Day 5- Greenwich Village,The Met, Bar Boulud

Look carefully for picture links, I have them hyperlinked on words, this time.

I started the day with a breakfast from "Cafeteria." I suppose it is named this because it is open 24 hours a day. However, it is not your typical nyc buffet- it is an actual restaurant in chelsea, and a very trendy one at that, with creative food. With only a few tables, yelpers bemoan the long waits. Well, they should try going at 9:30am on Wednesday, because it's half-empty, then! I had some awesome blueberry lemonaide and croissant french toast, which had apple slices inside of it.

These sound and look a bit better than they actually are. The lemonaide was great at first but the finish is extremely sweet, and as you drink it it just gets sweeter. The french toast is novel, but not especially yummy. Creative ideas that need fine tuning, in my opinion. Still, pretty good meal, and not too expensive.

Next it was time for the greenwich village walking food tour! Much eating, much history of the willage, but very little walking in actuality. We stayed in the west village and stayed within about 6 blocks! So, I don't really feel like it gives a picture of the whole village, but you did learn a lot about that part of it. And the food was pretty good.

Italian rice ball with a fancy name I don't remember. Yummy.

Mac and cheese in a cup from a cool restaurant where they have heat lamps so you can sit outdoors. Very good!

A chocolates store with a cat who often sits in the window.

Asian Fusion (what was this doing here?)

The least wide house in new york! Note its width in relation to the car.

and much more...

It was a very cool tour and we must have gone into or talked about a good 15 sites. It's a very cool neighborhood; it feels very different from any other part of manhattan. And people pay to be there. One example: Old tenamants built decades ago for the poorest of the poor, 8 stories up, no elevator, 1 bathroom per floor, 200 sqaure feet... $1600 rent!!! Meanwhile, people actually own very small homes here, that go for millions of dollars. So... it's a fun place to visit, not live!

I bolted as soon as it was over, subwayed north, walked through central park (very very cool place, especially when it isn't pouring), and arrived at the Met!

Bill Bryson plays a game sometimes when he goes museuming: Imagining that the museum staff adores him and wants to reward his oustanding character, he pretends that he is allowed to take one piece home with him after his visit, and spends his time selecting it. It turns out, this is kind of the best thing to do in a museum, ever. My selection from the met: a 19th century amoire depicting the defeat of Atila the Hun. Ummm, awesome.

Runner-ups: An oceanic flute you play with your nose, or a full set of mounted armor. Honorable mention: Dog with hilarious expression.

I definitely enjoyed the met more than I thought I would. I took a pretty ridiculously fast route through, but I think I managed to hit every room. Not a very thourough inspection, depth-wise, but very impressive breadth :) It closes at 5:30 so I didn't have time for much else.

Subwayed back to the hotel, stopping for a real 24-hour cafeteria style nyc deli. Take what you want from the trays, pay by weight, and eat upstairs. Something I wanted to do, just to see what it's like. My dinner reservation wasn't till 9:15 so I had to get food to tide me over.

(Interjection: I think by this point I know the manhattan subway better than chicago's. For crying outloud, It still takes me five tries in chicago to even get my card into the machine. But that's because the design in chicago is utterly moronic. Even in London I did it right on my second try, but in Chicago everytime I use the subway I have to look like an idiot for five tries each time....)

I digress.

There are a lot of great french chefs in NYC and Daniel Boulud is one of them. I was going to get a reservation at Daniel Boulud's most impressive restaurant, but chickened out because its hard to eat at those kinds of places alone. Instead I settled on Bar Boulud, a "casual" eatery on Broadway. I made the reservation yesterday, online, and was thrilled that I could get a reservation at all, nevermind that it was for 9:15pm. I looked over the menu a lot today and nothing jumped out at me, so I was glad to be handed a Prix Fixe menu when I was seated. Three courses, set price, with 3 choices each course. Excellent. Makes it easier.

I have to say, overall, I was not impressed with the design of the place. I was about five rows of tables away from the door, but everytime it was opened we all froze a little bit. I guess this week is especially windy- everyone is commenting on it- but it doesn't seem that bad to me (oy- hold the windy city puns...). So, this was extremely unimpressive. Furthermore the lighting was uneven and my table was pretty dark, and was right next to the computer the waiters use to place orders. Ech. Still, reservation one day before coming in, I'll take what I can get. Excuse the picture quality tho... my camera helped a lot with the colors but the focusing is bad because I couldn't see very well.

I totally ordered the wrong appetizer by accidant. Should have gotten the squash soup but ordered the salad. Yeesh. OK, course-by-course!

Menu

Bread

Amuse- Bread with light cheese throughout the center. The ones I had at Spiaggia were much better. The flavor in these was so subtle you wonder, "what's the point?" Of course, I may have just missed a the point, I don't know...

Course 1: Salade Mesclun- Baby Field Greens, Vegetable Crudite, Lemon Vinaigrette. It was a very good salad, it had a variety of textures and good flavor. But.. it was just a salad. My fault for ordering badly.

Course 2:Pate Fraiche- Housemade tagliatelle pasta, berkshire pork bolognese taggiasca olives, omato confit, parmesan. Good. Maybe, very good. But it lacked pizazz. It didn't wow me. And it didn't feel very french to me, tho it might be... I need more food education.

Course 3:Ile Jal Mahal- Floating Island, Buddha Hand Confit, Masala Anglaise. Best dish easily, great flavor, very tasty, loved the sweet sauce it was "floating" in. Very light. Delicious.

Overall? It was a good meal but not great. Pretty forgettable. Maybe I should have gone to Restaurant Daniel instead, maybe I should have ordered a meal that was more French, if that's what I wanted, but nonetheless, I don't feel I found what I was looking for. Hopefully next time I am here I will not be alone and will go someplace nicer. However, one nice thing, the meal was very affordable!

Tomorrow: Scott's Pizza Tour (I am so excited for this!), Museum of Natural History (for real this time, I swear!), Convivio restaurant (from time out new york magazine, they have awesome looking potatoes), West Side Story.