Tea and Bagels: Autumn and Hallowe'en Pics (October-November 2014)

On our way to the Smorgasburg outdoor food market we passed through a really picturesque part of Brooklyn.

The market is on every Sunday in season. Some Filipino treats:

Hallowe'en is a big event in the US. What better way to celebrate it than to make the trip out of the city to Sleepy Hollow...home of the headless horseman!

We started off in Tarrytown which is the town next to Sleep Hollow for a day-time historic tour of the area. A real Van Tassel - the old Dutch family to which one of the story's protagonists, Katrina Van Tassel, belongs - joined us on our tour!

The surrounding area was really pretty.

This is the Lyndhurst mansion and grounds. It's not particularly famous. We tried to visit Sunnyside (home of Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) however tickets were sold out.

The view over the Hudson and the Tappan Zee bridge.

In the evening we spent a couple of hours on a lantern-lit ghost tour of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

In addition to Washington Irving, other famous interments include Walter Chrysler (created Chrysler automobile company) and William Rockefeller (founded Standard Oil with brother John D.)

This is inside one of the crypts.

Back in New York this fruit was pretty scary. It is called Buddha's Hand. It is a citrus fruit...basically a lemon.

For my birthday we went to Delmonico's (conveniently located about 100 feet away from our apartment!). Delmonico's was the first dining establishment in the US to have a printed menu, tablecloths, guests eating at their own tables, and first location in America to be called by its French name, "Restaurant".

Home of the famous Delmonico's steak. It is a boneless ribeye that is said to have originated from Delmonico's around 1830.

Another culinary treat created by Delmonico's is the Baked Alaska, said to have been created by the restaurant's chef to celebrate the United States' purchase of Alaska from Russia. It was pretty good!