Every year, we celebrate my husband’s birthday with a day off from work, to wander around in New York City without our children. We spend the day eating and drinking everything in sight!
This year, we celebrated E’s 40th birthday with some amazing pizza, burekas, Japanese inspired sandwiches, and more!
We started the day at Postcard Bakery, a sister restaurant to one of our favorite handroll restaurants, Nami Nori. Postcard Bakery is a Japanese style bakery, serving Japanese inspired sandwiches and sweets. E ordered the Chicken Katsu Sando and I ordered the Egg Salad Sando. We also ordered the Hojicha Latte. All were delicious and reminded us of our recent trip to Japan.
Next up, was a trip to Buba Bureka. I had been dying to try this place since it first opened. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint! We ordered the spinach artichoke bureka, which just so happens to be the most popular bureka on the menu, and it was amazing! I love that they provide dips (tomato, techina, and schug), hardboiled eggs, and Israeli pickles to complement or layer on top of the bureka. Will have to try one of their other types the next time we go!
Then we were off to Pop Up Bagels. E and I have VERY high standards when it comes to bagels. We are Kosher Bagel Supreme loyalists (IYKYK). We were cautiously optimistic that we would enjoy the Pop Up Bagels. We ordered a three pack of (piping hot) bagels, as well as butter and scallion cream cheese on the side. Here, you rip your bagel and dip into the schmear! We shared an everything bagel and it was so fresh and hot. We loved it!
After our bagels, we stopped into Aoko Matcha to try their matcha ice cream. We settled on the Level 2, which has a matcha intensity level of 5.9%. It was just the right level of sweetness and bitterness paired together for us. We loved it. Next time we will definitely try their Hojicha!
Then we went for drinks at Blind Tiger, the birthday boy’s favorite bar in NYC at the moment. There were a surprising number of people at the bar at 11:30AM on a Wednesday… E ordered his favorite Hill Farmstead beer, Everett, and I ordered the Hudson Valley Brewery Cider Donut beer. Both were refreshing, and it was nice to rest our feet for a few and just hang.
We then stopped for a few slices of pizza at L’Industrie Pizza on Christopher Street. We ordered a Burrata slice and a Margherita Slice. Both were INSANE.
E then ordered a sandwich from Faicco’s to go. He got a chicken, mozzarella, and pesto sandwich. The cheese pull on this sandwich was something else. He ate half immediately and saved the other half for lunch the next day. He is a BIG FAN. Next time, I am going to get a caprese. Their mozzarella looked AMAZING.
We also stopped into two Japanese grocery stores, Ten Ichi Mart and Hashi Market. E picked up an onigiri at each one. His favorite was the spicy tuna onigiri from Hashi Market!
We always end our food tour of NYC with a one hour foot massage at All Seasons Beauty Spa. It is the BEST. I definitely fell asleep for a portion of the massage. We did A LOT of walking around!
Then we hopped back into our car and drove home! We made it back just in time to pick up the kids from school and take N to hockey practice. What a great way to celebrate E’s birthday!
