New York City and Iron Chef America

New York City and Iron Chef America

Well, I just got back a few weeks ago from a great trip to what is an amazing food town, New York City. I went to be a judge on the Food Networks Iron Chef America. I can this this, wow what a great experience!

I really enjoyed eating out for 4 days, dining in NYC is really so different from L.A.. Here in L.A. its very "casual" where as in NYC dining out is an "event" and the restaurants are much more visual than in L.A. I must admit, the first place I ate was a brassarie called "Pastis" in the meat packing district. I was expecting so much more, man was I dissapointed in the entire meal from the quality of the meat to the really weak onion soup, I would not reccomend going there if you are looking to dine in NYC, it appeared to be really trendy/yuppie.

Alton Brown told me to go to the Pop Burger the first night, I should have listened to him...doh! that place was pretty cool, with good prices for NYC, but a strange thing about it is they have a "porno" booth in the back so you can eat and look at porn..strange place.

We had the "wrap party" for the crew at the Pizza Bar a few doors down, it was really cool and they had great Mojito's. I must say that Alton is such a great guy, he bought a round for the entire crew at the party (which must have cost a pretty penny), they (mojitos) were good too!

You can just cruise around on foot and run into something good to eat, like I did at Jarnac where I had a great cheese plate with a nice port!

The whole "Chelsea Market" is really neat too, its in the old Nabisco factory and tthe bottom floor is where there are some great little shops and restaurants as well as where the Food Network is located (actually they are on several floors, with the main studio upstairs).

My trip to NYC was well worth it and was a great experience for this California guy...I really think I will go back someday, hopefully to judge more Iron Chefs!