New York City Day 6 Part 1

I spent my 5th day in New York at my friend's beautiful wedding and had an insanely good time dancing in circles.  Congratulations to the Jonathans!

If my previous days weren't food-centric enough, day 6 was certainly an aggressive pursuit of food throughout the city.  I started off the morning at the Union Square Green Market. (Oh, by the way, I am so behind on blogging that this post is still on my NY trip in July!)

Union Square

...And the place was colors galore!  Purple seemed to be a popular color for a variety of vegetables--carrots, bell peppers, eggplants, you name it!

Zucchinis and Squash

Bell Peppers

Fairytale and Rosa Bianca Eggplants

Purple Carrots

Orange and Yellow Carrots

Gorgeous Multi-colored Swiss Chard

Tomatoes

Blueberries

Next stop was the Flat Iron District.

Flat Iron Building

Conveniently located in Madison Square Park right across the street from the Flat Iron Building is Shake Shack.  I made sure to get there around 11AM to avoid the long lines.

Shake Shack in Madison Square Park

This place is sooooo not overrated. Their ShackBurger is butter, the patty grilled to a perfect medium-medium well, and the overall burger is juicy and flavorful. I believe this is the best simple burger I've ever had. The ShackBurger is just a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and ShackSauce, but the quality of the patty makes it an absolute stand-out.

The strawberry pistachio concrete (dense frozen custard) is also delicious, but it was odd eating something that's strawberry flavored that's not red.

ShackBurger and a cup of Strawberry Pistachio "Concrete"

ShackBurger

ShackBurger

I would've ordered another ShackBurger (I shared half of it with my mom), but I wanted to save room to try a haute dog at Dogmatic.  WRONG MOVE.  I should've tried Shake Shack's Shack-cago Dog or Bird Dog or any of the hot dog vendors in the city instead of this overpriced piece of crap dog at Dogmatic.

What makes these hot dogs fancy is that you get to choose a kind of sausage (beef, chicken, lamb, pork, or turkey) and one kind of gourmet sauce (chimicurri, sundried tomato feta cheese, cheddar jalepeno, truffle gruyere, horseradish mustard, and mint yogurt), and instead of a hot dog bun, the sausage is stuffed inside a toasted baguette roll and the sauce is pumped into the roll. 

Dogmatic; Beef Sausage in Toasted Baguette with Chimichurri Sauce

I was foolish to think that fancy sauces can make a hot dog good.  It doesn't matter how delicious or inventive the sauce is, the dog and the bun are the most important components.  Well, the dog was room temperature, burnt, dry, and tasteless, the baguette was cold and stale, and the sauce was bland and a far cry from real chimichurri.  The only comfort was the side of warm and fragrant truffle gruyere mac and cheese.

Truffle Gruyere Mac & Cheese

This horrible haute dog experience put me in a bad mood, and I thought a visit to The Lobster Place in the Chelsea Market would bring my spirit back up.

Chelsea Market

Chelsea Market is a foodie paradise.  I wanted to eat something from every shop; unfortunately the human body is only equipped with one stomach and thus I focused on just The Lobster Place.

The Lobster Place

My mom and I shared a lobster roll and a lobster sushi roll.  Ahhhh...this made me forget my earlier foodie blunder.  The lobster roll is packed with lobster meat.  The meat was sweet and fresh and the mayo was tart and creamy.  I didn't care much for the roll, but as a whole, this was scrumptious. 

Lobster Roll

But, the lobster sushi roll was even better!  The creamy spicy ginger sauce was the perfect condiment.

Lobster Sushi Roll with Creamy Ginger Sauce

After what seemed like a morning and early afternoon eating marathon, we decided to walk it off at the High Line, which is a park that is built on a former elevated freight railroad that runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th Street.  I love this innovative public space!

The only bad thing is that it gets really hot up there in the middle of summer, and there are very few shaded areas.  Fortunately, I found People's Pops in the park.  The Bartlett pear shaved ice was light and refreshing.  I wish they had made it into a popsicle as well.

People's Pops at the High Line; Bartlett Pear Shaved Ice

Strawberry Basil Popsicle