Catching up

Just like the comments the posts have been slow coming also! I've done so much in the last 6 days I hope I can remember everything. Time here goes by much slower than when Im in Italy. I think its because in Italy I'm aware of the fact that my days there are numbered and the days are slipping away like time in an hourglass. New York is amazing but living in Italy is like a dream that you dont wake up from. So even tho I'm busy all day here and doing tons of things time doesn't fly. So where did I leave off? day before Christmas? Christmas eve dinner was done in a traditional Italian way with no meat dishes, only fish. I was asked to cook the brown sugar salmon recipe that I made in Italy. There was also lobster, shrimp in a cream sauce, fried calamari, bacala ( a kind of white fish), pasta with clams, pasta with anchovies, things like hummus and other dips, bread and other sides. There was so much food! After dinner came out plate after plate of desserts served with espresso. After playing chess with Marios little brother I went upstairs to take a nap and although I had planned to go back downstairs The food kept me asleep until morning. Christmas morning after coffee me mario, his two sisters, his brother and his mother gathered near the christmas tree. Although I had said they really didnt need to get me anything these people are too generous not to. His aunts family and his both got me gift cards. After they opened their presents we went and watched a movie for a while and just relaxed. A while after noon we started getting ready for the Christmas dinner which would be at Zia's house (italian for aunt) and once again would include the whole family. While waiting for everyone to arrive we ate finger food that consisted of excellent Italian cheeses and meats, chips and homemade dip, the bacon that was cooked on the roast and other goodies. Remembering that I had said I used to bartend they put me to work making them their pomegranate martinis. Glad to help in anyway I could I made the best martinis possible. When every one arrived (grandma and grandpa, uncle and cousins) we all sat down and started eating. Once again their was great food and wine. Mario had brought back some homemade wine from his relatives in Italy and they also had store bought Italian wines to go with dinner. There was roasted garlic (a whole clove cut in half and baked with cheese and bread crumbs on top) scalloped potatoes, veggies, fresh bread and an excellent roast rubbed with rosemary and stuffed with panchetta. Basically I had two nights of excellent food and good company. Another good thing was that I was able to talk to everyone in my family on the phone. I think it was easier to be away from home than it normally would be because my parents have been divorced for a long time so I've always been apart from part of my family on Christmas. After christmas dinner we had some drinks and hung out for a while. The next day (still feeling full) Mario, his cousin and I headed into the city to go to the gym he used to work at and burn some Christmas food off. That was my first day taking the subway (im a pro now). From Steinway st. in Astoria, Queens we rode the subway to a stop right next to sity hall. City hall was beautiful with fountains and antique street lights. We met up with Marios workout partner and discovered that his branch of the club was closed. We made our way to the next branch (located off wall street), passing by the NY stock exchange building. The building was huge with columns decorated with lights to look like the american flag. The gym was very cool, with huge windows and great equipment. We were there for a couple hours and I got to work out, hit the speed bag and take a nice steam sauna. After the gym we headed to battery park area of Manhattan to visit one of Mario's friends, Samir. Samir lives about one block up from the World Trade center site and it was crazy to see the actual size. Everything in New York is different than I expected it becaue I've seen enough on TV to have expectations but generally all my expectations have been wrong. The size of things is what has been incorrect the most. I always visualize things being bigger or smaller than they are. The World Trade Center ground zero was definitely much larger than I expected. There were construction crews going 24/7 but it still looked like they hadn't even removed all the rubble yet. There were two HUGE holes where the towers used to be. It was very surreal when I actually started thinking about what happened and what it would be like to be there. After hanging out at the apartment for a while we headed back to queens on the subway which is very easy to use and not as grimy as I thought it would be. The next day we hung around the house for a while before deciding to take on Brooklyn. Although Queens and Brooklyn are connected we went through the city (what they call Manhattan) and over the Brooklyn Bridge. Every time I go over a bridge into the city it is awesome (especially at night) but it can never compare to the first time, which felt like I was driving into a movie. The first time was amazing and crazy and like nothing else Ive ever experienced. Anyway Mario, Gianni (his lil Bro) and I went over the bridge into Brooklyn and made our first stop, the pizza place that I posted pictures of previously. With multiple recommendations as the best pizza place in NY I had high expectations. Called "grimaldi's" (http://pizzatoday.com/features_articles.shtml?article=ODkyc3VwZXI4ODlzZWNyZXQ4OTY=) it was under the brooklyn bridge and apparently other people had heard good things because there was a line. While they waited in line I walked around and took pictures. Once inside the packed restaurant my eyes were drawn to a massive (http://www.grimaldis.com/) coal heated oven. The smell inside was the kind of aroma that makes a hungry man hungrier and a full person realize they have a little room left. We squeezed into a corner and ordered a sausage, red pepper pizza and a carafe of wine. Its alot harder drinking wine with every meal here in the US because wine is so much more expensive than in Italy. The pizza was excellent with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes imported from Italy. Easily some of the best pizza I've ever had. After Grimaldi's we headed out for another culinary landmark: Juniors. World famous for it's cheesecake and deserts it was located in the heart of Brooklyn. We got out and walked our way to the restaurant, which looked like a classic diner (although very large) from the outside. (http://www.juniorscheesecake.com/)The inside was decorated with signed pictures and memorabilia from famous people, New Yorkers and otherwise. I ordered a cheese cake and a glass of milk and while I was waiting used the restroom, which for some reason had a bathroom attendant. The cheese cake was so good! Milk was a good choice too. Very smooth and rich it had excellent flavor. We drove around for a