Chelsea Market

In the heart of New York City (well, you know) is a fun place called the Chelsea Market.  It is advertised as a sort of "foodie's paradise," but I found that despite it's charm and delicious fare, it's become overly commercialized.  But I seriously still recommend it.

 We were boiling hot and starving, so the air-conditioned market place was a treat in itself.  We decided to lunch on caprese sandwiches.  They looked better than they tasted, unfortunately.

 One of my favorite places was the Ronnybrook Farm Milk Bar.  It was like an ice cream parlor, but they had milkshakes, milk, ice cream, chocolate milk, etc.  It was so nice after walking in the hot city summer to sit down and have a chocolate milkshake.  We asked the barkeep for the chocolatiest milkshake he could make, so he gave us chocolate ice cream blended with chocolate milk.  It was so creamy and yummy and I loved every drop.

Perfect on a hot day

Milk crate wall

After eating, we walked around and perused the other shops.  There was a butcher, a seafood place, a few bakeries, a couple of cooking specialty/supply stores, and a handful of other places.  I wish that I'd been able to find a good flavored crusty bread, but the bakeries only had regular breads, sadly.  I also wish that there'd been more selection.  The actual Chelsea Market is kind of a small area from one end to the other.  Like I said, it's been pretty commercialized.  Every place is an actual store, and I wish there had been more "markety" stands, but overall, the Chelsea Market is a pretty fun place to go, and if you're willing to spend the money, you can get some pretty tasty food.