Katz's Delicatessen is a Kosher-style deli known for huge pastrami sandwiches and as a New York City institution. It's also often cited as the location of Meg Ryan's famous fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally.

This may have been the most heavily tourist-frequented stop along our trip. We waited outside in a huge line for what seemed like forever. Once we finally got to the door, we received a ticket. This, they said, is very important and to hold onto it for dear life. Got it.

Then, we were sort of funneled into makeshift lines at the counter. There weren't single-file lines because it was just an ocean of people struggling to make their way to the front. We sort of aligned ourself to one line and waited our turn.

I put in my order for half a pastrami sandwich and a bowl of matzoh ball soup. The man behind the counter chopped off a hunk of pastrami, plated it and set it atop the counter so I could have a bite. Is this to just get a taste of what you ordered? It was the little bits, so maybe they just don't want to use those on a sandwich. I dunno. But I had a bite or two and braced myself for how much more was to come.

You go down to the other end of the counter for any sides or drinks. It was so packed in here, we had a hard time finding three seats together. Finally, as some people were standing up, we snuck in and had a place to eat.

These sandwiches are massive. Even just the half sandwich has nine or so slices of pastrami. It's a lot of meat. I was very generous with the mustard to help cut through all that meat. And yes, it is very good. It's moist and flavorful. It's just a lot.

I mixed bites of my sandwich with bites of my matzoh ball soup, which is delicious. I love matzoh ball soup.

Oh, and the pickles! Very good. And a nice, cold, refreshing bite after all that heavy food.

For just a half sandwich, a matzoh ball soup and a water, it was $20. I was pretty surprised at how expensive sandwiches were. A full sandwich is around $20 alone. But, as you can see, you do get a ton of food. Prepare your stomach and your patience.


Grade: A

Macarons have become serious business lately. And, no I'm not talking about the coconut dollops ("Macaroons"). Instead, I'm talking about the French delicacies ("Macarons" which sounds like MacaRONS or MacaRONES). They are meringue-based confections made with egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder and food coloring. The macaron is filled with ganache, buttercream or caramel (my favorite!) between the two cookies.

While we had our fancy lunch in New York City, Josh was actually taking a class at Mille-Feuille Bakery on how to make these macarons. And, he brought us some from Mille-Feuille back! So, I didn't get the chance to visit this bakery, but I did get the chance to gobble down some of this macarons!

I can certainly see why people are on the macaron train. The texture is so much different than I would've imagined. I've only have a few of these before, and these were by far the best. It is just a a light crumble-melt-in-your-mouth characteristic that makes me want to eat 1,000 of these. I had the caramel one, which was heaven. An actual layer of caramel in the middle. And I also had the rose one - which tastes like, well, rose. They're pricey. So make every bite count.

Grade: A

What would a trip to NYC be without a visit to Chinatown? Josh has a favorite place he likes to get his wontons from. HK Wonton Garden has folks wearing Hawaiian shirts and serving up some tasty, tasty offerings.

I ordered su-mai, and it's unlike other su-mai I've had. It was large pieces of pork and shrimp encased in this lovely dumpling. Not nearly as ... sweet? as the Americanized versions I eat. But overall - quite good.





Grade: B

When making my dream food list for New York City, I was sure to hit all the key points: lots of pizza, cheesecake, that frozen hot chocolate, sweets from Magnolia Bakery, and, oh yeah, some sort of fancy place.



Bouley, a contemporary French restaurant located in Tribeca in Manhattan, is owned by four-star chef David Bouley. Zagat has rated the restaurant very highly - as the third-best restaurant in New York City in 2013. TripAdvisor rated it the best restaurant in the United States in 2015. Initially, I thought this restaurant would be far, far out of my price range - but, they have a $55 five-course lunch tasting menu. Perfect.

I made reservations way in advance, so I had plenty of time to fret about what I was going to wear. Their dress code stated: Casual Celebratory... whatever that means. They just made that up. This wasn't the only thing we were doing that day in NYC, so I had to have something comfortable enough that I could work for miles before and after this lunch. I, fortunately, figured out something (after shopping at too many places) and found no problem when I walked inside. There were, however, lots of suit jackets (required for men) and fancy dresses from the women.

