Traveling to NYC is always a gastronomical adventure. Unfortunately, being trapped in Brighton Beach usually limits us to kebabs, smoked fish, stroganoff and vodka. These all have their own merits, but can grow tiresome. Venturing into Manhattan had its promises, but our expectations were sorely shattered–mainly due to being unprepared in our research, and having a hungry, grumpy, teething baby on hand (Graem). Here are our assessments:

Friday Lunch: We went to the West Village to check out some shoes, walk around and window shop. We got off the subway and first spotted Gray’s Papaya–I had every intention of going there too, but wanted something besides hot dogs for lunch. Graem would have loved a papaya drink. Shawna perked up her nose and insisted that she smelled Indian food, so we walked up Sixth Avenue in search. A couple of blocks and some boring places later, we decided it must be downtown of us. We walked back south, and low and behold, there was Baluchi’s. Always trust Shawna’s nose for Indian food. It was freezing, Graem was grumping, so we rushed in–stroller and all–to get seated. As we uncoated Graem, Shawna was listening in to the conversation next to us. I glared a “Don’t be rude” look to her. She then asked the other customers how long they’d been waiting. They scoffed that it took 40 minutes to get water. Needless to say, we packed Graem back up and headed out. The restaurant wasn’t even packed.

Lucky for us, right next door was La Palapa, a Mexican restaurant. A margarita sounded amazing. As we were seated, I asked for a side of beans for Grammy. The waitress asked what kind, to which I responded, “refried.” She said, “No, pinto or black?” Black sounded fine. Whatever–beans+kid+eat=sanity. We rearranged ourselves to create a demilitarized zone around Graem with nothing more than a tortilla chip, spoon and napkin within her reach. Beans came quickly, and with tortilla chips, quickly soothed her. Table salsas were nothing to write home about: the fresh salsa tasted a bit Sysco with chopped red onion and cilantro to disguise itself, and the green tasted, well, green.

We looked at the menu: basic Mexican fare, two lunch specials, $4.95 tacos–it all sounded great. Shawna opted for the bistec taco, I went for the lunch special Menu #1. My meal consisted of a sopa de la casa–a pozole rojo, chicken taco, quesadilla, and flan for dessert. I figured I could share with everyone. I also needed a margarita on the rocks. The soup came quickly, but was underwhelming. It was rojo for sure, and not much else; I dumped in all the avocado, radishes and oregano that it came with to try to help it out. The chicken was kind of chewy and bland. Graem spat out the pozole; Shawna wondered what the heck it was.

The margarita came, and it was *okay*–tasted like a mix, but I figured it would do the trick. It was pretty easy to put down, like a limeade. Graem was growing tired of the beans/chip/spoon entertainment and was whining. I got a bit anxious as there was a couple having a “romantic” lunch two tables over. At least the other patrons were seated near the bar, and hopefully were partaking of the bar. Our tacos came and we were shocked. On our plates were two 3″ diameter corn tortillas with about three tablespoons of our respective fillings. We then understood why Shawna’s was only $4.95–I guess you’re supposed to order the “Sack of 10″ a la White Castle to whet your appetite. The fillings were perfectly acceptable, with fresh cilantro and onions to top. I dumped the remainders of the table salsas for some additional moisture. The quesadilla was pretty good–I don’t know whether it was the queso fresco or the cotija añejo that added a feta-like sharpness that broke up the mildness typical of most quesadillas. I think we were mostly disappointed by the portion size.

Graem was just about losing it at this point, so we let her loose to walk around a bit as our table was being cleared. Margarita was gone, could have used another. At the bar with Graem, I ran into who appeared to be the manager, who also appeared to be a lesbian. She asked how old Graem was, and commented how big Graem was. She also mentioned that she and her partner have a 20-month old they adopted from Nepal. Graem started rooting around and fussing, so I sat back down. She had a couple of bites of the flan but really preferred breast at this point. We rushed through dessert to get our check and reorganize Graem.

Shawna took care of the check while I wrangled Graem, coat and diaper bag near the bar. As we walked out, Shawna commented that our tab came to $38, including our now typical slightly-more-generous tip to compensate for our messy baby. We were kind of upset by how much that meal cost, given we weren’t stuffed and the food was nothing exciting. We had also forgotten that drinks in NYC cost upwards of $9.

Friday Dinner: We ventured uptown a bit, mostly wandering aimlessly. We stopped into a couple of baby boutiques, were appalled at the Size 6 linen pajamas (or maybe it’s pyjamas, when you buy them at a boutique) for $168, and headed back towards the subway to get home before dark. We stopped at the Pakistani/Indian takeout place near the subway stop and picked up some chicken tikka masala, chicken curry, and lamb curry. We also grabbed some raita-looking stuff that had kofta, corn and jalapenos, plus some kheer for dessert. All for $31. The guy just pulled that number out of the air, in spite of the menu with prices. The curries were all great–pretty spicy by our standards. The raita stuff was weird–not a hit. The kheer was denser than we’re used to, and smelled a bit like prosciutto/feet. Not sure if it was supposed to.

Saturday Lunch: Today’s destination was Chinatown. We had originally planned to go for dim sum with my dad on Sunday, but didn’t want to drag everyone into NYC, and were also worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to shop around before we needed to head back to Ithaca. We figured that dim sum in Brooklyn or Queens would be perfectly fine–less traffic, fewer people. All good things with grumpy baby. We shopped around for a bit, when once again, Grammy started getting fidgety and hungry. I also had to go to the bathroom really bad, and everywhere required me to be a customer. We tried a Starbucks, but in spite of the diuretic properties of caffeine, there was a line out the door for the crapper. I said I’d hold it, and jokingly commented that we should have brought some of Shawna’s catheters (that’s another story for another time).

