Oh let me check! I was planning on taking the train into the city to run a few errands in the next couple of weeks, maybe I can move my schedule up to next week. I will be watching this thread with interest! It is soooooo much fun to get together with CFers!

Alexa

It looks like either Tuesday or Wednesday evening will be open, for me. Wednesday being the better choice.

It would be a shame if you don't make a visit to Eataly.

Visit Jackson Heights, Indian Town.

There will be a new Asian shop opening soon in Flushing Queens, New World Mall 250,000 sq. ft. of shops.

Chef Central in Hartsdale, 50,000 sq. ft. of kitchen stuff.

dcarch

Let me think about this one. It's a little hard to get up to NYC for dinner and home at a reasonable hour (like before midnight). Would be fun!

I can do Wednesday, not Tuesday. John, I'll be just a shuttle ride across town (Grand Central) so that makes life easy for meeting. Let's see if Alexa or anyone else joins, and we'll take it from there.

Okay, I'll block out Wednesday.

I have to work on Tues and Wed is out town watch meeting. I seroiusly doubt I'd make it home in time...bummer!
Its been about 8 yrs since I went to nyc!!

Well maybe we can do a Philly Phriends do the Big Apple day say mid spring??

Cheers!
Susie

Argh! I'd love to come into to town and meet up... but for the same reason I can't meet Lori in RI tonight, I'll need to take a rain check. I've been warned off the subway until I'm off crutches (broke my ankle over the weekend) and I'm not traveling too far from home until my balance is a little better.

Don't forget to take pictures!!!

I;m trying to figure out if I can call in favors on shuttling my kids from practice to practice..... I did check the train schedule and can catch the 10:11 from Penn Station and still be home by midnight (at the latest).

I'm trying!

A

It sounds really fun! Take lots of pictures!

Alex -- Amtrak or the regional rails?

NJTransit

Not lookin' good for me this time. Sorry John -- would have loved to meet you. Do you ever get to Philadelphia?

FOAS, how about you pick the place and time on Wednesday after 6PM and post it, also email me, and I'll be there. I think I can recognize you from a prior thread picture. Me - Asian, male, medium height - that should narrow it down to about 1 billion people.

I have no strong preferences, and no ''won't-eats'', food-wise. If I'm good, I'll have stuck to salads all week so will be game for anything non-leafy.

dedtired, sorry but I don't get to Philadelphia - no conferences there, have never actually been to the city.

Oh man a hook up with John and FOAS ....be still my heart! Unfortunately it's a long way from Oakville but a temptation none the less!

Come on, Sharon, it's not THAT long of a drive!

John - No worries, in the unlikely event that being a medium height Asian male doesn't make you stand out like a sore thumb in NYC, at least you've got an unusual name. I'll be the white guy calling out "JOHN?!?!"

I'll email you over the weekend to discuss the particulars...

Foas, since we're meeting at 60,000 sq ft Eataly, I think neither a half-remembered photo nor a unique name can be relied upon. I've emailed you my cell # and a proposed specific location.

Anyone else want to combine grocery shopping, tourism, and dinner in one go?

Boy, I am really sorry I can't swing this. I do make it to NYC from time to time, but I have a huge work thing going on Wed. Have fun!

I am not going to be able to make it after all..... Seems my DH has something planned for us on Wed evening as a late Birthday celebration. Sorry - but next time I am so there!

Alexa

Oh two of the pool boys are meeting tonight! I can't tell you how much I would love to be part of that hook up!

Interesting, interesting folk........and of course seriously sexy!

I shall have to tell SWMBO that I ''hooked up'' with FOAS tonight. She will be perturbed. At least it was with a man. ;-)

We spent a few hours exploring Eataly. I was impressed with that place. The meat, fish, and produce looked good to excellent, and the prices were inline with what I'd expect in Portland, which might mean they were quite fair for Manhattan? There was all sorts of interesting Italian foodstuffs, although not being able to carry anything home, I wasn't really shopping. If I lived in the area, I do think Eataly would be my daily food shopping spot. It was a bit crowded on a Wednesday evening, so I imagine it is a zoo on weekends.

We had an appetizer of fried calf brains and heart. Sorry for the blurry picture. At least, it looks blurry to me. Maybe it is the prions. Moo.

I had a slow-cooked beef rib that was very nice. Another blurry picture from the iPhone. Perhaps FOAS' phone took better pictures. He's an Android man.

FOAS had a really nice dish. I ate a good bit of it.

