New York – Act 3, Scene 1.

on our way. To eat.

Well. It’s been some time, hasn’t it?

We moved from the Ace Hotel (sniff sniff) to the Hilton Garden Inn to save some cash and use some points. It was a nice place, very very touristy. Right near the Macy’s Herald Square – I’m sure you’ve heard of that one. After a breakfast of leftover Chickalicious cupcakes we grabbed the cameras after dropping off the gear and went on a polaroid tour of the area and if a snack happened to pop up along the way = well? what could we do?

We were right next to Korea town (which seems smaller than Korea town in Atlanta) and I had heard good things about this place. Luckily it was not hard to find. Since this was L’s first intro to Mandoo (korean dumplings that can be fried or steamed) we ordered a sampler platter.  It was good – Mandoo is one of those hard to go wrong snacks. I’ve definitely had better and the prices were a little steep but Korean usually is. Right next door was a place I never heard of but had to try – Emo’s Kimbab. A place that sells only Kimbab next to a place that only sells Mandoo??? Only in New York. Unless your in Korea, I guess. Tiny little place (Emo is Korean for Aunt) with 3 people working in what I’d guess was 25 square feet. But oh it was good….Kimbab is Korean sushi, I guess. That’s how we explain it to the white people. It’s just different though. Kim in Korean means Seaweed (Or, at least the seaweed you wrap around the roll) and bab is rice. Get it? Anyways, for like $5 bucks they make you a roll right there. It’s a very hearty sized snack.

I’m not sure we really went much of anywhere, just wandered a bit. Ended up eating a hot dog from a street cart and a Lemon Sugar Crepe at the Creperie which was divine. I tried to find a very particular restarunt in Little Italy but grew tired so we parked it in some espresso bar and relaxed for a bit.

Action shot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Noms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After heading back to the hotel room to take a shower and recharge we boarded the subway to the eaaaast side to meet some old friends for a drink or three. After happy hour turned into happy hours I was of course starving and realized we were very near SMAC – They ONLY sell Mac and Cheese. What what? L’s friend joined us for this portion of the trip. We ordered the Alpine, Cheesburger and 4 Cheese. I ate mine and finished the others.

I could stick my head in that pan

I listend to L and A and peppered them both with questions about being Goth. I am not Goth, I have never wanted to be Goth and doubt I will ever be Goth but I am fascinated by the goths. I mean, c’mon – who wouldn’t want to go on this??? I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me.

We said our goodbye’s to A and wandered the streets in further yogurt research. We found ourselves at a Red Mango and since everyone had said ‘ohh, red mango’s so good blah blah” i said ok, we’ll try it. Uh, no. Luckily, there was a pinkberry across the street and we were able to wash that Red Mango inferior yogurt taste out with some REAL fro yo. Yo.

Washing red mango

So, after dessert #2 we headed back for our last night and started to pass out until I made L pull up some Goth dance videos on youtube. It’s not my fault, she brought it up over dinner.

Until we meet again, New York!

New York New York: Part 1

I am drinking coffee from my new favorite Dean and Deluca Mug as I type this. JB and I left for NYC at some awful early hour on Monday. JB hates flying. Really hates it.  I used to hate flying too but I used to travel so much for work it’s a little soothing to me now.

Pre-trip photo

JB does not like flying. At all.

We were at the airport at 630 and no coffee for me yet. Sucks. I sat in the row behind JB on the plane and watched her play peekaboo with the little kid in front of her. I put on my Frank Sinatra and friends playlist on the ipod and tuned out.Flight was uneventful, arrived and caught a taxi to hotel. My mom called me twice to ask me if had gotten in the cash cab yet. If you don’t know, Cash Cab is a game show on Discovery Channel. Unsuspecting passengers get in a taxi and end up on a mini-game show. Conversation with my mother:

me: Hi mom

mom: Did you get in cash cab?

me: No. There’s kind of a lot of taxis here

mom: I don’t know why not. EVERYONE gets in cash cab

me: well, I don’t know if it’s that easy.

mom: Maybe me and your father will got to New York. We will get in the cash cab

me: mmm. I’m not sure you and dad in new york is the best idea.

Finally here. First taxi ride of the week. not cash cab

We checked into the hotel and headed to Famous Joe’s pizza, supposed to some of the best. And it was really good but then again we hadn’t eaten all day.Beard papa is a cream puff store that was on our list of places to see and happened to have one right next to Famous Joes. I have no idea why it’s called Beard papa or what that has to do with Cream Puffs. It’s Japanese.  Jodi could not contain her creampuff and ended up with a puddle of puff all around her.  I do not waste food, however, and mine ended up in my belly.

Famous Joe's - pretty dang good

Omnomnomnomnom

There must be some connection between anime sailors and cream puffs but not sure what

It was about a 20% loss

Lady filling the puff

in my belly

As luck would have it we found a Pinkberry a few blocks away. Pinkberry is a frozen yogurt that is unlike anything I’ve ever had. It was sublime. Very tangy, like Greek Yogurt. Highly recommend this. VERY VERY good.Man. Now I’m really craving Pinkberry. I can see how it would be addicting.

OMNOMNOMNOMNOM

We then caught a train up to Central park and went on a very very very long walk. We did catch a view of the Guggenehim (one of my favorite buildings) and saw some very chubby squirrels. I like chubby squirrels very much. rats, not so much. At one train station, a baby rat just about ran over the top of my shoe. I didn’t scream like a girl and leap into JB’s arms because I didn’t have time to react but if I saw it earlier I probably would have.

Hmm. Maybe you should pick a stouter branch, Mr. Squirrel.

Beautiful.

So we tried to find some tunnel that’s in a lot of movies and walked nearly all of Central Park but to no avail. I also wanted to find the Diana Ross playground but never found it either. Will have to try again at another date.

We headed back downtown to the Shake Shack. If you are in New York and can only stop at one place for lunch, go here. The burgers are nearly perfect. We met a very nice Rutgers student named Catherine. I can’t even remember why we started talking, I think I was asking her where the strand was in relation to us. She had a map of NYC and was a wealth of information so I let her have some of our fries. Overall, I have to say we met a lot of people and every single person was as friendly as they could be. And I mean these were natives to the area too. Very pleasant experience.

GO HERE NOW OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

Very Helpful Rutgers Student.

For dinner, we ended up at Cafeteria. Oh boy. This place was gooooooood. Kinda higher end comfort food. New yorkers love mac and cheese. I mean really really love it. We didn’t try it here but the people next to us did. We decided to try some things we wouldn’t have otherwise so started off with almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon with bleu cheese and a balsamic reduction. It was a lot going on but delicious. I had the fiery roasted chicken and JB had the Short Rib tacos. I liked the play on the taco because it was a sweet potato puree instead of beans with a corn and apple salsa. So good. There was a mother / daughter next to us. The mom kept peeping our food so we struck up a conversation. Meanwhile, her daughter looked horrified that her mother would be talking to us. So, JB does not eat a lot so I end up often eating my dinner / snack and most of hers too.And I love to meet people that love food:

Random Mom (RM): How were the tacos

JB: Really good. She (Pointing at me) ate most of mine

RM: (To me) You ate all of yours and most of hers?

Me: (Mouth full of food, nodding)

Me: I’m really good at eating. It’s one of my three talents

RM: Me too! I’m so good at it. I’ve been practicing my whole life

Me: Yes! same here.

Appetizer

Tacos omnomnomnomnom

I think that’s all we ate the first day. JB had addresses for all the places we wanted to visit in her Ipod I-thing which took me some time to master. I’ll post part 2 later, need more coffee in my new favorite mug right now…here’s how day 2 started though…

how day 2 started