Escape from Boston

For Christmas Michael gave me an experience to remember: a day at the Mandarin Oriental Spa. Lunch, relaxation, and two hours of treatments. It was a fantastic way to spend New Years Eve Day followed by a homemade dinner of porcini encrusted filets with all the extras.

DAY 1

We spent three days in New York and we had experience after experience. We arrived in the city, dropped our bags and headed to Katz's Deli. Everyone had so much attitude, was yelling, and it seemed a little grungy and I opted to try the corned beef sandwich (with a Pepsi). Ever since Michael read Anthony Bourdain's book, No Reservations, I've made a mindful effort to try new things, even if it's a little outside of my comfort zone. The sandwich was good, but I paid for it the rest of the day with a gurgling and uncomfortable tummy ache.

We explored vintage shops and unique little stores from Katz's, Chinatown, to SoHo, to the West Village. I was warned how expensive vintage is in New York, but I was still a wee bit surprised that a no name sweater was $350. It was fun to look and it was free.

Boy, was it cold! The wind was blowing so hard my skin really got whipped and I had to use oil in addition to a cream moisturizer to heal my face when we got home. However, finally being able to experience the Prada store in SoHo on day 1 was great! I knew it was amazing, but it was even better than that! Everything else was pretty blah...nothing more than what I expected but glad I got to go around and poke my head in here and there.

We walked all the way to the West Village to stand in line at the Magnolia Bakery at 401 Bleecker Street. I am glad I had the experience of having a cupcake from their bakery and got to stand in line with everyone else, but really...did I miss something? During this cupcake craze that's been on peak trend, I've made the effort to try as many cupcakes as I can find...mostly in Kansas City. Baby Cakes in the River Market was good, Cupcake a la Mode in West Plaza does great things with their icing flavors, and Sweet (here in Boston) has a super duper butterscotch cupcake and a heck of a gingerbread cupcake.

Magnolia was fine (maybe I was there on a dud of a day) but I really think the best cupcake I've had came from the Roasterie Cafe in Brookside.

*Note to self: I still need to try Sprinkles in L.A.

We relaxed and eventually thawed out at our hotel, Hudson (which was pretty swanky) and then had dinner at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's restaurant. The flavors were quite interesting and mysterious. All the spice and kick was there, but somehow it was completely balanced, tolerable, and never became overwhelming.

We ended our first night with meeting friends at the bar at Hudson for drinks to do some catching up...miss them.