while before heading back to Queens. The next day we headed out to JFK to pick up Scott, who was flying in from Germany. After we picked him up there we had perfect timing. Right after we walked out of the airport two cabbies got into a screaming match which included very graphic death threats. Scott just put his head down and walked by very quickly. Welcome to New York. Although Ive felt completely safe since Ive got here it was the stereotypical NY scene and we had fun teasing him with made up stories about what he was in for. The next day we headed into the city with Marios whole family. We walked around times square (which will never be normal) and his mom took us all out to dinner at a tuscan themed restaurant. It was very good and we ordered in Italian. The food was tasty and was authentic. After we ate we headed to check out the tree at rockafellar center and then some stores. There was a mass of people out due to the holiday weekend. We stopped to watch a huge building that was covered in lighted stars that turned on and off in time to christmas music that played out of speakers. We also checked out Grand Central Station, which was beautiful and the nicest station Ive ever seen. We separated from most of his family and headed out to see the night life in the east village, which was pretty fun. The next day Scott, Megan (one of my friends from AK who goes to school in the area) went to the Natural history museum, which was very cool. The building itself was incredible and huge. It was stuffed full of all kinds of things that would take days to take in. We got to watch an Imax movie about dinosaurs also. After the museum we walked along central park for about 20 blocks, seeing trump tower (I dont have any pictures from this day because before I left the house I though it would be nice to have a day where I could just enjoy things and not have to worry about taking pictures. I wont do that again) and lots of other landmarks. Central park was enormous. We took a subway to Times square and we took turns picking stores to look in. There was actually a 4 story store solely for M&M's. Crazy. My favorite was the 4 level massive Virgin Mega store. It had massive floors full of every movie, cd, book that you could think of from around the world. We tried to eat at restaurants like the Hard rock Cafe and ESPN zone and a few others but each had waiting times of about 90 minutes each. I led us to a little Japanese restaurant that I had seen a couple times and we had a very nice meal. Bento boxes all around with Sapporo and tempura. After that we walked around some more before heading back to the subway where we found some real NY flavor. A very charismatic man call "the pots and pans man" was playing drums on pots, pans, buckets and other objects and sounded gread doing it. After watching him for a while we moved towards our train before being stopped, this time by the sight of a group of young kids doing break dancing. They were very talented and funny and put on a great show. Both performers incited random people to start dancing all around and in general made the subway a fun place. We met Mario back in Astoria, Queens and he took us to his favorite Hookah bar. He told us that hookah bars were typically non alchoholic places that people go to socialize and relax. It smelled great when we walked in. We ordered two flavors of tobacco and middle eastern drinks. The hookahs were water cooled and very smooth. We had peach and tobacco out of two, over 4 foot tall, hookahs. After we met up with one of Marios sisters at a little bar/ cafe and had a drink. The next day (New Years Eve) We headed into the city around 6pm. There was definitely a different vibe in the air. Everyone was happy and excited and there was an electric feeling going around. And it was only 6! We got to Times Square around 7 and all the way around and a couple block from Times square there was a ring of police and barricades. They kept saying there was a way into Times square a couple blocks down but after following their advice a few times it became apparent that it was just a clever play to keep large groups of people from piling up at one place. Each street had a row of 20 officers flanked by police cars in v formation and police in riot gear with M-16s. They were serious. At one point a long line of about 35 mounted police trotted past. Once again NY made me feel like I was in a movie.We were able to sneak past a couple barricades and were about 20 feet from the festivities. We were right in front of Miles Cyrus (one of the musical groups playing that night) and the sight of over a million people was crazy. We stopped for some pizza and decided to head downtown and return to Times Square later. We took the subway to Chinatown and purchased a relaxing beverage, which we enjoyed while walking through Chinatown (where I purchased some early release movies) and little Italy. There were people all over the streets laughing and celebrating. Very fun just walking around. We walked up to soho and through east and west village, where we were when it turned midnight. Happy new Years everyone! Mario picked us up the next day and we headed over to his aunts house for a family New Years dinner. Once again there was excellent food and good company. After dinner we headed back into the city to meet up with a girl that we went to school with in Florence that was staying with a friend for the night. We hung out at her apartment for a while. She had an amazing apartment in battery part that had a great view of the Statue of Liberty. After catching up there we headed out to a little pub frequented (according to Mario who went to school in the area) by college kids. We had some great food there, simple (fried chicken and irish fries) but very good. We dropped our friend off and headed back to Queens. The 2nd (yesterday) was just a lazy catch up day for us. After the holiday season and about 2 weeks of sight seeing I enjoyed a relaxing day. We walked to the neighborhood grocery store and got some groceries to cook with and that was about it for activity that day. This morning we woke up early and picked up Mario's Grandma before heading to the Bronx. Mario told us how the real little Italy is located in the Bronx (not manhattan) and that its a lot more authentic than the one in downtown Manhattan. Marios Nonna (grandma) used to live there and told us how it used to be over 10 square blocks but now has shrunk to only a few. We went to a bakery that had excellent bread then a market that was similar in content if not size to Florence's central market. We followed that up with a stop in a homemade cheese store and a fresh Italian coffee store. After we finished shopping we went to Yankee stadium and walked around there for a while. The Yankee stadium was cool to see, especially because they are building a new one and are about to tear down the old one. There! Its good to catch up. I brushed over a few things so feel free to ask questions.