Big apple adventure day 3

Again, waking up to a bagel breakfast. We went to a new place near our apartment call Bax Bagel. Got my lox fix with good lox, but the bagels are not as good as H&H Bagel.

But I think we are both cream-cheese bageled out ;) and that spelt the last of our bagel breakfast in Manhattan

We went to Rockefeller center to get our tickets for the observation deck that night.
Of course, I need my picture with 30 Rock!
Captured some shots of other places along the way.

Grand Central Station

Central Library

Windows display by Saks on 5th Ave

View on Park Blvd

Food tour 1 (Greenwich)
The food tour is Original Greenwich which focus around the Italian section in Greenwich.
The guide is Bert and the information for the food tour is in the link below.
http://www.foodsofny.com/greenwichvillage.php

Making sure we leave enough room on the side walk as he talks 

I enjoyed it a lot as Bert is a foodie and we learned a lot about food and the area.
The amazing thing for me is to taste different tomato sauces in all these restaurants. Look so similar and yet taste so different.

Joe's Pizza
We started with Joe's pizza which use bagel dough instead of pizza dough.
No yeasty taste, great crunchy thin crust and good cheese. The guide said a good cheese will not form a river of oil on the top of the pizza like vegetable-oil-based cheese. Interesting.
We both voted this the best pizza that we had in Manhattan, after 6 days of trying different pizza places

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Olivers & Co (Olive oil)
2nd stop is Oliver's where we tasted basil olive oil, popcorn infused with truffle oil and truffle salt and 20year red wine vinegar based balsamic vinegar vs 8 year grape-malt based balsamic vinegar. The 8 year one is much better and sweeter. Also, Never buy olive oil in clear glass as light degenerates it.  See the clear bottles at the bottom of the cage? They are filled with olive oil instead of canola oil.

Fiacco (Italian market)
3rd stop is rice balls Arancini from Fiacco which sells fabulous Italian sandwiches and Italian meats.
Arancini: Rice balls filled wtih home made mozzarella cheese and deep fried, for $1 each.
Also, the food in that market are sold at very reasonable prices. Bert said that's because they are there for so long, with a reasonable mortgage that's been paid off.

Red Awning restuarant (Trattoria)
4th stop is meat ball from red awning restaurant next to Faicco. The meatball is all beef, very little binder, yet sooo tender. With a very good tomato sauce.. Yum. The restuarant also has original copper ceilings that's very intricate

Rafele
5th stop : Rolled egg plant, where eggplants are sliced thin, brined to remove liquid, seared and rolled with ricotta cheese, with a family secret sauce. The tomatoes are owner-growned San Marzano tomatoes too.

Desserts (Milk & Cookies, Cheese, Royce and Rocco)
6th and 7th stop are desserts with a great chocolate chip cookie and some good cheese from a cheese school. The last stop is cannoli from Rocco which is very good. NY cannoli seems to favor cream that are dense and cinnamon-ly.

Trivial information about Greenwich
1)Greenwich is the 3rd most ex neighborhood in Manhattan. Average rent: 2k/mth for 300 sqft

2)Broadway theater has >500 seats, off off Broadway has <100 seats and off Broadway is everything in between.

3)The brick laying technique is indicative of the year of buildings, with the straight laying being the oldest and alternate laying after that. There are a lot of buildings in the city using uneven colored bricks as they are bad bricks used to build housing for menial workers.

4)You can also see the original building with the roof top chimneys that goes up to 3 floors and subsequent added levels in the other buildings in order to accommodate the population in NY. However, in order to avoid the handicap law of adding an escalator for buildings taller than 3 levels, a lot of buildings declare a lobby at the ground floor to work around the system.

5)Edna St Vincent Milay lived in a small house in Greenwich, that charge 14k/mth rent at some point. She also started her own off-broadway theater around the corner as she got tired of dealing with rules of other theaters.

6)There's a lot of lamp posts in Manhattan (shown above) with a flashing light and emergency 911 call button
7) Nice courtyard house in Greenwich used for debauchery in the old times. And an old door with a low key hole for waist-carrying keys and shoe-cleaning stairs

8) Wooden house in NY: one of the few ones that's left. 2 fire hydrants on each side for fire concerns  

Times Square
Over-run with tourists, need i say more?
NYPD being used as tourist attraction is interesting.. and no, that's not a busker =) The guns are real.

Top of The Rock view 
At twilight, we visited Top of the Rock and planned it such that we got both the twilight and night view of Manhattan. It's crowded and we stayed on the ledge for 1.5 hours to capture the 2 views of NY skyline. So i'm posting A LOT of pictures of the same view =)

Entrance ticket with skyline pictures

Central park View

Empire State Building and financial district View 

Same view with Lights on

MoMoFuKu Dinner
After TOTR, we decide to try the Ramen bar and i'm disappointed with the ramen.
They must have sou-vied the pork but it lack character while being really tender.
They tried to do the Ivan-Sorkin clear broth with smoky chicken flavor but somehow it does not quite hit the spot for me.
The noodles is slightly overcooked and the egg is undercooked, with parts of the egg white still transparent.
The ramen broth is also served way too cold.
Maybe this is too sophisticated for me but i had high expectations that's not met.
A good ramen is supposed to be cheap comfort food, not some fancy fu-fu crap that's overpriced ($18 for one bowl) and executed badly.