A Mountain Girl in New York City
After living in our small mountain town of Steamboat Spring for almost 7 years, going to the city can feel overwhelming sometimes.
My first black tie wedding, and it was in New York!
Even going home to visit family in the San Francis Bay Area and Los Angeles can seem like I have to relearn the ways of city living. This month, I had the wonderful chance to go to a close culinary school friend’s wedding in New York City, and boy was it incredible!
The thing I miss most about living in a Metropolitan area is having access to a huge diversity of food and culture.
I miss those tiny hole-in-the-wall places that offer only a few specialty items, the delicious late night snacks you can find on random corner food trucks, and the types of classic mom and pop restaurants that you’ll travel across town for!
This trip was alllll about the food!
My friend is half Greek, half Italian, and his long time New Yorker family owns several restaurants in Manhattan. His amazing new wife is from Spain and works in the spirits industry as a sales rep. Needless to say, there was no shortage of delicious food, drink, and local culture at this wedding and on this trip! After a beautiful intimate ceremony, we had the most delicious cocktail hour food at his family’s flagship restaurant, Oceana in midtown Manhattan. From a gorgeous raw bar to made to order lobster rolls and grilled octopus, it was probably some of the most delicious cocktail food I’ve ever eaten! Living in the mountains, local seafood simply doesn’t exist, and truly fresh seafood is very difficult or very expensive to come by.
I try so hard to stick to eating as locally and seasonally as possible, so getting the chance to eat so much delicious seafood was a real treat!
The reception started off with a 10 piece live band and energetic dance party. I love to dance, so I LOVED that this was how they kicked it off! As we danced between each course of the 4 course meal, I was filled with joy and love for my good friend and his incredible family. After a jam packed, whirlwind wedding weekend, Rob and I had a few more days of food adventure. Boy did we make the most of it!
Whenever I travel, whether its abroad or somewhere close, I want to eat the local fare, the hole-in-the-wall food, and the down home specialty dishes!
Going to New York was no different! I’d been to New York a couple of times before, but it was so amazing being able to spend this trip with my husband and no plans other than our friend’s wedding! After all of the wedding shenanigans, we spent the next few days running all over the city and eating all there was to eat! From the Greek and Italian food we ate at the wedding, to bagels, Jewish deli sandwiches, ramen, Xiao long bao, late night Korean BBQ, and high end sushi, we subway’d around the city eating a dish here, moving on and eating another dish there. It was so magical and freeing to go through our trip this way. I loved just being able to run around and explore with no obligations or plans. We would just walk by a shop that looked interesting and pop in or see a line at a restaurant and enter intrigued and ready to taste something new! If you’ve made it this far, thank you! I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings about our recent trip.
Cheers to the next adventure, and happy eating!
