NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part III, saturday brunch, culture and indulgence

NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part I, the PLANNING

NYC Fat Tour Recap: Part II, friday fun & festivities

Part III, aka, brunch, tim burton is twisted, live NUDE art, and the kick-off of the FAT TOUR.

Saturday Brunch: Virage
even though we stayed out til 4am, we managed to get up bright and early to eat brunch at virage. it was close to the apt, tasty and i had been there before and knew about their brunch special.

:: virage ::
address: 118 2nd ave, nyc
what we ate: grilled chorizo and scrambled eggs, goat cheese tomato and asparagus omelette, steak and eggs over easy.
the menu at virage has schizophrenia and describes its menu as a mix of "French/Italian/Middle Eastern" fare. the weekend brunch special is a $14.25 pre-fixe menu that includes: a basket of homemade bread & muffins, w/choice of coffee or tea, Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Bellini, Screwdriver or fresh-squeezed Orange Juice with each item. awesome deal, reliably tasty food and good service.

i ordered: grilled chorizo + scrambled eggs with cheddar and scallions + potato hash + salsa

julia ate: goat cheese + asparagus + tomato omelette + potatoes

soopah got: steak + 3 eggs over easy + potatoes

Tim Burton Exhibit
if i may, i'll take a brief break from the recounting of all the food, and make a quick note about our adventure to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in new york. we had been trying to go for weeks in order to catch the tim burton exhibit before it closes on april 26. this exhibit was, in fact, the catalyst for the planning of this fat tour.

much to our dismay, we found that tickets for the burton exhibit had been consistently selling out every day (including weekdays) in these last few weeks of its showing, including for the friday and saturday we'd be in nyc. chiho was the hero of the day - his resourcefulness and interwebs skills managed to find us a loophole:

"if you buy a MoMA membership ($75), you can get guaranteed free entry into the museum at any time for one year, including special exhibits. you can also bring up to 4 guests and they will only  need to pay $5 each for entry. this loophole works for special exhibits AND it means you don't have to wait even for the "timed"/scheduled exhibits like the tim burton one."

SCORE. so this is exactly what we did. PLUS, membership is tax-deductible.

Note: there is some additional benefit if you're someone who lives 150+ miles away, you get 5 guest tickets and the cost of membership is only $60.

tim burton is one twisted man and his art certainly reflects that. i LOVED the collection - the blue woman whose eyeballs had popped out of her head and were lounging on a table nearby drinking a soda and listening to the stereo, animations of the adventures of stainboy, original sketches from his youth, etc.

 while entertaining, it did get a bit frustrating because of the number of people in each section of the gallery. it was too hot and unmanageably crowded. definitely took away from the experience.

on the 6th floor, we found nude people (!) - i mean PERFORMANCE ART installations by Marina Abramovic. she is a serbian/yugoslavian artist whose "work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind." there was a NOTICE sign at the entrance of the exhibit, but we definitely weren't prepared for everything showing in the gallery.

let's just say there were videos with nekkid people, live nekkid people, pictures of performances of nekkid people (there is a reason why all of her art involves nudity, but as with most art, YOU can interpret why that is for yourself). it IS quite shocking though, and we did continue to talk about it all day (all the while, giggling, of course teeheeheehee) ... so mission accomplished... sort of.

kick-off of the FAT TOUR 


NEIGHBORHOOD: Flatiron/Gramercy
after several hours at the MoMA, we finally made our way down to the first stop on the fat tour: SHAKE SHACK. our tour kicked off 2 hours late, we were starving and we misread the subway signs and waited unforgivably long for the right train, but thankfully, kahee had made it down to madison square park before us and grabbed us a spot in the very long line.

FAT TOUR STOP #1
:: shake shack ::
address: southeast corner of madison square park, madison ave and east 23rd
what we ate: 'shroom burger, shake stack burger
remember how i said we were starving and there was a long line? yea, by the time we got the burgers (which i think was after about an hour wait), we DEVOURED them. no photo. sad day.

'shroom burger: crisp-fried portobello filled with melted muenster and cheddar cheese + lettuce + tomato + shack sauce.
gooey cheese oozes with every bite of this mushroom burger. it's mostly cheese; i'd put the ratio at 6 parts cheese, 1 part mushroom - that is what makes it so delicious! oh, plus it's FRIED. this is the kind of non-meat sandwich i can be happy with.

shake stack burger: cheeseburger + 'shroom burger + lettuce + tomato + shack sauce
all of the delicious meatiness of a burger plus the rich fried awesomeness of the 'shroom burger... cannot go wrong here. shake shack burgers are truly so different than any other burger you'll try and the fried mushroom is a big part of that. the burger meat itself, while juicy and flavorful, isn't really THAT memorable IMO, but the mushroom i can go on and on about.

it really is tragic that we had no pics of the burgers. so, here:

or click HERE.

FAT TOUR STOP #2
:: defonte's of brooklyn :: 
address: 261 third ave, nyc
what we ate: hot roast beef sandwich + fried eggplant slices
soopah and kahee had always raved about this sandwich. we found that the sandwich was delicious and so was the customer service! we only ordered one sandwich for the 7 of us to share, but the owner came to chat with us and thank us for enjoying his food.

hot roast beef: roast beef + fresh mozzarella + fried eggplant + natural jus
the meat was juicy and flavorful with just enough jus to make the bread soft and moist. the thin layers of fried eggplant and mozzarella provided subtle flavors that didn't overpower the roast beef, but definitely added another dimension to this sandwich. the bread was surprisingly good and when i asked the owner about who his bread supplier was, he said if he told me, he'd have to kill me. sigh.

he DID however give us a plate of fried eggplant after we exclaimed about how WONDERFUL it was. i think it was restitution for his threat to off me, but whatever the reason, it was DELICIOUS.

the fried eggplant has a very thin batter around it and the slice of eggplant itself is incredibly thin. if you've ever had korean fried zucchini (or other veggie) slices, this tastes very similar. i don't think these are offered standalone off of the menu, but they are in many of the defonte's sandwiches. GET THEM. so good.

next up: Part IV, the fat tour continues in the East Village and Nolita.