NYC Day Three: A double-beet day!

Day three: another sunny morning dawned, and we headed straight out to Grand Central for our trip up the Hudson River to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

This particular jaunt came up late in our trip planning, but what a pleasant addition! It wasn't until the trip drew closer that I realized how very much I was looking forward to it. While attending the school has never been really high on my priority list, or really an option--by the time it occurred to me I was OLD by CIA standards--it is a setting that I imagined would be inspiring. And it was, indeed.


Figs and coffee! A perfect breakfast. When Seth and I had our NYC trip in 2005, that was my morning tradition (his was hot chocolate and a bagel). I was thrilled to see figs at the Grand Central Market this morning, and just had to indulge.




Both of our mothers said they want pictures of the two of us together, so of course we oblige! Nothing like a little time on the train...

Two quick hours later, and we were there!





Very Vanna White of me. Couldn't resist posing by the campus sign... The campus is 150 acres, and beautifully landscaped, along the Hudson River. At least a dozen buildings--four restaurants, four dorms, some student housing...


Before I found out that we weren't supposed to take pictures of the students, I took a few pictures along our initial pass through the school. My main takeaway from observing the kids (yes, they were awfully young) in a varuiety of food-prep situations was the glacial speed at which they moved. When I catered, time seemed to always be too short to get everything done that I wanted, and moving quickly took on prime importance. Not for these kids... the real world should wake them up to a different pace, I would think!


This teaching theater was between classes, but someone was getting schooled up front... we kept moving.


Beet and chevre salad. Divine. We ate in the American Bounty restaurant, and enjoyed our meal--made by and served by students.


This is the view of the river from the front of the campus. Absolutely peaceful and beautiful. All too soon our lunch and tour ended and we headed back to the city. We landed in Grand Central again, and at my dad's advice, checked out the Apple store there. This is the view from the store. What an amazing place! The second picture is one of the bars where you can check out the product.



From Grand Central we made our way to the East Village where I'd sussed out a pierogi restaurant. I can't remember which NYC-specific email pointed me toward Vaselka, but it proved definitely worth the trek. Borscht and pierogis? Yum. We sat up at the bar and listened to all the Russian chatter as they prepared food. Simply awesome, to have a casual, quick meal, after the more formal reserved dining occasions of the past few days.


Second round of beets for the day! For someone who doesn't seek out beets very often, it was memorable and both dishes were fabulous.



My pierogi selection: Potato, cheese, sweet potato and arugula and goat cheese.


On our way home from Vaselka, we passed by Momofuku's Milk Bar, and I got a cookie selection to share back at our hotel. Yum. Oh, and as we crossed over 2nd Avenue, we passed Angelo of Top Chef season 7 fame. Awesome; especially awesome given that we saw his name up at the CIA today as a graduation speaker this weekend and regretted that we'd miss him.

Happy tummies, happy girls. Only about 11,000 steps today, which was a nice break from yesterday!