I decided to walk to my ramen class on whatever day it was. I hadn't moved enough, I'm not used to sitting and listening for all the hours that I did. I didn't get lost and arrived at The French Culinary Institute with enough time to relax and chat with another attendee.

The class was about making ramen and while I thought I had eaten it, I had no idea how to make it. The class was excellent but I need to have about 3 days to be able to make ramen. 

The class was taught by Hiroko Shimbo. She is tiny but must be very strong to be able to make the process look so easy. 

The stock preparation takes 2 days, there are eggs to make, pork belly to prepare, noodles to make. It is a wonder to see. 

Yes, I am a giant. Also the chef tip was to let us know that when eating ramen at a Japanese restaurant, you do not want to consume all of the broth due to the high salt content - miso and soy. It's just not the correct way to eat ramen.

After the class I headed over to the exhibitor fair and book fair. I stopped at several tables and chatted with many exhibitors.

I then went down to the book fair where I did not buy a cookbook! I was pretty surprised. I did buy a book related to one of my sessions. The book is Building a Great Business by Ari Weinzweig, he signed it, we chatted and I headed back to the hotel.

I had heard a lot about Eatly and luckily had some time to go and explore Sunday evening. Three of us headed out and all I can say is wow! It is a huge space that sells ingredients from Italy and also has restaurant areas, a bread area, a wine bar, gelato, desserts and so much more. We ate at the pasta/pizza restaurant and my ravioli filled with spinach/ricotta with a lemon sauce and pistachios was delicious.

A few pictures, but it's hard to capture Eatly.

Yes, I did taste the gelato and I am happy to report that the salted caramel and chocolate are delicious. 

Yesterday I had a few more excellent sessions before heading to the airport to come home. I'll need to report on macarons and Grant Achatz sometime later. Need to make my dinner now. As much as I enjoyed the food and eating out, I am happy to be able to cook at home tonight. 

The conference hotel is right at Times Square, The Broadway Millennium and is a nice hotel. My room is on the 49th floor and I have a great view of the city. 

There are some interesting logistics to deal with when getting to classes and networking breaks. First there are about 1000 people at the conference, many are staying in the hotel, most of the classes are in the hotel. 

There are elevators to take you to floors 16 to 52 where the guest rooms are.  There are elevators (4) to take you to floors 2 through 7 where the classes are, breakfast is on 8. I have no idea what happens with 9 through 16. 

You can walk up steps to get  to floors 2 through 5 but not 6, 7 or 8. To get to 6,7 and 8 the 1000 people need to use the 4 elevators that hold 8 to 10 people at a time. As I said it's been interesting. 

We go out for lunch, have 1 1/2 hours to get down the elevators, find a place to eat, eat and get back up to classes. I found a deli close to the hotel, had breakfast there one day and went back with a couple friends for lunch. A good lunch of real, roasted turkey.

My classes have been very good overall. I always come back from conferences with a list of things I need to do, whether it is working on my website or learning more about something like Instagram.

We had an opening reception party on Friday night I think. My days get confused. I'm not sure where the party was, a cab took me and I'm good with that. There was some very good food, the braised lamb was especially tasty, but a good number of the 1000 people were there, so after mingling a little and almost melting, some friends had the brilliant idea to go get pizza. 

Yesterday morning my first class was Killer Cooking Demos taught by Sara Moulton. It was on the lobby floor in the theater so pretty easy to get to after making it to breakfast. 

I was maybe not close enough but had to try to take pictures anyway since it was Sara Moulton. Live! And it was an excellent class. While she was doing an actual demo with 3 recipes, she talked about how and why she did things. 

After the final class session I met up with my friend Suzanne who lives here and wanted to show me a little of her city. We picked up 2 other people and off we went to China Town for dinner. It had been raining and colder at lunch time but last night it was perfectly clear and dry. 

Suzanne ordered for us and thought she had ordered too much food. How silly for her to think that, she's a culinary professional too, an editor, and she knows we'd be up for the job. It was a small place and delicious. We sat back in the corner. 

My battery is running low and I think I have to unplug the lamp or the clock to use the battery so I'm going to end. Okay, I could get out of bed and use the desk, but that's just crazy on Sunday morning at almost 7 am. 

Today I have one cooking class and I have no idea where it is. Have to find out if it's a cab ride or a walk. There is no breakfast so I don't have to get to the 8th floor. After class there is a vendor expo, brunch and book fair. Not at the hotel, not where my class is. Thank goodness for maps on phones!

