Taking a Small Bite Out of the Big Apple

I just returned from an extended weekend in New York City with my really great girlfriends Brit and Karen. I always have a great time with these girls and they are such inspirations to me. Very cool chicks indeed and always great hostesses. NYC is also a city that I LOVE LOVE LOVE so I've never not had a fantastic time there.

This trip though we had the special addition of my friend Grant who also happened to be in NYC at the same for business. Having Grant along meant that I could indulge in some "less-girly" activities, namely attending the New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins hockey game at Madison Square Garden. I was really looking forward to this since 1) I haven't seen a hockey game in ages and 2) I've always wanted to attend an event at MSG. Although I had no allegiance to either team I had to root for the Rangers since Grant was rooting for the Bruins (clad in Boston Bruins jersey all the way from London). The Rangers played an appaling 46 mintues of hockey where they were actually starting to get booed by their own fans. With a bit over 6 minutes left in the game, the Rangers finally scored their first goal of the game to put them 1-2 against the Bruins. I was holding my head down in shame expecting Grant to gloat when in the last 53 seconds of regulation time the Rangers' Markus Naslund scored a second goal forcing the game into overtime. After 5 minutes of sudden-death overtime the game was still tied 2-2 leading to 4 shootout rounds which finally ended with the Rangers' captain Chris Drury scoring the game winning goal. Admittedly if you look overall at how well the game was played, the Bruins should have taken home the win but no, my team for the day WON!

Aside from the highlight of the hockey game, the weekend mainly consisted of tons of eating, boozing, shopping, and hanging out. To give you an idea of the magnitude of our gluttony, Saturday morning we had pastrami sandwiches and cupcakes delivered to the flat right before heading out to brunch. And nothing tastes better at 4am than our traditional slice of pizza at Rosario's in the Lower East Side. Another notable restaurants included August Restaurant (a brunch must of ours), Les Halles (associated with Anthony Bourdain before he became a roaming TV chef), and Artisanal (which surprised and impressed me so much it will get it's own post).

Unfortunately my trip concluded with a 4-hour delay on my already taxing redeye back to London but I'm chosing to remember the good times and will do whatever is in my power to never fly American again.