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New York City – The High Line

January 10, 2012 by shingirl

So as you all know, I recently went back to NYC/NJ to visit family and friends for the holidays.  While my main purpose was to catch up with everyone, I did manage to visit a few new places and restaurants, yay!  I’ll spend the next few posts talking about places I went to, in addition to some of my favorite city activities, by general area, to give you guys a flavor of the Big Apple.

The hubs and I spent our 4 year anniversary wandering around NYC and one of our stops was to the High Line park.  I visited the park last winter when it was only partially finished so I was excited to see it was nearly completed this time around.  Even in the winter, this park is awesome.  Located in the Meatpacking district, the park has a great urban feel to it.  It’s set amidst old warehouses and new architecturally stunning apartment buildings.  There’s loungers and benches scattered throughout the park and in the warmer months, there’s even movies projected onto the side of a building, making for a great respite from the hustle and bustle of the city.

If you find yourself visiting the High Line, start off at the cool looking Gansvoort Hotel.  There’s tons of restaurants, high end designer stores, and art galleries housed in old warehouses in the area.  For lunch, head to Pastis, the sister restaurant of Balthazar (one of my favorite restaurants), or Del Posto, a michelin starred restaurant with a $29 lunch prix fix!  Or if you just want to snack, go to Chelsea Market.  There’s tons of unique food shops (try the brownies at Fat Witch Bakery, baked goods at Amy’s Bread, or amazing hot chocolate at Jacques Torres) and boutiques, making for a fun afternoon!

If you walk the High Line to the end at 30th Street and 10th Avenue, make your way over to 8th Avenue, head south and you’ll find yourself  in the Chelsea neighborhood, which is a great residential neighborhood full of great restaurants, nightlife, and unique stores.  Make sure to cap off your day with a stop at Billy’s Bakery for dessert.

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Happy 2012 Travel Inspiration Bucket List

January 8, 2012 by shingirl

Hey There! Happy New Year!  Well, I’m back from my wonderful/hectic trip to NY/NJ and I’m ready to post again.  What better way to start off the new year than with a bucket list of places I’d love to visit.  Here’s the ten places I’d love to visit in the near future and I think I may even get to cross off two of them by the end of the year!

1. See Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, and numerous wildlife at Yellowstone National Park

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2. Be stunned by the beautiful landscapes of the Emerald Isle and experience authentic pubs in Dublin

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3. Bicycle through Loire Valley, visit beautiful chateaus, and drink amazing vinos

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4. Visit the charming historical city of Bruges in the winter and take in the wonderful Christmas atmosphere

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5. Go to Provence in the summer and stumble upon fields and fields of lavender

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6. Visit Amsterdam in the spring during the peak tulip season and bike through the Farmers’ Fields

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7. Climb the Harbor Bridge and take in the beautiful Sydney harbor and Opera house

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8. Relax in Cabo San Lucas and take a romantic stroll to the Arch of Poseidon

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9. Hike through the quaint Mediterranean villages of the Amalfi Coast

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10. Go to Maui and take the Road to Hana to the Seven Sacred Pools

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What’s on your bucket list of places to travel?

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The Coziest Time of Year

December 24, 2011 by shingirl

There’s just something so wonderful about holiday lights that always puts me in a festive mood and gives me warm fuzzies all over! This year I get to spend the holidays with my close family and friends which I’m so happy and thankful for.  Things I’m especially looking forward to in no particular order:

1. Dunkin Donuts

2. Shopping at the best mall and best outlet in the country (in my opinion anyway) with zero sales tax! 

3. Spending time with the little ones in the family

4. NY Pizza

5. Counting down the New Year with friends I’ve known since middle school!

6. My dad’s cooking

7. Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcakes!

8. Freezing my toesies off but being okay with it because it’s the holidays!

9. Wandering the streets of NYC

10. Finally trying out the awesome Barres and Belles class that turned my friend’s butt into buns of steel and hoping that I will have them too…after 1 class.

I hope you guys are all enjoying the holidays in your own special way and I’ll be back next year with a bunch of inspiration posts!

 

Posted in Holidays, San Francisco | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

New York City Winter Favorites

December 18, 2011 by shingirl

I’m back from my weekend in Tahoe and I have the sore arms and butt to prove it!  Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures to show you guys since my camera broke 😦 but I’ll do a write up soon on what we did and where we ate.

So it’s officially less than a week until Christmas (eek!) and I’m really looking forward to heading back to NYC/NJ to visit friends and family.  While fall is definitely the best time weather-wise to visit NYC, I personally think that Christmas is the best time to be in the city, for those who can brave the weather.  All the store windows and restaurants do such a great job of holiday decorating that it’s impossible not to feel the holiday spirit while walking around the city.  Here’s a list of some of my favorite things to do in the city around the holidays and hopefully I’ll get to some of it while I’m there.

