Thursday, January 01, 2009

Hayden's Journey...

My friend, Hayden, is in town from Florida.  I've known her for about a decade now, but haven't gotten a chance to see her very much in the last couple of years.  We made a plan to start the New Year off right by staying better in touch!  Thusly, she came in bright and early today.  To greet her to the Big Apple, I had a hot apple crisp baking away in the oven.  (Truthfully it wasn't all apples – I threw in a couple of pears as well.)
  
Hayden's visit has also prompted the cleaning of my studio.  (It's where she's staying.)  The room is the cleanest it has been in months!  There are only three shoeboxes left to organize.  It amazes me, because I remember when it was STACKED to the ceiling.  I'm probably still in shock from vacuuming in there.  INCREDIBLE!

After we spent several hours catching up over coffee and apple crisp, we decided to head out and take a tour of the neighborhood.  We had inclement weather yesterday.  Which basically means that it snowed and sleeted yesterday.  Today was "fine," or rather, it was "clear".  But it was also 20 degrees out and felt like 13 or 15.  So, what normally is a leisurely stroll about the neighborhood, pointing out little shops, and favorite eateries, turned into a very terse and very brief hustle around Sunset Park.  It basically consisted of, "Oh, here's the best view in all of Brooklyn.  Isn't it pretty?  Oh, it's cold.  It's cold.  Okay, let's go to the train!"

To conclude the Brooklyn tour of the day, William, Hayden, and I headed over to Park Slope.  I love Park Slope!  It's so cute.  All of the little shops, bars, and tea houses make me happy.  Unfortunately, the cold and perhaps the fact that it was a holiday kept most of everything closed and with the metal grates drawn.  Fortunately, our lunch/early dinner destination, The Chipshop, was open.  They serve some of the best and authentic British food in New York.  (Yes, haggis is on the menu.)

We had some yummy fried fish (both cod and haddock) sprinkled with malt vinegar and lemon with tartar sauce on the side, divinely greasy chips (a.k.a. French fries), buttermilk battered chicken fingers, and for dessert a fried Mars bar and a steaming treacle pudding.  Oh, how, I love treacle pudding... let me count the ways.

Hayden will be here for a couple of days.  It'll be nice, because it'll force me to get out of the house and reconnect with all of the things that I love about New York.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

yum! I get so hungry reading your blog! Apple crisp and treacle pudding, delicious.

Anonymous said...

Happy new year andrew! ah, you were just mere blocks away from our apartment. In fact, we were toying with the idea of the chipshop for dinner. It would have been funny to run into you. Instead, we ordered in for chinese because, yeah, it was freaking cold.

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Sheila! Maybe when I come and visit, I'll make some. Both are pretty simple to make, but oh so delicious!

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Jenna! Yeah, that would have been funny! It was weird how deserted the streets were. I can understand staying in. Especially with two little ones. I was very tempted to do the same and stay in.

As gross as this may sound, Chinese food has become a warm comfort blanket for me. I made a stir-fry for lunch.