60 Things - Take 4

A few more came off the list this week.

#32. Visit Chelsea Market. Even though they yelled at me for taking pictures in their stores the first time we were there, we still love this place, and it was good to see it one more time. Feels like Bobby Flay's about to walk around the corner any minute.

#49. Eat empanada @ Mama's Empanadas. Yummo. My favorite is the Cuban. It's like a Cuban sandwich wrapped in empanada goodness. The fact that it's in Queens about 10 minutes from our apartment doesn't hurt either.

#9. Eat bagel @ H&H Bagels. Hmmm. How do I put this? You're right, give it to you straight:

H and J walk into H&H. Excited and hungry.

H to H&H employee: What kinds of cream cheese do you have?

H&H employee: In the fridge.

H and J walk to the fridge, confused.

H to J: Is this it? Can you only buy packages of cream cheese? Can't you get it on the bagel?

J to H&H employee: Do you put cream cheese on the bagels?

H&H employee: We don't put anything on the bagels.

H and J exit, stage left, less excited, still hungry ... and bagel-less.

It's my new culinary honesty policy: I like Tex-Mex more than 'authentic' Mexican food. I enjoy hot dogs, chili, and yeah, sometimes even the two paired together. And, the new one, I like Einstein Brothers Bagels--especially their asiago cheese bagel, toasted, with veggie cream cheese--better than any New York bagel I've ever had.

Whoah. Scary. But it feels good to finally tell the truth.

9 down. 51 to go. 53 days left.

60 Things - Take 3

We scratched a few more items off our list of "never to be done again in NYC (or Jersey in this case)" list.

#45 Eat at a Jersey Diner
#46 Visit Princeton University (also in Jersey)

We had a great time eating (just as a sidenote, we are diligently working out, and although we may gain a few lbs... it's worth it, right? Someone had better agree or we are calling this whole thing off! We are not doing this for our own good, but for the good of NYers and those lovers of NYC who are vicariously living in this city through our blog.)

Anyway, the diner was featured on---you guessed it, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It's called the Brownstone Diner and Pancake Factory (I was hoping to see a conveyor belt with dozens of flap-jacks coming down the pipe, but it didn't happen)

You can't go to a place named the Pancake Factory without getting pancakes, so I did. Pancakes WITH peanut butter chips. I didn't use syrup. I could only eat 2/3 of one. They were even better 3 hours later in the car (shhha, I took a doggie bag. These 60 things don't come cheap!) Jed indulged in some corned beef hash. He gets embarrassed that he likes corned beef hash.

Princeton University is only an hour away from Pancake Heaven. It's truly going from one magical place to the next.

Jed and I both LOVE visiting college campuses. We like to act like we go there (so much that we bought a shirt. Jed got mad at me when I didn't stick to the game plan and tell the cashier that we enrolled for the fall. I buckled.) Seeing this campus puts all others to shame. It was very old, gothic, cathederalish, Harry Potterish. We wished we went to school there. Not to study, just to wander around campus with our t-shirts on.

We loved our day in Jersey.

60 Things - Take 2

Officially the first of the "60 days." We're off to a great start--checked off 3 more tonight.

#7: Eat BLT @ Choice Market.

Choice is in Clinton Hill in Brooklyn, which happens to be the neighborhood where H and I looked at our very first potential apartment when we came apartment hunting 2 years ago--if only we'd known. For those who haven't picked up on it already, a lot of our foodie to-do's come from a new Food Network show--The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Haven't seen it? You should--world famous chefs talking about the food they love to eat. Yum. The BLT from Choice was our first BTIEA stop. Whole grain toasted bread, yummy bacon, super fresh tomatoes, and (the kicker) house-made (from scratch) rosemary mayonnaise. Life altering? No. Really good? Yep.

#44: Drive across Manhattan Bridge.

This one's new. We've been in love with this bridge ever since we saw it on Real Housewives of New York City (don't judge--you know you watch it, too). It was awesome. Great views of midtown, financial district and the Brooklyn Bridge (which btw we're now calling cliche that we've found our true bridge love). Don't have a car? Join the club. No worries. Looks like you can walk it, too. Highly recommend.

#8: Eat Toasted Marshmallow Shake @ Stand.

Another BTIEA stop. Whoa. Life altering? Absolutely. We'll never be the same. If you live here, go go go and get one. If you don't, it's worth the plane ticket. That good. Saturated with yummy flavor, topped with two medium-sized marshmallows that look like they came straight from the campfire to your table. It didn't last long.

Our list is now up to 50. Thanks a bunch to everyone for the great suggestions. We're keeping 10 spots open for last-minute ideas or by-the-seat-of-our-pants flying.

Click here for the 60-60 google map to see where we've been so far.

60 Things - Take 1

We couldn't wait ... so, we started our 60-60 adventures a day early.

Jed has to work in Long Island this week. Working in Long Island requires a car. We love this city EVEN more, when we have a car. So, we took full advantage of having 4 wheels and AC and drove into the city. My husb is pretty good behind the wheel ... in a busy city ... with lots of cabbies. I was impressed.


First item to scratch off our list:#3: Banana Pudding from Magnolia Bakery. Goodbye banana pudding. Forever. Well, maybe not forever, (I bought the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Oddly enough, my pudding does not taste like theirs. No film is left on the roof of my mouth. Not enough lard?) but from Magnolia's at least.

Jed's not sure how he's going to live without his banana pudding fix. Even though I don't like anything from Magnolia's anymore (don't hate) it will hold a special place in my heart and always remind me of falling in love with Jed over our "pretend dates" (while still living in Utah when NYC was a pipe dream) strolling down Bleecker St. to get banana pudding. This was all done via text messaging--until we finally moved here and got to do the real thing. Ah, true love.



