Then, SJ and I head down to Times Square to meet our grad school compatriot HC for lunch. First we go to a Cuban place and realize it doesn't have any vegetarian options, so we walk next door to Minar, a fast food Indian place.
My veggie combo with naan:
SJ and HC's dosa masala with daal:
The food is slightly salty and greasy... which is kind of exactly what we want. Nom nom nom. Then, while HC and SJ check out MoMA, I walk about 40 blocks around the city in order to work up an appetite for dinner. Unfortunately, I work up a little too much of an appetite and end up chasing this food stand guy as he pushes his cart down the street (to close up at the end of the day, I assume) for a pretzel.
I catch him, he gives me a look that says "You are crazy, here is pretzel, get away from me", I take pretzel, I bite pretzel.
Having rejoined HC and SJ at MoMA, we head uptown for Koronet, take 4. Yes, sigh... take 4. This time though, it's a purely unselfish act, as I'm grabbing a slice to pack in my suitcase for Eddy, who has sadly missed out on this trip to be a busy worker bee.
8 o' clock, and the time has come for us to go to Carmine's, so to Carmine's we go. We are accompanied by our wonderful host LT and our mutual friend AA. For those of you who have never been to Carmine's, it is an amazing family-style Italian restaurant on the upper west side. Everything is served in huge family-sized-to-share portions, so you should always go with a big group for maximal food variety. HC describes it as "what East Side Mario's wishes it was", and I tend to agree. The food is amazing, the waitstaff are friendly, and did I mention that there are large containers of (a) red pepper flakes and (b) parmesan cheese on the table? Spicy stuff and cheese? Dom is in love. While Dom is writing in the third person, Dom apologizes for the darkness of the following photos.HC and SJ:
LT and AA:
Me and my mad self-portrait skillz:
Red pepper flakes and cheese:
Delicious bread with red stuff on the top (you usually get a mix of breads, but this stuff is the best, and the waiter obliged when Lisa asked if we could "just get a basket full of the good stuff"):
Our gigantic 1.5 L bottle of Carmine's house red. It's the same price as all the other 750mL bottles, and the gigantic-ness comes as a bit of a surprise. We bravely glug our way through the majority of the bottle.
Portobellos parmesan, post-ravaging:
Carmine's salad. I'm not sure what all the ingredients are, but this salad is amazing! Roasted veggies, some sort of shaved cheese - pecorino, perhaps - arugula, etc.:
Penne alla vodka, in which HC and I make a the smallest of dents:
Spaghetti and fist-sized meatballs (for SJ, LT, and AA):
The Half-Titanic. Carmine's flagship dessert is a turkey-sized plate loaded up with warm brownies, bananas, strawberries, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. Carmine's does not know how to skimp on anything, so this thing is, well, titanic. When the waiter suggests it, we all moan the moan of a stomach too full. Knowing that, despite the moans, we all have dessert stomachs (there's always room for pie!), the clever scamp then sells us on a half-portion:
Then, with mightily wonderful timing, AA hears through his iPhone that the Canada-Switzerland hockey game is tied 2-2 and they're going into overtime, followed by a shoot-out. Like the Canucky Canucks that we are, we pay the bill, and run out of the restaurant to find a bar that's showing the game. We find the game at Dive Bar, a much-loved spot from a previous NYC visit, and make it just in time to see Sidney Crosby's game winner. We all cheer, and everyone else in the bar turns around and stares at us awkwardly. "We're, uh, Canadian." "You're what?" "Uh, Canadian." "Huh. Weird. You wanted them to win?" "Yeah." "Oh." *awkward silence*Finally, we celebrate the game, and the conclusion of my tenure in NYC, with some drinks:
Man, I love eating in this city.
