The New York Dream – Part 5 – If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere

Day 15 – 18/04/2019

It was high time I made my way to Stumptown, since that's another big name coffee roaster here.

I was after something substantial or savoury, and they stocked Supermoon Croissants here, so I chose this ham and cheese one! Good stuff, this tasted so much better than how some of the "healthy" cold options looked.

I could have gotten a normal coffee, to compare it against other roasters and cafes, but you know what, a peppercorn honey latte sounded much more exciting! Seems to be a seasonal specialty here, and the barista apologised for the latte art being bad. Lol. Baristas need to stop apologising for that! I am more focused on getting the shot right, but I obviously failed here.

The coffee itself was really interesting. In LA many years back, I'd tried a cardamom latte which I ended up really not liking, and many flavoured coffees later, I realised I'd become a purist. Flavoured coffees were actually coffee flavoured other drinks. This one, however, struck a very nice balance between a flavoured coffee drink and coffee flavoured drink. The honey was subtle and not overpowering, but it was the peppercorns - they gave it a spiciness, and I never had spicy coffee before! Of course, I am also susceptible to burning upon pepper, which no one else seems to understand, but pepper actually has the same effect on me as chilli. This reminded me a lot of my truffle at Per Se last night, with the sichimi pepper. It was almost like this was the best coffee chaser for that chocolate! I was burning so I couldn't drink it fast, but I really enjoyed!

Isn't it great when you try something you don't think you'll be impressed with, and then it turns out to be so much fun?

Plus the decor here is great. It really feels like a mini library!

Cherry blossoms were starting to dwindle, but the peach blossoms persisted. I went around to Washington Square Park again, hoping to take some better photos than last time, especially as it wasn't raining today. Still no random coffee/tea cart!

Nothing to see here, just a man on a roof...

But look, another dog run! Yay! Man New York really does have amazing dog parks. This corgi looks like the same one from last time, but I think it might be different?

After the doggies went home, it was time to keep exploring. I found this interesting looking tea place, and wondered what kind of tea it sold.

So many varieties of teas! It's interesting how Asian tea shops and Western tea shops look so different! These ones had some interesting looking chinese teas, but also had the usual suspects and fruit blends of black teas, such as english breakfast, earl grey etc.

More street photos. Again, the buildings here are just wonderful to look at because it's almost like patchwork sometimes!

Well I kept walking and ended up in Chinatown, and stumbled upon Canal Street Markets. There are so many eateries here, including a little Ippudo branded noodle shop, and even had a kakigori place, complete with the ice shaver thing! That's so cool! That kind of meant I had to get one....

Lo and behold, my strawberries and cream kakigori!! It was super tasty and it was layered with sesame bits inside! I love that everything here looked home made and wasn't bright coloured syrup. Very fun to eat!

This road is pretty cool. Massive archaway too, but just look at all those New York style not-witches hats! No, the building on the right is not falling over. This is just a really wide shot so I think my phone does weird things when fitting all the details in!

You know what I haven't had yet? An Impossible Burger. I saw it available at Nishi, but I didn't feel like trying to make it there and attempting a walk in, so instead, a little bit of researched showed that Bareburger, a chain I'd seen a few times, served them! But now that I actually wanted to look for their locations, it seemed tough to find one. But I perservered, and this is it. Behold the Impossible Burger, the cow that didn't die to make the patty, the thing that really is supposed to taste like meat.

And it does! Woah. It really IS impossible! You honestly cannot tell that it's not made of meat. They've engineered this incredibly well. I love it! The burger was cooked to medium though, so I couldn't see any "bleeding" effects. The flavour though, was spot on. I have no idea how they emulated the flavour of beef fat, or how they got the texture this spot on. It is really, really good and just amazing to eat!

There's one more meal here that's not pictured and that's dinner. My friend wasn't feeling well and I was looking for food that might be tummy-friendly, and it turns out there was a place nearby that did dumplings, called Kung Fu little steamed buns ramen. Yeah, that's the whole name. They actually got a Michelin mention, and it was particularly busy that night! But I had a cheat idea. You can skip the queue if you order takeaway! So I went straight to the front to place my order. Good thing too, because you avoid tipping costs this way! They had pig ears so I had to grab some, and I also got some pork and prawn steamed dumplings, and some har gow. The dumplings required 20 mins prep, so I went home and back.

The food was actually pretty tasty! The dumplings were so-so (they were not xiao long bao), but the har gow and the pig ears were both super yummy! No wonder they're busy!

Day 16 – 19/04/2019

Happy Good Friday! I wonder what Easter delights I will find in New York. I saw Bouchon Bakery stocking hot cross buns early, but I waited till today to go and ask for one. Alas, New Yorkers don't eat hot cross buns the same way we Aussies do? Their bakery was takeaway only, and I wanted one to dine in. You know, toasted, with butter. They said I could try my luck at their actual cafe. So I walked across to the Bouchon Cafe and asked them if they served hot cross buns. They were really, really confused. They weren't sure. And then they came back to me and said they didn't serve hot cross buns.

Okay. I still want to try one, but I really wanted one toasted. With butter.

After doing a bit of digging, it turns out that Supermoon did hot cross buns! Woo! And I didn't have any pressing cafe visits, so I settled for a flattie here too.

Yay, hot cross bun!!! But er, where's my toasted and butter? I didn't ask for toasted and butter, but I specified to have here, assuming that it was always served hot, but oh no, it came out as is! Which makes me wonder what would happen if I tried to ask for toasted with butter. Would they understand what I was after? All these mysteries!

But, to its merit, it was good on its own. It's much like any other sourdough artisan hot cross bun - it wasn't squishy, and quite bready, but tasted great! This to me is an actual type of hot cross bun that is distinctly different from the squishy kind, and I enjoy both!

I'd actually bought some hot cross buns at my Bouchon Bakery encounter, but now it was time to look for butter, as well as restock on my yoghurt. Here's a cute doggy at the farmer's markets!

Look, more apple varieties! The spartan tasted like a very good cooking apple, sweet with some tartness, but it felt like it held its shape very well.

The snapdragon was more expensive, on par with the ruby frost, and was also really sweet and flavoursome! This was probably my favourite apple out of the lot I tried, tied with the ruby frost.

I did manage to find some butter, but forgot that you don't need to refrigerate butter here because it's not 30 degrees. Here is the Bouchon Bakery hot cross bun! This one was the super squishy kind and very sweet smelling! I actually liked this one too!

Time to venture forth to our fifth and final borough! Here is the boat to Staten Island!

This was actually a great boat ride! My last ferry was to Rottnest Island and it was the most unpleasant and turbulent boat I'd ever been on, so I was a bit apprehensive about this one, but the waters were calm, much like how a Sydney ferry ride would be, so I took lots of photos!

Nice, we actually get fairly close to the Statue of Liberty!

And here we are. Hello Staten Island! It looks like there's a massive shopping complex in the middle of being built here. I didn't know if there was anything to do here, so we walked around and I took some photos. Walking wasn't the greatest idea though, because like Queensborough Park, this area also looked a little less well-to-do.

Some very empty streets here! Where did all the tourists go? Oh well. It was time to go back to the... mainland? Main island? Manhattan. Lol.

That boat doesn't look healthy!

On my way to the island, I noticed that there were a heap of seagulls behind the boat, but they aren't really at the front. I reckon they're benefiting from some slipstreaming here! So on the way back, I took plenty of pictures of them behind us!

Everyone peering out the windows to see the Statue of Liberty! So I took pictures of people taking pictures, cause that's always so fun!

And shortly after, we were back in Manhattan. Hmm, what to do for dinner though. I think it was the waiter at Per Se that I discussed Russ and Daughters with, and I'd mentioned that I tried to go one morning and it was packed, and that I was considering going for dinner. He'd mentioned it's better to go for breakfast, but feeling spontaneous, I decided to ignore his advice and go tonight. I was early enough to hopefully avoid a queue, and I'm pretty sure pickled fish is a dinner food rather than breakfast.

Jackpot! Good Friday, and I got in straight away! I was conveniently seated at the bar. This was the most interesting drink I've had in a while, a fennel and basil soda. The fennel made it really interesting, like it was sweet, but you could sort of also get hints of savoury from it! I'm actually really enjoying a whole lot of interesting beverages here!

More matzo ball soup! Look at the healthy heaping of chicken in this one too! The broth here was really good, though I still like the actual mazto ball at Katz's the best. The bowl was actually pretty large, and I was already worried that I'd over-ordered, which is very unusual for me to do so early into a meal.

Look, an Easter special! This was traditional gefilte fish, with white fish, carp and pike, accompanied with beetroot and horseradish. I actually had no idea what I had ordered and couldn't even pronounce the dish properly, but wow, this was tasty! I didn't know that fish meatloaf is a thing, nor that it paired with horseradish! The actual loaf itself was very interesting because the fish were minced/ground whole - I found one tiny piece of bone that was *just* noticeable. It's kind of cool that they use all of the fish, if these were super bony fish, it'd be a very efficient way of using the whole animal!

