Entries from March 2010 ↓

We’ve been in our apartment a week now and we’ve eaten out once and had takeaways once (that The Mister walked down and got, haven’t attempted delivery yet!). Other than that we’ve been cooking, mostly similar stuff to what we have at home, stuff that can be made with a fairly blunt knife, a couple of pots, and only ingredients that we can use up in 4 months.

Found some ravioli in the basement supermarket that said it was handmade and fresh so we thought we’d give it a go. I made some tomato sauce to go with it. And it was good. For a no-name supermarket the ravioli was fantastic! Spinach & ricotta.

And there’s a great view from the kitchen!

Due to The Mister suffering from The Man Cold we headed home a bit early today – but good news, he wasn’t too sick for a coffee stop.  Saturdays Surf, the closest cafe yet to work from the NY Times coffee list – and it’s nothing more than a coffee machine in a surf shop. We felt a bit out of our element in a surf shop but man, because they concentrate on the coffee, no food, no tables, no crockery, just takeaway cups – it’s good. VERY good.

We’re rating it second to Ninth Street Espresso from Chelsea Market, and so great it’s so close to work. The Mister reckons it’ll be easy enough for me to find my way there to get our coffee each day (hmmm, thought that might change here). I’m still getting a bit lost around Soho, that’s where the street grid begins to disappear and there are a few very chunky cobbled streets that all look the same …

31 Crosby Street, Soho, New York

Got locked out of the office this morning … well, we don’t yet have security cards, so had to go find another of the coffee places from the NY Times coffee list article. This one is reasonably new and the few tables along a bench seat were all taken – interesting name – La Colombe Torrefaction.

Another very good coffee, had a bit of a ‘healthy’ green flavour, a bit like some carob coffee alternative I had once as a teenager when babysitting for some healthy people, and it was a good temperature.

La Colombe Torrefaction, 270 Lafayette Street, Soho, New York

I got an email from Matt today asking me what the first thing was that I was going to bake in New York. I have given it a little bit of thought, except that the apartment doesn’t have baking ingredients or baking pans although I could probably find a tray to bake cookies on.

However, I did use some baking ingredients the other night to make cheese sauce for Sunday night’s macaroni cheese dinner (should’ve just bought it in a box from the supermarket – there are all kinds of brands and sizes available!). Given the stories and pictures we’ve seen that depict all cheese in America as being orange, our cheese sauce was very white – the butter here is white and the cheddar was white. It was edible enough though.

And speaking of butter, we’re trying our way through tubs of butter substitute, you know, like the Olivio we use at home – the product labelled olivio here is VERY salty, and the other we’ve tried with the name ‘I just can’t believe it’s not butter’ (what a ridiculously long name, “hey honey, do we need any I-just-can’t-believe-it’s-not-butter?”) has a strange sort of raisiny taste and is quite slimy after it’s been in a sandwich all morning.

So much to get used to! Anyway Matt, who needs to bake when you can just buy a tube of croissant? Squirt it onto the oven tray and put it in the oven (no, we haven’t tried it!)

Today was our first day in the office in Soho (can’t say much about who we’re sharing with until I find out if they’re OK with it, but sure they will be). Weather was still awful as I tromped in my gumboots, lugging my laptop, cables, handbag and lunch to the subway. Our office buddies are very creative, lots of designers and marketing people and American accents (swoon) and the offices are very ‘Soho loft’ with wooden floors, bags of donuts, funky pictures and various NZ trinkets as some of them are ex-pat. We’ve got desks right in the middle of them all and have inherited stuff from people shifted into offices.

Here’s The Mister smiling opposite me – if we wanted to spend 4 months together we sure are – never at work have I had to look at him all day!!

Wow, what a stormy couple of days we’ve had – there has been non-stop rain and howling wind since Friday. 29 floors up and we’re feeling the swaying – The Mister was convinced I was just imagining it until I pointed out the light-shades swinging from the ceiling!

However, we got out a couple of times, went around the supermarket for a proper look (one we’ve discovered practically in our basement!) and spent a few hours wandering around Bloomingdales – got to see lots of very bored men sitting around in various women’s departments!

Found another good coffee spot (from the NY Times coffee list) in Soho a couple of blocks from where the office is – Ground Support.

Again ordered small cappuccino which got us what we wanted, was quite strong but good. And only $3.50!

Ground Support, 399 West Broadway, Soho, New York

Very VERY excited to be one of the first to get this new orange Canon camera – 14 megapixel – what a massive leap up from 4 megapixel!

It’s so tiny and so lovely and orange. Generally it’s the same operation as our existing camera so not too much to learn and apparently The Mister will take better photos with it because it has an image stabilizer!

I think it has a design flaw though, because it’s so thin and slightly rounded (to fit comfortably in your pocket one assumes) it isn’t very stable standing by itself with the lens extended, which is very important for the self-timer that we use quite a lot!

Not on the NY Times coffee list but have found an excellent espresso bar not too far from where we live, like 6 blocks, called Fika.

Beans are from Sweden and we have to order cappuccinos – excellent temperature and taste, will definitely be going back there and scouting out the other 2 locations. Excellent oat raisin cookies too!

407 Park Ave South, New York

Bit of an orange-themed day today which was very cool. Plus another trip down memory lane – to Ninth Street Espresso in Chelsea Market.

In my mind, better than their cafe at Ninth street although theoretically they should be the same. There was a bit of a buzz at the bar because of a piece in the New York Times this morning about New Yorkers finally taking their coffee seriously – a write up of cafes where coffee is all about the art of espresso, single origin and chemex (hereafter referred to as the NY Times coffee list). We’ve already been to a couple of the places listed and have got the paper to tick a few others off the list.

We got some flowers from the corner store last night, such colorful places – who can believe you can get so many orange roses for $10? Slowly adding a bit more orange to the apartment!

We had lunch at a very orange cafe called Forty Carrots,

then the long-awaited dinner in the restaurant above the Museum of Art & Design that glows orange at night – it does and has spectacular views over Columbus Circle and Central Park.