in which we attempt to eat our own body weight two or three times a day

I don't know if I've mentioned it here on the blog, but the last of the sisters is getting married this fall. I'm tremendously happy for her, not least because it means a chance to do all sorts of delightfully wedding-y things that haven't been done with the last two sisters because, well, because. So we decided to have one last girly weekend together and create shenanigans.
Sunday afternoon we drove up to NYC, where we planned to spend two nights and just do whatever the heck we felt like doing. Well, I say we drove. We drove to Princeton Junction and took the train in. I hatehate driving in the city, and also hate paying for parking, so I just avoid it like the plague. Anyway, this post is quite possibly going to get very long, so I'm just warning you now: look away if you're hungry. We ate. A lot.
Sunday night after we got in and cleaned up we went to Ali Baba's for dinner. Instead of ordering entrees though, we just got a bunch of apps and shared them. Um, yum. There was this insanely good preparation of leeks in olive oil that I really need to figure out.


So. Funny story. It's been a while since I've gotten to hang out with the two sisters without males around, and I forget how disruptive it is, apparently. We all just look so much alike, and we all have GIANT COW EYES, so it's just eyecatching. It doesn't help either that we normally wear dresses and look exceptionally feminine. So we're at dinner at this restaurant, sitting on the roof, enjoying this perfect evening (did I mention that the weather was just gorgeous? In the eighties. Lovely!) and we are the only unattached females in the place; everyone else was Turkish families. Which is a good sign if you're looking for delicious foods, but was quite hilarious when six or seven different males waited on us throughout the course of the evening. So when we went to leave, Porkchop had reapplied lipstick, and she used a corner of the paper covering the table to blot it. Jjoyful, feeling puckish, ripped off the paper and stuck it in with our check. As we're walking out, one of the waiters comes scuttling up to us, waving the scrap of paper. "Who is this intended for????" She pointed at one guy at random, and we quickly exited the building. Good times, indeed.
After that we headed over to Kyotofu for dessert; they have THE BEST BROWNIES IN THE WORLD. I am not lying. I have a serious addiction problem with these things. As does Porkchop. And then because we are lame we were asleep in our delightfully comfy bed by like 11. I KNOW. We fail. Also we are all old nerds.


Monday morning we stopped at Manhattan Espresso for breakfast; it was right across from our hotel, and they had delicious croissants and crepes. Also their americanos were perfect, and that is how I measure a coffee shop. :D
We then spent the morning wandering about the city, gradually making our way toward Union Square. Yes, we walked a LOT. We had every intention of eating everything in sight, so we figured exercise wouldn't kill us. Besides, we stopped whenever we saw something interesting. I'll spare you all the boring side trips, but we did stop at a fantastic hat shop, and I completely want to try to rock a bowler now. There was also a couple of churches in there somewhere.

We got hungryish as we were passing Bryant Park, so we stopped to grab a sandwich from the 'wichcraft kiosk there. We're all avid followers of Top Chef, so it was kinda fun to try the flavors dreamed up by Tom Collichio.




The tuna sandwich we split was ok; we loved the preserved lemons and capers. We did not love the bread: it was just so crusty you couldn't bite through it.

Next stop was the New York Public Library. Ok, now here's where it gets kind of embarrassing. See, we are all major MAJOR nerds. We love books. Love them. Even more than we love shoes. Seriously. I would wear practical shoes for the rest of my life before I'd stop reading. So anyway, we stopped at the main branch of the library for a bit, because I knew that les sisters would enjoy the architecture, as well seeing the original Winnie the Pooh doll that is on display in the Children's Department. We were all raised on the poetry of AA Milne and can still recite much of it, so that was fun. But here's the embarrassing part: we then sat down in the children's department and read for about 15 minutes. Because we were surrounded by books: we couldn't NOT. ::waves nerd flag::

Significance of this photo: when she was about five, Porkchop went through a phase where she only answered to Genevieve. Which is the dog from the Madeline books. I KNOW. But I still love her.



This was outside a church we walked past; it's a visual representation of the prayers of the church. Yellow is for an american killed, blue is for an iraqi killed, and green is for the prayers. I think. Will check on that. It was beautiful, though.
Ok, so then we met up with a good friend of mine who is also my food enabler; whenever I go to the city he takes me to new places to try ethnic foods I would never know to order without him. Well, this time we got to go to Momofuko Noodle Bar, which is a place I've wanted to try for a while, but there's never been time. (Also he claims their pork buns are overrated.)

Well, I don't know about overrated. I liked them. I did think some of their noodles were a little salty, but I wasn't complaining. Loved the space and service.
He then took us to a Vietnamese dessert place, and I'm sorry but I have no idea what the name of it was. My favorite was the vietnamese coffee ice cream, but there were some really interesting desserts.


This was the avocado parfait; it was drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.


This was a deconstructed cheesecake. Which was awesome.




This is getting really long, so I'll try to shorten it. Further food highlights included drinks at the Blue Bar (total old man place, excellent drinks, all dark and clubby, no bros. Fantastic).


There was also some pho at two am. We were staving, K?


Tuesday before we left we were detirmined to have some really good gelato, so I looked it up on Serious Eats, and they suggested Borne Confections. Good call. We tried the chocolate hazelnut, the strawberry, and the limoncello. All were delicious.


There was also a final stop at Argosy Books, for just a couple of minutes. I think we could get lost in that place.


Stuff I didn't get pictures of:
::shoe shopping. We found Joy's wedding shoes! (We think. But they are fantastic, trust me on this one.) I also bought a pair of shoes that will show up in pictures soon, I'm sure. Leopard print wedges. Le sisters claim they're trashy; I love them too much to care.
::Soba noodles for lunch before we left on Tuesday. Delicious, and not badly priced for that area.
::The slow, almost reverent round of applause we received from a group of construction workers as we walked by. That was a first for all of us.
::Karaoke. A first for Porkchop; she always claimed she'd only do it if she were in a city where she didn't know anyone AND with us girls. Both conditions fulfilled, she did it, and now, well, there's a video on her phone of me singing Kary Perry. Oh. Goodness.

:: Macarons from La Masion du Chocolat. Delicious, and we ate them before I remembered to take a picture.
::Browsing at the Strand. Porkchop and I both ended up buying old textbooks because, well, they looked interesting. NERD ALERT.

I've posted all the photos that I'm sharing here; there are a few I didn't post, mainly of architectural details that I enjoyed. So having made it to the end of this VERY long and wordy post, I'll relapse into silence and get some work done.