Luckily, this Pastrami Russ was small-ish! A pretzel brioche with pastrami cured salmon. Tasty stuff, and I was really full at this point. That means everything I'd ordered just scraped in!

Except that this place is also famous for pickled fish... so I had to get their pickled herring. I was a little distraught that the tasting plate came with 6 pieces, but I really wanted to try it... so I guess this is dessert! Yum! The herring by itself was very fishy, you could taste it even through the vinegar, but, when you combined it with: mustard and dill; pickled onion; and apple. My favourite was in that order too. And I also remembered that South Africans celebrate Easter with pickled fish too! Yay!

I was so full but so happy. They even give you a little coffee candy at the end! That's so awesome! And yes, I took the shot over the caviar menu, just cause.

I was walking off all the food I ate, when I saw people milling around this shop. Oh, a place called Rice to Riches, that's cute. I wonder why it's so popular?

Haha, the signs are great! It reminds me of a shop here in Perth called Neho, which used to be called Chingrish. While Chingrish is a more obvious way to create humour, these guys basically flip every rule on its head, and have ridiculous signs like "limit 500 rice puddings per person" and "surcharge for hard questions, indecision, pondering" etc. It's great!

Yep. It's a shop that sells only rice pudding. Loads and loads of rice. Pudding. So many flavours, it's amazing there's a shop here that's actually thriving from all this. Kind of like how I've always wondered if it's viable to sell just jelly. lol.

Well, this was the mascarpone cherry flavour because I had to try some, mainly to compare with how I make mine at home. This one wasn't too bad, but I was really really full and this was much bigger than I thought (I didn't realise only 4 basic flavours came in an even smaller size). I ate half and took the rest home!

Day 17 – 20/04/2019

I had some leftover pig ears from my dinner two nights ago, so I ate them for breakfast before heading out. It was high time I got myself to Te Company, to have another zen tea day.

This place is nice! It's smaller than Tea Drunk and the vibe is different, but the quality is just as stellar. Since they sell Taiwanese teas, I decided to go for an oolong tasting. The lady did mention that the pots were smaller than if I ordered each one individually, but that was fine. She also said that here, they did 3 washes per tea. It's 1 short of what Tea Drunk were doing, but each to their own!

The tasting flight actually doesn't follow any kind of rules, it just lets you pick three. I asked for three distincly different teas so that I could compare, and from her recommendations, I chose the following three:

Valley of the dragon and phoenix (left) - very light and drinks like a green tea. A bit seaweedy, savoury. Turned fragrant and fruity on 3rd wash.

Royal courtesan (middle) - very sweet, slightly "sharp" like almost tannic/astringent but not? I'm convinced this smells floral (but not in a coffee way) on 2nd and 3rd washes.

Frozen summit 2011 vintage (right) - toasty like houjicha but without the depth. Also sweet, kind of fruity. 2nd wash is a big vegetal, like dirt veges (jerusalem artichoke? Ginseng?)

I have the weirdest tasting notes, but there they are XD.

These guys are famous for their pineapple linzer cookies, so I had to try one too. I wasn't even really sure what they were, and when they came out, I thought to myself, hey, that looks like a jammy dodger!

This place actually started feeling like a bar after a while. What I mean by that is, the place is smaller than the number of customers that enter. Once their few tables are occupied, any additional customers end up just standing around and enjoying the tea. This is actually a really cool thing, to see a "standing room tea house", I guess you could say. It shows people really value the place and the time required to enjoy tea, something you don't see as much in coffee (it exists, but most people take away so it ends up being the thing you see the most). Hence, the feeling is most common to that of a bar. Amazing!

It was also really interesting to see the demographics of the customers. They were mostly young people, I'd say in their 20s. There was a small group of Japanese people (probably tourists), a couple talking about startups, and a couple of girls just hanging out talking about life. Isn't that interesting? I'd say it was the same group as hipsters who went to specialty coffee shops. There was also an older lady by herself, with a writing book and a reading book. Once more people started coming in, they were older too, maybe in their 30s - 40s. How cool! It's amazing that so many different kinds of people appreciate this kind of tea!

I intially was saving myself to find food afterwards, and ignored the pork and rice dish because it sounded "ordinary". Even after the Tea Drunk guys told me that an ex-Per Se chef worked here. However, after seeing the two girls next to me order it and it was the perfect size! It wasn't too big, plus, it actually looked really, really good. Like, it was just a bowl of rice but it was so good! So I ordered one too.

I spent so much time just looking at it! Now I see why I liked it; I couldn't put my finger on why I was compelled to order this when I saw it. Was it because it was homely? Was it just because it was a decent size? Or was it that something else where you just know it's gonna be good?

Well. That pork and mushroom. Look at it. Look at it closely. The chopping on it is uniform!! Every piece looked like it was diced with some very technical knifework, not just any random person chopping up the food. Woah. Yeah. You know I get mesmerised with knifework.

Then there's the egg. Oh, but of course, it's a tea egg! I haven't had a tea egg in ages and I've craved them on and off the last few years! How aromatic! And look at that yolk inside. That is perfectly yolky. Not a millimetre too cooked and you could tell that the heat had reached it because it was oozy rather than fully runny. Wow. Yeeah this was good, woah, I loved it! Who knew something so "simple" like pork and rice could turn out to be such a lovely dish!!!

As I was eating this, I saw the lonesome lady finish her meal, but then I noticed something. She had these dark squiggly things on a napkin. Huh? Did she just find seaweed somewhere? Then I thought about it, and I think that she had actually taken a few of the leaves from her oolong tea and patted them dry on tissue. I wonder what for! More mystery ensues! I love seeing people do things because then it doesn't make me feel so awkward sometimes for other random things!

Having learned my lesson from other other tea day, I made sure to head to a place I knew there were plenty of bathrooms for the next few hours. By chance, it also meant I came across a very brightly decorated train carriage!

World Trade Center was the perfect stop since I could use the amenities here. But also, I was here for this part of the station. I saw it once when my friend and I travelled somewhere, maybe it was to Coney Island. I really liked how it looked, but didn't want to hop off and on another train. I actually had trouble finding this section because WTC is actually a different station, so all the trains end up on the old section with another name. I had to walk around looking for this place. Is the 7 train the only one that leaves from here?

I went to Hudson Yards because I had this grand idea that if I was ever unsure of what to have for dinner, I could buy some salmon sashimi and roe, plus a box full of sea urchin from the super fancy supermarket here and just gorge on that with a beer in hand (yes, that combo is literally what I thought of). Along the way I found this very interesting shop, where you can just take a bottle and it looks like a trust system to pay for it. I didn't really wanna pay $10 a bottle so I didn't give this a go.

I bought more hot cross buns and also a TKO, a Thomas Keller Oreo. Not bad, but I know nothing about cookies so this was so-so for me.

That, to the left, is a line for the Vessel. Now I see why the tickets have a time and date on them!

I didn't actually end up buying any sushi for some reason, I didn't really want to pay and the uni didn't look super enticing, and I wasn't really feeling it, so I left.

Look, two policemen directing traffic!

Instead, I had an idea to go to Momofuku Ko's bar. Being able to have both a burger and fried chicken sounded really tempting!

Day 18 – 21/04/2019

Easter Sunday, a celebratory day! With my constant consultation of Google Maps, I noticed that a section of Fifth Avenue had been purpled out. Upon closer inspection, I noticed ti was some sort of Easter Bonnet Festival Parade thing!

I took so many photos that I made a separate post about it here.

I wasn't supposed to visit Little Collins twice, but the first visit was so enjoyable, and it just happened to be close by, that I decided to go there again. Still as packed as ever, and I didn't want something too big in case I had to eat again later, so I opted just for the espresso. Good fuel for photo days!

Oh, Trump Tower is here! I didn't realise this is open to the public and that he has a ton of eateries. Well... I didn't really want any of it, even though I did consider super hyper critically assessing the cafe, but not really. I didn't want that! So I finished taking snaps of the parade and headed back.

Wow a Nintendo shop!

More of New York's streets.

Payphone!

P.S. Kitchen was a place I noticed really early on in the trip, and got my hipster sense going. However, I wasn't sure exactly what it did, or how much food it had because it felt very much like a bar, being a "downstairs" place. It did have super cute decor, though.

It wasn't until today that I actually saw they had a menu on display, so I took a look. A Beyond Burger! Woah! Okay, I had plans to visit a diner today, but scrap that, this is a vegan place that sells the other burger! And so here I was.

I don't even remember what this drink was, maybe matcha coconut. I do remember it being very tasty, something I didn't quite expect, but the balance of flavour was great!

Behold the Beyond Burger! The patty of this was about double the thickness of the Impossible burger. It was also delicious, but in a different way. This one had less "meatiness" than Impossible. This is a bit tough to describe. Impossible tasted like flavoursome, dry aged meat fat. It also had a texture that matched an average ground beef patty. Beyond had a meaty bite, but it didn't quite match that of beef. There would be maybe an imperceptible "soy" texture still with this, but considering I say it's almost imperceptible, and I have the worst senses out of anyone, it's not accurate, but it's how I felt the texture was different. One thing Beyond did a lot better, or maybe this place, was there was a real smokiness to the patty, which brought back the idea of this resembling meat.

