Wednesday, September 16, 2009

New York Again

It's been a while, but since my last post, I've spent a week and a half in New York City. While there my best friend and I did lots of wandering of the city, allowing us to explore and discover new restaurants in territory we had yet to delve into.

A good cheap eatery we found is on the Upper West Side: Soom Soom. They have amazing falafel. You order either a salad or a pita with falafel in it, then get to pick and choose from their open salad bar of pre-made Israeli salads. I cannot tell you the names of any of them, but they're AWESOME. I actually went twice while in town. I prefer the salad to the pita because the salad makes you feel so good. All veggies and chickpeas.

Soom Soom
166 W. 72nd St.
New York, NY

Another place my family and I discovered when they joined up with me for Labor Day weekend is Maya. It is a really, really nice Mexican restaurant on the Upper East Side with, hands down, the best Mexican I've ever had. Their chicken with mole is to die for. Guacamole is made fresh for you on the floor. I had their chicken enchiladas which were pretty tasty. We also got corn pudding and plantains on the side. Deelish. We were stuffed and going to get gelato after a show later that night, so we took a look at the dessert menu but didn't order anything. Were we to order, we would have gotten the chocolate tarte with cinnamon ice cream. Then our waiter surprised us with one, not knowing that that is what we were eyeing. Needless to say, he got a big tip. Haha. To our surprise, we also found out that there is a Maya in San Francisco (Yippee!) so we can go when we're at home to. Chevy's no more. We're converts.

Maya
1191 First Ave.
New York, NY

or for the West Coasters:

Maya
303 2nd. Street
San Francisco, CA

Lastly, my best friend and I were treated to some gelato by some family friends of hers that we were crashing with for part of my stay. It's called Screme and it is definitely not wallet friendly but SO worth it. With a small starting at $5, it may steer many away, but believe me, if you walk through the doors and start tasting (employees are required to give as many free samples as you want) you'll want to order a large (which, if you're wondering, will set you back $9...but it's practically a pint when they pile it all on, and it's totally worth it). The two Manhattan stores have 5,000 flavors that they cycle through from pear sorbet to Captain Crunch or Fig Tequila gelato. The flavor intensities are awesome (though the sorbets slightly less so). There is one location on the Upper West Side, and the other is in the lobby of Madame Tussauds in Times Square.

Screme Gelato
2030 Broadway
New York, NY

Screme Gelato
234 W. 42nd St.
New York, NY