Manhattan hurts my feets

After J and I came home from Montreal, I got on a train to NYC to spend some quality time with my mom.

Unfortunately, we cut it a little too close with our hotel bookings, and ended up staying at the Jane Hotel in a 50 square-foot room with bunk beds. It was pretty awesome for what it was, but I think my mom was a little shocked at having to share a bathroom with other people on our floor. She came into the room after brushing her teeth a little shellshocked that there were young men walking about in just their towels.

The Jane Hotel is located in the Meatpacking district, right beside the High Line (everyone should walk it at least once during their trip). The feeling you get walking in the greenery with traffic and city below your feet is pretty cool.

Mostly, we spent our three days in NY walking, shopping, eating and walking some more. You know the foot ache you get from walking too much? Luckily, our shoe sizes are basically the same, so we got to switch our boots whenever our feet got tired.

First up, lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar!

Roasted pig tails and crispy rice cakes. ggggg...

The library

The High Line

 The tower

The architecture

The park

A movie set

Laduree (because you kinda have to...)

Montreal, Teil Drei

This post is all about the gruesome deliciousness that was our anniversary dinner at Au Pied de Cochon. The whole experience was really quite obscene. That said, I would totally go again.

When I made reservations, I asked to sit at the bar. It was really entertaining to watch the controlled chaos in the kitchen, and how quickly dishes were assembled and sent out.

To start, we had a couple orders of the Fois Gras Cromesquis - little deep fried nuggets of hot sweet richness that melt in your mouth. This was followed by our two appetizers - the bison tartare temaki (handrolls) with raw quail egg, and the tarragon bison tongue. The tongue was half-demolished before I even remembered to take a picture. We used some of the left-over bread to pick up the sauce off the plate. drool.

For our main, we chose the PDC Melting Pot. This dish had a lot of the elements we wanted to try: two kinds of sausages, two different cuts of pork, onions, mushrooms, PDC mash, and gravy.

Ordering the desert was a mistake. I ordered the Sugar Pie for Two, thinking that we would try a bite, and take the rest home. No such luck. My husband (who ate 3/4 of the pie), later blamed his pain entirely on me. Ha.

We also saw this monstrosity being assembled as we were finishing the desert "Pig's Head for Two". At one point, one of the chefs sliced a line along the top of the skull and poured what looked like hot oil or butter into the brain cavity. This picture was taken just before the tongue was garnished with some mustard sauce, and a bunch of steamed clams were dotted around the dish. As we were leaving, we noticed a couple of patrons digging into it with relish. Oh well, there is always a next time.

We left the restaurant moaning and clutching our poor abused bellies. It took a while to digest.

The next morning we couldn't really stomach breakfast, but there was one more stop we just had to make. On our way out of town we stopped at Jean Talon Market, to get the fried shrimp from Aqua Mare. We were only the second order of the day.

The batter was fried and crispy, and the shrimp were fresh and perfectly cooked. Great way to finish an amazing trip.