And here's the inside! Overall both Beyond and Impossible are really great "not meat" burgers. I prefer Impossible, but I imagine there's a market for both, catering for different tastes. Some good stuff!

It was my friend's last day in NY before he had to leave, so we decided to squeeze in the MET as best we could!

So many hot dog carts!

There's also this guy playing his sax. But that's not the interesting bit. The interesting bit is that he doesn't want videos taken, and he actually announces this in Chinese! And it's actually really fluent mandarin, the intonations are spot on when I listened. There's a sign there that even says "yes, I lived in Asia", and I think he's done some higher profile stuff?

Anyway, the MET is so big that I'll have to do a separate post about it, but I'm a little pressed for time so who knows if I'll ever link it up.

Our time was up and my friend had to return home. So now I had to figure out things to do on my own, and I decided to see if Rockefeller's observation deck was open since it was a nice today today. They also have crazy sets of lifts!

Wow ok, Top of the Rock is busy! Not only was there a queue, but the tickets have specific timeframes, so even though I bought mine at 5:30, the next available time was 8:30, so I had a few hours to kill.

"Vegan" cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, but no such label on the broccoli... guess where I'm at!

I didn't really want a "full" dinner, and I was in need of vegetables again, so I fell back to my old reliable, Wholefoods Market. I really do love that place, especially when there are so many selections on offer at the make your own bar! I gathered up some asparagus, broccoli salad, salami chickpea and bocconcini salad, carrots, a vege spring roll, and soy nuggets. I think that's all of it.

The soy nuggets were actually deliciously addictive! Everything else in the box was pretty tasty too! KIDS, EAT YOUR VEGES!

And I took a table at Bryant Park, and became one of those people just relaxing at a park, eating food. Oh, now I see why the parks have so many tables and chairs! New Yorkers like to eat out and then sit at the parks where there is space, since there's no space inside the shops which are often small. That's why the parks always look busy! I wonder how much time the average worker here gets to take a break.

New York really is the place to work hard, play hard. Look at these petanque players go!

Some serious table tennis action right there too!

I couldn't resist giving Waffles and Dinges a go. Here's a candied bacon Liege waffle! I can't believe I got a tiny bottle of maple syrup too, so I kept that and took it home with me. This was actually quite enjoyable, I liked the combination of flavours!

Wow, lots of cops on bikes!

And finally, it was time to make my way to the Top of the Rock. 

Once I was done, it was time to see what the night version of New York looked like, as I realised I hadn't actually gotten any night shots. Here are some people cleaning the ice rink!

Day 19 – 22/04/2019

Next morning, first things first. Gotta finish up my Sun and Stars ticket, which is a special ticket for Top of the Rock. Because my session was at night, I did want to see what this place looked like in the daytime, and they happened to have a combo ticket that grants you as second visit within 24 hours of your first allotted time. My timing was impeccable, as I spotted this wedding couple who were here to both take photos, and have photos taken. Covered also in my Top of the Rock post.

Now it was time for food. My target was actually a specific cafe as one of my idol baristas had quietly raved about a cruller being sold there, but as I had to pass Union Square station to get to it, I got yet another look at the farmers markets, and hey, spring has finally sprung! Super expensive asparagus is now available!

Cool, now I know what mugwort looks like in real life!

Things here are looking greener by the day!

And here we are, at a place called Daily Provisions. It's a cool little cafe, very efficient, and another workflow that I hadn't seen before. Communal dining tables are to the left, bar and barista to the right, and the till is actually at centre back. The queue feels like it would cut the flow between the two sides, but that's how they've made it, which is interesting. The server is very nice though, and it turns out their crullers sell out fast! I asked which was the most popular flavour, and he said maple, so I ordered maple. However, they ran out, so the barista asked me if I preferred another flavour. I said any is fine, and if they ran out completely, I said I liked the sound of another sweet they have, called cake in a cup. Luckily, they still had crullers, so here's the cinnamon flavour!

Wow this was rich. Woah. That crust is like super fried in oil!!! Woaaah. But not in a bad way, it didn't feel thick or cloying, or even greasy. It was just... cooked in a lot of oil. Again, one of those things that's really hard to explain. You can tell it's soaked in oil but it's not negatively oily. And the inside was almost gooey custardy-like. Wow! This is why everyone raves about these crullers!

And here's my espresso. Not too bad, this one was from Joe Coffee. I didn't realise all the chains of Joe Coffee I see are actually the same as the Joe Pro store that I had listed. I guess this means they actually have decent coffee, but I never made it to a chain, so I'm glad I got to try it here! While this wasn't the "best" coffee I had, it's too early to tell with just this single cup, whether or not I like the roasting style.

Once I'd finished my coffee and cruller, I walked around for a bit since I hadn't explored this area before. I noticed this diner, and after doing a walk around the block, circled back to get some grub.

Yep, a real diner! I didn't want to take up an entire booth to myself, so I sat myself at the bar - I was so unsure of what the service was meant to be like here, but since there was no one at the door, I just let myself in?

There were only two floor staff visible at this time of day too, since it wasn't yet lunch time. A guy at the bar, and the lady for the booths. I just sat there, hoping that someone would serve me. Was I supposed to just butt in and ask for stuff? Honestly, I have no idea. Being the polite person I try to be, I waited patiently. Yay, it worked! After getting really worried I'd done it wrong and I was supposed to say something, the bar server managed to finish all the other things he was doing and hand me a cup of water and a menu.

Ah yes, fried chicken and waffles! Complete with egg on top! It was either that or a breakfasty type meal, but I'm always after a reallly tasty set of chicken and waffles because it's such a good combo when done well.

This was nicer than the set I had at Pies 'n Thighs, but not as good as my memory of Roscoe's, which makes me wonder if my memory of Roscoe's is still accurate. Since I tried it before I became a foodie, there's a good chance I'm wearing slightly rose tinted goggles for these. However, the chicken had great flavour! The crumb coating was quite good even though the chicken wasn't super piping hot and juicy in the inside.

I actually decided to be bravely curious and order myself a coffee too. Yeeah. After my trials and tribulations with with airplane coffee, canned coffee and Starbucks, it can't be that bad... right?

It was GOOD!!! Okay again, when I say good, I mean good by my diner expectations. It wasn't bitter, it just tasted like coffee. And anything that is smooth, and isn't bitter, is good. I could actually drink the whole thing black, so I was really happy about that! Who knew!

While I was eating my meal, this girl came in and sat down at the end of the bar, and wanted a chocolate milkshake to go. However, she was very specific and wanted chocolate ice cream in her milkshake. The bar server said yes, they could do it, but when she saw them use Hershey's chocolate syrup and they actually didn't have chocolate ice cream, she said, "ugh, Hershey's! Uh, no thanks sorry. It's got to be chocolate ice cream." and just left. Can people do that here?? Wow. Didn't realise people were so picky! Ahahaha.

Anyways then it was time to pay, and I had to break a $100 note. Figured here was as good as any place. I think I freaked out the bar server cause it sounded like he made some sort of exclamation-like sound! He then counted out my change quite diligently, and I hope I did the right thing by leaving the tip on the table. Was a fun experience!

Now that I was filled up, it was time to head over to the MET again and claim my second visit. Yep, the MET is so big that the ticket lasts 3 days! Central Park was only a small distraction; I took a few pictures on the way there.

Wow, there was a huge line! It also didn't help that it was raining. The information desk staff said they figured it was because Easter had just passed, so people were making their way to all the sightseeing stuff again.

Again, since the MET is huge, the post for it will be done... maybe. Later XD

Two hours later, it was time to attempt my dinner plan. There was no easy way back from here to my place, so I decided to trek though Central Park.

Okay, my plan. I was back at Madison Square Park. It turns out that Eleven Madison Park just switched over to their spring menu, which meant one thing - snails! But how was I going to get in without a booking, and was I really going to spend that much money again???

On their website, it says that they're open from 5:30pm. There was also no notice of holiday hours. So, I camped around a bit, trying to not look like I was desperate to know if the restaurant was open. Turns out I wasn't the only one - someone else rocked up and tried pushing the doors into a dark restaurant, with no luck. Then they checked their phone a bit, as if to also see if it was possible to figure out whether they were open or not.

I waited around a bit more, but it was becoming really obvious that they weren't open today. Oh well! I guess that means plan B. And sometimes, my plan Bs are very, very dangerous.

They even have a robot toilet here! I think this is the only one I've noticed. That's kind of cool!

Anyway, it was time to now seriously consider other option for dinner. The Clocktower is actually right next door, and considering it's actually on my list, was really tempting. But for some reason I wasn't really feeling the vibe for Jason Atherton fare. Why would I want British food in New York?

Then, Per Se's waiter's voice echoed in my head again. "Gramercy Tavern is a good one to go to..."

