A NewYork
SALLY McLEAN Not too far from the madding crowds of the Big Apple, you can shop till you drop and enjoy scenery and culture on a low-budget trip to one of the hidden gems of the US
READERS may remember the TV spectacle of Swiss restaurateur Anton Mosimann, dressed in chef’s whites and hat, clambering up a hillside to extol the virtues of “Jertzee Royals”.
Yet there much more to Jersey’s food than the not-so-humble spud. For an island that’s five miles long and nine wide, it has more than 300 restaurants.
And being only a short flight from the mainland (from 30 different airports) it’s perfect for a short break.
We went for a three-day foodie excursion in October, during the six-week discount dining event called Tennerfest.
Loads of restaurants take part, even up to Michelin-starred, offering menus starting, unsurprisingly, at £10, with the same food from the same kitchen.
For our entree, we went for a humble Jersey pasty at the tearooms at
XXXXXX xxxxxx Elizabeth Castle in St Aubin’s Bay.
Xxxx Castles figure a lot on Jersey. For a good climb to work up an appetite, try Mont Orgueil, or Gorey Castle.
It’s a huge, sprawling structure, with a mix of historical models and art installations dotted around the rooms.
To dine afterwards, head down Gorey harbour and try Feast for good, unfussy food with hearty portions. We had lovely crab bruschetta, sea bass and pork belly, and pavlova. (info at Feast.je)
For our next meal, Mark Jordan at the Beach is a lovely, buzzy establishment just outside St Helier, overseen by Mark, who has worked with Keith Floyd and Jean-Christophe Novelli.
I had a delicate crab nibble to begin, followed by Jersey mackerel escabeche for me, then a well named Jersey brill with a lobster bisque that had me wanting to lick the plate (markjordanatthebeach.com).
Jersey has lots of walking and cycling to work it all off. We took a hike along the north coast cliffs, with views to Guernsey but with the island’s rocky coastline, you get spectacular vistas almost everywhere.
For lunch, we headed back into St Aubin and the delicatessen and cafe BY CHRIS EARY La Belle Gourmande for locally dived scallops.
For a special meal, we headed downstairs at our hotel. Near the centre of St Helier, the comfy Club Hotel and Spa (theclubjersey.com) hosts the Michelin-starred Bohemia Restaurant.
Our seven-course seafood tasting menu was food as art.
The hotel is handily placed between the shore and the town, with plenty of shopping and the colourful Central Market.
Next came chocolate. Not for dessert, though. We sampled the hotel’s spa for the Chocolate Rasul treatment.
After exfoliating with salt, you rinse then smear a sort of chocolate mud over yourself, then sit in a steam room which slowly melts the chocolate.
You end up with amazing skin and the experience of becoming a giant salted caramel. ● ● BY GARY ARMSTRONG gary.armstrong@reachplc.com WHEN you think of New York, you conjure up images of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Times Square, ever-animated street food vendors and yellow cabs.
The Big Apple remains a big draw – last year a record 62.8million tourists visited the city.
But as I found on a recent trip Upstate, there’s far more to New York than just Manhattan island. Flying from Edinburgh, Norwegian Airlines – who launched the route in June 2017 – take you direct to New York Stewart Airport in seven hours.
As it stands, Norwegian – voted the best low-cost airline in Europe this year – fly daily from the capital to the US.
Yet, travelling on the new Boeing 737 MAX, which was just a few months old, nothing felt particularly budget about the flight. It was nice to step on to a plane that felt modern, that hadn’t been clambered on by decades worth of passengers before you.
Meanwhile – and this is a real bonus for someone more than 6ft tall – it was spacious, with plenty of room to stretch your legs out under the seat in front.
The flights are scheduled to land at Stewart at 7.30pm, meaning you arrive at the right time to check in at your hotel and grab a bite to eat in a local restaurant before hitting the hay.
On the first evening, we stayed at the roomy Homewood Suites by Hilton in Newburgh, just a five-minute drive from the airport.
The second night’s stay was at the similarly comfortable Hyatt House in Fishkill.
A clear advantage of staying ● Flying from Edinburgh on January 12, 2019, seven nights catered chalet at the 4* Chalet Hotel Les Cimes, Alpe d’Huez, France, from £525pp. Info from www. skikings.co.uk Upstate, as opposed to in the city, is the size of the hotel rooms – large family rooms here cost the same as a shoebox would set you back for a night in Manhattan.
One of the major attractions of this part of the country is Woodbury Common Premium Outlets. The outdoor mall, the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, is something of a shopping mecca.
More than 240 designer stores are housed here, including the likes of Coach, Tom Ford, Dior and Givenchy. And even with the low pound-dollar exchange rate in mind, there are countless bargains to be had – with some retailers offering up to as much as 90 per cent off full price.
A full day could easily fly by here, and the “shop till you drop crowd” might want to set aside a second day visit, to avoid missing out on that mega deal.
For those who fancy Christmas shopping with a difference, this trip would greatly appeal.
And what better way to unwind after working out how to cram all your new clothes into