Sunday, May 10, 2009

Come and Get it

I'm flying back to the US today. For a little play and a lot of work. For two weeks! It's gonna be great. I must make preparations.

My itinerary is...energetic. I fly from Vienna to Washington, D.C., then three days later to Los Angeles, then three days after that to NYC. Thirty five hours later I take a bus to Boston. Then I fly back to DC, and two days later, I fly back to Vienna.

It's a work trip--I'm flying on someone else's dime--but the detour to NYC is purely personal. So far, my personal plans for the journey have focussed mostly on those thirty-five hours in the big apple. To precise, I've been try to calculate how many meals I can squeeze into my short time in Manhatta, and where I will be taking those meals. These are agonizing calculations. These are what my friend, Monkey, who I will see in Los Angeles, would call "quality problems." The kind of problems I wish I had more often.

In Vienna, your dining options are pretty much Schnitzel or Serbian. In New York, you got your Thai, Indian, Japanese, cracker-fried catfish, fresh bagels with whitefish, and the best goddamn cheeseburger in the world. That last would be at the Corner Bistro, on West 4th and Eighth Avenue. I'll make it there for sure.

6 comments:

Kat said...

Sorry, but the best cheeseburger in the whole goddamn world is found at Casino El Camino in Austin. come and get it, indeed! Please? Bring those girls with you...

pat said...

You and I are going to have to go round and round on this one, Kat. And I would dearly love to introduce my girls to you and you'rn. One of these days! V is still wearing one of your fine orange "you can't touch this" tees, BTW.

constance said...

You'll be in Los Angeles. Go to In-n-Out and have a double-double. that cannot be beat. See, e.g. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik7-2009may07,0,4024099.column

pat said...

Welcome, Constance! Yes, I am a fan of In-and-Out, but it's not the Corner Bistro. People, people. Really. Look, you go to New York and try it, and I'll try a double-double and we'll call it even. Actually I prefer Astro Burger when I'm in LA. That jalapeno burger with an Orange Whee?! MMmmmm.

Lisa said...

Cheeseburgers are the only food that I regularly crave living in Vienna. Well sometimes Mexican food, but somehow that is easily solved with junk you can easily find. Last trip to NY I finally tried the burgers at the Shake Shack which I have heard so much about. Not bad! Not Corner Bistro either, just different...

constance said...

Lisa, when in lived in Vienna back in the 70's it was another world: no burgers, no Mexican, and middle eastern food? Naschmarkt had one (1!) stand where you could buy a bit, like bulghur. In the whole city you couldn't find a lime or celery. Once I got such a craving once for Mexican that I took the train all the way to Salzburg, only to find the place had folded. But I could also walk home alone safely at midnight.