Well, I guess here I am! Having done some prior research, I knew that they allowed walk ins, so why not give it a go, especially since Google says this place does modern American fare. Genuine USA!

It ended up being a fantastic experience, deserving its own section.

Walking back, I finally summoned enough courage to push one of these. They're everywhere in the city, but since all the crossings are automated, I wonder what they're for? Plus, with a sign like "push button to cross", surely it might do something when the button is pressed?

WAIT!

WAIT!

WAIT!

Woaaaah! Wow!!! It has a really loud voice for WAIT! when you press it! And then when the lights finally turn white, it tells you that you can cross and also states which road you are crossing! That's pretty nifty!

Some more night pictures!

As I was walking home, one of these digital payphones was ringing away. Woah! It was such a Person of Interest moment (ignore the fact that this looks like an outbound call rather than inbound, and it might not have even been dialling anything). It was kind of surreal to think that it was actually ringing away! But these are coo,l, because not only do they have a 911 button,. but you can dial any USA number for free, and it's also a charging station! This is the new age digipayphone!

Day 20 – 23/04/2019

I had one more pastrami sandwich place on my list, and with time running out, I felt it was time to get a super meaty sandwich one last time. I still missed Katz's Deli dearly, but only variety will make me really appreciate what I enjoy, so it was off to Greenpoint, where you can find an ATM stuck inside a telephone box.

So I'd actually gotten here early - the place I scouted, Frankel's Deli, was open, but doesn't serve pastrami sandwiches until after 11AM. Sooo I had time to kill, so I explored the area. It's actually got a fair amount of Russian people and the like, and I thought it'd be a great place to one day try some pierogi and pelmeni!

This was an interesting gathering. I noticed very large vans gathered on the street, and some of them looked like catering vans. Then as I entered the park, there was a man with a large sign with far too much fine text, saying that I was being videoed and photographed. Ah, it's a show shooting, how cool! I can't believe it's taken till now for me to stumble across one of these! I had no idea what show it was for though, but the man said I should keep walking and not look tin that general direction since I'd be looking straight into a camera, so these are sneaky faraway shots.

And finally Frankel's was ready for pastrami! Yay! This was also a "cleaner" place than Katz's Deli - it was small and tidy. They didn't offer a half sandwich + soup, so I had to go all in here, and by that, I mean that instead of just going for a pastrami sandwich, I decided to reuben it up!

The matzo ball soup was piping hot, so I ate half my sandwich first to let the soup cool down enough. I'm really glad the meat here is thick cut! I love thick cut meat. It also had good flavour, but not quite the same punch and melty-fattiness of Katz's. That place really set the gold standard of pastrami sandwiches! This was still tasty though, and better than the one I had at Pastrami Queen.

The matzo ball soup was interesting. I liked the flavour of the soup, but the initial texture of the matzo ball was average. It wasn't until after it was cut open and took a bit of soaking, did it start tasting almost as good at Katz's. It wasn't the flavour absorption, but rather, it was the texture it gained - like a bit more bounciness to it, that made it really enjoyable the more I ate it! I would gladly have the soup here or at Katz's, even if Katz's wins by a hair.

But now I was really full, and I couldn't switch back to finish the other half of the sandwich! I took two bites and called it a valiant effort because I didn't want to be so full to the point of a tummy ache, and they were even happy to re-sticker ot so that I could take the rest away! What nice people!

Frankel's Deli was actually near MOFAD, I place I spotted early on in my accommodation hunting days. It seemed to be a cool kind of museum, and it wasn't a "must see" on my list, but it would have been nice. Alas, they weren't open this day! They are only open towards the end of the week, so I just took this photo and continued exploring.

Olso Coffee Roasters! I'd only added this place a dfew days before, as I saw the name pop up somehow. I had no idea what kind of coffee shop it'd be, but it looked cute enough, and there was another typewriter here too!

I ordered an espresso here. The decor was nice, but the espresso was more "traditional" rather than my preference, so it was abit strong and concentrated. Still good to have though!

I managed to pass a massive park combined with a track and athletics field. There were so many people exercising here! How inspring!

And here we are. Finally, the place that was probably the first to get marked on my list - Toby's Estate coffee, Brooklyn. Except I'd made it a few weeks too late as they so recently rebranded to Partner's Coffee! Oh no.... I didn't managed to take the photo with the original Toby's Estate logo. But at least I made it to both a cafe and a Person of Interest location! Hahaha success!

This is a really cool and busy place! They have a cupping room, some roaster action going, nice decor - shelves fill of "stuff" like books, gadgets and things? I don't remember too much but there was so much stuff in general! And it's a pretty decent space too. I ordered an acai bowl and a Rwandan coffee. They do actual pourovers here rather than batch, which is pretty cool - right at the counter too, which attracts a lot of attention!

The acai bowl was refreshing and went well with the coffee! What a lovely place.

I took this photo on the way out. The reason why I am posting about this is because there's actually a really interesting story to accompany it.

After I took this photo, I turned and started walking in some random direction. I'm not even sure I was actually going anywhere at this point.

A street down, I hear someone yelling out, excuse me! So I turn around, and a guy wants to talk to me. He noticed that I'd come from Toby's, and he'd chased me down to tell me I was beautiful. Woah!!! Woah waitaminuterewind. What???

He said that I was beautiful, and that even though I didn't need validation, he wanted to tell me this. He then asked if I had a boyfriend or husband. Errr, that's very complicated? I said no? Haha what have I gotten myself into! I've never had a random person just ask me out on the street before! What do I do? What if he was a serial killer? What if he was genuinely nice and this was him with his heart in his mouth not knowing what would happen? I couldn't even begin to imagine how he was feeling!

He wanted to get to know me better, but alas, I told him I'm not from around here and that I fly out soon. Aww, he was so nice and gracious about everything! I think he was hoping I'd still give him some form of contact, but I really had no idea what to do since I was having a mini panic at this point, so I said I prefered to treat this as a chance encounter.

He said he would have loved to chat over a cup of coffee!

That was so nice, I don't think I'd ever imagine anyone speak so eloquently when it comes to a spontaneous encounter like that! It's always times like these where I wonder if there really is an alternate universe where this is one of those pathways that splits. What would it be like down that future?

Oh well. It was still a lovely interaction and then I continued on my way.

I walked around the area a bit more and visited a small market and the Package Free shop, and then decided that I would somehow try and make my way towards Brooklyn Bridge and walk it, because I love walking across bridges. It turns out the easiest way to get there was via ferry, so here I am at the wharf! I had to buy a ticket for this, same fare as a metro card ride. Finally I figured out how to use my camera's panorama function; I'd forgotten how to change the brightness after not using it for so long that I kept thinking it was broken! But I found the adjustment and so I took a few panorama shots.

And here's the ferry! East River 11!

Farewell Williamsburg or wherever it is this is!

Here we are at a stop. Oh, I forgot to mention, stuff here is really old fashioned. The tickets are made of paper with a holographic strip, and there's a person on the ferry who hops off to collect your tickets, and uses a clicker-counter thing to track customer numbers. How old school!

Hello again Statue of Liberty!

Brooklyn Bridge Park!

And we're here. The ride was actually a lot of fun, this ferry was similar to the little MR-1 that I rode in Tasmania to the MONA. It even got quite ride-like towards Dumbo, with the boat catching some waves! But not turbulent tat all. How fun!

The immediate area around the wharf is very touristy, so I made like a tree and leaf'd as quickly as possible, especially as I couldn't find a bathroom easily. Uh oh, I was going to have to do this trek, having had 2 coffees, without a bathroom break!

And we're on the bridge! It's a super busy bridge with heaps of pedestrians, so even though there are clear lanes for bikes and people, there's always overlap because people have different walking speeds so it makes it tough for bikes to pass efficiently. However, we all got there in once piece!

Woot! Made it to the end of the bridge! Look at this girl take a selfie XD This was a really fun walk, and it really helped that it wasn't a frigid five degrees today!

Since I made it over the bridge with plenty of time, I did my creepy camp-out thing at Eleven Madison Park again. Except today I learned something - the website only advertises the opening of the actual restaurant. The bar opens half an hour early, at 5! Oh no. So all the tables were already taken by the time I got there. At least the waitstaff let me know, and suggested that I come back later to see if there was a free walk-in at the bar, or to see if I might make it another day if I was still going to be around.

Okay, time for Plan B again! And that meant a beautiful and slightly bizarre experience at Contra.

Day 21 – 24/04/2019

I'm going to power on with one more day in this post, even though I'm literally killing Wordpress and my browser with these epic long posts. It lags so hard and it takes me a good 2 minutes to insert each picture. But it's the only way to make the title work with the content!

It was the last time I'll get the opportunity to visit these markets on this trip, and look, all the interesting plants and things are finally coming out! Japanese knotweed, wow! Then there were the microherbs, I bought a little bit of each one to make sure I got a green boost before I had to make the super trip back to Aus.

My trusty double wheatgrass shot!

