NYC Adventures in Food: Part 1

Last week, I headed to NYC and Long Island with my LEAD NY Class to investigate and learn how food and agriculture interacts with our largest population center in the U.S.

Fair warning, this is part 1 of a 5 part series that will be largely talking about something non-sports related. Yes, I have a ‘real’ job that does not involve running, biking or swimming that does take up most of my attention span that I don’t normally talk about on here. I work in food and agriculture and I am part of a leadership training program that focuses on food and agriculture. (So if you’re not interested in non-sports related, food and agriculture information, feel free to skip the next 5 postings…)

My adventure started early Sunday – I left my parents house bright and early to head to Albany to meet up with a few of my classmates to catch a train to NYC.

Our Crew:

When we arrived in the city a few hours later, we had just enough time to jump off the train at Penn Station, walk the 10 blocks to our hotel, drop our bags and then scoot over to the Guggenheim for a tour.

The weather had threatened to bring a big snow storm, but it was actually kind of nice Sunday when we arrived, which was good since we had to walk quite a few blocks and cross Central Park to get to the museum. I hate to admit this, but it was my first time in Central Park – my visits to the city always seem to land in the November – March timeframe, so my trips have never ventured toward Central Park… new item for the bucket list, see Central Park in the summer!

Unfortunately we were about 10 minutes late for our first visit of the week, but our guide (the head archivist) of the provided us with  insight to both the architecture of the museum as well as the current exhibit of Italian Futurism. If you have not visited the Guggenheim, I would definitely recommend it, the building is a neat place to visit and the current collection of Italian Futurism was definitely impressive and interesting to learn about!

After the quick tour at the Guggenheim, a few of us scooted down to SoHo to visit with Chobani. We met with the manager of Chobani’s retail store to learn more about how the company is using the SoHo location to sample various flavors with their yogurts while also teaching people about the various ways to use Greek yogurt in their everyday diet. (If you are not aware, Chobani has played a major role in food and eating in the past few years by popularizing Greek Yogurt in the American market.) Greek yogurt is such a great a versatile product, and I love the fact that it has made its way into the mainstream grocery market in the U.S.!

As part of the visit, we were provided samples of the various yogurts available to purchase at the store. We started the tasting session with a Turkish Red Lentil Soup – a recipe from Hamdi’s (the owner of Chobani) mother’s kitchen.  Next, we sampled the savory recipes from the menu – including Hummus + Za’atar, Mango + Avocado, Red Pepper Harissa + Feta, and Pomegranate + Caramelized Onion. My favorite was the Mango + Avocado – who would have thought of putting mango, avocado, jalapenos and a few other ingredients together with Greek yogurt to make a dip?! It was amazing!!

After the savory dishes, we sampled the Smoked Salmon and Herbed Labne sandwich and it was so tasty! This was my first experience with Labne and it was delicious!

After the sandwich we  tried the sweet dishes. These are more in line with a traditional American palate and expectation of yogurt dishes. However, after sampling the savory dishes, I couldn’t believe how sweet these dishes seemed! Our whole group agreed that we actually preferred the savory over the sweet dishes and we kept switching back to the savory to help reduce the overall sweetness! For the sweet dishes we sampled the Pistachio + Chocolate,  Fresh Fruit + Granola, Blueberry + Power, Toasted Coconut + Pineapple, and Fig + Walnut.

My favorite was the Toasted Coconut + Pineapple, but of course I LOVE anything coconut (and pineapple is a close second) so I was pretty much sunk from the start once they told me the combo of flavors!

Overall, everything that Chobani served us was absolutely delicious. I loved all the various flavor mixes and really enjoyed experimenting with new flavors that I would not normally sample. Also, I was super psyched since they provided us with goodie bags to go home with – we were given recipes for all of the yogurts we tried, some glass Chobani cups and a pound of their coffee! So excited to make some of these dishes for guests to try in the future!

After our visit to Chobani Soho, we finally went out to eat a meal. (This was my first meal all day, so it was much appreciated!) And then we checked out Times Square and headed to see some of the food marketing that occurs in that area.  (Of course this included a stop at the M&M Store as well as the Hershey Store!)

After we finished up in Times Square, I crashed hard. A full day of travel and walking around for 14 hours made it a very long day!

Not to mention that we had an early start for our Monday… check out Part 2 for the next day’s adventures in NYC Food!

Tough Muddin’

Last weekend was Tough Mudder in Buffalo…. well, actually Alfred, NY (2 hours south) – but whatever.  So, I must admit, I signed up for this event through the encouragement of A and I was not looking really looking forward to running the event because I had always sworn that I would not participate in a mudder.  No particular reason, just never had any interest in participating in one.  Well, now that I’ve done it, I have to say I loved this event and I’m so happy A talked me into it.  Between the walls to climb, the miles and miles of mud (we’re talking serious mud…), and the crazy off-the-wall obstacles that the mudder is known for, it was a great day.  The 11.6 miles ticked off no problem and I was ready for another go round at the end – despite being hit hard by the electroshock therapy… and yes I apparently blacked out when I was hit, no I don’t remember anything other than the fact that I was hit, and then was standing up out the obstacle covered in mud. Fun stuff. Ok – honestly – I could have skipped that part, but whatever, it was till a great day.  In fact, it was such a great day, that we’re going for round 2!  Well actually round 3 for A, round 1 for C and S – yes, we’re at it again, the crew from Forest Frolic is heading to Mt. Snow next weekend for some muddin’ fun – oh and some serious climbing.  The entire course is up and down the ski slopes… the course is supposed to be one of the more challenging mudder courses, so this should be a great time!  (Yes, I pay companies to beat me up for fun. No I do not need a psychiatric evaluation…)

Rather than spell out each muddy and wonderful mile of the tough mudder, I figured I’d just share the few before and after photos that A and I took together, and throw in the proofs from the professional photographers.

