NYC Birthday Fun Greetings from New York City! I'm writing my blog today from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Last night Tedd and I drove into the city to begin a fun-filled overnight stay in Manhattan. We arrived at the Waldorf at about 6:45pm and our check in was a little bumpy. Tedd had booked us a lovely suite. When we got off the elevator on the 17th floor, there was a distinct smell of smoke. We both noticed it but continued on to our room. Upon entering the room, the stale, smokey smell was more pronounced to me.  Waldorf Astoria Lobby We immediately called to the front desk, requesting a room change. We were told Floor 17 was a smoking floor BUT, our room was a Non-smoking room. Say What? That makes no sense whatsoever. However, I proceeded to tell the gentleman on the phone that the room smelled of smoke just the same. The manager was very accommodating and transferred us to a non-smoking room in the Towers (which were the high floors). And although our room on the 41st floor was more modest than the one we booked, it was very cozy and included complementary 24-hour concierge service and free breakfast in the club room. Plus, we received a few complementary coupons for use in any of the bars and restaurants in the hotel. Can't beat that!  At Felidia Restaurant on East 58th Street, NYC We hurried to Felidia on East 58th Street for dinner. This lovely Italian eatery is owned by Lidia Bastianich, cookbook author, restauranteur and television cooking show host.
 My Main Course: Pear and Fresh Pecorino-filled Ravioli We actually got there a little early and as we waited to be seated at the bar, I noticed a "familiar" woman sitting there. As they called us to escort us to our table, this "familiar" woman turned to us and said "Enjoy." You guessed it - it was Lidia! I regret not asking her if I could take a picture with her since I had my camera, but it didn't feel appropriate in the moment. Oh well. So, let's talk food. The menu is a wonderful combination of vegetarian and non-veg dishes, with 3 different tastings available, including a 6-course vegetarian tasting. They brought an incredible selection of breads accompanied by a savory fava bean, tomato and olive oil spread. I ordered a wonderful appetizer (which I dug into way to fast before taking a picture - HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!) - It was called Broccoli di rape e Yucca, which was a marinated butternut squash, broccoli rabe, ricotta, toasted almonds. Tedd ordered a dish called Carciofi e Prosciutto , which was a combination of cooked and raw artichoke, sunchoke, bronte pistachios, prosciutto di parma. He said every bite was a different taste. My main course was out of this world! It's actually one of their signature dishes! Pear and Fresh pecorino-filled Ravioli, aged pecorino, crushed black pepper. I'm actually rushing out to make our Down-Home Country Brunch hosted by Trisha Yearwood at the Food and Wine Festival. I will give a full report in tomorrow's Daily Scoop!!! Have a great Sunday!!! -E  | A Murderously Fun Time!Hi everyone! I'd like to send out a special welcome & greeting to all of our new subscribers/readers that have joined us from TMB (Top Mommy Blogs)!! Thank you so much for being here & please don't forget to vote for us by a simple click on the cute little link to the right of this page ----->------>>>> I'd also like to invite any new reader to please subscribe today, so that you won't miss a beat of all the fun that happens here at Travelin' Cousins and reported in our 'DAILY SCOOP'!  While Elisa is off having a great time at the NYC Food & Wine Festival, my day here in Southern California will be a bit more on the mellow side. Pretty sure that I'm just gonna be hitting the mall and a few other stores out there in hopes of getting some Christmas shopping and Birthday shopping checked off of my list. FYI Dominic's 16th birthday is next month!!! I find it really nice that Elisa got to spend the night at the Iconic. Historic. Timeless Waldorf Astoria in celebration of her birthday! Click HERE for the hotel history. What she doesn't know is that we also have a suite booked there next month over Thanksgiving weekend and that I'll be grilling her about the hotel before our check in on that very busy and expensive weekend! ;) Also being that the hotel is under the Hilton Brand - I hope that Elisa remembered to add her Hilton Honors (reward program) to the reservation, so that she can earn points for future travel!! **Actually, because of the prices being so jacked up for the holiday weekend I'm considering the possibility of changing our reservations to something that will cost a bit less dough! We shall see and I'll keep you posted.. And now to catch you up on yesterday and last nights scoop: I went to the salon to get my nails done and I did go with a fun and spooky Halloween theme!!   Five of us (Dave B., Dominic, Cosette, Myself, and family friend Matt) all headed to Los Angeles in massive amounts of traffic, in hopes of arriving on time for our 7pm reservations for Keith & Margo's Murder Mystery Dinner in celebration of Cosette's birthday! My mom had wanted to come along with us, but she had an appointment that couldn't be changed. HINT: She sure missed out!!!  The Boys  The young lady who wasn't quite ready! Upon our arrival, we had checked in and then most of us had donned alias names (I was lame and couldn't think of anything fun! Went with 'Tanya'). Dave was Wes, Dominic was Vincent, Matt was Clive, and my mysterious daughter (who several guests thought was the killer...) was Bella!  Sorting out clues! Our group got nick-named 'The Crazy Reality TV Show Family' and little d0 they know just how true this statement is - all we need is to get the cameras rolling! Dinner was lovely. And although like Elisa - I totally flaked and started eating before taking any of my food pictures. Ugh! So instead, I have some partially eaten food and empty plates to show just how much we enjoyed our meal! But the salad course was totally scarfed without pics! LOL
 'WES' and I  Me and the BIG kids!! We all had a marvelous time, saying that the kids loved it would be a definite understatement and will all have stories to tell and memories to last us a lifetime from this event! I'm not gonna go into too much detail or reveal too much here on the Daily. BUT - I will be doing a review, under our Entertainment Review Tab to be published either tomorrow or next Monday! Stay tuned...but I'll be sure and remind ya anyhow! Catch ya back here tomorrow for a whole new adventure in our Daily Scoop! -T  |
