We're baaaaack

Home!

This was a good vacation, almost entirely, which is a pretty good score.

There was my first visit to BEA, and as a signing author no less. There was the Great Pizza Tour of 2010 (more on that in a bit). There were several books read, which when you consider my reading speed is really great. There was a visit to old friends at S&S. And there was the tummy flu -- which is less fun, but no vacation is perfect.

First up, the books. As mentioned previously, I finally read The Freak Observer. Powerful stuff. I also picked up another Carolrhoda ARC, this time for a middle-grade called I, Emma Freke. So good! I don't read as much middle-grade as I used to or as I'd like to, but I found this book positively enchanting. If the gorgeous cover sets the bar pretty high, the book itself is right there with it.

And speaking of high bars, Angela Johnson, I am sorry for not reading you sooner. I picked up an ARC of Sweet, Hereafter (the book came out in January of this year, so I don't know why an ARC is floating around, but anyway), and my mind was blown. What this woman accomplishes in under 140 pages is astounding. Gut-wrenchingly astounding. Heart-breakingly astounding. I have an ouevre to purchase and devour, I think.

Okay, so. The pizza tour. The first thing I ate when I arrived in Manhattan last week was a slice and a sicilian slice at a random joint on 9th Avenue, called appropriately enough 9th Avenue Pizza. The plain slice was good. The sicilian was about 30 minutes past its prime. A photo I sent to facebook:

Of course if you know me at all, you know that was only the beginning. There was also the requisite trip -- okay, two trips -- to Eddie's. But friends, this visit to NY set a new standard. My accomplices and I began dinner at Motorino, the new-ish VPN joint housed in the space that once belonged to Una Pizza Napoletana (probably where I had the best VPN pie of my life). It was great. Better than Punch? Hard to say -- at least for the margherita pie. But the special we got -- a white pie with brussell sprouts and pancetta -- was amazing. Probably the shining star of the evening.

From Motorino, we headed west to Keste. Here's a photo:

Keste was good, but I think not as good as Motorino nor as good as Punch. The cheese on the margherita, while touted as buffalo and might have been, felt undercooked and slightly rubbery. It didn't have that wet ooziness that Motorino's pies had so well.

Finally, we stopped quickly at Joe's on 6th Avenue, just around the corner, for what is the best good old NYC slice in town. When people say NY-style, this is what they mean, and what none of them can do quite as well.

So there ya have it! Our trip to NYC in a nut shell. Now I have loads of laundry to do, mail to go through, groceries to buy, and this pesky tummy flu to wrangle.