Central Park, Chelsea Market and Yankee Stadium

How could I not eat this for "breakfast" in NYC?  

The weather was really quite nice and we had some time to kill before brunch with my aunt, so we made our way towards Central Park.  We stopped by Pret a Manger for some coffee.  They have some pretty good coffee here so I am glad we stopped in to give it a try.

Then we headed in to Central Park and enjoyed the nice Spring day.

I am pretty sure this is not exactly what they mean by passenger car!

Lots of people out running, walking, biking and rollerblading.

Nice picture of the NY skyline from inside the park.

Then we headed over to my Aunt's side of town for brunch at Marseille.  They give you a little basket of bread and some muffins.

My sister had the poached eggs provencal.  

I had the mushroom pain perdu.  It was awesome!

Ryan had the Moroccan omelet.

Last up, my aunt had the eggs Copenhagen, which is one of my favorite dishes ever.  This is like eggs benedict but has smoked salmon instead of Canadian bacon.  She ordered it without the Hollandaise sauce, which is how I order it too.

Next up was a short bus ride down to Chelsea Market.  I had never been here before so it sounded like a fun idea.  Definitely a good suggestion by my aunt.  Ryan and I went here while my aunt and sister went to see Kinky Boots (which they absolutely loved).

I have no idea where we found room, but the grilled cheese from Lucy's Whey sounded too good to pass up.

So we split the cheddar and fig spread grilled cheese.

Then was something we were really looking forward to.  We wanted to check out Yankee Stadium, and they were playing my hometown team, the Orioles, so we really lucked out with this one.  We ended up using a website called Stub Hub to get the tickets.  The day before the game we still hadn't had the tickets delivered to us and we were starting to panic.  Luckily I had already expressed concern to the company so they were aware of our concern and not having the tickets yet.  They do have some sort of policy to protect their customers, so in the end, the original seller couldn't get us the tickets, so Stub Hub, with their amazing customer service, upgraded us and made sure we not only had tickets, but that they were in a better and closer section that what we already purchased.  It was perfect!  I am so happy they were able to offer us these tickets and ensure we had a great time.

Getting there was easier than I would have thought.  Plus, I was super excited to discover they have a Hard Rock cafe inside.

Another thing that surprised me was the Gluten Free food vendor.

And one more good surprise was the farmer's market stand.

I went with the eggplant and mozzarella sandwich.  It was delicious!

We were sitting just down in this section below, behind home plate.

Go Orioles!  I know, I was rooting for the other team, but I wasn't the only one.

Well, the Orioles ended up losing, 3-0.  The kicker was that I got up to go to the bathroom and in those 5 minutes the Yankees scored 3 runs.  I didn't even get to see any action during this game.  But it was still worth it to go to Yankee Stadium and watch them play the Orioles.  Although I would have loved to see my team win.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever been to Central Park?  Have you ever been to Yankee Stadium?  What is your favorite baseball team?

Going to NYC!

Class was really great.  I learned how to listen to the heart and lungs, check cranial nerve functioning, do an abdominal assessment, and do a head and neck exam complete with an intraoral exam.  All of which can be used in my nutrition assessment.  It is a hands on approach for dietitians to get a more complete picture of what is going on nutritionally.  My classmates are awesome and have a variety of jobs as dietitians around the US.  Some are in the Masters program, some are doctoral students like me and then we had some just doing the workshop for continuing education.  I loved that we had dentists and PAs working with us to teach us exam techniques.  More on all of this later when I have more time to write about the workshop.

A couple of the days I walked over to the food trucks across the street and got an awesome (and cheap) falafel sandwich.

One of the nights Ryan went back to his hometown area and I studied in the room, so I ordered room service.  It was tasty, but a huge rip off.  I paid $14 for these 4 tiny pieces of crab and avocado roll.  

Our last meal in NJ was back at Nico.  It was not only excellent, but convenient, so we went back.  Ryan did a sausage pizza this time.

I went with pasta again.

As soon as my class was over that last day and I completed my test (which by the way was with my undergrad professor who I love...she is now at UMDNJ, my undergrad was at Cedar Crest) we headed to NYC.  My aunt lives in the city, so it was perfect for sightseeing and visiting with her.  My sister was coming up too, which was great.  Ryan and I decided to stay in a hotel.  We stayed at the Mansfield.  The location was excellent, too bad our room that first night was freezing.  You can see the room looks nice, not bad in size, but when the weather got nice for the few days before (and then froze again) they put in AC window units and we ended up with an awful draft.  The good news was that the next day we moved rooms and it worked out much better.

By the time we were settled we just wanted to eat, so we found a cute little brewery called Heartland Brewery.

Ryan decided to sample all their beers.  Since we started brewing our own at home, we are curious about all beers.

I had this nice spinach and apple salad to start.

My dinner was this tuna taco plate, which was good, but I liked the salad a lot more.  Ryan had a steak and I couldn't get a good picture of it.

The next morning we walked around a little before heading to meet my Aunt and get my sister.

This is where they film the Today Show.

Finding my sister was easy, thankfully.  She was starving so we headed to eat at Tick Tock Diner.  Delicious meal!  I had a spinach omelet.

Some grits to share with my sister.

An omelet for Ryan too.

After a little shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and a show.  Dinner was at one of my favorite restaurants in NY.  It is right in Times Square so I made sure to take some pictures.

The restaurant is called Blue Fin.  And yes, I was photobombed by Elmo!

Awful lighting for food pics, so I apologize for that.  Can you believe we ordered some sushi to start?  It was really good.

I started with the lobster bisque, which I love from this restaurant.

Ryan went with the Scottish salmon served with risotto.

Rachel had the tuna.

I had the avocado and crab salad.

And my aunt had the branzino.

As we were getting ready to leave they brought us over some desserts with a nice message welcoming us back home.

In addition to the salted caramel cake above, it was National Cobbler Day so they had this amazing strawberry rhubarb cobbler for us to try.  Amazing!  This is definitely still one of my favorite restaurants.

After dinner my aunt dropped us off at the theater.  We saw Book of Mormon.  Hilarious!  Hilarious! Hilarious!  We loved it.  

After the show (if you don't get offended easily, definitely go see it) we took my sister to Tutti Frutti because they have soy yogurt there and she can't have dairy.

I had some plain tart with chocolate yogurt.  Delicious and a great end to a great day.

QUESTIONS:  What was the last show you went to see?  Have you ever had soy frozen yogurt?  Did you eat cobbler for National Cobbler Day?