Final New York Moments

On Wednesday night I went out for dosas with Andy, and it was great to see him. He's working on some really fun animation projects, and also on a show for Nick, Jr., which I am dying to see: "Wonder Pets".

Then yesterday morning before we left town, I made my usual pilgrimage to Doughnut Plant, one of my favorite places on earth. When I walked through the door, I could smell the amazing aroma of fresh Blackberry dounuts. I got one for Laurel and myself, and also a Banana Caramel, and a Valrhona Chocolate one, and some Tres Leches that I hoped would survive the plane ride home to Eric.

Afterwards, I walked over to Rice to Riches, the "rice pudding place," and picked up some pudding for our flight. I got Vanilla and French Toast for myself, and Laurel got Mango and Mascarpone with cherries. As it happened, there was a Cath Kidston store going out of business around the corner, so I stopped in to check out the sale. Of course I wanted everything, but I needed nothing, so I restrained myself and headed uptown to meet Laurel for lunch... only to walk RIGHT past the Sigerson Morrison store (I swear I didn't plan this!!), where I couldn't resist peeking in. Amazingly enough, they had the red patent flats I've been dying for, for half the price I'd seen them sell for in the past!

Reader, I splurged.

And then I walked up to S'mac to meet Laurel. We shared three small portions of mac and cheese: the Goat Cheese, the Cheeseburger, and the Manchego. All three were yummy, and the presentation was great (they are each served in little skillets), but I feel like on a scale of Country Crock to Mama's, they were somewhere around Annie's for me. Not bad at all, and I definitely ate my share, but not quite the homemade goodness I prefer. The best thing for me were the add-ins, like the fennel in the Manchego, and the Kalamata olives in the Goat Cheese.

In any case, it was quite the eventful morning for food! I think the only thing we could have done to make it more so would have been a trip to Peanut Butter & Co., but I have been there before and I have to say that as far as I'm concerned, most peanut butter sandwiches are pretty much created equal.

Our flight home was an easy one, with the exception of some miserable kid behind me who screamed the entire time. Thank goodness for DirectTV!! I got to watch "Being Bobby Brown" (which was so painful that I had to change the channel after watching Whitney pop a zit for Bobby beside a public fountain), "Shear Genius", "Dirty Jobs", and lots and lots of the Food Network. The rice pudding was a little disappointing; it was extremely custardy, and I like my pudding to be less eggy than that, but I think it would have been greatly improved if warmed.

When I got home, Eric was here waiting for me, and we discovered that the donuts had made it, albeit a little soggier for wear.