Did I Mention the Smells?

So in New York, there seems to be no neutral odors; it's either the smell of food, or the smell of sewage--honestly, it's a difficult concept to deal with. As you're walking down the street, your nose is assaulted with the smell of the sewage that is basically right beneath your feet, since Manhattan is an island and you can only go so far down with sewage pipes. The grates that speckle the sidewalk inevitably spew the smell of New York's...well...New York's waste right up on the street. Yuck. Then, you walk through the middle of a street fair or by a Chinese restaurant and smell grilling meats, and baking pastries, but don't be tempted to inhale a great big whiff; by the time you've detected the delectable smells, they are quickly replaced with...you guessed it--sewage. It makes for a game of Russian roulette with your nose. Take a sniff...mmm...take another...eww. Enough of that.

Today, we took in New York from the famous skyscrapers--Rockefeller Center and The Empire State Building. I think it was easiest for me to get a good perspective of everthing from there. Being on the ship a couple of days ago, there was no depth--from up in a building, it made more sense. The views were sensational.

We ate a late lunch at a place called The Markt. (No, I didn't spell it wrong.) It's a Belgian cafe that we ran across as we roamed around New York. I had mussels (this is so going to be gross for some of you) with cilantro, curry, and cream. It also had fennel (I think), onions, celery, and a little carrot--it was delicious. For those of you who have an aversion to cilantro or curry, they offered the mussels prepared in several other steaming liquids and combinations. Tim had seafood stew--also very good. Then there were the fries--not sure I can describe them, but they were really good and served with a side of aioli (mayo). Tim and I split a chocolate mousse three ways (dark, white, milk). Tim liked the dark; I liked the milk. I would eat there again and try mussels prepared a different way.

After the late lunch we wondered around for a while, then went back to Time Square--Sunday evening--7:00--still a party--amazing. We were going to try to do a Broadway show tonight but didn't quite get to the place in Times Square to get tickets in time for tonight's shows. We went back to the hotel to rest a bit, and we download pictures since we will go over to Liberty and Ellis Islands tomorrow as early as we can. We did, however, go back out to grab a slice of pizza. I don't think I ate pizza when I was here as a college kid, but if I did I didn't appreciate it. There something about New York pizza that can't be replicated anywhere else (although I will say, Racanelli's in St. Louis comes close). The crust has a crispy crunch on the outside, but is still chewy on the inside. I'm quite sure it would be blasphemy to use any cheese but whole milk mozzerella (definitely no provel), and the slices are huge and sold by the slice. I'm not a huge pizza fan, but I could eat this stuff often.