I came a day early so I could participate in an optional tour yesterday. The tour was Mediterranean Along the East River. The tour started at 11:30 and since I've been on some tours before, I knew we'd eat, but I was hungry at 8:30. Found a place that sounded good Cafe Edison and headed out into the street. 

My hotel is right in Times Square and I'm on the 49th floor, I have a nice view. This morning when I woke up I heard a noise that sounded familiar but weird. I kept listening and then figured it out, it's Elmo. I saw him last night on the street and apparently he is a morning puppet because he was happy and able to be heard in my room. I also hear cheering every so often, I think that's probably for Good Morning America.

I didn't want to go too far because I wanted to find the hotel again but I still saw a few things. The restaurant itself was tiny, old and interesting to look at. I had the lox platter and it was perfect. I know I maybe should have taken a picture of the meal, but I went for the ceiling instead. 

Back on the street and there is a lot to see. 

The tour group gathered at 11:15, there were 24 of us and tour leader Dan handed us a bottle of water and a subway pass. I don't know how many tours you've been on and how many might have been with culinary people, but we can get distracted easily and Dan had quite a job keeping us all together. Once on the subway a count was taken and Dan admitted that the hardest part of the tour was over. He was slightly terrified of getting a large group, on the subway, in the same car, at Times Square all at once and make it to Queens.

The is Dan and beside him is Maria Speck the author of one of my favorite new cookbooks Ancient Grains, for Modern Meals. 

Our first stop was a food cart on the corner and we were having falafel, pickles, shawarma and Dan brought forks!

After we devoured the platters of food here, we moved on to the Greek grocery store. Luckily a walking tour so we could feel better about the devouring. 

Since it had been about 20 minutes since we had last eaten, the owner of the store had snacks for us - two kinds of feta, olives, house made yogurt, cheese spread, bread, crackers, house made sausage, two kinds of Greek cheese. We snacked, did a little shopping and then back to the streets. It was almost time for lunch!

Lunch was provided by a private, Spanish social club that exists to keep the culture of the country alive. We felt fortunate to be invited and they provided a huge lunch. We had potato tortilla, shrimp, octopus, sausage, ham and cheese, wine, bread.

I took a little peek into the kitchen and here is the octopus before the above picture. 

We thanked our hosts and headed back to the streets. Of course we should have been done by now but no, we are culinary professionals and needed to complete the meal with dessert and coffee at the Greek bakery. 

Now we were done and it was back on the subway and back to the hotel to relax. I'd like to be able to say that I relaxed and didn't eat anything the rest of the evening but that would be a lie. I planned to do that but peer pressure is bad and this is after all work, so I agreed to go to a cocktail party with a friend. I am here to learn and network. 

We went to Meadow, did not walk, cabs are great. This is a store owned by Mark Bitterman who wrote a book about salt. He won a James Beard award for the book and he's opened a shop that sells salt, chocolate, bitters and flowers. 

Chocolate on one side, salt on one side, bitters in the back, flowers in the front. It's a nice store, I chatted with Mark Bitterman and a few other people and had one cocktail, a Manhattan of course. And then back to the hotel. Well, after a stop for a snack of fried artichokes, crab cakes and gnocchi. Peer pressure and work, just have to fight against both. I lost this fight.

Today should be a light day of eating. I have business classes today about writing, demos, social media. I do have to get ready to go and network at breakfast. 

Tomorrow I have a tour:  Mediterranean on the East River. Looking forward to that. Also looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting some new people. I can't wait to see people that I only see once a year at conferences. Since we share many of the same passions, we just pick up where we left off, never seems like it's been a year. 

I'm taking some business classes about writing, social media, cooking demos, versatility, real ramen, macarons and more. There will also be networking, food and maybe even a party. 

Yes, I do love my job and the continuing education aspect of it. So much fun.

The husband is in charge of taking care of the cats and himself. He has to pour dry cat food and decide what he might want from the freezer. I'm trying not to be too excited about leaving. 

I slept well Wednesday night after a very long day.  I was up bright and early for my Thursday 7 am mentoring session and then headed off to expert sessions. 

Session 1 - Good Web Design Practices with Adam Holzband, Session 2 -  Ideas Are Cheap: How to Make Your Money-Making Business Concept Actually Make Money, Session 3 - Building the Buzz: The New Rules of Engagement.  All good sessions, lots of notes, lots of work to do!