Manhattan with Christmas decoration & Lebanese restaurant

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

On Friday night, I went to Manhattan to meet up with my friend from California for dinner. The dinner was in Midtown so I walked around midtown a little bit before going to the restaurant.

Everywhere you see is already Christmas. Decoration for the stores are all Christmas and people were skating in a Bryant Park and Rockerfeller Center.

Christmas decoration at stores

Skating at Bryant Park

Skating at Rockerfeller Center

It was quite warm that day so many people were enjoying the skating.

I stopped by at the Magnolia Bakery to buy Banana Pudding before going to the restaurant. Click here for yesterday's post about Magnolia Bakery.

We met up at this restaurant called "Naya". It is a Lebanese restaurant. Ever since I went to this Lebanese restaurant in Germany this summer, I was searching for a Lebanese restaurant in NY. Click here for the post about Lebanese food I ate in Germany.

For Appetizers we had Babagonoush and Batata Harra.

Babaganoush

Batata Harra

Batata Harra is a fried potato dish with some cilantro, garlic and some spices. It is super good! I remember having this dish in the Lebanese restaurant in Germany. I think this is something I have to order ever time when I go to Lebanese restaurant. I just love it!

For main course, I had Lamb dish. I had this Lamb dish back in August in Germany and I think this was the same dish. It is with ground Lamb in a tomato sauce and some vegetables. I would like it better if the onions on top was sautéed.

My friend had beef dish. It had some spices and tasted good but I think it will be better if there are some kind of sauce with it because it was little bit dry.

My husband had a Chicken dish. I think this was the best main dish of three. Chicken was juicy and the sauce was garlicky and good.

We also had dessert. This was some kind of pudding. It tasted like a flower. I think they use rose water for this dessert.

If you are interested in this restaurant, here is their website below. Please be careful when you open the site because the music will start when you go to their site. www.nayarestaurants.com

Well, I really enjoyed seeing my friend again. She is a old friend of mine. I was friend with her older sister first and when she went back to France for summer vacation, I went to visit her in France. That's when I met her little sister. After a year or so, her little sister moved to the U.S. also and we started to hang out. When I was living in California, we used to go for a coffee and talk a lot. She is very friendly and down to earth but very smart. I like her a lot and I miss her a lot because ever since I moved to NY, we kind of lost in touch and we hadn't been talking for a few years. So it was really nice to see her again.

She has not changed a bit. Even though I have not talked to her for a while, I felt so comfortable talking to her. I hope she felt the same way. I really wish she live close by. She likes NY so I am trying to convince her to move to NY :-)

After dinner, we walked around the city since it was a nice night. I had a great Friday night. I really appreciate her to make time for me from her busy schedule. I hope I will see her again sometimes soon!