A Picture, And One Thousand Words

This trip is turning out to be quite a lot about food.
Which doesn't mean that I didn't get good food, and plenty of it, last year, but this time around I'm playing at "lunching out", and that's a totally different thing.

See what I mean: lunch with PJ Kaiser on Monday.

There's this lovely bistro around the corner, right here in Jersey City.
You have to remember this place, because here I was introduced to... BANANA CREAM PIE!
Banana cream pie is a little piece of heaven that found a new home on Earth. It may even be a serious rival to cheesecake, and that's saying something.

Yep, I just remembered in time to take a photo of it, before it was all gone. Lucky me!

Yesterday I went to Manhattan. On my own. In a cab. All the way from Jersey City to Penn Station, to meet someone I hadn't ever met before.
Now you must know that most of my life I've never done anything on my own. Or rather, most of my life I didn't feel like doing anything on my own, because there is always my hubby to go with me. I don't even much enjoy going downtown alone on my own at home, let alone in NYC.
But I did.
I told the driver where to drop me off, got out of the cab, and went into Penn Station, expecting to be lost and calling Emily to come rescue me.
But, no.
I managed! My friend was waiting for me right where we had said we would meet, and we had no trouble at all recognizing each other.

Someone on Facebook said for me to go and visit the "Serendipity" restaurant. It was a lovely place with great food and somehow connected to a movie or other... and for want of better ideas that's where we went, Val and I.
How blasé can you get: two women in a NY cab, being whisked from Penn Station all the way up to 60th St., right past the United Nations buildings, talking about their road to being published authors.

I still don't know what the special thing about this place is, but it was really fun. The entrees were great, but the desserts were amazing. I mean, really, really amazing.
Here's Val, slurping here "Frozen Hot Chocolate".

And here's my cheesecake. I think this cheesecake is better than Junior's, and that's saying something. Seriously.

The hot fudge was divine, but the cheesecake itself was perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

Leaving the place, we found this charming man sitting at a small table next to the entrance. He was signing books. When I picked one of them up to browse he informed me that he was the owner of Serendipity, and then went on to explain the images on the mugs they are selling to me. Needless to say, I'm one mug richer.
This journey will go into the annals as the mug-trip. Just wait and see.
I'm also two cook books richer. Not that I'll ever attempt to copy this cheesecake, but it feels good to have the recipe. And who knows. Maybe I just will.

Sorry, this photo is a little blurry, but I was still in this total state of cheesecake bliss. I'm sure you understand.

Times Square.
I know. A short while ago I said I'd be willing to live there in a tent, I loved it that much.
Uhm, no.
Either I've grown old within a year or I was delusional and utterly crazy last summer. Maybe it was because we just drove by, and it was nice and cool inside the car. But this summer, walking down Fashion Ave. in the humid, blistering heat of a July afternoon, it wasn't half as much fun as I'd thought it would be.
Still, here's the obligatory photo of a tourist in NYC. This is Val, btw. Not me.

It's hard to see from this pic that it was about (felt!) 110F, right?
Times Square on a July day: hot, humid, gritty, noisy, stinky and crowded.
Val said, "I wonder how many people would be left if they took away all the tourists? I think... like... six?"
I think she's right.

Oh, before I forget: I nearly, really NEARLY bought a purse. A $400 purse, and in lime green, too. I loved that purse. I wanted it. Badly. But I was good and didn't buy it. See, I can be frugal. Sort of.

Oh, since this is a blog about food, mostly: Here's my birthday dinner at Carnegie's. Yes, this is a pastrami sandwich. And yes, I know it's decadent, to say the least. But it was a fabulous birthday dinner, with much beloved friends.

And here's what the others had.

Tomorrow I'll go and visit the publisher. I'm very excited about that!
So expect a more "literary" blog post in a couple of days, ok?

And now excuse me while I go and get the left-over apple pie out of the fridge for breakfast.