New York City: Food

What would a trip to New York be without sampling some of America's most heart attack inducing delicacies? Don't worry parents, we balanced this out with lots of walking.

First up was this big bowl of wrong from Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken on the Lower East Side. The first few mouthfuls of the "fries with the lot" were great until you feel your arteries harden up then it was a bit of a mission. Possibly the saltiest thing I've ever eaten. Nutrition was provided by the tub of coleslaw....

Fried chicken and fries with the lot (bacon, cheese, sour cream). 

 Just around the corner from our apartment was an old fashioned diner which was advertising breakfast tacos. Who am I to walk past that? They were actually pretty decent and fresh tasting. This was also our first taste of the awful black liquid that American's seem to think qualifies as coffee. Also on the menu was a milkshake that you could have a piece of pie blended into!

Breakfast tacos 

 There are tiny pizza shops all over town selling slices from 99c. One common deal was 2 slices and drink for $2.75. We had pizza many times during our stay and can safely say that they are our favourite in the world (sorry Italy).

Standard 2 slices and a drink - Usually $2.75

Typical pizza shop seating

You can't go to New York and not have a hot dog so we did just that in Central Park. Kate found the sausage a bit spicy, not sure if it was "standard". Nothing special, it tasted just as you imagine.

Remains of a hot dog from a Central Park stand

Hannah took us for a beer at McSorley's Old Ale House which bizarrely serves you 2 smallish beers when you order one. I don't know why they don't just get bigger glasses, I guess it's their trademark. It had a very cool old interior and was full of students from nearby NYU, beer was good.

McSorley's Old Ale House

 Mighty Quinn's is somewhat of a trendy BBQ joint on the Lower East Side. We had brisket and pulled port with pickled vegetables. The sides we had were baked beans with burnt brisket ends mixed in, sweet potato casserole, and broccoli salad. This was one of the best meals we had and everything was brilliant.

BBQ brisket with all the fixins yall

We needed something healthier for breakfast one day so we settled on a couple of bagels from Brooklyn Bagel Co on 8th Ave. They had about 10 types of bagels and about 30 different flavoured  cream cheese spreads. They were good for a while but are a bit dense and heavy going after about half. We would definitely ask for less cream cheese next time too.

New York bagel with cream cheese (Jalapeno on right, sun-dried tomato on left)

 Epstein's Bar offers a "drunch" (drunken brunch) special which includes a meal and all you can drink Mimosa's, Bloody Mary's, or vodka orange between 11am and 2pm for the bargain price of $15.95! We didn't have high expectations for the food, but the burritos and burgers were great and huge! The waitress kept the drinks flowing so we were a little worse for wear by the time we left. She was dancing around the bar saying "Ima gonna get you druuuuunk!".

Food and all you can drink Mimosa's for $15.95!

Katz's Deli is one of the more famous diners in New York (from When Harry met Sally), and is especially known for their pastrami sandwiches.  We ordered the Reuben which is a ton of pastrami with sauerkraut, Russian dressing, and swiss cheese. It also came with more pickles than we knew what to do with. It was very tasty and I'm glad we didn't get one each because it is enormous. As an added bonus there was a guy in a pool of blood outside when we left. The ambulance was quickly on the scene and we don't really know what happened.

Reuben Sandwich from Katz's Deli

Lot of pastrami

We headed over the bridge to Brooklyn and visited Jimmy's Diner which does mainly traditional Southern food. The lady next to us had a piece of fried chicken on a waffle with sausage gravy?! Kate ordered "grits" (we weren't really sure what they were, turned out to be a sort of corn porridge) but wasn't really a fan. I had pulled pork and eggs, while Hannah had eggs on corn bread.

Jimmy's Diner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The corner bistro in Greenwich Village offered up a variety of burgers. I made the rookie mistake of thinking that the chili burger would be a burger with chili sauce, but it was a meat patty with chili-con-carne on it. Meat with meat sauce! There are two halves of a bun somewhere under there too. Surprisingly better than it looked.

Yes that is food! Chili Burger

Corner Bistro in Greenwich Village

Other notable mentions that we didn't take photos of were a traditional Mexican restaurant and a variety of dive bars with cheap drink and shot combo deals. We also had a good ramen in Hell's Kitchen along with some lightly blowtorched tuna sashimi which Kate actually liked after being hesitant to try it.

- Joe