This is the micro claytonia and isn't it super cute? It's almost like a lilypad! Very mild in flavour but crisp, so it was totally snackable! I also got the chickweed and shungiku. The chickweed was also mild but you could still taste the vegetal flavour. The shungiku really did taste like carrots! How cool! I love discovering new vegetables! I wonder how weird I looked snacking on leaves out of a plastic bag just walking down the street XD

Chefs really do shop here! At Contra I had immediately recognised the herbs that I'd tasted at the beginning of my trip as ones from the farmer's markets here. And this looks like a chef trying to complete his purchases before all the crazy mise en place starts!

Ah look, someone has decided to challenge the chess player!

I tried exploring a bit more of Central Park, this time heading around the massive lake that sits in the middle.

But oh no! My eyes... my nose.... Hayfever struck! So close to the end of my trip too! I was sneezing quite badly, and I felt all puffy! I didn't think that I'd get hit by a New York spring like this, but I guess whatever I'm allergic to is all around the world.

So here's a break from flowers; it's a plane!

This was a little place called butterfly gardens. I thought it might be like Singapore airport's butterfly enclosure, but no, there were no butterflies here! Maybe they were all caterpillars right now. I didn't look too hard though, I just took this photo and continued on my way.

This was the conservatory garden. I think there was a fair bit that could be explored here, but I was on my way back home to prepare for yet another epic attempt at an EMP walk in.

Hello, geese!

Cool, you can do some fishing here too!

Hello turtle!!!

And that's the last shot for Central Park. What a lovely place, there are so many different parts to it and probably even more to explore!

So here's me camping out again at Madison Square Park, hanging out with the cute doggos till 5PM came around.

And then there were these two dogs. "Hey, lick me!" "ok" and the other dog's wondering what's going on. Curious human, too!

Aaaand I made it. I finally made it on my 3rd attempt. Am I crazy? Yeah I'm crazy. But like I said, if you can crazy here, you can crazy anywhere... ?!

So here's my second visit: the Eleven Madison Park walk in bar.

I think the realisation is starting to kick in, plus, I just can't get enough of the stripey smoke tower, so here's another shot of New York.

And here's my nostalgia hot dog. Farewell, New York hot dog carts. You're awesome, especially you $1 ones. This one cost me $3 because I said yes to everything the cart vendor offered XD

Well, now it was time to start wrapping this up. My adventure was about to end.

The New York Dream – Part 3 – Concrete Jungle

Day 5 - 08/04/2019

My four days of easing out of jetlag were over (though I was actually jstill jetlagged a tiny bit), and now, it was time to go full blast Monday! Not that I wasn't already full steaming ahead :)

Good to know that New York only just got $15 minimum wage... considering they don't get superannuation or free healthcare (I think), that's not really that much, especially considering how much I've been noticing the stuff I like costs. The average street hot dog is $3, which is a fair chunk of that. A street meal (I think stuff like gyros or meat on rice? I wanted to try one but didn't end up having time/stomach space to do so) was about $6, so the discrepancy between rich and poor must be HUGE considering the price of restaurants and cafes!

It was time to visit Greenmarket at Union Square. I'd found out about this through various chefs I follow, and learned that it's open Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Wow, a farmer's market that is on for more than just one day of the week! Plus, I later discovered that it's also open at different locations on other days, like World Trade Center on Tuesdays and 72nd and Columbus Streets on Sundays. That's some amazing access to fresh produce in the city!

Wow, already I'm having such a blast. Look at all those mushrooms! Maitake! Why can't I get half of these mushrooms back in Aus? Though the ones I can get are just as expensive.

Such abundance of radishes! All different kinds too!

Woah stonecrop, something I've never seen or heard before. Look at those prices though. I love seeing plants that aren't really grown or sold back in Aus because this is what makes travelling fun! Though being a foodie, and not really wanting to attempt to cook on the trip for fear of accidentally setting a house on fire, does make it quite difficult to sometimes sample the local goods. Luckily, veges are an easy one to buy in small amounts and eat raw if I'm really desperate to try something.

Did I mention these markets are really expensive??

Woot apple cider! My friend actually bought this and I just had a sip. It's nice and warming on a cold day! I love that the apple cider here is non-alcoholic, unlike back home. You can get apple cider hot or cold as a delicious anytime drink!

Also, I didn't know that maple syrup was produced in New York, since it's a Canadian product in the rest of the world. There were stalls for maple syrup and maple water here!

Woah another mushroom stall with some insane looking displays! Some of their mushrooms were decorative though as they don't taste very good, like this picture of turkey tail mushrooms. The stall owner said at best, they might be palatable when brewed in a tea. How interesting!

They even have seafood stalls here too! I remember the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmer's Market having a seafood stall just before I left (with some amazing super fresh and affordable stuff too), but here there are a few and sell mainly fillets and shellfish/molluscs. There's also plenty of meat stalls for beef, pork, duck, and turkey. Oh, I saw bison at Wholefoods but didn't manage to see it on the menu at any restaurant I went to, so I didn't get to try any.

Where's all the fruit, you say? Turns out only one fruit grows in New York in winter, and that's apples. That's it. Apples for daaaays though! Look at all these varieties that I've never heard of before! There were heaps more that I didn't take a photo of, like winesap and just too many for me to remember the names of.

I had to take picutres of the apples I bought so that I could tell which one I was eating when the time came! However, since I only bought one of each, once, I can't tell if the less tasty ones were always this way or if it was just that individual one that may have been an outlier, as I didn't enjoy all of them equally. The only one I didn't get to try was the Ida Red since my friend ate all of that one!

Here's how I found each of the apples to be:

• Macintosh - soft, slightly floury texture, mildly fragrant
• Macoun - soft, more acidic than macintosh, stronger flavour
• Red Rome - not very flavoursome but has red insides!
• Ruby Frost - very yummy, crisp and good flavour. Juicy! Definitely one of my favourites, but it was also more expensive.
• Empire - light and crisp, very white flesh

Eating is so exciting!!! But for now, there was other flavour adventures to be had...

Oh yeah, there's heaps of rubbish just sitting around on the sreets. Some of it, like this, is nonsensical, but others, are actually really neatly organised on the streets. This is how the rubbish in the city gets taken away - there are giant bins for residential areas, and then the big black (or white, clear) bags get taken out once or twice a week and put on the curbside. Depending on where/when, sometimes they are really neatly, almost freakishly so, stacked. And then the garbage truck comes by and takes them all away!

Aha, my next cafe visit! Everyman was mentioned quite a few times during my research for New York cafes, so it was a cafe that I did prioritise quite a bit.

Wow. Okay, wow. This place is amazing! I had a bit of trouble getting through the door because I couldn't figure out if it was push or pull (I think there was even a sign), which was a bit embarrassing because the barista was beckoning us in. The inside was actually like nothing I'd ever seen before! What I mean by that was, sure, there was a barista, a helper, coffee machines, people, tables, chairs, coffee - but the vibe I got from this cafe was like no other cafe I'd been to!

It wasn't super busy, but there were lots of people. The till was to the right of the barista, and the door was to his left. People lined up order, and that line went directly in front of the barista and his coffee machine, and out toward the entrance. The barista and his two group La Marzocco, facing the line, therefore, could hear every order being placed, and could also carry a conversation with the several people who were in front of him. He also had the customer's orders memorised, as he even demonstrated while we were waiting in line!

He was super chatty and very relaxed, and explained to me the different options he had on offer while I was still waiting, and then acknowledged my order while I was still in line for the till. By the time I got there, my coffee was already ready! The lady at the till then admitted she hadn't heard what I ordered with the barista (she was busy filling an order) and had to ask again, in this setup, she actually doesn't have to ask twice because she's right next to the barista in some kind of perfect 2-person team setup! It was this workflow that really impressed me, because it was all small, quick, neat and tidy! And it worked! I absolutely loved the cafe for this reason, even before I tried the coffee! It was so unlike all the other hipster cafes I'd been to that it was just incredibly refreshing!

If I had one criticism though, it's that the pastry cabinet was all the way over on the till side, so it's hard to see until you're at the front of the line. And that's only a problem if you're me, and like to browse and be super indecisive about whether or not you actually want food...

Okay, let's focus on how the coffee tasted. I don't actually remember what these orders were and it's not really the point of this particular post, since I spent much of my early coffee days tracking each origin and brew method. Now it's more just about the enjoyment and the overall experience. The espresso wasn't actually my preferred style since I like them lighter, but it was quite good and makes for a great morning coffee. I say this because I no longer care about the "best" cup of coffee since there's no such thing, but also because I don't mind when my personal tastes aren't in line with the coffee I'm drinking, but I can tell that the coffee is good and that I would still enjoy it regardless - most of my discovery cafes fall in this area.

This was a place where it was genuinely enjoyable to just sit down, sip away and watch the worflow. Plus, I think the place used to be an old theatre or similar, or maybe there's one next door? Because the decor here had some pamphlets and stuff and wall plaques that seemed to be for shows, but since I am clueless about that kind of culture, I didn't really get it haha.

