Big apple adventure day 4

Statue of Liberty 
It's strange that the most iconic structure in America can only be accessed by boat. We took the Staten Island Ferry which is free and much less crowded than the ferry tour that goes to SoL.

In fact, one lady told us the Statue of Liberty boat tour have 2 security checks, 20k people on the island at any point in time and barely enough room to see from the pedestal. I'm so glad we decide not to do that and view it from SIF instead.

View of SOL from Staten Island Ferry 

Food tour 2 (Chelsea Market) 
Bob is our tour guide and the information for the food tour is below
http://www.foodsofny.com/chelseamarket.php

Bob has a ton of knowledge on NY as he's volunteering for Big Apple Greeters and heavily involved in the 9/11 memorial.
So we got a lot of good information around the meat packing district and Chelsea market.

Anyway, this food tour was less interesting on food but heavier on historical information. Also, it's such a busy market that we are avoiding crowds and trying to talk in "quieter" corners.

Trivial about Chelsea market
Chelsea market has very interesting history, going from cargo handling hub to factory for Nabisco to the epicurean center/office building now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Market

Nabisco used to do production there before running out of space. Uneeda was the top biscuit for a while.
These are some old pictures of their biscuits containers found in Chelsea market

The rail that connects the different buildings are built during the cargo years.
Until they raised it high, that rail line will periodically crash with the regular passenger rail line and killed about 400+ people. The 10th avenue is also known as the Death Avenue during that time.

Nabisco took over the buildings, use the rail line for their production sequence and invented Oreo there. They moved out when they ran out of space and the building stayed vacant for a few years till they re-purposed it for Chelsea market.

All food vendors in Chelsea market are invitation only from the owner, no chains allowed. Food network main office is on top of Chelsea market, together with companies like Google and Youtube.

That rail line forms the backbone of the High Line today.

Dickson
We enjoyed a beef salami and smoked pork from the Dickson meat



Buon Italia
We had Crostata (Italian quiche) made in-house by the owner. Flaky crust and soft
http://www.buonitalia.com/dettaglio_ricetta.asp?rid=19
They have some recipes online too. 80% of the store merchandise are made in Italy.

Lucy's Whey
Great cave-aged cheese and it's also used in the cheddar/fig/honey sandwich made with a good French bread.

Miscellaneous
Sea salt tasting with cucumbers (not impressed with the salt although it's endorsed by Martha Stewart). It just tasted salty to me, not particularly interesting.
Chocolate milk (from Ronnybrook) is good but i prefer the full cream version. It's supposed to be used by a lot of top restaurants in the city.
I really like the Fig caramel from Liddabit Sweet and Sea salt caramel candy is ok.

Sarabeths
Biscuits and spreadable fruit with raspberry and marmalade. As no pectin is used, it can't be called jam or jelly by FDA. Hence spreadable fruit. They are both really good.

High Line
After this, we came out of Chelsea market and walked to the meat packing district via the High line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_(New_York_City)
The High line is really cool as a pedestrian pathway in the sky.
We both enjoyed it so much that we went back after the tour and walked most of it.
It's built completely using funds from Friends of High line instead of city taxes.
Piet Oudolf designed the plants so that they flower perennially and do not need replanting.

What is everyone watching??

Ohh.. the traffic =)

Meatpacking district
The meat packing district also has some colorful history, from drugs/prostituition/mob to the current High end clothing and restaurant areas. The unlawful activities was initially ignored as it's viewed as a good way for sailors to blow off steam and stay out of trouble. However, 80s the NYPD cleaned it up due to Aids. . The police used harassment technique on patrons to clean up the area, by taking their pictures and putting them on billboards for repeat offenders.

Macelleria
Tasting bolognese pasta in the restuarant. See the meat hooks holding pans in the kitchen?

Revel
we had a glass of Prosecco and a small slice of flourless chocolate cake in Revel. I really like that garden and the cake is divine. The mousse on the top feels like frozen unsweetened condensed milk. Yum.

Tabata Ramen
We decide to go to Hell's kitchen that night for a light dinner as we are both full from the food tour. We decide to try a traditional ramen place to compare with Momofuku. Half the price compared to Momofuku and way better ramen!