The Big Apple - Part III

Sunday we slept in nice and late and then walked to the subway and rode up to the Bronx for a game at Yankee Stadium.  We decided to walk around the Bronx a little bit as I had heard there were some good Jamaican and Dominican restaurants in the neighborhood around the stadium.  I'll admit it's not the nicest neighborhood but we never felt unsafe (might feel differently if it was an evening game but broad daylight was fine).  We managed to find a Jamaican place I had read about called The Feeding Tree.

It was nothing fancy - order at the counter, get your food in a disposable aluminum tray and eat it at a green linoleum counter top with plastic utensils.  However, it was the best jerk chicken I have had since visiting Jamaica.  It was super spicy, tender, smoky and plain delicious.  Not to mention that it looked a lot healthier than the food we saw later at the ballpark.

Jerk Chicken at The Feeding Tree in the Bronx

After lunch, we walked back over to Yankee Stadium to watch them play the Baltimore Orioles.  I am not a Yankees fan - let's just get that on the table.  However, they do have an amazing stadium and I will give their fans credit for being passionate about their team.  There is definitely a lot of energy in that stadium coming from the fans.  Also, everyone we were seated near was incredibly nice and friendly.  The beer guy made sure to let everyone in a 3 to 4 row radius know that we were from Texas (you have to show your I.D. no matter how old you are to get a beer and he whooped it up when he saw Steve's Texas I.D.).  Everyone gave us a good ribbing about our Texas Rangers but in a good and harmless way.

It was a fun game, albeit really humid that day so we felt pretty gross and sticky by the 7th inning.  I enjoyed a fresh squeezed lemonade and Steve had a few ice cold beers. The vendors there are great.  The frozen daiquiri lady was particularly hilarious as she encouraged everyone to "get your drink on" and informed us that her daiquiris would "mess you up."

The Great Hall in Yankee Stadium

The Field

Yankee Stadium - v. Baltimore

We left at the end of the 7th inning and headed back on the subway to Manhattan.  I have to say that being able to take the train to and from the game was so easy and convenient.  In Texas, we have to drive 30+ minutes to the Ballpark in Arlington, pay $10 or more to park, trek from parking to the stadium, etc... Such a pain so we only go to a few games a year.  New York has us beat on that one!

We changed clothes back at our hotel and then hopped the subway again for Little Italy.  It was packed down there!  We headed to my favorite Italian restaurant on Mulberry Street called Pellegrino's.  By this time, the sun had set behind the buildings so it didn't feel nearly as muggy as it did earlier in the day so we opted to sit outside on the patio,  which had great people watching.  We enjoyed some calamari and a salad, veal marsala and chicken breasts stuffed with crab and cheese...and a bottle of chianti.  

Dinner in Little Italy

We decided to walk off some of our dinner and we hoofed it all the way from Little Italy through Nolita to Greenwich Village and even over to the West Village.  We finally made our way back over to Broadway and took a cab back to our hotel.  We then decided to walk around midtown and spotted an Irish pub where we had a few beers on our last night in NYC. We chatted with some locals and stayed up a little too late that night!

Little Italy al fresco dinner - Steve

Me - it was SO humid so I just gave up and pulled my hair back into a tight bun.

The next day I woke up feeling tired and, frankly, hung over.  Too much food, walking and wine/cocktails finally caught up with me!  I spent the day drinking water.  We headed out for lunch.  I wanted to try either the Carnegie Deli or the "secret" burger joint in the lobby of the Parker Meridian Hotel in midtown, which is hidden behind a curtain and supposedly has the best burger (or one of the best burgers) in the city.  We walked the four or five blocks to the Carnegie Deli.  Well, there was a line outside the Carnegie Deli so Steve said he didn't want to wait and he didn't want a sandwich anyway.  Okay, so we walked a few more blocks to the Parker Meridian and found the secret burger place.

Secret burger joint in Parker Meridian Hotel, NYC (Google images)

It really is hidden in that hotel.  You have to walk behind the reception area and go around a huge red velvet curtain and it's a teeny-tiny little hole-in-the-wall burger joint that smells amazing. I got in line, which wasn't long (only about 4 people in front of us) and was ready to get my burger on.  I could immediately tell Steve was not on board.  He stood back and was hesitant to get in line.  Then he joined me and said about 3 or 4 times in a row, "There's no place to sit" or "We'll never find a seat."  Of course, in just the 3 minutes we were in line, I saw two tables clear and pointed this out to him.  He then complained that it was cash only.  He then started asking "I guess they don't serve anything but burgers?"  He was acting like a giant man-baby so I knew that meant he didn't want to eat there so I turned around and walked out.  I was a little (okay, a lot) huffy b/c he is always such an infant about things like this!  He refuses to wait in any lines, no matter how short, and he gets annoyed if he doesn't immediately see available seating. Ugh.  Makes. Me. Nuts.

We ended up grabbing lunch at a small French bistro we saw the day before.  Meh.  The food wasn't very good so I made sure to let Steve know that I wasn't too happy about his hissy fit at the burger place that I had been talking about all weekend and the fact that my meal at the place he picked was overpriced and my food was overcooked and dry.  I was pretty annoyed by that point (and my headache and general crankiness didn't help matters....).

We then walked down to Times Square. The humidity was unbearable this day - far worse than the previous days - and then it started to rain.  By the time we got back to our hotel to arrange for a cab to the airport, I was absolutely soaked through.  I was pouring sweat, my new blouse was wet all over, I could wring sweat out of my pony tail and I wasn't happy about lunch.  Not a great end to what had been so far an amazing trip but by that time I was ready to go home.  Fortunately, our flight was on time, we arrived early and I was glad to be at home in my own bed again!  

Times Square - right before it started to pour rain

I love NYC but I think next time we'll schedule a trip in the fall when it's cooler and less humid!  I'll also make sure I get my burger next time and won't be denied!  Seriously, though, it was an amazing trip and I highly recommend the St. Regis Hotel and Blue Hill restaurant.  It truly is one the world's greatest cities on earth!