Chomping in the Big Apple

I just got back from a vacation in New York City.. and all I did was eat! :) It was fantastic. Well eat and walk around. So I know you're all incredibly interested in what I ate and did in between eating..

Day 1 - leave SFO at 4:00pm on Friday, on-time.. yahoo! Watched "The Longest Yard" on the airplane, amusing movie. Did I mention it sucks to be in economy and not have your own personal TV? yes.. yes it does. I arrived at JFK at 12:30am Saturnday morning.. call the Super Shuttle people and guess what happens.. so this guy shows up and I noticed there were two shuttles outside. The guy sends the other shuttle away (I'm assuming) and calls me to come out. He asks if I'm Samantha.. "Uh.. no I'm Victoria, but there's another girl inside.." (who apparently was Samantha). He asks where I'm going I say Roosevelt Island (it's an island between Manhattan and Queens). So he tells me he's not going there, but to get in anyway and he'll drive me to another van (this is where I think he sent MY van away.. idiot!). Well.. everyone looks pretty grumpy in the van already, it's stuffed, he drives all the way around the terminal.. stopping at a green light to look at his cell phone.. running a red light for no reason and drops me back off at the same freaking terminal. I'm pissed.. what a waste of 10 minutes! Tells me ot call the office again.. which I do, it's already 1AM.. they tell me to take a taxi and mail them the receipt and they'll refund me. Okay no problem.. I go out to look for a taxi and there's none around. This guy near the taxi stand asks if I'm looking for a taxi and where I'm going. Roosevelt Island I say, he says, $40 and I can give you a receipt. Yahoo! I get in and as we start moving I'm thinking.. wait a minute.. crap. I'm in an unmarked car, it's a "taxi service", but of course he's not a licensed private taxi person because he's done a bit of time and has a few marks on his record.. great I'm going to die before I even get to Kris' place. So I'm keeping myself alert, looking at the street signs to make sure he's not taking me somewhere to mug, rape, or kill me.. And this whole time he's talking about politics! We covered the Port Authority, Bush, Clinton, NY's troubled times with racial politics, the mayor, Palestine, his favorite Chinese food place, and where he gets his haircut now that he's had a falling out with his old barber. I don't even bother arguing with any of it, just listen to his rambling for 45 minutes and lo and behold I'm there! Yes, still alive, thank goodness. He scrawls a receipt on the back of his card and hands it to me.. guess what it says:

Cousin Vinny
Airport Car Service
###-###-####

Classic!! At least I'm there finally.. Kris and I end up staying up until 5 talking anyway. Good times.

Day 2 - Saturday

We wake up around 10, I think.. and decide to go shopping. *grin* you know me.. I loves to shop. First store, Urban Outfitters (btw I love love love the NY subway system.. so efficient.. beautiful)..we try on hates and accessories. I realized I look stupid in most hats, except for beanies. Although with my short hair now, I look more like a boy with a hat on then ever. "Can I take you somewhere sir?" - fake newsie accent. Kris gets these really cute fingerless gloves, I wanted some, but hello California.. not necessary. It's about 3pm and we're hungry now, we pass by Gray's Papaya but the line is so long. Next stop a quick walk by Times Sqaure during the day, overrated and then off to Kangol (my co-worker wanted a hat). We try on more hats, both deciding the newsboy/taxi driver hats look horrible on us. The guy at the store was really weird too, he was 50, looked young far away but old up close. The other girl in the store looked like she hated working with him. He kept asking us weird questions.. anyway, I pick out a hat and then it's off to lunch. We find this nice cafe place that reminds us of Europe and chomp away. I noticed there's lots of places in NY that serve breakfast at all hours and serve a mimosa or some other alocholic drink as part of the meal.. interesting. After lunch at 3pm.. we head to H&M. Talk about crazy! It was a weekend and there were clothes everywhere, it made me not really want to shop. I did get a cute, bat-wing looking sweater and a dark brown blazer. There was this adorable black blazer made out of cable sweater material, but they didn't have any in my size. boo.. I hate wearing blazers and jackets usually, but if it feels like a sweater, I'm in love!

It's getting kinda late and we're both so tired, so we head back to her place. Dinner at Trellis on the island. It was actually pretty good! I had a Chicken Sulvaki.. yuuuuuummmmmm. She had cheesecake with no crust. Back to her apartment, chatting away and then bedtime.

Day 3 - Sunday

I got to church with her. It was pretty interesting, but I started yawning anyway. The pastor is also a professor so it didn't sound as much like preaching as it did like a lecture/talk. I realized I kinda liked it, but I don't know if it's for me. I loved the diversity though. There were so many different people there. After church it was time to eat again! We went to meet up with her friends and went for Mexican Brunch.. so I'm pretty open to anything, but I'm thinking it's going to be burritos from a hole in the wall place. We ended up at Dos Caminos, a beautifully decorated restaurant with live music and warm, earthy decor. The food.. amazing! Served with alcohol of course, but I had orange juice. We had fresh guacamole made at the table, then I had banana and pecan pancakes with pecan syrup and butter.

Kris had chorizo with eggs, black beans and tortiallas. We shared.. I LOVE FOOD! I also got to try her friends tortilla casserole and salmon/avocado benedict on cornbread. Yuuuummmy. Then we went off to Chinatown to walk off our food. Her roommate got some huge pieces of chicken for $1.29!! That much chicken in a store would cost $5-6. I was amazed. Then back home. I know I haven't done much sightseeing, but I've been there before and my parents dragged me EVERYWHERE. We ordered Thai food and just hung out for the evening.

