Only really peculiar people would take pictures of their food just before they eat it.

Sadly, we are guilty as charged. However, in the interest of assisting future travelers to the state of New York–who intend to eat–we’ll tell you what and where and if we’d do it again.

Brace yourself…

Tim Horton’s Donut Shop

Henrietta, New York.

Really, really good food, sandwiches, drinks and donuts. Open 24 hours and there is a drive thru. Just outside our hotel–so naturally, we became close friends. Oh, and they had a blueberry number that could knock your socks off. It was gone before we had the camera out.

Chill & Grill

Palmyra, New York.

Famous for their enormous portions. If you are ordering for more than yourself, you’ll need help carrying everything. The hamburger was wonderful–but I caution you about ordering the “Junk Plate.” It was great if you like everything on your picnic plate stirred together. I thought it looked nasty. But the ice cream was really good and worth wading through the huge lunchtime crowd for.

Two thumbs way up–except for the JP.

The Monroe County Fair

Henrietta, New York

As with every fair I’ve ever heard of, fried food is the basic diet once you walk through those gates. If it freaks you out, I’d suggest that you eat before you go because the fair people can’t help it. You can’t have a deep fried pickle or a deep fried Snickers bar unless somebody is willing to–you know–deep fry it.

In small portions–we loved it. In fact, we got one sample plate and shared it among 7 of us–then went out for real food. This picture is of a deep fried cheese sandwich.

Red Robin

Rochester, New York

Now, I’m not implying that this is the best choice for “real” food. But in my defense, this was not my meal, it was that of the anonymous guy sitting next to me. I was busy eating a Cobb Salad. Too busy, obviously, to get it on the camera. You’ll have to trust me.

Of course it was good–they’re famous. The servers smiled at us when they saw the tribe of babies that we strolled in with–that was nice.

I was just informed that we have one of these down the street from our house back home.

Wow. I should get out more.

Picnic table by the side of the road.

Palmyra, New York

While we were still in the country-ish part of the state, it was wonderful to just shop for regular food and not throw the little people totally off their familiar food “groove.”

Yes, we will do this again…probably next week.

Sbarro’s Pizza

Time Square, New York

The pizza was good–but unless you like getting yelled at to “hurry up and order,” then, there are plenty of more friendly pizza places in town. Honestly, the guy behind the counter scared the heck out of me. Everyone else in our crowd was fine with it. None-the-less, we didn’t go back.

This, my friends, is a Falafel Sandwich, wrapped in foil, made by some guy at a sidewalk stand, (see below) on the corner of the street. Now, I make Falafels at home, so it’s not that I’m a foreign-food-cry-baby or anything. But this looked too creepy for me. Presentation is everything folks.

Nate said it was ok. I didn’t taste it. I made the picture small because it’s too ugly to see any closer. Yak.

Some Lamb Dish from the same road side vendor (Below)

42nd and 7th Ave. I think.

Nate liked it.  Not too into lamb myself. I like them better woolly.

I did have a wonderful hot dog and soft pretzel from a similar sidewalk stand. Both were lovely.

Famiglia Pizza

Time Square, NYC

Yummmm! We ate two of them. This is the place with autographed pictures of Barbara Streisand and Arnold Swartznegger on the wall–so we figured it had to be good. It was. Thanks to Babs and Arnie.

Dunkin Donuts

Somewhere in the subway.

You know these guys. They were ok, but I’m a bigger fan of Daylight Donuts myself–ahhh…I mean on the extremely rare occasion that I would allow myself to eat donuts.

Oh, whatever.

Patisserie

Time square.

Bagels are a  staple comfort food for some of us and it was lovely to find a place that made them right up the street from our hotel.

The same Patisserie

Time Square

This Calizone was good but a bit spicy for breakfast. For dinner it would have been perfect.

Street Vendor

Time Square, NYC

The ice cream men here make sundaes–is that so cool? Our guys only sell Popsicles. Who do I see about that?

McDonald’s

No, we don’t do a ton of McDonald’s but it was close and the babies needed something that looked familiar to them. You can always count on McDonald’s to look and taste the same. Sometimes, when you are far away from home, that’s exactly what you need.

Say Cheese

9th Ave., Manhattan

My personal favorite place of all, and they deliver. The tomato and cheese soup was so wonderful I’m dreaming of it at night. The sandwich is a grilled provolone. Our friend Pam–who is a true-live New Yorker–told us about this place so I’ll vote her some Celestial Brownie points for that. Dang it was good.

Sbarro’s Breakfast

Kennedy Airport, NY

We only ate the eggs, but they were good. And although it was the same chain, nobody yelled at me.

————————–

Yes, we learned a few things.

One was that before we turned in our rental cars in the city–we should have found a Wal-Mart and bought a couple of flats of water. It gets pretty expensive buying it in the deli’s or subways.

Second–as you can see, we ate a ton of  not so healthy quick food and by the end of our trip–to be honest, I’d have paid $20 for an apple. A trip to the real live grocery store would have been very smart. Next time we’ll find one and make sure we have more fruit and vegetables.

We did miss them…

and are perfectly ready to get back to homemade food. Thank you very much.