And look at the dirty dishes tray! At first I thought this was unique to this cafe, but it's actually present in all eateries - in New York, you have to clean up after youself! That's pretty cool. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Japan. Which is kind of weird, because that's two things that I felt were very Japan like on this trip - tidying up after yourself, and also being able to leave your bag to reserve a table while ordering food. Though... the latter may just be the places I go to and are on average, quite safe and respectful places, so I wouldn't recommend trying that everywhere!

Now that I was filled up on some apple cider, espresso, and filter, it was time to find some food....

Welcome to Black Seed Bagels! I didn't note down too many noteworthy bagel shops, but this was one of them. Bagel menus are kind of confounding to me though, with what seems like certain mix and match types and some items found in their sandwiches didn't seem to be available as a filling, but, I also didn't ask questions about the system so that may be for other people to know or figure out. I was more focused on getting what I was hoping was a New York classic.

Behold a House Beet Lox! So "lox" is the term they use here for smoked/cured salmon, which was super confusing for me, but I just ran with it! It came with a healthy heaping of horseradish cream and some watermelon radishes, which was cool, since in Australia you just get the generic red radishes at most eateries and can only get the fancy varieties in equally fancy restaurants. That was a lot of horseradish cream though! I wasn't prepared so I was half crying while I ate this thing!

Also, I found it weird that even when I order things to dine in (or in NY terms, "to stay"), almost every place gives it to you in takeaway packaging anyway. It seems so wasteful....

But wait, there's more food! While walking from Everyman Espresso to Black Seed, I saw a Momofuku Ssam Bar, just kind of there, beckoning me to read the menu and maybe consider eating there. I actually shared the bagel with my friend, so I mean, I could eat more, so on the way back, it was too hard not to resist going in....

This totally wasn't supposed to be a David Chang restaurant crawl trip, but if my time in London was a reflection of my dining preferences, is that big names are safe places. Jamie's Italian and other related eateries were quite abundant in London, so anytime my brother and I weren't sure where to eat and we saw a Jamie Oliver establishment, we went. Same with David Chang and New York. If you're not sure where to eat, there's bound to be a Momofuku-something to satisfy your hunger.

And it definitely satisfied! The chilli cucumbers here looked really tempting, and I ordered them after the waitress said that these weren't hot-chilli, but rather, floral-chilli. She was right! They weren't spicy at all, but instead gave that really moreish, addictive, umami kind of flavour to the cucumbers. I couldn't stop eating them! Plus, the menu said there was yuba on this. I dismissed it while reading it, but when I saw it on the cucumber, I realised this is bean curd - more importantly, it was like the curd I had at the tofu shop in Japan!!!! Woah! It was so soft and almost stretchy and just had such a good texture. Man, I get so happy when I eat something so texturally and technically perfect AND has such addictive flavours!!

A mushroom bao! My friend got this one since we'd already tried the pork baos at Noodle Bar. I love mushrooms!

This however, was the whole reason I was enticed into the restaurant. A fried fish finger sandwich. Yeah, a what??? I was so surprised such a thing existed on the menu that I just had to try it! And it was tasty! I actually didn't expect the flavour to be tomato, since I'm used to fish with tartare sauce and the like. However, the tomato sauce was really addictive and went well with the fish, and the fish. My goodness the fish was tasty! Some of my pieces had a nice section of fat attached to the flesh and that made it super tasty! Yes! But having a bagel and all this food made me full, so it was time to resume walking.

We crossed Union Square Park again, this time I took a picture of the statue! Turns out I'd be crossing this park a lot, especially as I planned to visit the farmer's markets quite regularly.

It was back to Central Park, to complete more exploration! This time we entered on the corner of Columbus Circle, and I spent so much time taking pictures of just this corner.

This looks like the same picture, but with more pigeons!

Mmm pigeon

This one reminds me a little bit of the Queen Victoria Memorial in London!

The statues of eagles in New York are insanely pretty!

Look a wedding shot!

The bird colours and feather patterns are so pretty!

Even lil' Gilg wanted to see what all the fuss was about, even though he hates being in trees! I think he's a little fragile now from falling out of trees so often and continually losing an arm, so I'm not sure if he wants to go on any more adventures...

There's even an obelisk in Central park! This one is called Cleopatra's Needle, though I don't know what crab crushing has to do with all of this....

I think this is like a little theatre place, possibly meant to resemble The Globe in someway. There are two sculptures outside of Shakespeare's works - The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet. So cool!

We exited in roughly the same area as I did the first time I was in Central Park, so it was my friend's turn to try Luke's Lobster! They actually have this cool menu option that gives you three half-rolls with a choice of side, so here is shrimp, lobster, and crab, with coleslaw. The shrimp was okay (though I don't really like shrimp anyway unless they are tiny and deep fried or large and tasty), but the crab was pretty good! Lobster is still the one and the best though!

Day 6 - 09/04/2019

Another morning, another stroll through the city when, look! A horsey! A very pretty horsey too, look at that tail! And no blinkers since it's a police horse, so it's extra pretty!

A horse in Times Square is such a show stopper! The police officer was obviously having lots of fun too because he was smiling in half my shots. Lots of people took photos too! The horse is so pretty!!!

Time for breakfast. Pizza for breakfast? Yes please! It was time to try out a New York slice - the super massive pizza slices! Joes's Pizza was the place my friend chose, and turns out it's popular and it's good! It's even famous for starring in Spiderman!

Here is my hand for reference. The pizzas here are so simple, most "slice" shops feature just "cheese" as a flavour and is the cheapest slice, with the 99c pizza shops featuring this. Just "cheese" is surprisingly good! This was really yummy, and my friend had the pepperoni slice. I love the super thin crusts here!

And here's a ninja shot of them with the pizza in the oven!

Now that I'd eaten, here's a random street shot of a cloudy day! Also, notice the payphone on the left.. there's actually a lot of payphones in New York, and all owned by Titan too.

Today was a no coffee day for me, so I decided I'd finally seek out a Starbucks to try out their cloud macchiato! Yes, Starbucks doesn't count as coffee... even if it's a coffee drink!

As I went into the nearest one, I realised there was an extra line about the cloud macchiato drink. It says that the foam contains eggs. Oh, it's that kind of cloud! Like an egg white cocktail! Right?

Oh. No. Nononono. Not like this. It looks nice, but this is NOTHING like a normal iced caramel macchiato, the drink that I actually kind of sometimes enjoy when I come across a Starbucks in Sydney. They've completely destroyed the delicate balance that drink had. The original is good because the milk is at the bottom, the espresso is dunked in last so that the coffee mixes nicely with the milk, and then the drizzle of caramel just sifts through slowly so that you get a graduated, but still blended flavour.

This was just awful espresso suppressed by meringue. Really yucky, bitter, undrinkable espresso. The problem with Starbucks black coffee, I learned from my Shanghai experience, is that Starbucks black coffee tastes worse when it cools, instead of better. So, being an iced drink, that espresso was undrinkable for me. It didn't even mix in properly with the meringue! And the meringue was far too sweet so all you really got out of it was just Not Nice and Not Nice. Yuck!

That being said, I still liked that I tried it out at all! It's not like this was that surprising of a disappointing experience, it IS the experience. I feel like I need to make this really clear all the time because people couldn't comprehend why I was looking forward to Starbucks in New York at all. I tried to explain that I can simultaneously love and hate something at the same time, but people are too binary about these things to really get where I come from... either that or I'm just really bad at explaining!

Today my adventure took me into Grand Central Terminal just to explore the place. I love seeing epic sized train stations, and this was no exception! One thing I didn't realise until I was sorting out my photos, is that I don't appear to have a photo of the Vanderbilt Eagle that sits outside the station. Either that or I haven't gotten to a photo of it yet... but it is definitely an epic statue!

Wow, so many tracks - this is tracks 107 and 108! This place really is huge!

What on earth is this? The Reactor shop is kind of insane looking. It's a silly looking speaker though!

Teehee, Track 13 exists! Singapore Airlines doesn't have a row 13....

Look at this donut place! They have such cool varieties of donuts! The shop is called Doughnut Plant, and only now (at time of posting) have I realised they seem to be an actually really good donut shop! Definitely go check out their stores!

Did you see that mini donut thing? My goodness it's so CUTE! So I absolutely had to get one. This was actually a cake donut, and considering it's called the Grand Central, I think it's exclusive to the station. It was so perfect! The cake inside was one of vanilla sponge, and it was really light. The whole thing wasn't overly sweet and totally snackable! I absolutely loved the edible stars too!

I also saw a hot dog shop that looked really tempting, but I didn't get a chance to try it.... If you ever see Frankie's hot dog stand, please try one for me!

On the topic of food, there's even a market here!

This is a really impressive place! There are so many different shops, you can eat here, you can buy stuff here, it's so awesome! There's even this seafood shop where it looks like you can just buy a spoonful of roe. I could imagine myself one day walking up, asking for just a small tub and eating as I walked around the station!

Oh, now we've gotten to the main area. We'd come in via a side entrance so initially missed the massive flag, info signs and information centre. Woooow!