The bread counter fairly screams ''Thighmaster Time!'', doesn't it?

Rabbit, duck, enormous oxtails, and all sort of delectable meat. Lpink, avert your delicate vegetarian eyes.

The fishmonger knew if his halibut was Atlantic or Pacific! The dead lobster was cheaper than the live. Trays of uni, big sashimi-grade tuna steaks, and yummy-looking shellfish.

The prettiest pizza ovens I've ever seen.

This guy took a train for over an hour just to see me. Thank you, FOAS, I really appreciated it, and enjoyed ''hooking up'' with you.

Somberly thinking of the 25-block walk back to the hotel in the rain - but fortunately, the forecast was wrong.

Nice....pair!

Looks like you guys had a seriously good time. Thanks for the tour and photos of the pizza oven, DH will drool. I love those kinds of huge foodie stores. John, smile next time, will ya?

I didn't even notice John taking all those pictures. I'm glad he did because I barely got anything. There are the only two worth posting; they're from after John realized my pictures were so yellow because the camera was set on "sunset" setting.

To be exact, the app was "Crispy Lamb's Brain with Heart, Tongue & Blood Orange Citronette." I think I enjoyed it more than John did.

His dinner was Slow Roasted Beef Rib with Tarragon and Spin Rosso Polenta." Here he is, posing with it:

{{gwi:1444908}}

And a somewhat less blurry picture of my "Tagliata with Fava Beans, Funghi Misti and Bone Marrow Agrodolce." Best dish of our orders, IMO.

It was a very good time; I'm glad I went in for it even though I didn't work in the city as planned. No worries Jessy, John's not as serious as he makes himself out to be in photos!

Great pictures. I can imagine what a fun time you had, nice to see you both. Did the polenta there change your thoughts about it John?

We never see razor clams in the markets here and I love the photo with the silver pig.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Lee

Wow , lots of eye candy here. Interpret that anyway you want.

Glad you guys had fun and had the first CF all-male meet up. Please stop saying hook up as my sons tell me that means more than just meeting up. LOL.

SO great to see you both, eye candy for sure!! That place looks amazing as does most of your food although I'm still having a bit of trouble with the appetizer!

Glad you met up......so what did you talk about? Should our ears be ringing?

Looks like you both had a great time... loved the food pics and they sound.... interesting. I'm not a fan of organ stuff, but it looks so good I would have tried it.

Thansk for sharing your visit and I'm sorry I missed it.

A

Sounds like a true foodie adventure! Thanks for sharing it with us guys!!

Thanks for the trip report. I am sure you two had a great time. What a great place to wander. I plan to be in NY the first week of June. Should Eataly be on my list? It looks like it would have something for everyone to look at, gawk at and eat!

Sounds like you guys had a great time hooking up.

I like their pasta section; isles and isles of pasta, virtually a pasta museum.

Prices are definitely very high; razor clams are 2x more than can be bought elsewhere. But then, it is just my problem, because the lines for shoppers were very long when I was there.

Can't wait for the New World Mall to open in Flushing Queens. 4x the size of Eataly of Asian foods.

dcarch

Looks like a fun place to visit! Thanks for the report and the pics. What a couple of handsome guys!

Sally

Lee - I didn't have a lot of thoughts about the polenta, it was good but I was more into the meat. I know I'll be making my polenta with stock, it is a little too bland for me otherwise.

Theresafic - I would go there but would try to beat the crowds - go on a weekday, maybe avoid the lunch or dinner hours, get your name in at one of the restaurants and then explore until they call your cellphone. It seems like a potential zoo on weekends.

Back home and not going anywhere for a month - ( relief )

Thanks for sharing the pic's! It sounds like you had a good time and it's nice to put faces with names.

I'm sure that John can smile, he has too be when he writes some of his posts. He does some really funny ones in the Kitchen Forum.

Both great guy's!

Nancy

I am so happy to see the 'guy get together" and handsome guys at that!

I appreciate that you shared your experience with us.

I found another pic of FOAS with his dish

Thanks for the advice DCarch and John. I am certain we will probably go to Eataly. My connection with the friends we are meeting in NY is we all worked together in Sicily.
DC, any idea when the Asia market will open? I'd love to check it out.

Here is the message I just got:

"-----Most of the mall got the TCO but not all and the grand opening is slat for 04/29/11.----"

dcarch

BTW, TCO = Temporary Certificate Of Occupancy

wow, what a couple of good looking guys. The food doesn't look bad either.

One of these days, I'm going to New York!

Annie