off to take part in a food tour with the excellent Food Tours of New York. We did a tour during our April 2015 trip around Greenwich village and it was excellent. If you've read any of my trip reports you'll know that I *love* taking photos and at that point I'd just upgraded to a Panasonic Lumix FZ200, which is my first 'proper' camera. I uploaded a picture to their Facebook page and, on the back of that, won us two free tickets to another tour! This is the photo, which is of an arancini ball:

So we decided to use the tickets to take a tour of Chelsea Market, mainly because when I was planning it I thought it was probably going to be freezing and at least that tour was indoors!

The night before we'd looked at the map of where it was in relation to our hotel and it was roughly a 45 minute walk of just over 2 miles. We decided as we didn't need to be there until 10am that we'd walk it anyway.

We were awake and out of the hotel by just gone 8am and started the walk from 75th street down to 15th street. It was a bit colder than the day before, but about 9 degrees so more than manageable. On the way down we walked past a huge fight by some teenage girls on the other side of the road! Luckily it was soon split up by their friends and everyone seemed to be okay, just angry!

We carried on walking and it it did take us nearly 45 minutes, but we were soon at Chelsea Market and we made our way inside. The market talks up the entire ground floor of what used to be a biscuit factory and upstairs are offices, including the offices of The Food Network who often film downstairs. We found the meeting point but we were really early so we went for a walk to find a restroom and then some coffee.

We took our coffees back to the meeting point but there wasn't anyone really about. At just gone 9.45am (our meeting time) a guy came rushing in and said 'Are you here for the tour? I'll be right back!' and ran off! A few minutes later a few others arrived and it obvious they were waiting too for the tour. There were two other couples (both British) and a lady on her own who was American. At 10am on the dot the guy reappeared and introduced himself as Curt, our guide. Our guide on the first tour we took was called Burt - so first Burt and now Curt!

He gave us a bottle of water each and a booklet of discount coupons for the market. We made our way to the first stop, which was 'Creamline' for a deep fried oreo cookie! Apparently the oreo was invented in the building - the deep fried version was delicious!

Curt gave us a short history of the building and the area as we ate our cookie. The area used to be lots of warehouses and wasn't very upmarket. Any Sex and the City fans might remember an episode where Samantha has to move to a different area as she falls on harder times and end up shouting at a bunch of drag queens to 'keep it down' and then befriends them? This was the area she moved into in the episode! It's now a lot more upmarket - Google have moved in and it's the trendy place to be now. We finished our cookies, which were good but quite dry inside?

On our way to the next stop we went into a big fish market area which has both a bit to buy fish to cook and also what looked like a great sushi area. I absolutely love seafood and sushi so this was like heaven to me! Curt talked us through all the various options and then brought us out this live lobster to show us:

He also explained about their size and that their claws were bound because if they are not they attack all the other lobsters! Curt put the lobster back, and it to it's inevitable fate, we then made our way downstairs to the next stop for a courgette (zucchini) quiche:

This was nice, but not really something we would've chosen. He didn't call it quiche, but it was basically that!

We went back upstairs and the next stop was Sarabeth's. Curt explained that Sarah Beth herself split up with her husband a few years back and decided that to make herself some money to support her children she'd start selling the things she baked. Her bakery was picked up on Oprah as selling the best jam (I think it was?) and from there it has become huge! Curt pointed out a lady who was walking through the bakery overseeing and said it was her - we wasn't quite sure whether or not to believe him or not, but it turned out it was indeed the lady in charge of it all! Apparently she loves working there so much she pops in most days - Curt said she also has another bakery down in Key West. I think if I was her I'd spend half my life in New York and half in Key West! Sarabeth's in Key West is a ten minute walk from where we are staying in August, so it's on my list to visit when we are there in the summer

This was our treat from there:

Apparently it's a 'biscuit' not a scone - I can't remember why. However, it's a bit big to be dunking into a mug of tea, so I will still call it a scone!

The raspberry jam was my favourite.

Our next stop was a bit random as he took us into a cookery shop, proceeded to have a chat with one of the blokes in there about his dog and a cruise the guy had been on and told us about a bunch of frying pans which were 'bargains'! Frying pans not being on the shopping list (and a bit heavy for the suitcase!), we left and our next stop was a shop that sold lots of food from all over the world. We were given a salted caramel toffee which was delicious and then the lady behind the till also gave us one of these:

It's a Charbonnel & Walker Marc de Champagne truffle! I had to laugh as you can buy these in John Lewis and I'd actually bought some for a leaving gift for someone a work last year! We'd come 7,000 miles to do a food tour and be given something you can buy in a shop ten minutes walk away from our house!

