Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai????

After a week of cold, rainy, disgusting weather I was finally awarded a nice day. The sun came out and warmed things up to a more reasonable mid-May temperature. I needed a nice day as I was feeling pretty miserable this week trying to run around the city with my umbrella turning inside out and rain seeming to come at me from all directions. I didn't think May was supposed to be so cold and rainy!

Anyway - today I ventured into the city, fighting the weekend train closures and detours to meet Ronen and explore Ninth Avenue and it's International Food Festival. For about twenty blocks the street was closed to traffic and lined with booths of food, arts and crafts, and other random junk. Amidst a lot (too much) of typical street vendors and greasy festival-type foods were a few interesting finds. That area of Ninth Ave. has many restaurants and several of those restaurants set up a booth that featured their food. I think the best bang for the buck was my Asian Chicken Salad from The Eatery. It was fresh, tasty, filling, and a nice sample of what I would get in the restaurant. We also sampled some Polish Pierogi, which is kind of like a dumpling. They were new to me and were pretty good. Also a random Thai curry puff made me pretty happy. I've been into curry and Thai food lately. Here is a picture of some Pierogis (is that the correct plural?) waiting to be eaten up.
After a bit of walking we, of course, had to stop in a cafe for a cup of coffee and a little relaxation. Once we cleared our heads and let the caffeine kick in we remembered this Bakery uptown that we kept hearing about. We figured it was a food day anyway, so why not catch a train uptown and check it out? Ronen's roomate had been going on for days about the cookies at Levain's Bakery. Supposedly they make one of the best, if not the best cookie in New York. Sounded like something I needed to take for a test-drive! Once we got there, we found that they have four varieties of cookies and after some deliberation and guidance we decided to share a Chocolate Chip Walnut cookie. Let me tell you, these are serious cookies. They are thick - reminded me of a biscuit. Still warm, it was like a rich, sweet, melt-in-your mouth biscuit. Mmmmm.....


My mouth is watering now just looking at that gooey chocolate. The website tells visitors that these are not just cookies, but they are indulgent experiences. I would have to agree.