New York: Friday

First let me just say that in this time of no free snacks, but $3 for a tiny packet of pretzels on planes, if you fly SunCountry airlines, it is Totally Worth It to upgrade to first class if you can.  Not only do you sit in super comfy seats with actual room for your body and legs, you also get food.  When you get up at 4:30am and have your heinie in the seat at 6:00am, that's so worth the money.  Plus, it's good food!

Not bad for airplane food, huh?  Look at the size of that cinnamon roll!  And real, fresh berries!

We arrived in New york on Friday and met some friends at the fabulous Momofuku Ssam Bar by their suggestion.  I was so distracted by the awesome conversation and the meeting of these friends, whom we had never actually met in person (it's a Twitter thing), that I didn't take pictures of the food.  As we say, #fail.

Here's a list of what we had, though: 

Steamed pork buns - hoisin, cucumbers, scallions (we had four orders of these, they were so good)

Pork scrapple - fried egg, benton's bacon, pear mostarda (oh my god - scrapple is awesome!)

Fried baby artichokes - pistachio, sunchokes, bottarga (not great, not bad, and don't ask me what bottarga is)

Spicy pork sausage & rice cakes - chinese broccoli, crispy shallots (I could eat this all day long.  Well, this and scrapple.)

They also have this crazy thing called bo ssam that you have to order 24 hours in advance.  Here's the description from their site: 

q: what does the bo ssäm include?
a: the bo ssäm (which is korean for enclosed or wrapped) includes a whole slow cooked pork shoulder, a dozen oysters, white rice, bibb lettuce, ssäm jiang (korean bbq sauce), kimchi and ginger scallion sauce. the dish is essentially pork and condiments wrapped in lettuce.

q: how much is it?
a: $200 for your entire party. not including other food and drinks ordered or tax and tip. please note, we only accept a maximum of four credit cards per table.

After we came back, a friend called it the best thing he's ever eaten and replaced the wallpaper of his kids on his phone with a picture of it and I need to have it next time we're in New York.  Well, that and the spicy pork sausage and rice cakes.  And the scrapple.

I don't want to steal other people's content, so go do an image search of this stuff.  It's worth it.  

I'll wait.

Hi.

I don't have any pictures of the next meal either (what a slacker!).  We went to some friends' apartment and were served Amazing grilled halibut and asparagus with a delicious balsamic sauce and cous cous.  And a lot of wine.  I will get the recipe, make it, and post about it.  I had no idea I liked halibut, and was so happy to discover how much I do.  It was meaty and tender/flakey all at once and I can't wait to make it myself.

To make up for my lack of food pictures, here are some pictures of things we saw between lunch and dinner:

Stay tuned for the next installment: Saturday! (There are pictures of Saturday's food)