*Ed's Lobster Bar

New York is a place where in an instant, you can be transported to anywhere in the world. Or, as I like to see it, the best of the world comes to you. L and I were supposed to do our usual Chinatown excursion - the bustling street markets, dark passages to forbidden goods, bakeries of fluffy yummies, unbelievable food for a song (yeah, it's under fluorescent lights and you're sharing a table but you don't care because you're sucking the glistening ginger scallion lobster sauce from your fingers).

Alas, we were waylaid by the 6 train and spit out at Bleeker instead of Spring Street. Above ground, the area reminded me of a dinner I had at Ed's Lobster Bar with a Wellesley friend in the winter and I thought, hey, let's go to New England!

I love L for a number of reasons - 1 is she is always game. I was immediately drawn to her during orientation at Stern. She was across the room and said that she went to Barnard and had gone sky-diving. She was my kind of girl and we've been tight ever since. She also has a job that I would love to do - retail analyst. I LOVE talking to her about what is going on with the economy, malls, stores, trends, consumers - all of that.

Ed's Lobster Bar is bright, cheery and you can feel the ocean breezes and almost hear the waves crashing and seagulls in the distance. The food is simple and unbelievably fresh. We enjoyed an oyster sampler and each one - even the ones with creamy liquor that I don't normally like - were DIVINE. It was an extravagance because I told the server multiple times "half-dozen, HALF-dozen!!!" L had the skate which was beautiful, crispy and light. I had originally ordered one of their famous lobster rolls but

I don't eat the roll and M has put mayo on my list of things that make me sick and not to eat. I ended up with a half chilled lobster ("Half lobster, HALF LOBSTER!") and ate it like a pro (I have watched Wolfgang Puck's episode on how to get every morsel of meat out of a lobster and my favorite day ever at Wellesley was all-you-can-eat lobster day where I devoured 4 of those suckers!). Just lobster, lemon and some cocktail sauce. Perfection. I also took a picture of this gorgeous jumbo shrimp cocktail.

We enjoyed 2 glasses of white wine with the meal - a muscadet and an albarino. Albarino is my favorite white wine. It is crisp, light, smooth and opens up your food's flavor. I was introduced to it on the date with the girl who called me "SASS-ay!" Needless to say, although I fell in love with the wine and not the girl, I thank her for the introduction. We finished a perfect meal with a beautiful blueberry creme brulee. I took a Lactaid, ate it with gusto and am pleased to report, am fine.

It was a beautiful evening and we walked down Spring St. window-shopping. I did end up buying a necklace from a street vendor but at least this time, we didn't have to run to the cash machine multiple times as we normally end up doing in Chinatown! Thanks for an amazing dinner, L!
http://www.lobsterbarnyc.com/