Our pictures from New York are up! They aren't all in order, though. Some pics from Paul's trip to San Francisco are mixed in. Simply click on a photo above to take you to Paul's flickr.com page.
One of my EMTs moved from New York about a year ago, and before we left for our trip, I asked her about a good bagel joint recommendation. She said she didn't have one--all bagels in New York are good.
My reading sources led me to Es-a-Bagel as being number one with H&H Bagel (where Paul visited with his sister after I had returned to record high temps in Florida) right behind. However, we weren't near either of those options. Instead, our hotel, was near Bagels and More at the corner of Lexington and 39th. We went there every morning and could not get enough of it. One night at 10:00, I wanted another one (the excuse, of course being the pregnancy), but they were closed. I also wanted to acquire a big bag of them to bring home with me, but alas, we ran out of time for that.
Every morning, I had a fresh, perfectly toasted apple cinnamon bagel with butter. It was unbelievable. The bagel wasn't overly sweet. It didn't have a strong flavor at all. The occasional apple chunks were chopped small. The bread wasn't tough. The butter was only slightly salted, and the chef didn't put so much on that it was running out the sides of the bagel (like a local chain around here I will not mention). It's true. You just can't find bagels like that anywhere else.
Paul, rarely a creature of this regular of a habit, also had the same breakfast every morning: a toasted sesame bagel with walnut-raisin cream cheese. He almost looked like he was swooning when he devoured the last bite of that first bagel. It didn't take much to convince him of the same location for breakfast the following two days.
For the vegan diner, I was pleased to find three tofu options every day--a plain, a veggie, and a scallion. For the non vegan, there must have been 10 options for cream cheese. I only remember the sun-dried tomato, plain, veggie, scallion, and Paul's choice. It was an amazingly large selection in comparison to Florida. The staff was friendly even though speedy; always saying "next please." The prices were reasonable. I think my bagel was $1.30. To drink we stuck with juice, water and the apples we got from the hotel. My absolutely only complaint was that there was no milk for sale in the cases. So, I didn't acquire much calcium at breakfast.
It might be hard to see in the last picture, but the little 2-ft. Christmas Tree on top of one of the glass display cases had a bagel on top instead of a star or angel. I was very amused.
I'd like to take this time to thank my mother for loaning me her rain and down coats for the trip. They were a bit snug around the middle, but it was better than shaking amid the below freezing temperatures. The rain coat kept me dry on Sunday in the rain, and I decided that maybe being pregnant wasn't so bad because I was only wearing four layers and wasn't so cold. Being such a cold-natured person, I was very pleased that I could handle the chill. Thanks, Mom!
