the city that never sleeps is always eating, pt. 2

Glad to be back in New York, we set out for our day biting off more than we could chew. Given how beautiful the weather was Tuesday morning, we started out with a walk across the Brooklyn bridge. It was only after we had gotten halfway over the span that we realized we had chosen the "wrong" direction; rather than walking towards a beautiful view of Manhattan, we were headed to a cluster of Jehovah's Witness "Watchtower" office buildings in downtown Brooklyn. This mistake made it pretty difficult to remain inconspicuous as tourists (something we always - probably naively - strive for when traveling), seeing as we kept turning around to take photos. Then again, how many locals really keep stopping by scenic views for the classic stretched-out-arm self-portrait?

On the Brooklyn side of the bridge, we ventured down into DUMBO in a futile search for coffee and for the Slow Food USA headquarters. We're not sure what we would have done if we'd found their offices, but that is just kind of the way we travel. We think that we located the building, even if the offices were ten stories above us, but we never found that coffee. On the subway over to the Brooklyn museum, we saw an ad that the museum was closed on Tuesdays (thank you, subway sign) and promptly switched lines to return back to the Manhattan. This may make us sound like bumpkins, but it was par-for-the-course for the first few days; a lot of going one direction, realizing our mistake, and turning around.

That the museum was closed was a disappointment, but it meant we could get started eating even sooner. We headed to the East Village to grab some lunch at Momofuku Ssam Bar, where chef David Chang has gotten a lot of accolades (he's a recent James Beard award nominee) for his pork-saturated, witty Korean mash-ups. For being the middle of a lunch hour, the chic, wooden space was surprisingly empty, though we'd later realize that the lunch menu is just a tamed-down version of the food that draws culinary adventurers in the evenings. Because P loves cha siu bao, we had to order the famous pork buns. When they came to the table, they were practically de-constructed - simple, pillowy buns folded over slow-cooked pork belly with scallions and a sweet glaze. Top that with a bit of chili paste and man, they were succulent.

Since we'd heard tales of Korean burritos (ssam means "wrapped"), we went for the lemongrass pork sausage ssam. We were presented with a plate of condiments and savory sausage, which we wrapped up in lettuce leaves into little bites. Unfortunately, Momofuku had recently abandoned their practice of rolling all of the ingredients up in a rice pancake and wrapping it in aluminum foil like a mission burrito so, while still delicious, the ssam ended up being like many dishes we'd tried at other Asian restaurants. Luckily for us, the sandwich and our sides delivered much bolder flavors. Remember A's obsession with bahn mi? Well couple that with P's obsession with French offal and you'll understand why we got the "three-terrine" bahn-mi, which was recently selected as one of Esquire magazine's best sandwiches in America. We recalled something about veal face, but couldn't guess what the other two terrines could be. It was squeaky, fatty, crunchy, and fish sauce-y; everything bahn-mi should be. Pair that sandwich with a selection of seasonal pickles (sweet cucumbers; sharp, tangy radish; salty mushrooms) and a generous bowl of "kewpie slaw" for some pure, MSG gold, and we had a very rich, tasty meal.

Waddling away from Ssam bar, we took a train over to the Chelsea Market, a Disney-fied concept of an urban market concourse. While there are some very cool vendors, the building has been rehabbed in such a way as to look really "raw" and "edgy," which ends up giving it a fake quality. In the middle of the shops, we stumbled upon a coffee shop that was boasting about their new, exclusive product: Stumptown coffee. This was only the first instance of what would become a very common theme throughout the week - NYC has a big crush on PDX.

The reason we went to Chelsea Market was to visit Ronnybrook Milk Bar, an upstate dairy that has opened a hip soda fountain to sling its farm-fresh milks, yogurts, ice creams. Ronnybrook has an incredibly cool interior - the walls are built out of re-purposed, vintage milk crates that can be pulled out to make extra seating/tables. As great as the decor is, the emphasis is really (clearly) on the dairy products. P ordered a birch beer float with some smooth vanilla ice cream. If you've never had birch beer, it is has a sharper bite than root beer and paired just perfectly with the ice cream. A got a "milk and honey," which was really just that. The milk was thick and rich and it tasted like a precursor to the milkshake. A was so thrilled with Ronnybrook's milk that she spent the rest of the trip pining for their coconut yogurt that she noticed as we were leaving their shop.

Afterwards, we walked through Chelsea down to Greenwich Village (ask us about our amazing celebrity sighting sometime), enjoying the charming brownstones and little boutiques. A few days before our trip, a friend at P's work had told us about a cupcake bakery that was the stuff of legend (the story involved someone eating two cupcakes in spite of a stomach flu). We knew it was near a Marc Jacobs, but had otherwise failed to get the address. As we passed a playground, P noticed a Marc Jacobs store and pointed it out, upon which, A demanded, "Where are the cupcakes?!" Right beyond the line of people waiting to get into Magnolia Bakery, that's where. This was definitely the first bakery either of us had ever seen with a bouncer. A couldn't believe it and, in the end, got denied for trying to sneak in. We eventually jostled for position inside and brought out two mighty-fine looking cupcakes - red velvet and chocolate-chocolate. Both of us love red velvet (remember our wedding cake?), but we have to admit, Magnolia's was disappointing - where was the cream cheese frosting!? The frosting was a too-sweet sugar frosting, though we'll admit that it was a very moist, delicious cake. We liked the chocolate cupcake much more, which had a great, rich cocoa frosting; one of the best chocolate frostings we'd ever had.

Seeing how sticky we were with icing, it seemed like a good time to thumb through some antique books. Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks is a real treasure trove, matched only by its charming owner. Filled with great history, first editions, and lots of ephemera, we easily could have spent all day there. In the end, we came away with American Taste by James Villas, Jeanne Lesem's book on preserving, and a first edition Beard on Pasta. If we had allowed ourselves a few more hours, we probably would have emerged with one book from every shelf the shop.

We caught a train to Brooklyn to meet up with two of A's older brother's friends for dinner. Having gone to a real institution for pizza in Scranton (Revello's), we went to a slew of up-start, pizza throne usurpers in New York. Franny's is a hip, sustainably-focused pizza place that reminded us a lot of Ken's back in Portland. They had a great bar with Italian-inflected drinks (we tried a prosecco and lovage (wild celery) syrup mix, and the Twice Bitter - fernet branca, Sanbitter soda, lime, and mint). Never mind the drinks, though; the pizza was solid. A ordered a tomato, olive and garlic pie, which was tangy and crisp with a nice, light hand on the sauce. P got the clam, parsley and pepper flake pizza, a pie we'd read about that caused us to seek out Franny's. It was superlatively good - creamy, salty, briny, rich and graced with the same pour of olive oil that enriched each of the pizzas leaving the oven. Even though we'd each gotten our own pizza, we saved room for dessert: a citrus and cinnamon-inflected canolo and a chocolate gelato that tasted like frozen brownie batter.

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Momofuku Ssam Bar - 207 Second Ave; L @ First St or Third St
Ronnybrook Dairy Bar - inside Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Ave; A,C,E @ 14th St; L @ Eight Ave
Magnolia Bakery - 401 Bleecker St; 1,2,3,F,V @ 14th St; L @ Sixth Ave
Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks - 163 W. 10th Street; 1 @ Christopher St.-Sheridan Sq.; A,B,C,D,E,F,V @ W. 4th St.-Washington Sq.
Franny's - 295 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn; B,Q @ Seventh Ave.; 2,3 @ Bergen St.