Amy Ruth's, Manhattan, NYC

The peace, the serenity...

A lazy Sunday arvo, even the pond turtles were basking in the sun...

the tranquility of... Manhattan? That's right, it's no secret that the man-made Central Park is a little nature getaway for most people living in Manhattan. What's fun about CP is that she spans a rather vast area and walking through it all the way will lead you out to Harlem. Now, since we're in Harlem, why not grab some soul food?

Amy Ruth's has been around for 10 years now and I've been told it's the place to grab some classic Southern style soul food. Soul food is basically an American style of food developed by African-Americans in the Southern region during the 50s and 60s. There's more history to it but I'm just keeping it brief for simplicity.

Cornbread was served at the start. Buttery and fragrant, these little pieces of bread were even still a bit warm from the oven which made very convenient for the spreading butter to melt and seep into every bit of it.

Chicken and waffles. Now isn't this a neat combo? Can't decide what to have for your main and dessert? Just order them both on one plate. Some of the folks around ate the waffle akin to like fries or some sort of side with their fried chicken. Of course there's the option of keeping it to end and eating it more conventionally with syrup. Which one did I choose?

Another interesting sweet and savory mix. Fried chicken with honey. A crispy juicy fried chicken leg doused over with spiced honey. I know it sounds weird but this mixed flavor sort of grew on me. Now even when I head to Popeye's for some fried chicken, I may eat it with some honey (the Popeyes' here provide little sachets at no extra charge).

More sweet stuff, a side-dish of candied sweet potatoes. Now this was pushing it a little, the sweet potatos were pretty sweet naturally and now being soaked in syrup, it was a bit overbearing.

When I saw deep-fried okra on the menu, I thought it'll be like those okra chips you get at Indian restaurants, instead these were battered prior to deep-frying which sort of left the okra still soft. Not too bad really, at least it wasn't soaked in syrup haha.

So how did I do that waffle in the end? Despite all the sweet stuff during the meal, I stuck to conventions and ate it as a dessert with lots of butter and syrup.

Now this definitely made that walk through Central Park worth it. After all, why waste all that exercise?

D