Friday 6 April - A birthday nosh around New York

Happy Birthday to me!

Started off what I intended to be a very New York day in a very New York way - Levy's Jewish Rye toast & coffee.

If you read this blog with any regularity (does anyone?) then you may recall me warbling on about Levy's Jewish rye back in October. It is one of my favourite breads and I always buy some when I am in New York.

Levy's Jewish Rye

I set off from 37th Street to walk to Lisa's parents via the American Express office on 53rd St & Park Avenue. And, as I am in New York, I also buy 4 big, red apples from a street vendor and have one of them, too.

Met up with Lisa and we set off on my New York birthday wannado - walking the length if Central Park. I meet her at her parents on 107th & Fifth Avenue and we set off. Firstly, we head up to the top of Harlem Meer and the end of the Park so we can get the full experience. There is a new condo development at Malcolm X Boulevard/Central Park North where the apartments apparently start at $1.5 million dollars! Harlem renaissance or what?

Anyway, the idea is to walk and nosh our way through the Park. This is where I am going to be eating lunch:

There seems to be a food cart every 20 yards or so in New York, bizarrely in clusters - bizarre because 90% of them sell exactly the same things - pretzels, hot dogs, soft drinks, ice cream, candied peanuts, etc.


So I start off with a New York Icon, the soft pretzel. Salted perfection.

Next up is a Good Humour Toasted Almond bar shortly after the pretzel.

We keep wandering back and forth, through the Park, across the North Meadow, around the Reservoir, across the Great Lawn and past the Belvdere Castle, through the Rambles to the Lake. Time for more food!

At the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, there is a different food vendor who is selling empanadas, so I try a spinach empanada and also have a bite of a gooey Nutella filled crepe selected by Lisa's youngest son. Then we are off again.

Past the Band shell, through Sheep's Meadow and The Mall, down to The Dairy and the Zoo. A stop at the Carousel is also called for where I purchase a cheese filled pretzel.

We ride the Carousel and I fall off the "no consumerism" wagon. I bought a Central Park Carousel t-shirt and in the Park gift shop I also bought a t-shirt leftover from Christo's 2005 Gates exhibition, now on sale at the bargain price of $5.00.

I knew it was going to be tough to avoid buying stuff in NYC.

Anyway, we exit the park and pedometer says 23,940 steps which is 8.31 miles. That is a LOT of meandering.

One thing I have been looking for on the food front that none of the Vendors had was a good old knish. I guess knishes are not so popular any more. If you are not familiar, a knish is just a pastry wrapped savoury, usually filled with potatoes for kasha. So, none in the Park, but, the first street vendor we came up on exiting the Park did have knishes, although only potato ones. So add a knish with mustard to the comestibles list. I can't day for sure, but since it came from a NYC street vendor cart, it was probably a Gabila's Knish.

We stop in to Dylan's Candy Bar at 3rd Avenue and 59th Street which is heaven on Earth to the boys. And the complete opposite to me. It is the middle of the afternoon on a school holiday and the place is HEAVING with sugar hyped kids. The queues for the tills are miles long and I eventually excuse myself for the relative calm of 3rd Avenue. And that's saying something. But the place was an impressive monument to sugary excess and might be nice to visit in a less frenetic time.

I walk back to the hotel and prepare for my birthday dinner at Grand Central Station's Oyster Bar restaurant. Lisa and I had drinks here before last year's birthday blowout at Gotham - which was an INCREDIBLE eating experience.

I love the Oyster Bar but have never eaten here, so looking forward to it. As they say "below sea level in Grand Central", it is a New York institution and a seafood institution.

Grand Central Oyster Bar

Started off with a brace of martini's at the bar, then on to dinner. I selected smoked sturgeon to start and it was very nice. For the mains, I had mahi-mahi with caramelised onions, steamed veggies and a few French fries as the Oyster Bar's fries are meant to be "legendary". They were OK, but marred by being less than piping hot.

The fish was excellent and I also bogarted an oyster from Lisa's selection. I surprised myself by liking the raw oyster; last time I had one was at a very posh lunch at the RAC Club in London and it was all I could do to avoid vomiting before I discretely disposed of it in a napkin on that occasion. I will have to try them again.

The waiter then appeared with a very lame piece of cheesecake, which we all roundly dismissed. This is New York, after all, where the cheesecake should be GOOD - damn good. This was weirdly crumbly and not at all creamy as a good cheesecake should be. It also tasted sour and, well, off. So, when we protested that our (free) birthday cheesecake was crap, he offered us key lime pie instead and it was a vast improvement.

A very happy birthday indeed.