Tuesday, May 19, 2009

[nyc-oh-nine] day three
Day three proceeds with how day two ended.

And, we were off to see (walk) the city.

First stop: Canal St. so I could buy a Fendi bag with a bad attitude. Jk. I wanted a hat - like my fake kangol or fangol, if you will. Didn't find any. But they had a bunch of.. newsboy type hats and found one quickly and only haggled for a second for them to drop the price from $12 to $10.

Then, we ventured westward to get some vegan dim sum at Buddha Bodai. We ordered... veggie Sesame Chicken, veggie siu mai, veggie pork buns, some chinese doughnut thing, eggplant with tofu, and taro. It was a whole mess of food. And, again, was pretty good. And it was pretty cheap - 2.25 - 2.75 for each dim sum, except the sesame chicken.

Stuffed and having NO ROOM for more food, we headed northeastward to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory where the sample spoons of lychee (was good but nothing spectacular) and black sesame (forced the stomach to adjust to fit in another friend). I ordered the taro and spent the next few minutes and blocks working the ice cream scoop to a proper size so that it wouldn't all drip onto my hand or just fall off if held at weird angle. The ice cream was sorta expensive - but where do you find black sesame ice cream? The was really really good. The taro was good also, but not really memorable. Though I did enjoy immensely.

With tons of food in the bellies, we ventured southward to the Brooklyn Bridge. We spent a good amount of time walking on the bridge and taking photos of the bridge, the skyline, the rust, the wires, the rust, (I took enjoyment in the rust, i guess), of brooklyn, of water, of people in our shots, of each other, of Europeans. Along the way there was some model shoot on the bridge. For what? I don't know. It could've been hair product. Could've been lipstick. It could've been for cereal, but I really don't know.

We got to Brooklyn - and I was sorta grossed out by the huge buildings decorating the foot of the bridge: the Watchtower(s). Okay.

We jumped onto an A-train and headed over to 14th and 8th to look for Chelsea Market and Ninth Street Espresso. We got our bearing when we stepped out of the station and still turned the wrong way. But, the detour landed us at a corner where there was some sort of film set - but nothing was happening. Maybe it was lunch hour.

We found ourselves at Chelsea Market, walked around to see all the bakeries, the food network elevator, overpriced cupcakes and cookies, and coffee (also a bit overpriced). We sat outside, again, to catch our bearings, and subsequently headed north on 9th ave. We walked through Chelsea on our way to the Flat Iron building on 5th and 23rd. I've actually never been to the Flat Iron building - just rode by it once on the way to a bar. We spent a few minutes taking pictures there of the building, of cabs, of each other, and many times using our favorite "ACCENT" setting on our cameras.

We decided to head up to 34th and 9th to see where we would catch the Bolt Bus to Boston the next day. And, before we got too far (the end of the block), we saw Shake Shack, saw the line, saw a burger wiz buy us - and felt compelled to not leave without trying it. We were told to try the double stack - the one with a burger patty and a patty of portobello mushroom stuffed with cheese. Oh. Damn. We split one. And we're going to split another.. or maybe two before we leave.

And, as an added treat - for me I guess - and the Filipinos on facebook - while in line, I heard some girl say something to a friend, gave him an embrace, and said, "this is my friend Paolo". And when I looked, for that brief glance, I knew I recognized the face and the name made sense. But before I made a full assumption, I looked up his name on my internets connected phone - and YES - it was confirmed. I saw Paolo Montalban - of half-Filipino and Cinderella with brandy fame.

After the psuedo-celebrity sighting and not-at-all-psuedo badass burger eating, we continued North to the 34th and 9th - but not before I bought a fresh cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. I've bought a bag of it before and wasn't all that impressed. Maybe drinking it after the burger didn't make sense. Whatever case.. Dunkin Donuts coffee: I don't get it.

We saw our bus stop and fought through increased foot traffic and eventually found ourselves in Central Park. We walked on the West side of the park and past the lake, onto some bridge, and over the middle portion of the park. I was looking for the Promenade, aka Poet's Walk, and thought of just walking east. Didn't work. Didn't find it. Before all that getting lost sorta stuff, we watched a bunch of elementary school kids learning to play baseball. It was cute. And gross that it was cute. I'm anti-child, remember? I also took some time to take picture of the big rocks at the park as an homage to the lessons I learned about geology on History Channel's How the Earth was Made show. I took pictures of the stryations (created by a glacier). I also chased around a robin for a few minutes, but it wouldn't cooperate.

Eventually, we were running out of time and getting tired so we headed back to the hotel to pack our stuff for Boston and take all of our leftover stuff to Huong's friend's place where we'll be staying after we get back from Boston. After dropping off our stuff, we headed south on 1st ave. On the way, we passed by some "mexican" restaurant and saw tequila on their sign. We headed to S'mac to try some specialty mac n cheese. We ordered the Parisienne: Brie, fig, rosemary, and maybe some other spices. It was good - heavy as you'd expect. If you like Mac n Cheese, you'd probably enjoy it. I'd go back and try one or two of the other recipes. Okay, i'd probably try a bunch of them. But you can order the smallest size and split with someone and still feel like it was enough.

Onward we went - south towards the Lower East Side. We were heading towards Sugar Sweet Sunshine bakery to try out some famous cupcakes. Before we got there though, we stopped into a bar, and followed through on a plan to take a tequila shot for our friend Maria. It was honestly a much better experience than the last shot I took of tequila - at Maria's place, but I still hate tequila.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine had a wide array of cupcakes: our two suggested choices were the Black and White (chocolate and white frosting) and the Red Velvet. So, we ordered the Pistachio. $1.50. "A dollar fifty's not bad at all. Other places charged 3.50 for a single cupcake. The pistachio.. it's good, like homemade cupcakes, " says Huong. With a hint of apprehension. I think she was disappointed. Disappointment happens when other people's tastes get you excited. "I think we'll have to try Magnolia - just to try it."

After the cupcake, we jumped on the brown line to West 4th to grab a slice of cheese pizza at Joe's Pizza (as seen on Spider-man... as seen on a sign on their wall). I pured on some garlic powder, folded it, and chomped away. Huong, who said she wasn't ready for Joe's had many bites and said it was "good pizza" and we'd have to go back. Then, before leaving the west village, stopped at Grey Dog (where I hung out once on a rain-dump day with Trina waaay back when.) I ordered a Lobster Ale, she ordered a soy chai, and she scoped the joint for cute boys or "cute skinnies". Sadly, there were none.

Then, the train. Then, the stop. Then, the hotel. Then, the internet. Then, the sleep. Then.. the boston.

Ulam cooked @ 7:45 AM

Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home