On Friday night, S and I braved the pouring rain and met up for dinner at
Sigiri, in the East Village. Never having had Sri Lankan food before, I was up for a new foodie adventure and had high hopes based on S's enthusiastic reviews. We arrived at the tiny restaurant rather drenched, but the rain might have been working to our advantage, because the usually packed restaurant had several open tables and we were seated right away. The walls were a happy and rejuvenating coral color and the soft lighting gave the small space a romantical air (but also made some of my pictures turn out a bit....rose-tinted, shall we say?).
We started with the Veggie Gothamba Roti: a triangular pancake filled with vegetables and spices.
They were sort of like big samosas, only the pancake was more doughy and the spices, slightly different.
For our mains, S recommended the Kotthu Roti, and luckily I had thought that it sounded great while perusing the online menu earlier in the day. We were presented with two mountains of it, and dug right in.
A Sri-Lankan roadside specialty of shredded, doughy pancakes that are stir-fried with vegetables, onion, egg and your choice of beef or chicken. It basically tastes like the best fried rice that you've ever had with a more interesting texture. An exotic comfort food, perfect for a rainy night.
They came out with a tomato-based sauce on the side, but S was in the know and asked for a buttery, coconut glaze which added a new, delicious level of flavor when poured over the "rice."
If you want to hit up Sigiri, keep in mind that there's usually a wait since it's such a small place, so you might want to stop by, put your name in, and then grab a drink somewhere nearby. It's also BYOB and cash only, so make sure that you come prepared.
After we had eaten as much of our pancake mountains as we could stomach, S and I decided to go in search of drinks since the downpour had slowed to a drizzle by that point.
We wandered around for a bit before stumbling upon
Via della Pace, which seemed like a strange combination of nice, rustic Italian restaurant on one side.......
and noisy sports bar on the other. We sat at the bar and looked over the list of cocktails, wines, sangria, and beers on offer. I went for a fruity cocktail with Chambord and prosecco called the Super Rossini, while S kept it simple with a glass of prosecco.
To be honest, the cocktail wasn't that great, but the bartender was very friendly and it was probably worth it, just to experience the strange, but fun atmosphere of the place. I think that I'd like to go back and try the food at some point. This is another cash only place, so be sure to hit up the atm first if you're thinking of going.
Saturday's weather couldn't have been in starker contrast to that of Friday night. It was sunny and warm with a delightful breeze rustling the trees, so I knew that I had to get outside and enjoy some of it. I also reasoned that it might be good to get some exercise, since, as some of you have noticed, I've mostly just been eating my way across town since moving to New York. I hopped on the train, got off at the Upper East Side, went to Central Park, and began to walk around the reservoir.
The clouds were a painter's dream and the temperature was lovely: warm enough so that you were comfortable without a jacket, but not so hot that just standing around snapping pictures made you sweat.
I got a little snap happy with my iPhone, and really liked the effect of shooting the reservoir through the spindles of the gate.
I'm continually amazed by how big Central Park is. I guess that I was used to the Boston Common and Public Garden, which while lovely, aren't that huge. I feel like I could easily get lost in Central Park's 843 acres though, which might be nice, depending on the time of day.
After making it most of the way around the water, I veered off from the reservoir to see what else I could find.
I eventually came upon the Great Lawn, where lots of people were having picnics, playing games, or napping and sunning themselves.
I plopped myself down and cracked open my book.
Bossypants by Tina Fey. Sooo hilarious, why have I not read this before?
After cackling my way through a few chapters and earning some weird looks from passersby (which is saying something in New York), I felt like I had had enough sun and started to make my way out of the park.
The trail that I was on took me past the back of the Met, where the sun, trees, and sky were reflecting beautifully off of the glass.
Wouldn't it be amazing to live on Museum Mile and be able to just pop into the Met or the Guggenheim, whenever you had a bit of spare time? But I'm not even sure that you'd be able to see everything that's in the Met in a lifetime, even if you did live just across the street, and that's one of the things that I love about it.
It's another one of those spots where you can easily get lost amongst the beautiful scenery and quiet calm of the place, and in a city bustling with people, there are days when that can be a very good thing.
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