What a wonderfully full day!
We started out riding the subway to 14th Street to meet the Slow Travel gang at the Grey Dog on 16th in Chelsea. We had a great breakfast and an equally great visit. Together, we all walked to Chelsea Market and then said goodbye. They were off to Eataly but, since we had gone in Torino, we chose to stay at Chelsea Market. I couldn’t resist the Italian place there—bought some salami and farro to take home. Then we went up to the High Line park and walked the whole thing. It was very pretty, with great views and interesting art installations (especially the one with all the bell sounds) and I was so sorry I had forgotten my camera.
We walked all the way back to our hotel from there, through Chelsea, past Penn Station and Madison Square Garden to Bryant Park. Standing on the corner we ran into Betsey and Bernie, friends from Tallahassee who are also here celebrating their anniversary. We sat, in the perfect Fall weather, near the fountain in Bryant Park for a while. I bought a sandwich at ‘Wichcraft and took it back to our room. The Dolphins were on TV, so we had a little picnic in bed, watched football and napped.
In the late afternoon we took a walk, doing some window shopping, and I got some espresso at the slowest Starbucks on Earth,
We got into a cab and picked up Vicki on our way to China Town.
We got off right near the enterance to the Manhattan Bridge which goes over to Brooklyn:

Strolling through the narrow streets feels like a whole new city. We went into a small market where noone, but one of the customers, spoke English. They sold some really unusual stuff there—live turtles and frogs in big buckets, lots of fish and fish organs of an unidentifiable sort. The truly weirdest thing was that they had partially skinned alligator feet—including the claws. Vicki bought one of the beautiful dragon fruit.

view into a restaurant window:

After looking in several restaurants, even walking into a big hall set up for a wedding, we decided to go to Dim Sum Go Go. We had some great dim sum—mushroom, Chineese parsley, duck and pork. There was a group of four men sitting at the next table who were eating a “Chinese Hot Pot” who were really great entertainment. We talked about getting another dish and finally decided to jump in a cab and go to Momofuku to have the pork buns. Of course, it was way too crowded so we walked, just a few blocks, to Ssam Bar, another David Chang place. We were seated right away. What a scene! The music is LOUD and intense. I got a glass of Gruner right away and we checked out the menu. Ken had the traditional (for Momofuku) pork buns—totally outrageously fine. I ordered the special pork bun, with crispy pork belly, tomato and smoked aoli; I only had one bite before it disappeared because Ken ate it. The menu is so interesting. Vicki had 6 oysters and they came with a little piece of kiwi on each one. And I had the fried duck necks. What a brilliant dish—the bowl is lined with the bright green garlic chive/anchovy sauce. The disks of corn on the cob are pickled as are the pretty red carrot strips on top.

The duck necks are just plain fun to eat. I had another glass of wine, this time a red Rhone wine. The guy sitting right next to Ken had one of those booming voices and he talked a lot to his seemingly uninterested date. I just had to laugh. Between the nerdy guy with the loud voice and the blaring music we couldn’t hear each other at all. Resorting to sign language we finally got our check and emerged onto the “peaceful” New York street.
We walked to the subway and got out at Grand Central Station. Vicki showed us a place an upstairs “apartment” turned into a small, dark, plushly furnished bar. We almost stayed for a drink but thought better of it.

Vicki came to see our quirky hotel room at the Andaz. We talked for a while eating the free Jacques Torres chocolate bar and drinking club soda.
A really great day!