A Fair Day In NYC

Jack (my twelve year-old) and I went to see a fall street fair in NYC today. I decided to leave behind Jasper (my five year-old) with my husband at home just because Jasper is too hyperactive to go to the places we want to go to.

We went to the Lexington Av fair in NYC. Wow. It looks like all other street fairs, but there were some market stands that were different than the usual.

The best market stand I saw was the spice market. Two young and very charming French gentlemen were managing it. The entire stall contained of a large table full of large beautiful bowls filled with all types of tea leaves and spices. One of the French men told me he was a Parisian chef and imported these spices and teas and then created the blends himself. Wow! How talented. I went to Tangier years ago while on a European Cruise and was amazed how this market stall smelled like the exotic spices of Morocco in the middle of the streets of NYC! The prices were also reasonable. I bought about half a dozen little plastic bags (5 ozs. each for $5.00) of spices and tea leaves. I brought home: chicken spices containing a type of curry and other spices, fish spices with amazing colors and textures, a salad spice including among others lavender and red berries, a Moroccan type of spice for lamb and/or couscous which I love making. Also bought tea leaves: a chamomile and almond tea, a chocolate dense black tea, and a sweet pina colada fruity tea. I asked these guys for their website but they said they didn't have any. They also told me they were trying to sell their spices in malls in NYC. I suggested they should contact the Food Channel Network. I can see Bobby Flay and Rachel Ray among others, wanting to try their amazing spices. The only contact I have with these spice men is the fact that I left my E-mail address and they would contact me whenever they would come again.

Also found a great jewelry market stall called "Just B Venice Art Inc" that makes jewelry out of Murano glass and other types of glass. I went to Venice a few years ago and fell in love with their Murano glass jewelry and trinkets. However, I was disappointed to find that this jewelry stall did not have a store, but were working on selling their jewelry on Internet in the future. I bought a beautiful pair of long dangling pair of earrings made out of light blue sea glass. I asked for a matching necklace but they had already sold it.

We then walked towards 60th and Third Avenue and went to check out the waiting time for Serendipity. This is a tiny restaurant that has amazing snacks and the best chocolate desserts I have ever had. Their signature dessert is the "hot frozen chocolate dessert" which is amazing. This restaurant and the dessert were featured in the movie "One Fine Day" with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer. Well, we saw about twenty-five people standing on line outside waiting to get in, and even more people inside the tiny entrance hallway. The waiting line was an hour and a half. The trick is to put your go for an hour and a half to do something else. Since we were really hungry, Jack and I walked to the beginning of the block where CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) was. We had a delicious pizza and salad. We then went to the corner store, Dillon's famous candy store. We spent about half an hour there picking out bags of candy and various types of apparel with their logo. I bought Jasper a big orange pillow with "Reese's Peanut Butter" candy logo on it.

We then went back to Serendipity. The host actually called my name out to be seated as we entered the restaurant. We were seated at a tiny table in the corner at the back. We didn't have to look at the menu. We wanted a frozen hot chocolate dessert to share. However, the menu states there is a $8.50 minimum for each person. So we bought a piece of cake to take home and a soda. We slurped the dessert in five minutes. I have to say unless you have a plan like us, I can't understand why any savvy New Yorker would hang around for an hour and a half to wait for any restaurant. This is NYC.

Jack and I then took a cab back to Grand Central. I had the phone number of my favorite noodle soup restaurant near Grand Central and called them ahead of time to order my favorite roast pork udon noodle soup. I ordered four soups so we could have it for dinner. I picked them up and caught the metro north back home. It was a great day in the city. We had a great time and I took home some amazing bargains!