Holiday Travel Wrap-up

It's been an interesting year in travel, to say the least....stranded once by the volcano, diverted a second time by it, a few bags "lost" and later returned, one broken, and one still missing....

So, it shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone that travel issues once again changed my holiday plans!

Thanks to the winter storm, our flight to NYC was cancelled a couple of times, so we were not able to visit all the restaurants that Herr J had planned for us. Instead we stayed a few more days in coastal South Carolina.

Low Country Cuisine at 82 Queen

Our last night in South Carolina, we went to 82 Queen, for some great food. I had shrimp and grits (with bacon and cheddar topping!) to start, followed by crab cakes with red rice and green beans (also with bacon). And Herr J had She-Crab Soup, then a dish of mussels and shrimp. Excellent!

I love all the fresh seafood in South Carolina, and had crab cakes more than once. I miss crab cakes and good big shrimp here!

We did finally make it to NYC...in time to arrive late to our 10pm reservation for a fabulous meal at Asia de Cuba. We were on the balcony upstairs, overlooking the large communal table below.

Asia de Cuba

I can't recommend enough the Beef Dumplings Two Ways....one type looked like normal (large) fried dumpling but had the delicious spicy stuffing  of an empanada; the other a steamed dumpling in a sweeter soy based sauce.  The Miso-Glazed Black Cod was also wonderful, as it usually is at places such as here, Tao, and Nobu. I always have a hard time resisting that dish!

After a long day of travel, we had an unexpectedly entertaining show put on by a neighboring table in the bar area. The short version is that we first see a guy and a girl kissing, then a second girl comes arrives. We find out that the guy was meeting the second girl (whom he met on MillionaireMatch.com) there, but the first girl coincidentally was there and came over while he waited for his date. After many cheesy lines from this guy, some posturing and cattiness by the girls, he left with girl #1 while girl #2 thankfully had some self-respect and ended the date there. I only wish I could have seen the SMS's she was sending after he and the other girl left! 

Since we had less than 24 hours in the city, we had to prioritize and had time to run a few last errands (where Herr J was introduced to Sephora) and spend some browsing around B&H...a happy place for both of us! I finally found a good camera bag to replace the one South African Airways lost (the camera was not in it!) and a new filter for my 24-70mm lens.  This left us with time for an amazing lunch as Les Halles, which I had been looking forward to for a month. American beef, French style definitely works! If you're looking for a good steak in New York, try here. It's a deceptively simple meal, but with tender, melt in your mouth beef, and perfect crisp twice-fried frites. Yum!

I hope we can make another trip soon and catch up on everything we had planned for this trip!

Steak Frites at Les Halles