It was lovely though

We had a little look round the shop too, which was stuffed full of food and random gifts - such as a Donald Trump bobblehead! They had lots of beers:

Curt then said that he wanted to show us a bathroom with a $6000 toilet! Okay then... ! It was inside a Japanese restaurant which was currently shut, but he took us down to the bathroom in there through the back door. The toilets had heated seats and lots of 'settings' - if you have seen the film 'Why Him' with Bryan Cranston in and seen the scene with the toilet then you'll know what kind of settings these are!

I resisted the urge to press any buttons on there!

We left the Japanese restaurant and next we stopped at a place which was tiny but sold lots of different oils and salts. We tried the truffle salt which was absolutely full of flavour for such a tiny amount.

Next up we went to the Tuck Shop for what should have been an Australian Meat pie and a kale salad. However, they were out of pies so we had a sausage roll instead. Phil was disappointed as it was the one he was looking forward to the most!

The sausage roll was delicious and we are not huge fans of kale, but the salad was lovely as well. As we were eating I noticed the American lady had barely eaten anything - she'd done this on the previous two stops as well. She said she'd eaten a big breakfast - bit random to come on a food tour and barely eat any food though!?

As we ate Curt explained about a battle he was having with his landlord over the leasehold for the flat as the landlord wanted to get the people out of the flats as they were in are all rent stabilized and the law is watertight. He said the landlord wanted them out because he wanted to knock the block down, build one with twice as many floors and charge a lot more for doing so. The landlord had even tried insisting that the flats were infested with termites to try and get them to leave! He said he was waiting for the right amount to be offered before moving and they were almost there.

Our last stop inside the market itself was for a smoked mozzarella sandwich at Cappone's. I didn't take a picture of this - sorry! I love cheese so this was fantastic and the smoked mozzarella was good - it almost gave it a meaty taste?

After this stop we made our way outside the market and over to Luzzo's Pizza, which was inside a huge building that had lots of different places to eat round the outside and then benches in the middle.

The pizza was SO GOOD!

Our last stop was another short walk away to Ample Hill's creamery. I am a huge fan of this place from the shop they have on the Boardwalk at Walt Disney World. Their ice cream is amazing!

This was ooey gooey buttercake with hot fudge sauce:

Delicious way to end the tour!

Although the food bit was now over (and we were stuffed!), Curt had one more place to show us. He took us to a nearby building and up to the 15th floor to a (currently empty) bar. It had fantastic views across the city:

By now it was 1pm and our three hour tour was over. I'd thoroughly recommend doing a tour with the company although I think we enjoyed the Greenwich village one more as we preferred the food on that tour. Curt also made quite a few NSFW innuendos (including about the table tops in the bar and the certain scratches in them!) so it probably wouldn't be suitable for a younger audience! It was still a thoroughly entertaining three hours and we were both completely stuffed!

We made our way out of the hotel and our next stop was the High Line. This is: "A public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th and 12th Avenues". I'd walked it before when I came to New York with a friend in 2015, but that was in May when it was was in full bloom. I took lots of pictures that time but because it was winter this time it wasn't very much in bloom so I didn't take any.

We walked the entire length of the High Line, which took us about an hour as it was a slow wander. We then made our way over to The Ginger Man, which was recommended to us by a Dibber. They have 185 beers, including about 85 on tap!

We got there about 3pm by the time we'd walked there from the High Line. I did a double-take when I saw the back wall of the pub - it was all beer pumps!

Phil, of course, was in his element! I let him pick me a beer so he could try some and we spent a very pleasant hour or so in there - we both had two pints each but Phil had to finish my second one as I only managed half of it! He then worked out he'd need roughly a three week stay in New York to work his entire way through their beer list! Maybe a lottery win holiday - I am not giving up two weeks in Florida for that!

We had a slow wander back to Times Square as it was on the way back. On the way back we managed to walk past The New York Public Library, which was used for '2012: The Day After Tomorrow':

I love a good disaster film and have seen this several times, but Phil claims to have never have watched it all the way through! It was definitely colder today, which is why Phil has his hat on! We also spotted the Chrysler Building:

That's the thing I love about New York, it really is like what you see in all the movies

We got to Times Square about 4.30pm and had a quick look around some shops. Phil suggested getting a drink (all the walking is thirsty work!) so we stopped in O'Donaughes for one.