We couldn’t possibly go for dim sum two days in a row. Shawna insisted that she couldn’t eat “that crappy food”–blasphemy–more than once this trip. So we continued walking east on Canal, when I spotted a couple of Vietnamese restaurants. There was also a Mongolian restaurant, but it looked expensive, and we needed to recoup our losses from the previous day’s dining. We looked at a couple of the menus, and most were pho–fine by me, but too noodly for Shawna. Finally we picked one–New Pasteur. There were only two other parties there, and one of them had a 17-month-old boy. A good sign.

We unpacked Graem and I finally got to go to the bathroom. When I got back, we ordered: spring rolls to start, squid with chili sauce and lemongrass over rice for me, and beef with watercress for Shawna. We got rave reviews on the beef with watercress from the couple with the kid, so it sounded like a go. One thing I love about Chinese/other Asian restaurants is that they’re always fast–our local takeout has your order done before you hang up the phone. The spring rolls were a bit smaller than we’re used to, but greater in quantity, resulting in a higher wrapper-to-filling ratio than we’re used to, but they were still good. They came with the usual nuoc cham and romaine lettuce leaves and cucumber, but the nice surprise was the fresh mint that came along with them. The mint really added a brightness to the already-magical hot-crispy-cool combination. Graem ate the cucumbers and some of the filling.

My dish came, and was of surprising proportions, given the $4.50 cost. The squid was cooked just right, and the sauce was more oyster-saucy than chili-saucy. The lemongrass was subtle. Shawna’s dish was enormous–a dinner entree. Somehow she was already full from the spring rolls, so I had to help. The beef was tender, coated lightly with cornstarch for a silky texture. The watercress helped contrast the slightly thick brown sauce. I always insist that watercress is an underutilized vegetable–I love its sharp, nutty flavor and crisp texture. My mom also liked watercress, so that also brings back good memories. I also like it steamed, as it’s added to dim sum beef balls.

We were all full and warm with tea, and had a bag of leftovers. The total: $22.00. A better deal.

Saturday Merienda: What would a vacation be without the addition of another meal between lunch and dinner? Actually, we were meeting some of Shawna’s friends from the iVillage board, and it happened to be at a restaurant–Arriba Arriba west side. We mainly opted for liquid sustenance, in the form of margaritas. Shawna had a frozen strawberry, and I had a house on the rocks. For around $8 each, these were pretty good and effective. We also added some nachos to our bulk, which were not too sizeable, but good and better suited for our between-meals meal. They were well-topped with bits of steak, a couple of cheeses, beans, and garnished with some guac. $40 bucks got us three margaritas and the nachos. Liquid meals are always expensive.

Saturday Dinner: Yes, somehow we needed another meal. We were tired and late due to the Q that never came. Dennis came in from Astoria, and actually showed up with my dad to pick us up from the Coney Island/Stillwell station, the closest stop on the D. We had decided to get takeout sushi to accommodate Graem, but the place they had a menu for was “all done” when we called. So Dad and Den went on a quest for sushi, and returned with a boatload (a 13×19 pan full). We feasted on the usual salmon, tuna, mackerel, California and spicy tuna rolls; we also had some toro and white tuna, which I love. I was bummed there was no yellowtail, but the toro and white tuna made up for it. It was mostly sashimi, which was great. Shawna got the chicken teriyaki, which was disappointing. Surprisingly, there were about a dozen pieces left over. I won’t ask what this meal cost.

Sunday Lunch: Snowed in! We decided to wait out the storm for a few hours, and for a while were unsure of whether we’d leave at all. By around 12:30, the snow had slowed down enough to make it worthwhile to shovel out. I had already shoveled once at around 9:30–I always figure it’s easier to shovel one foot of snow than two feet of snow. I cleared the sidewalks and dug out the cars, while my dad cleared them and shuffled them in the driveway/on the street. After all that labor, I was starving. My whole goal for this trip was to get some dim sum, so I begged Shawna to go. Thank goodness the Chinese are always open for business. Never mind the 2nd biggest blizzard in history, there’s money to be made. We went to some random dim sum place on Avenue U (after some bickering over where it was and where to park). Food was fast, of course. The bummer about eating dim sum with few dining partners is that you don’t get to taste as many different types–or, alternatively, you feel obligated to eat it all. I had some siu mai, har gow, beef wrapped in bean curd, beef ball, and pork spare ribs. And yes, I ate it all except for one har gow that Shawna ate, and the various bites that Grammy had. Shawna had the General Tso’s, which I won’t even dignify with commentary.

Sunday Dinner: Our last meal. McDonald’s, unfortunately, but it’s par for the road trip. I had the #2, Shawna tried the new spicy chicken, and Grammy had a chicken nugget Happy Meal with chocolate milk. I wasn’t really hungry, so I had a few fries, 3.5 nuggets remaining from Grammy’s meal, and a bite of the spicy chicken sandwich. The McDonald’s spicy chicken sandwich is no competition for Wendy’s extinct spicy chicken sandwich. While it’s a bit spicier, somehow the ratio of hot-and-crispy to cool/creamy of lettuce and mayo just wasn’t right. Oh and the bun is too thick for the sandwich. Carbs-within-carbs sandwiches need more creaminess. The #2 was great at 11:30PM after watching the L-Word and finally being hungry.

Seven pounds later, it was a great weekend.