July 4th Long Weekend 2013 in NYC

I don't think there's a better place to spend July 4th long weekend than in NYC.  I can never get bored of a weekend filled with eating and shopping with good friends.  We started the day off on the wrong foot by forgetting my laptop at home, so we had to drive all the way back home to get it after we had reached the airport.  This caused us to miss our flight by minutes.  I can't believe they didn't wait for me even though I'm Super Elite!  Good thing there are many flights from Toronto to La Guardia so we were put onto the next flight out.

We had missed our reservation for Minetta Tavern (I have been wanting to try their black label burger for so long!), so we went to have pizza at Joe's instead.  After pizza, we headed to Soho to try our luck at scoring a cronut at Dominique Ansel's bakery.  Of course, we were out of luck, but I did get to try a few other things: DKA (Dominique's Kouign Amann), chocolate eclair and freshly baked madeleines.

For dinner, we went to Osteria Morini for some Italian.  We started with a nice salumi and cheese board, followed by a tagliatelle with ragu and bow tie pasta with pancetta.  I ordered a simple affogato for dessert because we were pretty full from the meal.  I think this place is pretty good considering the prices are quite reasonable.

The next day was our planned trip to the Woodbury Commons Premium Outlet.  Before we set off, we had breakfast at Pershing Square which was directly across from Grand Central Terminal and underneath the Park Avenue Viaduct.  They had very fluffy pancakes that didn't give me the bloated feeling after I ate them.

As always, the trip to Woodbury was a success.  We spent the entire day there and got back just in time to meet up with our friends Ellen and Chris for dinner.  We also stopped by Buddy Valastro's Cake Boss Cafe outside of Port Authority to give his cannolis a try, but we weren't really impressed.  I thought the cannoli was a little stale.

For dinner we went to Hakata Tonton which is a Japanese hot pot restaurant that specializes in pork.  We ordered a set menu for the four of us and it came with so much food, we were all super full after the meal.  The food was very delicious!  We had a huge salad, some sashimi, pork's foot, karaage, 2 hot pots, dessert and ice-cream!  This is definitely a place that we'd come back to time after time.

We started off the next day with some New York style bagels.  I had heard that New York was so very famous for their bagels, so we we headed to Murray's Bagels for breakfast.  I had a pumpernickel bagel with smoked salmon.  I must say that I was not nearly as impressed with these bagels as the ones we have in Montreal.  I think Montreal bagels are just unbeatable, so we can certainly skip this next time we come to New York.

We then headed over to High Line Park, which is a park built on some old railway that's no longer in use.  The park was very nice and would've been nicer if the weather wasn't so hot!  We stopped under the bridge where there are vendors selling food and drinks and enjoyed a nice cup of Blue Bottle Coffee which has managed to spread its wings to the East Coast.

The rest of the day entailed more shopping and of course lots of spending at our favourite store Uniqlo.
We ended the evening with a wonderful dinner at the Michelin-starred Ai Fiori.  Their squid ink pasta is to-die-for.  The waiter was not kidding when he said that their customers come back specifically asking for that dish.  I was very jealous that 2hung was the one who ordered that dish and not me.  The rest of the meal was great as well and we left feeling very full and satisfied.

Sunday was our last day and we started off with some brunch at Petite Abeille.  How can you go wrong with Belgian waffles and fluffy omelettes?

Before we left, we squeezed one more meal in at Yuji Ramen, which was located inside the Whole Foods near Soho.  They make this dry type of ramen with a fusion take.  Taste wasn't bad, but it was kind of pricey considering you're only getting a tiny bowl.  I guess the concept was there.

To go along the theme of having bad luck with our travels on the way into NYC, 2hung's flight out was cancelled and he ended up having to spend a night at an airport hotel before he was able to fly home the next morning.  Poor thing...hehe