After arriving in NYC I immediately stumbled upon the Union Square Farmers Market, and these baby strawberries!
I'm a lavender fiend and this booth was selling all sorts of lavender by-products. My purchase: lavender sea salt!
Tried some peach cider.
First stop: Veselka, a 24-hour Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village. I began with a feast.
This dish is called bigos, a kraut and keilbasa stew with a side of mash. Deliciously comforting.
Homemade sweet potato, mushroom and sauerkraut peirogis, with sides of sour cream, caramelized onion and some sort of apple butter.
Accidentally located The Butcher's Daughter! And their little boutique market.
Great merchandising.
This gave me the boost I needed! Now on to more food...
I read about Nom Wah Tea Parlour in Lucky Peach. It's the first dim sum restaurant in NYC's chinatown, and it's located up this secluded little alley street.
Shrimp wrapped in rice noodle.
Classic pan-fried dumplings.
Chinese turnip cake with the fixins'.
Deep fried crab claw that I found pleasantly surprised to be wrapped in shrimp!
The old-school interior looked like a 1950's diner.
Next stop: Uncle Boons, and their famous beer slushy!
Sweetbreads with crispy thai noodle salad in a tamarind sauce. By this point I could barely eat but it was so delicious I couldn't stop.
The next day we found a vendor selling chocolate covered frozen fruit. Unfortunately it wasn't very good :(
This year we couldn't resist returning to Smorgasburg, the weekly food fest at the Williamsburg waterfront.
Fresh takoyaki! These ones were filled with shrimp.
Such a tedious process.
But look at the beautiful result!
Sleepy and hungry Jake, who immediately took a nap after this photo.
Finally made it to Roberta's!!!!!!!!
The place is covered with rooftop gardens used for the daily menu, these were some of the things growing out front.
Grilled and raw asparagus with oyster and sesame. Simple and delicious.
Torchietti with little neck clams, garlic and herbs. This dish was so simple but the flavour was incredible. I've never had a more fresh tasting pasta that exploded with flavour.
Had to get a pizza! Apparently the theme was asparagus this night. This baby also had scallions, mint and chillies.
We were still craving more so we ordered squid with meyer lemon, garlic and herbs.
Dessert was a strawberry tart with cucumber ice cream, short bread crust and mint.
The famous wood burning pizza oven.
Classic pizza car hangs!
Came across this slaughter house in the middle of a residential area. We could hear and see the ducks running around!
My third and final day! Rockaway beach! Located in a very desolate side of town.
The famous Rockaway Taco. I've never eaten a taco this early in the morning, but we beat the average 3 hour wait!
Fried fish taco, what else!
Roberta's also has an outpost at the beach! Unfortunately we arrived to early to catch it.
Bring on the beeeeach.
I was a third wheel on this fake date.
Gummies for snacks.
After very little sleep the night before we all passed out on the beach, only to be awoken by the creeping tide! What a terrible way to wake up!
But it's okay they deliver ice cream to you here.
This was before the tide moved up.
The classic laundry hang - simple Brooklyn living.
Jake and Lionel tonguing.
Last stop for a special (and pricey) dinner at Alder!
Shrimp on shrimp chips!
Clam chowder with these amazing oyster chips. This chowder actually had giant clams in it.
Shepard's pie tartare with a mashed potato disk, gravy and chips! It hit all of the flavour notes of the classic dish while still being a very light snack.
I must say these "french onion soup rings" were not really worth the $16, considering they were literally just straight up onion rings.
Fried Dungeness crab with malt powder, tartar to dip and fried potatoes.
The finale: Carrot cake sunday!