Before… slightly concerned about what is about to happen…

Pre-race thumbs up.

Carry your teammate. No problem!

Glad my parents prepped me for this when I was younger.

Mud Mile. So fun!

Finish Line – Post my experience in Electroshock Therapy…

All done! (P.S. Check out the amazing photo bomb over my shoulder)

Fav pic of the day! All smiles & semi clean post our “showers” with the hoses provided.

Obviously this doesn’t cover the whole course, and unfortunately (fortunately?) there are no pictures that have been recovered of either of us during the electrical obstacles.  I was happy that we were able to run the entire 11.6 miles and we even took on every “burn zone” which meant we did well over 120 pushups, a bunch of burpees, and a 250 yard bear crawl during the course.  Oh and I was pumped that I was able to do every obstacle without any major problems.  I even jumped off the cliff without freezing (heights just are not my thing – even though I’ve bungee jumped a couple times, still have a hard time with them.)  The only real issue I had was the monkey bars – I only made it about 4 in before I dropped – monkey bars have never been a friend of mine.  I think it has something to do with chipping my teeth on them when I was in kindergarden, but maybe it’s time to overcome that.  I’m thinking I need to just start hanging out on playgrounds to practice – and try not to be the creepy lady in the process… 🙂 My final comment on the mudder is my love for the mud. This course made sure that everyone ended up completely muddy. There was absolutely no avoiding it, and they placed mud pits all over the course.  Seriously, if we were not going through an obstacle, we were slugging through some mud.  It was fantastic.

When A and I finished, we actually contemplated going for round 2. Sadly, as we talked about getting back in the starting pen it started to rain.  Maybe this was a blessing in disguise, since we probably would have gotten part way through and regretted the decision to go for the second lap.  We decided we really didn’t feel like tackling all the obstacles if they were totally slippery from the rain, especially if we were a little tired – it would make it all the more likely to end up injured. (And I would have had way more gnarly bruises to add to the collection that have appeared on my body the past few days…)

After leaving Alfred, we were absolutely starving… we had breakfast around 6 am and finally were out of traffic around 4pm. (Note to self: pack a cooler with some food for Mt. Snow.) As we drove through Alfred on our way out, we realized that every restaurant was packed with mudders so we decided to head to Geneseo for food.  This was a plus since I got to 1) see Geneseo for the first time in over 5 years – I spent a year here in my undergrad so it’s always fun to visit and 2) we got to check out a place that A has had his eye on for a while: The Sea Cow Grill.  Seriously, it’s called the Sea Cow Grill.  How can you turn this down??? Especially when we both work in dairy and the restaurant looks like this (I apologize for the poor picture quality):

As it turns out, the Sea Cow Grill was delicious! Although I’m pretty sure after 12 hours of not eating plus throwing in the 11.6 miles and all those obstacles, you could have fed us anything… but seriously, I’d totally eat here again. Amazing food. Nice waitstaff. Tasty beverages. I give it a gold star.

After we drove the rest of the way home (with a pit-stop at the outlets), it was time to officially clean up with an actual shower and head over to JB’s Bacon-Birthday.  Sadly, the rain put a damper on the evening, but it was good to catch up with people even though we were exhausted from our marathon of a day!

Well, that pretty much sums up the Saturday.  I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a great week!

Wanted: Travel Entertainment.

What keeps you entertained while you travel?

For the past two years, I always had a textbook to read, lectures to listen to, or papers to write for school when I had flights and travel for work.

Now that I am happily beyond my grad work, I have been excited to start back in on a few books that I had wanted to read. However, I am now finding that I am having trouble calculating my entertainment to travel ratio correctly… On my trip to Idaho I brought a new book with me. The biggest problem, I hammered through almost the entire thing on my first flight from Syracuse to Minneapolis – which was only halfway to Boise. Whoops…. Enter the iPad (thank you technology), and a mad search for a book that would be good to read for my second flight.

Now that I have finished 2 books on the trip out to Idaho, I’m on the return trip and need a break from the reading bit (hence the blogging). I think I’ll be working to load up the iPad with some mindless entertainment for my final flight for this week from Chicago to Philly, but I’m already dreading the fact that I have a similar amount scheduled for plane time next week (Kansas City, followed by Salt Lake City).

So I need entertainment suggestions.

People watching only goes so far…. yes I openly admit that I enjoy observing other people to see how they interact with the world.

I’m sure I’ll grab another book (or two, or three) from my stack at home.

But I’m curious if others have any unique suggestions or ideas. Of course I recognize the entertainment suggestions are restricted by the fact that you have to play within the constrains of being crunched between a snoring passenger and the window in the back of a plane – otherwise you may likely risk the possibility of being ejected from the plane. Which would be entertaining in itself, unless you need to fly again in the future…. Which I do.

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