We had the morning free to make a pilgrimage, so after only a few false starts on the subway we found ourselves here:

Chelsea Market...or as we like to call it, "Foodie Mecca"
The Food Network lives here. So do several other media outlets and a lot of good food, but that’s beside the point. It’s a rather fabulous building that used to be the headquarters of the National Biscuit Company. You may know them as Nabisco. NAtional BIscuit COmpany, get it?

Apparently this used to be the front entrance, before they added vowels.
Oreos were born here. That alone would make it a place of interest, but the inside is packed with lovely little places to eat and odd steel pieces, a fountain, etc. It reminds me of the old Olla Padrida shopping center of my youth. After wandering from one end to the other in a vain search for the Food Network logo, we stopped at Amy’s Bread for breakfast.

A perfectly proper breakfast
Not only was it delicious–that’s chocolate in one of those twists–we had a view of the bakers at work while we ate.

Not Amy. At least, I don't think so.
We ate, gawked, and shopped. I bought salt & pepper shakers. Finally. Now the snowman & Christmas tree can stop appearing on the table at summer dinner parties. We rode up in a random elevator hoping to find the Food Network, but alas, it was just TV station NY1. (We mumbled excuses and hastily hit the down button.)
We also wondered at a number of posters advertising something called a “pop-up” from the James Beard Foundation. They mentioned “steak of the day” and other delights, but we couldn’t find it. So, eventually tiring of our fruitless search, we set off to visit another foodie fantasy, Eataly. (More about that tomorrow.) Along the way we saw this, which certainly does not look my local purveyor of construction supplies:

Toto, we're not in Texas anymore.
It would not be our last trip to Chelsea Market. Oh no. There were adventures yet to be had there. But that’s a story for another day. Until then…

They're just so beautifully blue
These have nothing to do with anything, but aren’t they gorgeous? If only I could get mine that color…
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