New York City via the stomach

[icepixie]

I have returned from the three-quarters Pezmoot in NYC. Instead of the usual running to and fro among museums I usually do on vacations, this one centered on Broadway and food, which was a refreshing change.

Saturday morning, we managed to get student rush tickets for both La Cage aux Folles and A Little Night Music, which Chandra assures me is unheard of. Quite good seats for both of them, too, if a bit off to the side. Needing to change and eat after this adventure, we went back to her apartment, where I made my zucchini/onion/green pepper/garlic and herb dish, which was a big hit.

During La Cage that afternoon, Douglas Hodge (Albin) waved to us, which was pretty awesome--as was he, and Kelsey Grammer, and the Cagelles. Especial kudos to the fellow who played the butler/maid (Jacob?), who was a hoot.

We got tasty Thai food before heading to Night Music, which was a complete 180 in tone. Though Charlotte, who won my heart, was delightfully snarky, in a dark and bitter sort of way. Petra was quite entertaining as well. Bernadette Peters was pretty amazing when she sang, especially during "Send in the Clowns."*

Sunday started with a trip to Alice's Tea Cup for brunch, which was both cute and delicious. (I got the poached eggs with rosemary sauce over ham and cheese scones biscuits, and am currently plotting how to recreate it.) I bought some "Christmas Tea" to take home, and had a cup today. It...tastes exactly like Christmas. It's kind of like if chai and orange and spice tea had a baby. Yum.

From there, we attempted to go through Central Park and see the Met Museum, but the skies opened up on us halfway through. It was kind of like standing in the shower. I had the only umbrella between the three of us, so we were soon quite wet. Deciding that two hours in an air conditioned museum while soaking wet was not that appealing, we got a cab back to Chandra's apartment and ordered Indian food. Then we watched a lot of The Middleman.

Monday, we went down to The Strand, which, after two years of visiting my local used book emporium was, I have to admit, a tiny bit disappointing, though their nonfiction section was excellent. We met up with tarzanic (yay!) and went to Max Brenner for lunch, which included the single best cup of hot chocolate I've ever tasted. It was more like chocolate syrup, or chocolate fondue, than hot chocolate, and had some kind of vanilla flavoring added. Wow.

Sadly, after lunch we had to leave to catch planes. But yay for seeing friends, seeing Broadway, and eating tasty things!


* I love the melody, but never thought the lyrics made much sense. In context, they...still don't, really. But it's pretty.

Comments

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Dude, next time you're in the Apple, let me know! I could have come up and said hello and taken you to City Bakery, which is famous as, quite likely, the VERY best hot chocolate in New York (like, you could stand a spoon up in it, and the marshmallows are homemade, which is why they suck just a bit and charge for them). I got a small and could hardly drink it all; my brother tells me people go in there and get large ones and he can't figure out how the heck they do it, it's so damn rich. You could do a comparison test! ;)

Don't dis the Strand too much--they DID sell me a 1907 copy of a Dickens novel for $6, which to this day still feels like theft!

[icepixie]

I will let you know if I'm ever there again! City Bakery's hot chocolate sounds excellent, and I would totally like to do a comparison test. (I'm actually trying to figure out how to concoct my own version of Brenner's. Perhaps a cup of milk, two packets of Swiss Miss, sugar, and some vanilla extract...)

Maybe the Strand is better for older editions of books--I'm more of a cheap paperback kind of used book customer, assuming I buy anything at all and don't just borrow from the library. McKay is smaller (though still pretty large--that's about a half to two thirds of the store in the picture), but their selection of the stuff I like to read is better, and a good chunk of the books are under $2. I don't think I've ever seen a paperback for more than $5 there. Plus their SF/F section blows the Strand's out of the water. (There was...an SF/F nook. Well, a nook if one is being charitable. Though the people I was with assured me that it's been bigger in the past...? Perhaps yesterday was a bad day for sci-fi, or they had mixed most of it in with general fiction.)

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, Strand's not great for SF. I do recall that.

two packets of Swiss Miss

Eww!! You are kidding me, right?? Step away from the Swiss Miss, young lady. Even if you stick with something powdered, there's far, FAR better stuff out there than that tasteless swill. We have Green Mountain coffees at work, and I sometimes have some of their hot cocoa. Then I decided to try some Swiss Miss because we don't have the GM stuff on my floor. I literally couldn't finish it. Good lord, do not torture yourself that way.

Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that this (http://www.tienda.com/food/products/bv-09.html) may be as close as we can get in the US...

[icepixie]

Welllll, Swiss Miss may not be gourmet, but it isn't that bad. I actually think Wal-Mart's house brand is a bit better, but SM is decent. I think the only other national brand we have down here is Hershey's, which is a bit blah. Kroger does some kind of froofy hot chocolate powder with flavors, but I never found it any better than SM.

Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that this may be as close as we can get in the US...

Ooooh, that looks good. And you're probably right--the cup I had tasted like it probably started out in bar form.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Welllll, Swiss Miss may not be gourmet, but it isn't that bad.

Uhhhh...yes. Yes it is. Only if you've never had anything better could you possibly say that it's "decent." Really. Don't you have Target down there? Their Archer Farms hot cocoa powders produce a drink vastly superior to SM. Cadbury also makes excellent Drinking Chocolate that can be mail-ordered if no one near you carries it. Same goes for McStevens' powder mixes. Any of them expose Swiss Miss as the wretched excuse for hot cocoa that it is.

You'll never get anything like what you had at Brenner from a powder, though, no matter how much you put in.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Also? Max Brenner Online Shop (https://shop.maxbrenner.com/index.aspx?cat=6).

[icepixie]

You'll never get anything like what you had at Brenner from a powder, though, no matter how much you put in.

I wasn't expecting to get anything up to the standard of what I had there with a powder--I was going for cheap, easy, and vaguely reminiscent of. ;) Although I like that link to their store...might have to get something from them as a Christmas present to myself.

I was unimpressed with Cadbury's powder in England. Sainsbury's own brand was delicious, though; wish they sold that here. Haven't ever tried Target's, or heard of McStevens.

[bulleteyes.livejournal.com]

Bernadette Peters! Wow, you got to see Broadway royalty.

[icepixie]

I know! Very impressive. She got lots of applause.

[pezprez.livejournal.com]

Yay Pezzunion! I'm glad you guys had a great time, and I look forward to joining you guys at the next one. Sounds like it was a whirlwind trip, complete with the appropriate amount of Times Squareness. So jealous about Max Brennen's, Zilla sent me a tin of their HC for Christmas one year and it was de-licious. Did you all squish into Zilla's apartment? Any pictures? I'll try to post about my LA adventures soon...

[icepixie]

Heh, we all squished into her bedroom for the air conditioning. It actually worked pretty well...two air mattresses and some floor space and we were good to go. And her apartment is HUGE! Almost as big as mine, and about the same age, but it had actually been updated within the last decade (unlike my apartment, which last saw an update sometime in 1952, I think).

I took a few pictures, but most of them turned out poorly. I'll dig through and see if I can salvage any for posting.

Tell us all about LA!