Grand Central and Metrazur

We headed to New York for a 5 day trip over Spring Break and stayed at the Grand Hyatt above Grand Central Station in Midtown. It's really not one of my favorite hotels, but I can get to the office in under 5 minutes, which is super valuable when I'm blearily rousing myself to be in at 9 am eastern time.

We arrived around 8 pm and headed into the Main Concourse of Grand Central to sort out some dinner. Although the basement food court was tempting (I'm serious, I love that food court), we ended up at Metrazur on the east balcony.

The restaurant is beautiful and the ambiance in Grand Central can't be beat. They also had a great deal for a prix fixe - pick 3 courses off the menu and get 2 glasses of wine for $44. Since each appetizer was around $15 and the entrees were in the high $20s, we decided this was the way to go.

I started with a white asparagus salad that was excellent - my first white asparagus of the year! I followed with some wild striped bass with more asparagus (green this time), which was very good. We also ordered a couple of the angus strip steak with french fries - which I liberally sampled from Amara and Sean.

Desserts were pretty but somewhat unmemorable. We finished eating around 10 and wandered back upstairs to our room. Which was billed as a parlor suite. But had the smallest bathroom in creation. Do not book a Lexington Suite at this hotel - trust me on this.

Breakfast in New York

I'm a girl who likes her protein in the morning. I learned this the hard way when I got gestational diabetes with my second pregnancy, and had to monitor my blood sugar like a hawk. My blood sugar spikes very high in the morning with carbs, more so than any other time of the day. So now, I make sure to have protein every morning - usually involving eggs and ham.

There is no protein at the continental breakfast supplied in the Hyatt's Grand Club. There is a whole counter full of carbs. OK, there are some desultory looking cold hard boiled eggs sitting around, but really?!

My favorite breakfast is a breakfast sandwich on whole wheat english muffin. That's what I make when I'm at home. In a pinch, the breakfast ham sandwich at Starbucks also does the trick very well. That's what I had on my first morning.

On my second morning, I wandered into a local coffee place called Macchiato. I had a really nice chai tea and an excellent ciabatta roll with scrambled eggs, cheese and ham. So big I could have had the other half for lunch, had I not had other lunch plans. I was very sad to throw the other half away later in the day :(

The next couple of mornings, I remembered that I last had great breakfast sandwiches at a little place called Dishes in the Grand Central food court. I love this place. Not only did they make a mean ham and spinach muffin sandwich, they also had chocolate croissants from Balthazar! The latter for my daughter of course.

And that's what I love about breakfast in New York - some form of the breakfast sandwich is offered at practically every outlet. Fast, reasonable and gets me anchored with the protein I need!

Robatayaki in Midtown

I've been in New York for a couple of days and have had a few great meals. The first night, we had a large group at Koi - a Nobu-esque place within the Bryant Park Hotel. The miso-glazed cod was almost as good as Nobu and the Hamachi tataki was phenomenal.

I've also had some great fast food (all local purveyors) in the basement dining concourse of Grand Central Station - paninis with organic ingredients for breakfast, huge slices of white pizza with sopressata and some good chicken schwarma and falafel. Hale and Hearty Soups and a cheesecake from Junior's will have to be saved for the next time I'm there.

Finally last night, I found a little robatayaki place in Midtown, just a few blocks from my hotel, called Aburiya Kinnosuke. I sat at the bar and watched with fascination the choreographed movements in the kitchen area in front of me. Although I didn't order sashimi, I loved watching the master at work - how he precisely sliced the fish, and arranged all the servings on large platters adorned with shiso leaves, radish, wasabi and pomegranate seeds, among other things. After every dish, he cleaned his work and arranged his knives and supplies just so, before starting work on another order.

The big grill with scorpion fish and tsukune (minced chicken loaf) being cooked on wooden paddles was also fun to watch. The grill master worked without gloves and turned the various skewers in a pattern that was only discernible to him, but that ensured everything was evenly cooked in the right order.

Roasted Eringi Mushrooms w/ red miso and scallion - grilled on a large houba leaf placed upon a small charcoal grill placed right in front of me.
Grilled anago (sea eel)