Le Pain Quotidien on 53rd Street

Not long ago my friend MJ arranged for me to meet his cousin here in NYC. Mark suggested we have lunch at the 6th Ave location of Le Pain Quotidien. It was a really tasty, and lovely lunch! When I was out shopping today, in need of a foot rest and a yummy treat, I came across the location on 53rd St.

I had the iced green tea and a Ricotta Tartine with mission figs, black pepper & organic acacia honey and oh my goodness - how delicious!!

I sat at the communal table and it was actually cool to see all the other dishes people ordered. This is really good, simple food done in a way I've not seen anywhere else. The people across from me ordered a Tuscan White Bean and Prosciutto Salad with arugula, shaved Parmesan, basil croutons and a Mediterranean Platter Specialty with hummus, babaganoush, & taboulé. These dishes, and mine, were beautifully presented and mine anyway was absolutely divine in flavor.

I had no idea, but in all actualilty, this is an international franchise, and it seems to have started in Belgium. I should have taken a picture of my dish rather than the chalk board, but I didn't think of it until after. And I thought I could pull down some photos from the web :) Ah well.

After my lunch I walked by Rockefeller Center and was surprised to see it still decorated for Easter. I had no idea it was decorated for Easter at all. Nice surprise :)

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday - it was nice to get phone calls and emails from friends and family. I did a little pick up in the morning, and decided to head to the farmers market before my interview at noon. I picked up some tomatoes, corn, carrots, cilantro, some jingle bell peppers (colored small peppers) and a new mint plant. I decided to take the train back - it was hot and I figured what the heck.

After the interview (which went well!), I decided to go out for lunch. Rick was in the middle of something at work, so I went on my way. I stopped at City Crab. I'd been there before, but after waiting near the door for the matre'd for a while, I just left. This time I'd read on the internet it was pretty good, and there were other people there too, so I swung in. I had a Sam Summer on tap, and ordered steamers. They were fresh and fabulous, so I decided to get a lobster, too! What an awesome birthday lunch :) When I walked back into the building, Plinio, our doorman, met me with the mail and wished me a happy birthday - a very pleasant surprise. Turns out Rick mentioned it to him the prior day, and he remembered. Very sweet.

Rick came home with a birthday cake. We cut it first. The cake was from Zaro's in Grand Central, but it wasn't very good. Rick was disappointed. We didn't end up eating the cake, but it was good to blow out the candle. He had already put together the Wii so we could play together with out all the set up. I think he let me win in both bowling and golf :) We need to get another nunchuk (game controller) to play the other games - we'll pick that up sometime soon. I was going to make some mexican dips, but we decided to order pizza instead - the infamous Imperial Special :) The pizza was great!

Spring on Park Avenue

Thankfully I was able to get a couple of shots of the flowers before the heat wave we had (3 days of 90 degree weather). The trees still looked pretty good yesterday, but the tulips are toasted. Guess I'll just have to get some at the corner store ;)

Macy's Flower Show

We went to the Macy's Flower Show on what I believe was the last day. I expected the flowers to be droopy and wilty since they had been installed almost 2 weeks ago, but no - they were just fabulous. You can't really get the scope of the show from the pictures, but imagine the scope of Christmas decorations and apply that to flowers, and you get the idea.

Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue

Still too tired for many words, but lots to see today :)

March Flowers

Just before our last visit to what will be our new abode, I noticed around the corner was a tree with flower blossoms. YES! SPRING IS COMING!

It's true that street flower vendors do have some seasonal flowers, they almost always look like this year round (except those extra freezing couple of days in winter...).

Union Square Green Market

Today is amazing - sunny, not too hot, not humid - just about 80. It has been so hot for so long, this just feels like a breeze of Fall. I know - who'da thunk that 80 would feel like Fall???

I made my way to the Union Square Green Market - it's the only farmers market open all year long in the city, but this is HARVEST TIME so I'm thinking that now is the time where there will be the most variety :)

I made a pit stop at Filene's Basement and DSW before going through the stalls. Here is the view from Filenes on the 4th floor. You can see some of the tents for the stalls in the lower left hand side, but they actually ring the entire square. I only made it around half of the stalls.

You know, really browsing the goods - it's so gorgeous. I loved this in Portsmouth, too. The colors and textures. The flowers are really the best.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get all this variety of veggies everyday? I guess you have to live in California for that :)

I was going to buy some of these pattypans - they are so hard to grow - but the line was about 12 people long - I left them there... Looks like New Yorkers now know what to do about the squash avalanche that comes this time of year - pick the flowers! I think people stuff them with soft cheese, bread them and fry them. Kind of like a jalapeno popper without the jalapeno :)

I bought a couple ears of corn - I feel pretty confident that it wasn't picked this morning, but maybe yesterday afternoon :) Since the line was short, I also got a couple of small yellow squash too.

The markets also had lots of places with fresh baked goods, artisan cheeses, organic grass fed beef, organic lamb, organic eggs....there were even a few fish stalls! Also, if you feel like you need more variety, there is a huge Whole Foods store here too. If the 4/5/6 wasn't so busy and crowded, I would come here 2x a week :)