More about Bagel

Since the bagel was so sensational, I needed to split the entries into two.

Essa (actually not Esse I thought) is located on the 3rd avenue between 50th and 51st streets, so on the way back to the Grand Central station for subway ride to the apt., I had a great shot of Chrysler Building. I posted another one the other day but that was from the bottom of the building and you did not see that much about its unique architecture. This time, you can see its beautiful silver exterior.

I had FOUR extra bagels for my pleasure next week. They are so big and I could not pile all four. I individually wrapped them and they are sleeping in my freezer. I am keeping eye on them, so don't even think about stealing them from my freezer.

Esse Bagel

It has been a while since last time I had bagel from Esse Bagel in mid-town. In my opinion, they have the best bagel in NYC, even though there are so many tourists and people there try to talk to Japanese tourists in Japanese. My office one time was located only a few blocks away, so I ate bagel there a few times a week.

Today we got two sandwiches for two - one multi grain with smoked salmon, cream cheese, onion and tomato, and one cinnamon raisin with tofu raisin walnut cream (vs. cream cheese, so it is a bit healthier). Their bagel's outside is crispy and inside is so chewy, which is good thing as bagel. Since they boil the dough before baking it, the store is always high in humidity.

Once you taste their bagel, you can't buy anything at grocery or at so called bagel store on the street.

Take a Walk in the Evening

It seemed very pleasant outside today, so I decided to take a walk after dinner.

I still felt humidity but it was pleasant indeed. Many people were out enjoying the end of the summer - a good mix of local and tourists.

I found that it is very difficult to take a good shot after dark, but this is what I got. In one picture, you can see the Empire State Building lighted with WHITE color. They change the color time to time, and July 4th was RED, BLUE and WHITE obviously. There was still ice cream vendor and I was so tempted, but I was able to control myself not to have unnecessary 500 calories after dinner.

More About Brown Stone Houses

I have several favorite buildings in Brooklyn Heights. These are some of them.

This entrance has been renovated last several months. It was originally located for the basement, but they closed the original entrance, and created new one for the 1st floor. You can see that a typical brown stone house entrance is located not at the same level as the street - higher like this or several steps lower. I like higher one since it looks more elegant and you can show off the entrance door, which I really like at this house.

Fire scape always reminds me the movie, Pretty Woman. Richard G. climbed up the stairs to propose Julia R. I dreamed to live in the building which has this (my building has one too) one day. Newer buildings no longer have this unfortunately.

Even we don't have a big space for gardening, people use every inch of space for plants. Look at this building which beautifully decorates the windows with flowers. This side actually does not get the sunshine much, but they cleverly chose the plants which don't need that much sunshine.

Do you enjoy these houses like I always do on the way to the gym?

Another Cooking Day

It has not been a great summer weather wise. It was on and off rainy day today, so we decided to cook meals, vs. go out. Since I got the inspiration from the Italian the other night, I decided to try Chicken Cacciatore - a traditional Italian home cooking I believe.

Basically brown the whole chicken - we used TWO breasts and FIVE legs for this instead, cook the vegetables (onion, pepper and fennel), add white wine, diced tomato and chicken stock, bring the chicken back, and simmer it for one hour.

We ate with brown rice and it was SOOOOO good, especially considering I have never eaten and did not follow the recipe. I can't follow the recipe - measure the ingredient in general (that's why I am not a baker, but I usually get an inspiration - ingredient wise and method/temperature wise.

Don't they look yummy?

Rainy Weekend

This year has been a bit different from others - more rain and not too hot but humid. Today was not an exception. We thought that it could be the last weekend to hit the beach but the weather forecast was not promising per hurricane Bill approaching to New York, so we decided to hang out in the area.

Along Hudson river, there is a good seafood/American restaurant, where we wanted to have a Saturday lunch. When we got there, there was no car in a huge parking lot - bad feeling. Yes, it was NOT open for lunch but only for dinner. At least we got a video for you - you can see weird sky due to the hurricane.

We did not have a backup this time, but a Korean restaurant came to our mind, which we have never been but passed in front of the restaurant a few times. Korean pancake and spicy cold noodle for lunch. Not too bad but not the best Korean either.

A typical American weekend attraction especially in a rainy day - shopping mall was our final destination. Nothing really needed, but I picked up some summer clothes after getting 20% extra discount at Martin+Osa brand. I guess I can still wear shorts even in September, can I?

Italian Dinner

We tend to go out for Friday dinners. Today it was an Italian night. You can find Italian restaurants anywhere in New York - every town has one or two and everyone has his/her favorites, but the one we went to today was one of our "go-to" Italian restaurants in the Bronx. You might not have an image that there is a good Italian restaurant in the Bronx, but actually there are many Italians living there and there is the famous Arthur avenue where you can find a lot of authentic Italian restaurants and grocery stores.

All the customers looked like Italian (or at least partially) along with the servers. We got our favorite, I don't remember the name but technically chicken cutlet with tri-color salad over it, which is very refreshing. The other one was veal scalipini (white wine sauce with pickled hot pepper and mushroom). They served bread with Olive in, which is good for the first bite but a bit too salty for my taste.

Do you feel like you had a short trip to Italy?