Monday, February 05, 2007
the big apple
good friends, good food. good times.
arrived in new york thursday night/friday morning after a 6half hour bus ride. starlight express was pretty good - free
bagels, coffee and chocolate on the bus, and even a clean bathroom too. wowee, it rocks compared to greyhound. but anyway, i digress.
i got in so late that cherie and auntie were both asleep already. oops! we went for supper across the road at some korean restaurant and had
fried dumplings on the house (cos i wanted to eat some but it came in 11s and i didnt want to eat so many, so i asked if i cld share it with the waiter haha),
noodle soup and more
dumplings in beef broth.
breakfast at the hotel consisted of a toasted
cinnamon raisin bagel, tea, and 10 pieces of cornflakes for which i got scolded by the breakfast man because it was after ten o'clock.
headed to greenwich with the goal of finding magnolia, the pretty pretty cupcake bakery. cherie and auntie got caught up shopping and we never really made it their. had lunch at au bon pain - 2 kinds of soup:
wild mushroom soup and
broccoli cheddar, with
rosemary breadsticks;
chicken caesar salad; 2
rice bowls. i was stufffffeeeedd.
after more shopping and a random make-over thingy at bloomingdales, we searched for a bakery/restaurant that the sales manager at some store had recommended us to go.
butternut squash soup,
ham and smoked mozzarella sandwich with arugula and pesto, and an
apple almond tart. i picked at it (well not really, i ate a considerable amount) because i was meeting chris for dinner.
dinner was at penang (singaporean food, hoorah!). had
roti chenai,
chicken rice,
braised pork with yam and
chinchow. i reckon nonya was better, but oh well, anything is better than nothing.
then we went on a hunt for magnolia. it was SO difficult to find. i learnt that you can send a text message to 'google' and it will text u back with the search details. coolness! went back to chris', split a
red velvet cupcake, and then went back to the hotel with 4 more in hand.
day two, cherie went shopping and so i decided to hang around by myself. had another
cupcake for lunch, did a little bit of reading and then took a nap. finally headed out to ICP to catch cartier-bresson's exhibit. unfortunately i didn't have much time because i took so long to get out of the hotel and had to rush through his photographs. what a waste.
met up with mich and we went to the city bakery where they were having a hot chocolate festival. we shared a
caramel hot chocolate with home-made marshmallows and a
chocolate lemon tart. ooh. yumminess and sinfulness but such goodness.
after tea was dinner (haha all i did was eat! gosh!). had planned to go to the pearl oyster bar but changed our minds and had dinner at A.O.C. instead. on the table were
mussels in white wine broth,
a bread basket with vinegar and olive oil and
escargos with garlic and basil. i ordered a
salad with filo pastry and goat cheese served on spinach, which was nothing like i expected it to be, and hence stared at it for a good minute trying to figure out what it was when it was served.
post dinner was at coldstone creamery, and then magnolia (again, since cherie hadnt been there). i got myself a
banana pudding which was oh-so-delicious. like everything else i had been eating.
got up late on sunday. had one and a half
cupcakes and a slice of
toast for breakfast. then had lunch with uncle's business partner at lily's.
charsiew horfun,
shrimp horfun, 3 types of
roast meat,
sushi,
sashimi,
dumplings,
fried rice,
lo mein,
charsiew wanton mee... and more. it was a day of rude waiters - at lily's, at serendipity, and at the place where we eventually had dessert. serendipity was a pretty place, and the frozen hot chocolate looked so good, but the waiter was rude (and gay, according to uncle wally), and i had to catch the bus, so we gave it a miss.
i dont remember the name of the last place we went to, but we had
caramel apple pie with tahitian vanilla icecream,
warm vahlrona chocolate cake with a liquid center and a
creme brulee cheesecake. "not really just" keep on eating. haha.
it was great seeing cherie again. and her parents were really generous and more than took care of me. i came back with a huge box of chuqianyiding mee, milo, curry paste, fishballs, mantou and more. i think i have enough food for a month!
Labels: travel, weekends
7:50 AM