I tried taking photos of this place, but honestly, even this video doesn't do it justice. You kind of just need to go and see it for yourself!

Oh, but what is this? What have I spotted here???

Wow, it's a photoshoot! How cool! This actually reminds me a lot of my Japan trip where I spotted the lady in red in the middle of Shibuya! I kind of wish there were more people invading their space though, I think the bystanders actually gave these guys space so it looks less crowded, but personally, I like taking the slightly more crowded shots.

It was also funny because you could hear the photographer shout out "kiss!!!" from the balcony where he was taking photos. I still like the positioning of the first shot better though, not sure what possessed me to re-frame my shot :/ I always wonder what the actual photographer is seeing/taking shots of!

Aaand the illusion is broken and the shot is done! I love seeing things like this! I feel like this stuff is way more fun than actually doing all the touristy things.

Now it was time to leave Grand Central via train, of course! I tried for an oncoming shot but I don't feel it turned out every well, especially because I had no idea where I'd set my manual focus to be (the faces and other things would have totally thrown autofocus or continuous focus out of whack), so I don't think my entire set of rapid shots got the actual photo haha. My shot back on Williamsburg Bridge was way prettier.

Hello, Hudson Yards! I actually had no idea what this place was, it was my friend who suggested coming here. It's actually a super new development, that apparently costs lots of money, has heaps of advertising coverage around the city, and is the talk of the town (literally; half the old men I was overhearing on the street on were talking about this place). It looks pretty, but apparently isn't that great? I'm not too sure, to me it just looks shiny.

This is the Vessel, and apparently you have to buy tickets with a set date and time. I wonder why they made it so strict, it's not even a tall structure or anything. I was actually marvelling about it out loud when this person came up next to us and said that he was going up and wanted to know if we actually wanted to go, because he had tickets. Since I had done no prior research, I had no idea the ticket was booked for a specific time, so I'd declined the man even after he explained exactly that. His wife was unwell or something so she couldn't make it, so he had spare tickets. It sounded like he was giving them away for free, too. Oh well. I don't feel it's too much of a missed opportunity, but if he was truly genuine, that was a really nice gesture! New Yorkers aren't bad at all... but more on that towards my final post.

The edges of the complex are pretty boring though, just a lot of gravel and a nice view of the train yard, and looking across the river I guess. There are a lot of food carts though around the actual train station for hungry tourists!

Inside, it looks like a shiny mega shopping centre!

Momofuk's reach does extend far and wide. I thought that Noodle Bar and Ko were their main restaurants, and Ssam bar sounded familiar too. Here, he's also opened a Kawi, a Fuku, and a little combi style shop next to Kawi that does little takeaway treats. Wow! Fuku is a chicken fast food joint, with chicken sandwiches and pieces. I got the chicken pieces, and they were okay, but nothing really rave-worthy about. My friend's friend chicken sandwich didn't fare much better, and he mentioned it being on the dry side.

Now that'd I'd completed exploring the complex, it was time to get ready for dinner. The outside of Hudson Yards looks so abandoned and industrial. And look at all the one way signs! There are so many one way signs in the city, it makes you wonder why any sane person would drive around here....

I wanted to try out a decent sushi place while I was in New York, mainly because I always hope to try a food I've never had before, given that I was at the opposite side of the world. I had my eye on a place called Gaijin in Astoria, but after seeing a list my friend had compiled, Omakase Room by Tatsu seemed like a nicer place for some reason. And I'm so glad I ended up choosing this one! A full write up of the restaurant is separate, like all of my big name visits! Read it here!

After a super satisfying and serendipitous dinner, we surfaced to the area around Christopher Street. Do you ever find that when you are randomly taking a picture of a billboard about the Pixel 3 being better than the iPhone X, and then you see something at the bottom left hand corner of your vision and blurt out, IS THAT A BIG GAY ICE CREAM SHOP?

Why, yes it is! How amazing!!! This is the best ice cream shop I've ever seen! Complete with the sassiest looking unicorn too!

Even inside, their choking sign (every eatery has one of these displayed) features a unicorn! Poor dead unicorn!

I love this place so much. I was really full but I wanted to try something fun and seasonal, so I ended up getting this Apple Gobbler. It had heaps of tasty apple sauce and the like, but did you know that sprinkles are free??? I asked for a tiny bit on mine, and the person was a bit hesitant to add them as they might fall everywhere, but I said a little will do, so here's my super fancy big gay ice cream! Yay! What a great end to a fantastic night!

Day 7 - 10/04/2019

It was time for another greens top-up, and I'd bought all the unusual herbs/vegetables from my Monday visit to the farmer's markets. I thought I took photos of the other greens I bought, but I guess I didn't. I had three different types of greens here, mixed with oyster mushrooms, dressed with salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, since my accommodation here just happened to have those set of seasonings. It actually tasted pretty good raw! All these vegetables were really mild flavoured, so nothing was too peppery or unpleasant for me, so I was actually really happy with my choices!

I'd also bought some really expensive, but really delicious jersey milk and greek yoghurt, but I never really took proper photos of that. The dairy helped keep up my calcium and good bacteria intake! It's important to stay healthy while on holiday!

Today it was time to visit another borough, so here, Queens was our third borough visited. It immediately looks different from Brooklyn and Manhattan. This place had no high rises, not even a hipster vibe to it. It felt very suburbian! Oh, I'm not sure there'll be too much to do here.

Finally I did start to see some shops, like this massive Bagel Boss shopfront. Well, I didn't think it was likely that we'd find anything else around here, so we may as well get bagels again!

I don't think Americans eat bagels the same way we do. They have egg bagels, and then you can add on various things like sausages or bacon. This place had soy strips and vege links on the menu, but alas, they didn't actually have them. So, instead, I asked them to add smoked salmon to my egg and cheese bagel order, but they seemed a bit confused at first. I guess no one here really has this particular combination?

I love salmon and eggs because it's quite delicious, so I was happy with this as a toasted bagel! Usually the salmon is served with the cold spreads, like cream cheese etc. Anyway, look, I even got a side of fruit, how cool!

We were here mainly to check out a tech shop, I think Micro Centre was the name. After that, I found a little supermarket, and I can't resist checking out local supermarkets, so here's a picture of the inside.

Look I found a soylent! Too bad they don't have a green coloured label, otherwise I would have loved to have joked about having obtained Soylent Green! I only managed to try this several days later, but in terms of texture, it wasn't too bad. It was rich and creamy and the chocolate flavour was pretty good. I probably wouldn't drink it day in and day out though, but if I was desperate for nutrition without needing to decide what to eat (yes sometimes I get so sick of food that I wish I could just get rid of hunger and have only nutrients and call it a day), then maybe I could do this like once or twice.

We decided to call it a day in Queens, and then made the super long journey all the way to the other side... Coney Island!

Doesn't that look like a Singapore Supertree in the background?

Uh, this place is really lacklustre when it's not summer haha! It's almost completely empty and the rides aren't really open. That's crazy. I feel like this is some sort of hyperseasonal park that gets really busy for a few months of the year and then that's it.

At least Nathan's hot dogs was here and open! While there are a few Nathan's Hot Dog carts out in NYC, they are mostly dominated by Sabrett, and if you're lucky, you'll see a Rafiqi's selling $1 hot dogs. Nathan's hot dogs originate here in Coney Island, so here's a chilli cheese dog. Apparently I wasn't supposed to also put tomato sauce and mustard on this, but oh well! By the way, the mustard here in New York is actually spicier than I thought it would be. Masterfoods' mild American mustard is wrong! Or maybe New Yorkers just like it hot!

It was pretty tasty and the noticeable difference between Nathan's and the other food cart brands I mentioned is that the skins on this are... bouncier. I think that's the best way to describe them. I like this kind of texture better, so it was fun to eat this one!

On a side note, the restrooms on the boardwalk are terrible. They're all very not nice and not useable as a result. In fact, the entire area doesn't feel very restroom friendly, so just try not to go while you're here.

The original shopfront is closer to the train station and is home to an annual hot dog eating contest! Don't tell me people can really eat 50-100 of these...

We tried exploring a little bit of the area, but it's kind of normal looking with lots of construction. I feel like this place doesn't offer a lot and definitely isn't for tourists. So back to the city we went!

I don't remember exactly where we were to get these shots. But I do like how that bridge looks!

I didn't know about Roberta's, but apparently it's a pretty famous pizza shop and are known for having good pizza. It was on my friend's list, and I was impressed! It's in Brooklyn so it's all industrial hipster looking with amazing decor. It's also really, really dark inside.

Look at this painting. At first it just looks like people with piggy-like snouts to me (lol), but when you really look at it, those eyelashes more closely resemble mushroom frills. And that nose IS a mushroom. Hey wait, is that a pizza face?

Broad beans! Broad beans, or fava beans as they are called here, were on the menu! Oh dear, I definitely had to get this salad then. Also, look at that lettuce! I love speckled radicchios like this because they are so pretty! It actually tasted really good too and wasn't too filling, which was great. Salads are so exciting when done right!

