A Taste of Home

The other day, circumstances befell us which resulted in us having a car {!} overnight, to do with what we wished. So we braced ourselves for the hysterical screaming ball of anger that is our daughter when she's forced into a carseat, and we hit the road. I absolutely LOVE driving in the city. I love getting lost and discovering new neighborhoods and zooming over bridges against the NYC skyline. I am proud of the fact that I am good at driving through the lawless, pedestrian-overrun, madness of the city streets (no really, I am exceptionally good at it- ask anyone!). I like to turn up the music and pretend that I'm a taxi driver. I'm pretty sure that I would be the best taxi driver ever. I would wear driving gloves and maybe a hat and make friends with all of the characters who hopped in my cab. If Biet ever overcomes her carseat-phobia, she could ride shotgun..

Anyways... we had a car for the whole night and had to decide where to go. First stop, Ikea. As much as I love antiques and one-of-a-kind furnishings, there are some things that Ikea is just great for. Like shelves. We somehow maneuvered a stroller + enormous pieces of furniture through the store, into the car, and up 5 flights of stairs (that's right, the elevator in our building decided to break down that night). Exhausted and starving, we then made the decision to use our new wheels for an old favorite. One of our favorite little Ukrainian places in our old neighborhood, Veselka.

Veselka was one of the first places that I ever ate at when I moved to the city, where you could find me and my best friend Summer nearly every night at four in the morning throughout my early twenties, and my favorite delivery place during my wintertime pregnancy. Gaby loves their chicken soup (and the man knows a thing or two about chicken soup, let me tell you), and I am kind of obsessed with both their vegetable soup and cheese blintzes. They are heavenly. Before moving to Brooklyn, we sort of took it for granted that Veselka was so very very close to us (funny how that always seems to happen and you don't know what you had until its gone). Well, now we had a car, so if Veselka wouldn't come to us, we would go to Veselka. We ordered our favorites {to go} and excitedly headed back home to enjoy them.

Back across 9th street, down the Bowery, through Chinatown, and over the Manhattan Bridge. Just on the other side, though, we decided to make just one more stop. We had driven by the Brooklyn classic, Junior's, so many times, with it's old fashioned bulb lights and 1950's facade. We had been told time and again of their exquisite cheesecakes. So we stopped to pick one up (thankfully, they make medium versions- perfect size for a couple!). We figured that as we enjoy our old favorites, we should also be working on cultivating new favorites in our new borough. Soup and cheesecake, what a treat! Junior's definitely made the cut; It was awesome. {Note: having an entire cheesecake at my disposal is neither safe nor healthy nor fair to anyone else in the house hoping to enjoy a piece}. I can't wait until our next late night snack run!