Thursday, March 20, 2008

Dinner with Harold and a Recap of our last day here


Well, let me start by saying that dinner at Perilla was fabulous! It was an incredible meal in a restaurant with warm ambience. The dinner would have rated 5 stars, except for my dorky moment of the evening. Now, prior to going to the restaurant, I had a conversation with Eric about how I would absolutely not make a big deal if I should happen to see Harold. After all, he is a person just like all the rest of us. In fact, I didn't even expect to see Harold because I thought he would be busy in the kitchen. I had read an article in which he talked about how he plates all of the dishes himself. So I was completely caught off guard when he walked out from a storage room right past our table (Eric had his back to him.) I gasped, smiled and waved. I know, I know, I'm shaking my head as I type this. He looked at me, we made eye contact, he got a quizzical look on his face, like "Do I know you from somewhere?" decided that he didn't and then looked away. I was so embarrassed. I know it could have been a lot worse, like if I screamed his name or took out my camera or something. But I still felt super dorky. It was very reminiscent of when Tom Hanks was in my hometown Pacific Grove, filming a movie. I was 17, and he was standing a few feet from me. I saw him, gasped, smiled and waved...and in classic Tom Hanks fashion, he imitated me - expression, wave and all. But it is a memory that makes me smile, and so will this one of Harold.

You are probably reading this and caring more about what the actual meal was like, and let me tell you, it was fabulous! It was yummy and I felt very posh as we dined on spicy duck meatballs, the best rizotto I've ever had, a yummy steak dish.....and a good chocolatey dessert. I'll go into more detail on our review blog when we get home. Let me just say, it was the best meal that we had in the City!

Today was another good day. We strolled through Central Park and wandered through their zoo, on our way to Grand Central Station. We had heard from our friend Jess that Juniors has the best cheesecake in New York, so Eric wanted to try it. And let me tell you, it was really good. It was better than the cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants, and that's saying a lot because I really like that place.

From GCS, we made our way back uptown to the Met. Museum of Art. We wandered briefly through, and saw some amazing exhibits, and then made it back to our hotel for a little rest, before heading to the eastside, to Serendipity's. Now, I think this is quite serendipitous: As you know, we tried to go to Serendipity's on Sunday, but it was too crowded, so we made reservations for tonight. When we got there, it was extremely crowded, but because we had reservations, we only had to wait a couple of minutes. And then we were seated at....you won't believe this....the actual table that John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale sat at in the movie Serendipity. That was soooooo cool and fun. And the frozen hot chocolate lives up to all of the hype. It was super decadent and very delicious and I loved every sip! It was the perfect end to our great vacation here in New York!

Now we are wandering back to our hotel to pack. Our flight leaves early tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure if we will be able to do anything tomorrow morning before we head to the airport. If not, that's OK. It's been a great, relaxing, fun trip - exactly what we needed. Hope you are all well, and if anyone is headed to NY anytime soon, let us know and we will pass on some recommendations.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can't believe you had a Junior's Cheesecake. Long Island University where I went to school was across the street from Junior's -- it was our favorite place to celebrate occasions. I was there two years ago when my Sorority had their reunion. I have their receipe somewhere. Love Mom/Fran