As soon as we walked in, we entered a room filled with rows of apples, where we checked our coats. Then, we were guided toward another waiting area filled with plush seats and giant floral art. I looked around at this point, a little intimidated. I gave myself some silent motivation - you're fancy! You can do this!



Before long, we were seated near the center of our dining area, yet it felt private at the same time. The restaurant is classically decorated - romantic - with fine art decorating the walls and gold leaf ceilings. A staircase toward the back leads to the most elegant bathrooms I've ever seen.



We placed our orders for our selections from the five-course menu. There are five sections - some with upcharges for specific items - and you choose one item from each section. I'll get into that in a moment, but let me first talk about this roving bread cart that made its way through the restaurant. There were at least a dozen or so breads - garlic loaf, ginger and pear, buckwheat, peach, date - so many kinds. It was incredible. And he would come around every so often to slice you off a piece of fresh-baked bread. I went for a walnut and peach slice, as well as a garlic slice.





But to start our meal, we had a small rolls that I slathered with butter and devoured.

Then, we were started with a small palate cleanser that was similar to a watermelon/tomato gazpacho.



A second amuse bouche was a truffled puree cracker that was super rich in just a single bite.

Then, it was on to our tasting menu (we were just getting through the complementary stuff so far!). First up for me was Hawaiian Hiramasa and Nantucket blue fin, with meyer lemon, passion fruit and fresh verbena. This is how raw fish should taste. Completely clean, refreshing, and the citrus and verbena flavors took it to another level.

Next up was the porcini flan - golden princess crab, black truffle dashi. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I ordered this dish, but it was excellent. A small bowl of black looks intimidating, but I nibbled on the huge chunk of crab before swimming into the rest of the flan. It's a mushroom and crab soup - if you love that umami flavor, doooo this.

Then, it was slow-braised kobe style beef cheeks with blue kale gnocchi. What are beef cheeks? Well, the kind of just taste like pot roast. The little tender gnocchi was delicious. The beef cheeks were as tender as it gets. AND, it came with a small additional plate of polenta that just melted in my mouth.





As we begin the decline of the meal, I had fresh black raspberry gelato. It was perfectly sweet and tart.



My final course was a hot caramelized anjou pear with valrhona chocolate, biscuit breton and hot toffee sauce. The nice crisp outside gave way to a warm, juicy pear that had this hint of caramelization. Just delicious. It also came with a black raspberry/marscarpone scoop that was so good.





But, of course, it wasn't totally done there. Time for the petit fours! Which is this incredible display of bite-sized chocolates. Many of these were kind of bitter - so not my super favorite.

Also, there was coffee at the end, which also came with an incredible display of all this sugar!

And, just for fun, take a look at this ridiculous bathroom.



And as we were getting our coats, we were given a to-go treat of a lemon loaf to take home. I love the idea of sending folks home with a parting gift.

Certainly a memorable experience - from incredible dishes to impeccable service and all of the little touches inbetween that don't go unnoticed. And if you want to get the star treatment at an affordable price, check out this tasting menu.


Grade: A

My first morning in NYC had to start off with a bagel and lox (lox is a specific kind of smoked salmon). New York has a thing for bagels, and Murray's is one of the best bagel shops. We set on our way to the Chelsea location to sink our teeth in these delicacies.

Murray's had a line, and we waited for quite some time. I was OK with that, though, because I had to figure out how to order. First things first - they do not toast. These are fresh bagels; don't dare ask for it toasted.

Pick what kind of bagel - plain, garlic, everything, multigrain, onion, poppyseed and many more. Then there's a ton of cream cheese - scallion, sundried tomato, roasted garlic, strawberry, etc. Then, what kind of fish? Nova Scotia, Scottish salmon, belly lox, gravlax, Norwegian salmon. All sorts.



I ultimately decided on a Nova Scotia salmon on a plain bagel with plain cream cheese, capers and red onions. The original seemed like the way to go.

And, wow, this was the best version of a bagel and lox I've ever had. It's a bagel sandwich, and all the flavors together were perfect. I have dreams of recreating this exact sandwich, but I have not been able to find a bagel even near as good - the chew and density cannot be replicated.

Grade: A