New York City, Day 2 (11/17/09):
I decided during the previous day that two of the “touristy” things I needed to do on this trip were (a) visit MOMA and (b) check out the NBC studio tour. As it turns out MOMA is closed on Tuesdays so it was the studio tour by default.
One of the rules of the studio tour is that you can’t take any pictures. I figured that this would be an interesting diversion because I’m always interested in learning more about production, TV and film production have been around for so long that everything is a science. I work as an interactive producer, so I kind of geek out when I can learn more about how TV shows and movies are produced (definitely some parallels and lessons that can be learned). The tour lasted about an hour and consisted on walking through the news broadcast studio, a green screen studio (very interesting) and learning about makeup/costumes for SNL. It sort of made me wish that I came on a Saturday so I could sit in for a SNL broadcast or rehearsal – something to add to the “to do” list.
After this I went to the Apple store on 5th and 57th, not much to report here…. Just buying some earphones that are designed to fail every 4 months. I also wanted to take a few pictures of the store with my D90 and the Tokina 11-16mm, last time I came here I only had a compact.
I made plans to catch up with a friend of mine at Lupa’s, one of Mario Battali’s restaurants. I had looked forward to eating here but I had also heard some mixed reviews about the food and service falling off the cliff ever since Battali became famous. Like most celeb-chef restaurants a crowd of people are lining to show up any day of the week, so service and the food sometimes takes a back seat. I guess I’m partially to blame for this since I decided to eat there, to be honest the best meals I’ve had were at local established places or up and coming restaurants that haven’t achieved fame yet.
We ended up being seated at the community table located at the front of the restaurant, initially I was worried that it would be too loud but we got through the meal without too much trouble. We were sitting next to an elderly couple that we ended up befriending, I felt like we were on a cruise making friends with the patrons – nothing wrong with it but it’s just the impression that I got.
So, back to the food… I decided to be adventurous to my detriment and ordered the test, which is headcheese. What is headcheese? It’s all the miscellaneous meat and fat from the head of a sheep or cow that is packaged into a terrine and sliced to serve (I know, sounds great). I had never had it, nor would I ever make it and Andrew Zimmerman seems to rave about the stuff (yep, bad choice). The headcheese didn’t taste foul; it just didn’t taste that great – sort of like mushy/fatty cold cuts of roast beef. For our entrée’s I ordered the pork shoulder and Lauren ordered the tortellini (a good safe option). My pork shoulder tasted good but it was mostly fat, it had an acidic taste too it like a NC style vinegar sauce. Lauren’s tortellini was good, but it seemed a bit subtle on the flavor. So I experienced a Batalli restaurant, next time I think I’ll hunt harder for an up and coming restaurant or some place satisfying and cheaper.
After a couple of drinks I parted ways with Lauren and headed off to the concert. I was going to see A Camp, a band that I had missed earlier in the year when I took my vacation to San Francisco. I got into the band because I’ve been a Cardigans fan for quite a while now but I never had a chance to see them play while they were actively touring. When I found out about Nina Persson’s side project I stated getting into her new band. I think she is a pretty awesome singer, one of her qualities is that it seems as if she is singing directly to you. I was psyched to see her perform. Here are a few select pics but if you want to know more about the show click here to read my article/review on it.