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No trip to NYC during the holidays would be complete without visiting the iconic Rockefeller Christmas Tree.  Go to the newly opened Bouchon Bakery for a cup of coffee and pastry and people watch around the ice-skating rink.  If it gets too cold, head underground to the Concourse and window shop.

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Starting from the Rockefeller Center, walk up Fifth Avenue and admire all the beautifully decorated windows.  I swear they get more and more elaborate each year and it’s definitely fun to just see all the luxury stores try to outdo each other.

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Even though it’s always crazy crowded, I always try to make a stop in FAO Schwartz.  It’s the oldest toy store in the country and features every toy imaginable.  I don’t know if there’s any better time than Christmas to let out your inner child!

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Grab a cup of what is considered by many to be the best hot chocolate at the Jacques Torres shop in Chelsea Market and head to nearby Highline Park (below pic).  Although it’ll be cold, you’ll be guaranteed to have the elevated park mostly to yourself, plus you have the hot chocolate to keep you warm!

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Catch the annual showing of the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center where you’ll instantly be transported into a winter fantasyland!

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And finally my favorite winter activity in NYC, visiting the Wollman Ice-skating Rink in Central Park.  There’s multiple rinks in the city, but none more romantic than Wollman where you’re ice-skating amidst snow covered trees under the beautiful NYC skyline.  Or if you’re like me and prefer not to ice-skate, make your way over to the rock formations nearby overlooking the rink where you can sit and people watch.

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What are some of your favorite holiday activities? Are there any in New York City that I missed?

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Wayfare Tavern

December 15, 2011 by shingirl

Hey there! Remember when I waxed poetic about the pork belly at Incanto?  Well, I may have found a dish that rivals it and it’s that dish you see up there in the picture.  The salt roasted bone marrow appetizer at Wayfare Tavern.  Perfectly paired with sourdough bread and rutabaga jam, the bone marrow was tasty and oh so fatty in a good way.  But let me start from the beginning.

Wayfare Tavern is Tyler Florence’s flagship restaurant, and being a fan of Tyler Florence, I knew we had to try it out.  I made reservations a month in advance but could only manage a 9:15pm slot, which worked out well for us since we ended up sitting at the chef’s table, which is basically a counter with a direct view of the kitchen and the chefs hard at work.  It was so much fun seeing the chefs preparing all the food and in the end we wanted to try everything we saw coming out of that kitchen!

I loved everything about the restaurant.  From the moment we stepped through the door, everyone from the hostess to the waitstaff were friendly.  The ambiance is what you’d expect of a tavern, warm and inviting yet lively.  If you go, I’d highly recommend trying to get a seat at the chef’s table or at the very least on the first floor since that’s where all the action is.

Most restaurants start off their customers with a few slices of bread and butter, not Wayfare though.  They brought out freshly baked popovers!  I wish I took a picture, but trust me when I say it was delicious.  Also I’ve never seen the hubs rave about bread so much before.  It was hard narrowing down appetizers but we managed to select the bone marrow of course and the deviled eggs, which I had read about alot in reviews.  I’ll let the picture speak for itself.

For entrees, the hubs settled with the guinness braised lamb shank and I had the organic fried chicken.  I’m not a lamb person so I can’t comment but the hubs praised its flavor and tenderness.  As with everything we tried, the fried chicken was good as well.  If you’re looking for an outstanding dish with flavors exploding in your mouth, this is not it, but it is really good fried chicken.

Even though we were stuffed, we couldn’t help ourselves and ordered the wayfare tavern chocolate cream pie.  And it was…. you guessed it… so good!  It was the perfect sweetness, which is how we judge our desserts, sweet, but not too sweet.  And to top it off, the waiter brought over two little warm butter cookies to complement the dessert.  I don’t know that it necessarily complemented it but they sure were yummy!  Excuse the picture below, I was too excited and took a bite before remembering to take a photo!

Wayfare’s cuisine can be described as creative American comfort food, which is why the hubs and I enjoyed it so much.  I don’t really consider ourselves foodies  since we don’t dissect every aspect of a dish but we do appreciate and enjoy good food and we especially love comfort type food done really well so Wayfare was definitely a winner in both our books and a place we’d love to visit again and again and…

Wayfare Tavern

558 Sacramento Street, between Leidesdorff and Montgomery St.

Posted in Eating Out, San Francisco | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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