HappyTummy              

So many restaurants, so little time. Whenever I visit my sister, we make it a point to try someplace new (er, new to me at least). This time, we headed to the Lower East Side to Rayuela, a contemporary Latin American restaurant whose decor alone would make you gasp. Dimmed lights, candles flickering and a beautiful olive tree planted right in the middle of the dining room. In the summer, they leave the floor-to-ceiling storefront windows wide open, so the breeze adds to the sexy ambiance.

By the time we arrived, we were starving. We started with a crab guacamole and a red snapper ceviche, marinated in a ginger soy citrus sauce. For the main course, a Cuban-style pork with rice and grilled pineapple mojo and a vegetable terrine of roasted eggplant, portobello mushrooms, peppers, zucchini and spinach. While everything we had was delicious, we were a little bummed that we fell for the waiter’s suggestion that we try the crab guacamole. Don’t get me wrong–it was phenomenal. But at a whopping $18, I hardly thought it was worth the price. No wonder they don’t put it on the menu! Still, the dinner was fabulous, and we had a marvelous time.

The best thing about New York City (besides the food, of course) is how walkable it is. You can never really get lost because of the easy-to-navigate grid of streets and avenues, there’s always so much to look at and keep you occupied as you walk and, should you ever get tired, you can always hop in a cab or take the Metro. So after dinner, we decided to walk from Rayuela down in the Lower East Side all the way back to Chelsea.

Of course the best route for that walk took us straight though the West Village. And you know what’s in the West Village…Magnolia Bakery! At 10pm, the line was still out the door, but it was fun looking through the window and trying to decide what to get. We passed on their famous cupcakes, only because I had had them before and wanted to try something new, and ended up sharing a most-delicious banana pudding. Thick and creamy, with chunks of banana and soft bits of soggy vanilla wafers.

What better way to end the night, than browsing though a bookstore? Across the street from Magnolia’s is Biography Bookstore, a super cute little independent bookstore busting at the seams with books of all kinds. We headed straight for the cooking section, where we hunted for obscure titles. I left with Ben Schott’s Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany and my sister snagged Simon Hopkinson’s Roast Chicken And Other Stories.

My last day in NYC was spent in Central Park, where my sister and I nibbled on lunch boxes from Whole Foods’ hot food bar and browsed what else–cooking magazines! It was a great weekend, as my time with my sister always is…and now I can’t wait for her to visit me and B during Thanksgiving! If you thought a random August weekend was saturated with foodthings, wait until November, when we truly go all out. :)