Good eating at the Sen's

Steff and Mom on the train

On Wednesday night, our first night here, Katie and I went to a local restaurant and got Italian takeout. Spaghetti and meat balls, a egg coated fried chicken on noodles dish, and Penna Vodka with salads and cannoli. Certainly misspelled, but delicious.

Christmas Eve. we left for the city early, after bagel and eggs sandwiches. Until I ate a NY bagel I didn't know how great they are, how different from the mid west or Texas bagels, very soft and tender with a mild taste. They say that it is the minerals in the water, it is piped into the city from the Catskills apparently. We had lunch at Rosie O'Grady's Pub. A very nice, white table linen place. It was nearly empty. (And actually the stores weren't that crowded.) The food was good, Paul and I split a huge hamburger and soup. Excellent soup and very lean, tasty HB. We did a lot of tasting and it was all excellent. Lots of fun. Hard to explain all the restaurants in the city. As soon as you get off the main streets they are everywhere of every country. They all look wonderful. Attractive and clean and interesting. Another surprise that I enjoyed was all the little children speaking in foreign languages. It seems that many Europeans spent the holidays in New York. And what a wonderful experience for them.

On Christmas we went to 11 am Mass. Mark and Katie made prime rib for dinner with sweet potatoes, corn, baked potatoes. Wonderful, cooked to medium perfection. The next day we had prime rib French Dip sandwiches. Oh dessert. Katie picked up a Cherry Cheesecake at Junior's in Grand Central Station as we left the city on Thursday. Said to be the best in the city, and it is hard not to agree. The base was sponge cake, the creamy part was light and a little whippy, the topping yummy tart cherries. OMG, it was perfect.

On Saturday, Mark drove Steff to the train station, later we all went shopping up in Kingston, a city about 20 minutes north of the house. Paul and I had been there before, when we drove into the Catskills. Missed the malls though. Very nice shopping. Looking for an interesting place for lunch, we drove through the very old part of the city, it is on the Hudson River. Large stone houses are right on the sidewalk and the streets are very narrow for modern times, but must have been wide for their time. We ended up having very good bar food at a locals bar. I had a great wrap, everyone else had awesome bar burgers. Perfect sweet potato fries.

Sunday was sort of a wind down day. They cooked a turkey with all the trimmings. Katie made dressing from a Sen's family recipe. Scratch apple pie. So good. I guess it was wind down because we didn't have a field trip. Except Mark has a fire call, they took out the new fire truck! And Katie and I walked over the bridge on the Hudson. NY state turned an old half burnt railroad bridge into a State Park. I have pics that I will post later. It was fun to walk and full of people and dogs.

Monday was pizza takeout night. Katie and Mark ordered a pepperoni and onion pizza with thick crust. We had a Meat Lover's with the traditional thin crust. Very good, has to be healthy with less crust. They have less cheese than our Michigan pies and the sauce is a little spicy. Fun to try different foods.