Across from pudding haven is Jed's favorite book store in the city--it sells all biographies all the time. I thought I'd give it a whirl. I browsed, I even perused ...


.. but I couldn't pull the trigger and left empty handed.

We thought we saw a Whitney Port sighting (from the Hills ... don't make fun, we all have our vices)--false alarm, then we drove ourselves over the Williamsburg Bridge (crossing another bridge off our list. Do we have too many lists? Are you getting confused?).

I already love this little adventure we have set out to do. 1 down. 59 to go.

PS. Much props and preesh to Jed's brother Luke for designing our little "60-60" logo. We feel so official now. Oh, and you should check out Luke's cool new community food blog here. It's deliciously cool.

60 Things in 60 Days

The announcement: We're moving to San Francisco. I'm transferring to PwC's San Francisco office. We're pumped. We're sad. Mixed emotions. You understand.

The time line: November 2. We're tentatively leaving NYC on October 21.

The plan: Simple. 60 things in 60 days. 60 things we're going to miss and have to do one last time (or for the first time) before we leave. "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone"... not us, before we leave we're squeezing every last drop of juice out of this Apple we've been lucky enough to call home for the past two years.

What's on the list? Great question. Here's the first 30, in no particular order (side note: a lot of these are food-related. no fat jokes. we're "foodies" not "fatties"):

1. Eat @ Katz Deli
2. Eat French Fries @ Balthazar
3. Eat Banana Pudding @ Magnolia Bakery
4. Eat Deep Fried Hot Dog @ Rawley's Drive-In
5. Eat Tempura Bacon @ The Red Cat
6. Eat BBQ Beef Ribs @ Daisy May's
7. Eat BLT @ Choice Market
8. Eat Toasted Marshmallow Shake @ Stand
9. Eat a bagel @ H&H Bagels
10. Eat Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cookie @ Levain Bakery
    
11. Eat Vietnamese Sandwich @ Nicky's
12. Eat Cuban Sandwich & Grilled Corn on the Cob @ Café Habana
13. Eat "Business Lunch" @ Del Frisco's Steakhouse
14. Eat Chicken 'n' Waffles in Harlem
15. Eat Potato Pizza @ Five Points
    
16. Visit Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
17. See Jersey Boys on Broadway
18. Row boats in Central Park
19. Go to the "Top of the Rock"
20. Hang out at the Brooklyn Bridge and promenade
21. See the leaves change in Vermont (ok, so this is more of an "east coast" thing)
    
22. Visit Montauk
23. Kayak in the Hudson River
24. Buy something from the Fashion District swap meet (props to Hebe for this one)
    
25. Tour the NYSE & get a picture with "Da Bull"
26. Visit The Cloisters
27. Have a BBQ @ the Brenchley / Webb's
28. Play golf at Bethpage (J only)
29. Hang out with the girls at Kristie Larsen's house (H only)
30. Ride the Roosevelt Island tram

What about the other 30? That's where you come in. If you were us, what would you absolutely HAVE to do before you left? Let's hear it people.

The 60 days starts August 21st. The countdown's on.

Flavor Trip

Last weekend we had the pleasure of having another visitor. My college friend, Jodie, came to visit for the weekend. We had a LOT of fun. She was a great houseguest:

1. Made dinner
2. Gave me a pedicure
3. Bought groceries
4. Sent us on a flavor trip...

A flavor trip, huh? Lemons tasting sweet? "magic pills" from a real magician???

Here's the story behind Flavor Trip:

Jodie went to a party and a real magician was there...he sent them on a flavor trip too...Jodie had such a fun trip that she wanted to share the fun with us. You place 2 fruit pills in your mouth (not sure where the Magician got the pills...either the black market or Zurchers party supply store), coat your entire mouth, find anything sour, place it in your mouth and it will taste SWEET!!! Effects could last up to 15 minutes. That's the flavor trip. Here is our experience:

Round 1: We can't believe it works!!! Tastes like lemonade from the state fair.


Round 2: The "trip" wore off.



I wish my "trip" lasted through more than one wedge!

Thanks for a great weekend Jode!

Idol Update - Paula Abdul Calls it Quits

Attention all Idol fans (admit it, you know you watch it). I was catching up on my "times" reading this morning and saw this little tid-bit of news:

Paula Abdul to Leave 'American Idol'

This calls for some Idol Thoughts (man, does it feel good to be thinking idly again):

• I love that she announced her departure via Twitter--classic.
  
• Paula's 'leaving' or Paula's 'fired?' ... or 'unable to continue due to--er--her dealer being incarcerated'
• The fact that Seacrest got $45 million and they apparently only offered Paula $10 must have hurt, but turning down $10 million--in this economy--shame on you Paula.
• As crazy as Paula is, I'm not sure Kara's much of an improvement.
• I know I've been pretty vocal about how nutso Paula is, but now that she's not coming back, I kinda miss her already (here, take my man card, I've clearly stopped using it altogether).

Anyway, goodbye Paula, we'll miss you--that is, until we see you searching for love on VH1.

A Message from the 6 Train

Heard over the loud speaker on a recent commute:

"If you are sitting next to an elderly, disabled or pregnant person, please offer your seat. You'll be standing up for what's right. Courtesy is contagious--and it starts with you."

Who says New Yorkers are rough and tough? At least not if you're old, disabled, or with child ... hmmm, I'm none of those (ok fine, yes, I'm turning 30 this year--hold the old jokes please), rats. Oh yeah, the 6 train has those, too.

Gotta love this town.