My friend wanted to try out the steak, so this was steak with creamed spinach, asparagus and other greens. Wow, this was better than I thought it would be! For some reason, I really am not a fan of meat mains. I think because I feel like these are to filling and don't allow grazing on multiple plates as a result (especially since I solo dine so much). In my head, they're also too straightforward and don't really play around with flavours too much and are kept simple. That being said, simple is good! I forget how good this stuff is when a place knows what it's doing.

Since they are famous for their pizza, I had to try out their margherita. It looked pretty sizeable at 12 inches I'm pretty sure, cut into 6 slices. However, the crust is insanely thin, so a whole pizza is actually manageable! My friend tried a slice, leaving me with 5 slices to devour and I absolutely loved it! It actually reminds me a lot of Dank Pizza Party in Perth. They're a little pop out outside a cafe called Twin Peaks who also serve Neapolitan style pizza (albeit theirs is cheaper and smaller). This was a great pizza!

Ha, what is this??? I ordered a panna cotta because I wanted something in the description, I think it was the reddish stuff you see here. Honestly, I can't even remember the flavours of this dessert haha, just that I didn't expect panna cotta to look like this - there were three blobs of panna cotta hidden underneath this, and a far larger amount of the sesame cake stuff than I imagined, as I was only after something small and light. That being said, this was actually small-ish and light and had good flavour so it wasn't too bad, it just reminded me of the stories I hear about restaurant accidents and creating new dishes or designs out of it (i.e oops I dropped the lemon tart!). I can't find a copy of the dessert menu so I'm just going to pretend I got this for the rhubarb topping!

Day 8 - 11/04/2019

A new day, a new food adventure! It was time to go check out some super croissants. I remember the first time I came across this shop on Instagram, I dismissed it for having overly fancy, instagrammable prioritised food. But when I took a closer look, I started thinking that there's actually some merit to this place, so it eventually made my list.

Woah. Wait a minute. Did I just walk into Lune Croissanterie in Melbourne?!

I'm a little sad that I never really posted about Melbourne, because it means that I don't have a published photo of the interior of Lune Croissanterie. However, I will tell you right now that it feels like I just walked into its flamboyant, pink and iridescent twin halfway across the world! No kidding, the pastry display format was the same, the way the croissant was served with a knife was the same, even the consistent perfectness of each croissant was the same!

Here are some shots of their lineup. They have a huge selection, including the usual traditional croissant and kouign aman, cruffins, donuts, fancy croissants, and crazy twice baked croissants - sweet and savoury versions! Man this is a croissant wonderland!

Behold the mighty traditional croissant! And look at that knife. That's one shiny knife. The cutlery here is the same colour scheme as their takeaway boxes, it's quite crazy! In fact, the only reason I knew I was in New York, and not Melbourne, was that they called out your name/order and you had to go get your own napkin, and the tap water was self serve into plastic cups.

Everyone takes photos of croissants in this format (not the customers lol, just some people on my feed, so I guess that's not even everyone haha), where they hold it by one end and show off the rest of the croissant. I'm not sure why, but here's my shot.

And a cross section shot! The edges of this zont (I am stealing the term from Lune!) are fluoro cause it was taken from my phone camera.

Yep, you spotted that right - there's another croissant at my table. I so rarely indulge in getting a second taster because I'm too full from sampling the traditional, but here I took my changes and went with this banana split croissant. How epic looking! It had confit banana in it too!

I gotta say, this was a physically heavy croissant! All that filling really adds to the weight! That being said, it was quite easy to eat this second croissant. It still took its toll on my tummy space, but thoroughly enjoyable!

I hadn't had a coffee yet, since I preferred to try one from a another cafe on my list rather than at Supermoon. Not that there was anything wrong with their coffee, I just prefer to take my cafe crawl through coffee specialists, per se. Plus, I had to walk off some of that food. Eventually, that lead me to Wall Street.

I didn't actually realise where I was, until I started really looking around and realising I was in front of the New York Stock Exchange! Wow. That's so cool! However, I hate the ugly bright green banner plastered over the front because then I couldn't actually admire the stonework! I'm not usually one to care about buildings, but this was just too much advertising!

And here's the actual entrance. I guess since those were the only two options, outsiders weren't allowed in? Oh well. At least I got a shot of the exchange from the outside!

An obligatory shot of the street sign :)

Hello George Washington!

Oh look, another tubey smokey subway ventilation thing! At least that's what I think they are.

A photo of someone's photoshoot, because I love taking these kinds of shots.

Looks like this is a tourist spot, since there are souvenir stalls as well as food carts!

The interior of the Federal Hall National Memorial is pretty cool! There are a few different rooms you can visit in here.

My search for Black Fox Coffee is how I ended up at Wall Street. It was pretty easy to find, and was a welcome familiarity compared to some of the other eateries I noticed when walking around this area. I got the vibe that the expensive looking restaurants around here all sold expensive steaks, or Italian food. Is that weird that that's what I assumed? So I was glad that this place was so down to earth feeling!

I was actually still full from the croissants I ate earlier, but I was agonising over whether or not to get a lamington for giggles, when I spotted this funfetti bundt cake, and so kind of "had" to get that just to try it out for fun! I actually ended up really enjoying it, it kind of had an almost friand-like texture, but not as dense.

Oh yeah, most places serve double espressos here, I kept forgetting about that! This was a really nice espresso, but of course, when I suspect they're also Aussie themed (because lamington). Plus, you can never go wrong with Square Mile Roasters! I just can't remember what origin this was, but whatever it was, it was enjoyable.

I based my filter decision on the roaster. I could choose between 49th Parallel, based in Vancouver, or I could choose Heart Roasters, based in Portland. Since I was in America, I chose the American roaster! This was also really enjoyable, and I loved the Hario jug.

Now that I was all fuelled up, it was time to head out and see where my feet took me!

Sometimes you see the most interesting combination of buildings and sculptures all lined up...

Look at all the pretty street lamps here too!

Oh, a 9/11 Cross. Does that mean I'm close to where I think I am?

While this wasn't the first thing I saw chronologically, it makes sense to group them in a way that doesn't jump all over the place, so I'll cover St Paul's Chapel first and move onto the actual memorial and the new World Trade Centres afterwards.

I'm not usually one for churches and really appreciating memorials, but September 11 changed the world, and I felt a deep reverence here, as well as when I went to see the actual memorial site too.

And then outside, the actual pools. I actually didn't know what had been constructed here, and to both hear and see these seemingly bottomless fountains was something else! There are two of these, one for each of the towers that fell.

These pools were very large, though I didn't really aim to get a shot that showed the scale. However, I heard more than one person say that they expected the memorial pools to bigger.

The names of those who perished are engraved onto the panels that make up the edge of the pools, and flowers are placed on the names of those who had their birthday that day.

There's also a museum here, but there was a bit of a queue so I didn't enter.

There's also Liberty Park, just across a tiny street, where this features as a salvaged sculpture from the original towers, and is on display.

On a lighter note, there's a lot of colour and hope here too!

These new World Trade Centres are all quirky looking, especially the fantastically painted corrugated iron, shipping container-like ones! Some of the paintings are super cute, and the weird, spiny one is a shopping complex!

The inside of this one is so huge! There are two viewing platforms on either end, and I think this whole central area is called the Occulus. The ceiling so tall that it requires this massive red crane to reach right to the top!

This complex has shops all along the sides, as well as being home to the train station that also leads to the New Jersey PATH trains.

The other thing I really wanted to visit in this area is Battery Park. I knew about this park as a kid, because I'd read a book called The Captain of Battery Park, which features a child who finds an injured tern and nurses it back to health, or something. At the time I had no idea if it was a real place or just made up since I was too young to really know, but the name of the book stuck with me for so long, that I thought it would be really awesome to finally visit the actual park!

What I didn't realise too, was that this is the location to catch the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. How cool!

After exploring Battery Park, we returned to One World Trade Centre to view the observation deck. They do make you watch a brief video on the construction of the World Trade Centre, before the screens actually lift up for you to walk forward and make your way to the top.

The lift here was pretty cool, too. Instead of just having a skylight in the ceiling to see your ascent to the top, the walls were all screens too, showing the transformation of New York from jungle to concrete jungle!

The detailing on the panes is pretty cool!

I have no idea what the building to the bottom right is, but I remember calling it the glass Jenga building because that's what it looks like to me! Kind of not quite perfectly aligned floors just stacked up and then someone bumped the whole thing!

A "closer" shot of the first picture, but I have no idea how much more detail it holds!

Another shot of the Statue :D

I am not sure what this island is though. What's cool is that there are ads all over New York that state, "you're on an island, but you're not stuck on it." It's so true! There's always so much to do here.

The tower visit was perfect for taking us to dinner time. I really wanted to visit Wildair on this trip, but hadn't set a date for it since it was a walk-ins restaurant. Even though I think it's a smaller-name restaurant than its degustation counterpart Contra, it does get its own write up since I feel they go hand in hand. You can read about Wildair here!

And that concludes this block of 8000 words or so. Time to move onto the next lot!