Wednesday, August 8, 2012

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.

Tapas!

In downtown Sono (that's South Norwalk for you normal folk) you will find a delicious and fun restaurant.  It's a tapas place known as Barcelona.

I've always been rather intrigued by the concept of tapas, especially after reading about it in Frances Mayes' "A Year in the World."  So I was very excited when my parents came to visit and we all went out to Barcelona for tapas.  And it was amazing, truly.  The music was pounding, the food kept on coming, and the service was great.  I have never gotten so full off of what was essentially like snack food.

Even if you never go to Barcelona (the store), you need to find a tapas place to try.  Better yet, go to Europe and take a whirl in the tapas culture!
I didn't take this.  Nope.