Eating My Way Through NYC

Hi, it's Karli again. My husband, Travis, and I were lucky enough to spend the past weekend in New York City and I wanted to share some of the amazing food I got to eat. We arrived Saturday morning and made our way from Midtown to the Upper West Side navigating the subway all by ourselves. That is what three master's degrees between two people will get you. Once we go to the Upper West Side I had to go to Zabar's, a gourmet grocery store and New York legend. We picked up a freshly-baked baguette, salami and provolone, blueberries and some Boylan Cream Soda and headed over to picnic in Central Park.

Later that evening we went on an adventure to find the reportedly best burger joint in NYC. It is in a swanky hotel in Midtown and only denoted by a neon sign of a hamburger and the line of people waiting by a velvet curtain in the hotel lobby.

(Sorry for the poor image quality. It is difficult to take a picture of a neon sign while trying to look nonchalant.) Once inside it was as if you were part of a cool club that not many people knew about. It was a small room and you ordered at the back.

If you were not ready with your order they admonished you to the back of the line. Then you tried desperately to get a seat. I happened to sit where Duffy had apparently sat before me.

So let me just tell you, it was worth all the trouble. Delicious, juicy, no-fuss burgers, perfect french fries with a smattering of salt and an ice cold beer to wash it down. Travis and I were in heaven. Plus our whole meal was under $30 which is pretty unheard of in Manhattan.
After dinner we made our way to the Magnolia Bakery.

I had heard that Magnolia has the best cupcakes on the planet and being a major cupcake addict I had to find out if all the hype was true. IT WAS!!! Apparently there is such a run on cupcakes at Magnolia that they are putting out new batches every 15 minutes. There is a team of people in the back just icing the cupcakes once they have cooled. We ended up getting red velvet with whipped vanilla icing, chocolate with chocolate buttercream and vanilla with whipped vanilla icing. Those cupcakes were freakin' heaven! Rich, dense cake with a delicate crumb and whipped icing that was light and airy, yet packed with intense flavor. You must try these cupcakes.

After that Travis and I found our way back to our hotel in a sugar-induced euphoric state and waiting in anticipation for the following day's trip to Brooklyn which I will write about on Monday.