T = Tenth

Eek! I'm a little late posting this, the activity was done in time sequence but I have to confess a couple of summer trips away delayed my write up, woops. Therefore I'm posting twice in one week - U to follow shortly.


Nothing is more fabulous in life than moving to a new area and
realising you're steps away from a relatively unknown, culinary gem.
Tenth Avenue has a surprising little stretch from approx 18th st -
26th st with great restaurants that are blissfully mega crowd free,
especially during the work week, even though it's steps from the uber
popular Meatpacking District.

So we decided to try all the restaurants in what became our very
own version of Restaurant Week....Tasting Tenth Week. My tummy loved
it. My skinny jeans, not so much.

We started at Cookshop, now our regular haunt purely down to the
Butchers Block, what can I say it's hands down the best in the City. A
generous board of chicken liver mousse, course duck and pork pate,
duck rillette, falling apart melt in the mouth ham, pork belly and
accroutements so fabulous that you don't know where to begin. Served
up with pop in the mouth cornichons and hot crusty garlic oil bread.
Heaven. Washed down with a good Malbec life feels pretty good. We were
in tasting mode so we ordered the cheese board too, excellent
selection, clearly carefully chosen and contrasting perfectly. Served
with walnut and raisin bread and the now obligatory nuts, figs and
honey, perfection. If you're in the mood to sit back, watch the world
go by and pick on a treasure trove of tasty morsels then Cookshop is
your place.

Day 2 took us to Tia Pol. Basically the best and most authentic real
Catalan tapas in the City in my humble opinion. If you go, wait for a
table at the little bar as you come in so you get the evening light
and warm air and can really pretend to be living the good life in the
Penedes, far away from the dirty New York street you're really perched
on. To really go for it order a bottle of crisp, light white from
their excellent Penedes region selection. Small little servings come
out quickly, the grilled bite-size, hot, green peppers tossed in olive
oil and sea salt were delish, the crispy white fish had the perfect
texture, light and tasty and the chopped anchovy toasts were fresh and
just a little spicy. The list could go on. Go for yourself and skip
lunch so you have room to really have fun with the menu.

The next night we were off to Trestle on Tenth, the promise of a secluded
courtyard garden sounded perfection on a perfect day in the 80s with
zero humidity. Now, it does have a lot going for it.... the garden's
gorgeous, the food's pretty good, prices are ok... but the service is
terrible. In a City like New York where your expectations of service
are raised to an almost obscene, spoilt brat level, that just won't
do. Trestle not worthy of Tenth perhaps?

Red Cat was next up. What can I say this just scores a ten everytime
in my book. Service - impeccable. Decor and crowd - stylish. Wine list
- ridiculously good. Food - overwhelmingly perfect. The asparagus and
pecorino risotto is worth going for alone. Love love love this place.

Cheap and cheerful was the name of the game for our last Tasting on
Tenth meal out (unfortunately our bank balance over the course of this
delicious week was going in the opposite direction of my waistline) so
what better way to end our tasting spree than with a carafe of
Montpulciano and a crispy, light, toppings laden real pizza at Don
Giovanni, served straight out of the wood burning oven on to your
table in the metal tray it went in in. $80 for a caprese salad,
grilled mushrooms in balsamic, two pizzas, a carafe of wine and a
Peroni or two - a slice of the good life at half the price.

After we finished our week we discovered Bottino. That tasting is to
come, joiners are welcome!

The other heavenly thing to note about dining on Tenth Ave is 99% of
the places have outside space and on a hot sticky night you're close
enough to feel the welcome breeze from the Hudson River. It makes
dessert and a second bottle of wine simply irresistable.

What can i say, Tenth is almost so good I was tempted to keep it a
secret all to myself but caring is sharing blah blah blah. So go,
enjoy. Just don't tell too many others.

S = Shooting

As I live in America and guns are, to a British person, strangely legal and as I've never even held one let alone shot one, it seemed a no brainer to do S = shooting.

Handily there's a shooting range in my neighbourhood just a few doors down from a lovely family friendly Farmers Market. Westside Rifle and Pistol Range www.westsidepistolrange.com is a good little place, you go down the stairs and immediately you can hear the shots, not in a muffled way more in a jump-out-of-your-skin-these really-aren't-toys-are-they sort of way. As I jumped back and let out a little girly squeal I was introduced to our instructor - a tiny man who looked like he'd seen the better part of 50 with tattoos covering his entire body including a big old snake going all the way up the back of his wrinkly neck. Apparently the NYPD were in that day training with their handguns. They encourage them to come in and train, our instructor tells us, because (in a hushed tone) many of them aren't that good with a gun. Hmm that's reassuring as I walk past police with guns at my subway stop most days of the week.

After many conversations with girlfriends I'd planned to stay away from a rifle as apparently it hurts. I'd always fancied myself as Jack Bauer's sidekick so a nifty little handgun sounded good to me. That all went out the window when we went for a quick 5 minute training sesh and learned that handguns are only for those with a licence so I was given a big old automatic rifle, no backing out now.

We learned how to load, reload, hold the gun etc and then we were off, loading our 50 rounds of ammo into our magazines and then with ear mufflers and plastic glasses (nothing sexy about the rifle range) we were free to shoot the place up. First try was a little scary but the kick-back wasn't too bad and my fear of being blasted off backwards and ending up with a very sore shoulder was put aside and after 3 hits I was loving it! So much so that I even got a little competitive with Si and on our last go I actually won! Read it and weep baby!

I left pumped with adrenaline and a wee bit proud of myself for going through with something that seemed, in my mind, much scarier than it actually was. I suppose it's like everything in life until you try it and I for one can't get enough of the trying.

S = Soooo much fun!

Next week: T = Tai Chi