We discussed dinner plans but neither of us was really hungry so Shake Shack was decided on. This was a short 5 minute walk away - it was heaving in there! We both ordered a Shack Dog and some cheesy fries to share. It took a while for them to come out (you get a ticket with your number on, which they call out) but there was still nowhere to sit. We perched on a table and dug in:

(The photo is a bit blurry as I felt daft taking a picture in there of the food! )

Also, Phil would like me to point out that he went off to use the restroom and I ate the rest of the fries! I would like to point out that if you snooze, you loose!

To quote from our honeymoon trip report:

We finished our hot dogs, they were the perfect size and very tasty, and made our way back to the hotel. We were shattered from all the walking today (only a mere 17km compared to yesterday's 18.5!) so this seemed to take forever to get back! I went up to the room to get my iPad to upload the photos and we spent the evening in the bar.

We presently got chatting to an American guy (to be fair - he started talking to us! ) about his trip. He was visiting a relative who'd been to New York for a visit and been hit by a yellow cab, breaking his leg in 6 places! He was picking his relative up the next day and driving him home back to Boston as his car was 'stick shift' so he couldn't drive it with a broken leg. It turned out he'd also been to Florida a few times as well so we discussed our adventures and he told us to visit Boston, which we've put on the 'to do list'! We had a few more drinks than the night before as it was our last night, but bizarrely our bill was much less?! By 10pm I was shattered and so made my way to bed, leaving Phil chatting to the American chap.

Tomorrow - a full day but travel home!

[Goldia]

The food food tour sounds a bit weird really, I'm not sure you've sold me on it...We did enjoy the high line though and I agree if anyone leaves chips regardless of the reason then clearly they are free game.

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by Goldia

The food food tour sounds a bit weird really, I'm not sure you've sold me on it...We did enjoy the high line though and I agree if anyone leaves chips regardless of the reason then clearly they are free game.

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It was a bit odd this time tbh, I think we enjoyed the Greenwich village one more due to the tour guide. He told us a lot more about the food and less random stories out his rent and his dog!

[mick]

A brilliant day


Joan

[yellowrose78]

Lovely day, pizza looks amazing

[DisneyDreamer81]

I love Shake Shack - one of my favourite places to eat! I know you can get it in London now but it always tastes better in NYC!

I've never been to Chelsea Market despite 4 visits to NYC - definitely one for next time although I might swerve Curt, haha!

[Gill H]

Lovely day! We did the Greenwich Village tour in 2005 and our guide, Cindy, was hilarious. That tour has forever ruined me for cannolis as I have never tasted another as good.

Had to laugh at the Charbonnel & Walker chocs and the sausage roll. Our trip ended with something familiar too - a kebab shop! These were apparently something rare and exotic to the New Yorkers.

[Flimsey]

I would love the Food tour, we had C&W champagne truffles as our wedding favours they definitely weren’t from New York, they were from Yorkshire..Leeds 😂😄

[Leyfy]

Originally Posted by mick

A brilliant day


Joan

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Thank you

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Lovely day, pizza looks amazing

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The pizza was my favourite, next to the smoked mozzarella sandwich

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81

I love Shake Shack - one of my favourite places to eat! I know you can get it in London now but it always tastes better in NYC!

I've never been to Chelsea Market despite 4 visits to NYC - definitely one for next time although I might swerve Curt, haha!

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Ha ha - yeah I have to say I think we'd avoid him as well if we saw him in there!

The market is well worth a visit though

Originally Posted by Gill H

Lovely day! We did the Greenwich Village tour in 2005 and our guide, Cindy, was hilarious. That tour has forever ruined me for cannolis as I have never tasted another as good.

Had to laugh at the Charbonnel & Walker chocs and the sausage roll. Our trip ended with something familiar too - a kebab shop! These were apparently something rare and exotic to the New Yorkers.

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Ha ha - we never saw that on our 2016 Greenwich Village tour! I definitely preferred that one. I won two free tickets again from the photo competition and gifted them to my friend who is currently in NY. They are doing the Greenwich Village tour tomorrow before they fly home.

Originally Posted by Flimsey

I would love the Food tour, we had C&W champagne truffles as our wedding favours they definitely weren’t from New York, they were from Yorkshire..Leeds 😂😄

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The food tours are fab - I'd definitely recommend this company if you go to New York. Well worth the money

[klr15]

That food tour sounds like a really interesting day! Looks like you had a great time!