Day 3 - Monday

I was on my own since she was in class. So following the advice of my friend I went to Century 21, a discount clothing department store. I took the subway down there, somehow mixed up where to change trains and ended up walking 20 blocks to get there. It's all good though, I got to walk around Greenich Village and SOHO area and then came upon all the "official" buildings like City Hall, etc. I was close to site of the former world trade towers, but didn't feel up to going. So I finally found my way over there and wasn't in the mood to shop. But it was fun looking at all the designer clothes on "sale".. Pucci, D&G, Roberto Cavalli, etc. It was kinda sad though, to see them tied to the racks, a $1000 dress going for $600 tied to a rack..*sigh*. I looked for some Missoni, but they didn't have any and I was getting dizzy from all the clothes. I took the train back up to where SUNY optometry was and met Kris for a "drink". We watched the Yankee's rally in Bryant Park across the street from her school. It was funny, guys in suits shouting and cheering. There was one guy, really gorgeous body, just sun tanning in the middle of the grass. He took of his shirt, pulled one of the green chairs to the lawn, sat there and just napped. I guess this is how New Yorkers tan.

Wandered around some more, went to Midtown, lots of shopping. I did a lot of window shopping, tried some stuff on, didn't really feel like buying anything. Came upon a few other H&M's and got another top. Finally my feet were about to give and all I had to eat was a granola bar and a banana, hopped in a McDonald's got myself a Fish Filet (in memory of my mother.. it was 2 years to the day October 3, 2003 when she passed.. she loved Fish Filets for some reason) and parked my butt in a park to just relax and reflect. I was watching a squirrel try to find a spot to bury his nut.. and it dawned on me, that the only place to 'get away' in the city was the park. And that this squirrel probably knows nothing else except his park, he'd get sqashed the moment he left. Second thought was.. how did they get there in the first place..

5:30 rolled around and I met Kris back at her school and we headed home. Dinner time came and we went over to the Kebab King in Queens.. delicious. We had Tikka Marsala, Kebab, and one more.. it was a red looking chicken but oooo so yummy. With naan of course. We had to roll ourselves home we were so stuffed.

Day 4 - Tuesday

My last day! We were so lazy, and it was all gloomy.. until we decided to go outside. Then it totally cleared up, as if it knew we were heading out. My friend gave me a list of things I should eat, so today was the day to do it. We took the tram over to Manhattan instead of the Subway, really pretty. First stop, the Buttercup Bake Shop for Red Velvet Cupcakes.. oh all the cupcakes they had in there.. looked so beautiful. I could feel the sweetness penetrating the enamel on my teeth. After one cupcake each we headed to Gray's Papaya.. yahoo! Hot dog time! I got two hot dogs and drenched them in Ketchup (yes I'm californian) and a Banana daiquiri (virgin). Delicious. Subway to Central Park and we layed out for an hour, watching the horses go by and listening to the sounds of cars whizzing past and watched the couple to our right get all cuddly, while two guys in business suits sat on newspapers to keep themselves clean, and another bloke to the left slept with his pimp hat over his face.

Then it's off to SUNY Optometry again, I told Kris I'd let her practice on me. Their teachers decided to come in on the holiday and help them out. I let them shine a light in my eye.. over and over again. It was funny and I actually learned a little bit. Then Kris practiced that too and did the whole drops in the eye to check something else. I forgot what it was called.. (HERE'S A DISCLAIMER: if you're sensitive about your eyes, skip the next paragraph) I don't think the optometrists ever told you this.. when they put the drops in your eye and you look at the blue light, they actually TOUCH your eye! The drops are there to numb it so you don't feel it. It still didn't hurt, but it definitely felt weirder now that I was aware of this.

We were in there for two hours before we finished. Just in time for dinner! We decided on hamburgers and her roommate Hang said there was a good place in downtown. Back on the subway and to the Corner Bistro. There was a long line though, so we waited, and waited, and half an hour later were seated and another 15 minutes later these giant hamburgers with cheese and bacon was layed before us. Sooo good, don't forget the fries! After we finished it was time for dessert. So off to Cafe Lalo, remember that cafe in "You've Got Mail", where she's waiting for him with a book and a rose and he realizes the girl is his rival? Yeah we went there. It's a lot brighter and they definite cram more people into that place than it looked in the movie. The desserts aren't bad, but I didn't think they were exceptional, although there sure were a lot.. the pictures is of Kris in front of the case of desserts. Then again, when you've had tiramisu made from scratch in Florence nothing's as good anymore.

We got home around midnight and I was exhausted. All this walking around has left my calves aching every night. So I re-pack everything and set my alarm as tomorrow is leaving day. :(

Day 5 - Wednesday

Stupid stupid stupid me.. my cell phone was set to silent.. so the dumb phone rings silently... luckily I've already checked-in online because I wake up at 9:30, we're supposed to be out the door at 9:40. I wake Kris up and we get dressed and scrambled outside, just in time to find the bus coming around the corner. We get lucky, instead of having to walk 10 minutes to the subway station we bus it for a quarter. hehe. She leaves me at the train shuttle to the airport and we say our good byes. *sniff* My flights are all on-time thankfully and off I go. Eating more crappy airplane food while trying to watch Batman Begins on the tiny screens. I swear the food was the same.. only instead of lasanga I had ravioli (tasted the same). I did finish my book finally.. I've been trying to read the Rape of Nanking for the last three weeks. Finished the last 85% on the flight home. Transfer in LA for SF to arrive exactly on the dot at 4:54 as they said.

So that's it, my brief NY vacation and I'm back in California. I feel like I've been gone awhile, but really it's only been four whole days. Back to the same ol' routine I guess. Although I just found out one of my housemates from England is going to work in Argentina, in fact he's already there! I wonder how much flights are to Buenos Aires..