New York is a city of overachievers. People here want to do the best, have the best, be the best, make the best. The ones that don't? Move to Florida. Why? It's simple. NY is expensive, and if you don't achieve in some form or fashion, you would end up in the projects.
I love the fact that NY achieves. I believe in achieving. What is the point of being mediocre? My grandmother taught me something very important at a very young age. Whatever you do, be it corporate executive or cashier, do it well. The simplest things should be done to the best of your ability. If it's my papers or my paprikash, I put everything into it. I am glad that even the pizzerias and ice creameries of NY share the same views towards achievement as the rest of my insane city.
How lucky am I that two of them are so insanely close to each other. Grimaldi's Pizzeria and The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Both of these restaurants are often crowded, with lines that wrap in front of each of their perspective entrances. The scores of people that have waited for these foods are not wrong. Grimaldi's and TBICF go out of their way to make your taste buds tingle. It's worth finding your way around DUMBO for these two restaurants, not to mention the awe-inspiring view of lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.
The word that comes to mind when you enter into the "hallowed ground" that is Grimaldi's is "goodfellas". From the Frank Sinatra mugshot, to the cheek and hand kissing, slick-haired owner. This place looks like somewhere you might find a revolver behind the water-closet ala' Godfather.
The menu is simple, pizza or calzone, cooked in a coal fired oven that fills the entire dining room with the smells of a campfire. The desire to build s'mores is inevitable until they bring you your very own ooey-gooey, crispy-crunchy, hand-made pie. No shortcuts here. The personally tossed and formed dough, the spread of freshly made mozzarella, the drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, the drop of the basil leaves, the chopped garlic. That is what makes this one of NY's best pizzas. It would be so easy to overeat here. Stopping at one or two slices seems impossible. I am amazed that I could. If it weren't for the promise of ice cream in the near future, I might have lost the battle. Thank heavens, I ate a salad before going to Grimaldi's.
The sauce is spicy-sweet, and spread thinly over the crisp crust. The aforementioned cheese, basil, and olive oil, the classic Naples combination, seems new and fresh on their pie. It's as if no one has ever put them together in this way before. The chopped fresh garlic, signature to NY pies, only adds more character to the pie. Gilding a lily? Perhaps, but sometimes the extra paint is extraordinary. I find myself held captive by its aroma. I wish that they bottled it as a men's cologne. Tim would be wearing it every day. Some people have oysters, New Yorkers have pizza. DUMBO has Grimaldi's.
After such a dinner, you would think I would go home and collapse into satisfied lump of happiness. No. I went to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory to share a scoop with my husband. We chose the ultra rich peach ice cream. It's light and smooth, overflowing with peach goodness. I might as well be sitting at a creamery in Savannah. It is so rich that you will find that one dip is plenty for two people.
Yesterday, Tim and I happened to be in Chelsea, and hungry for some roughage. But O' Delight of Delights, The green grocer inside the marketplace has a great, affordable, salad bar, with some of the best produce and cheese in town. I love salads, I love them even more when they are cheap and fresh. Food is fuel, and the dense nutrients found in a well-prepared salad, more than fill you up. The dietary fiber alone will digest more slowly than simple carbohydrates, and leave you feeling fuller, longer. Eat a rainbow, and it's hard to go wrong.
Try the pineapple, it was splendid.
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