Tuesday-I arrived to a hot and sweaty NYC via SuperShuttle. Now, I lived in NYC for 2 years. In all that time, I never took SuperShuttle. Why did I start now? I should have just shared a taxi with someone from the airport. I waited 45 minutes just to board the shuttle. Then, I sat for another hour while we dropped off 3 other parties. I could not stand it any longer. I got out and took a taxi the rest of the way. It would have been faster and cheaper to take the subway. Note to self- SuperShuttle in SF good. SuperShuttle in NYC- very, very bad. I arrived at Priyanka and Matt's for a late night dinner. It was nice to catch up with them.
Wednesday- To prepare for Priyanka's birthday dinner, I wen to Union Square Farmer's Market with Matt to pick up some ingredients. It was really big and had a large selection. I really wish that I had known about this when I lived there because I was always frustrated with the lack of fresh foods though I am told that this market just started getting more popular within the last few years. I also got to meet up with my cousin Vivian. She happened to be on her way to Guatamala for a freelance job. We had lunch at Katz's Deli and then shopping in Soho. That night, I went in to Westchester with my cousin Amy to visit my uncle and aunt. We also went to Cosi for dinner. Cosi is a regional chain that is not in CA, but I used to have it for lunch a lot when I lived in NYC so it was another food to check off my list. These were some really good sandwiches.
Thursday- I met up with Amy in Times Square for Sapporo ramen. When I lived in NYC, I used to meet up with Amy for ramen lunch at least once a week. Then, I met up with Ellen for some more shopping. She came up from DC to hang out with me and Jinn since school was out. It was also Priyanka's birthday and her husband Matt cooked up a a gourmet vegetarian dinner. Matt has always been able to make vegetarian food appealing to me. I'm pretty much the biggest carnivore, but Matt makes vegetarian dishes so tasty that it makes me think that he must be sneaking in meat somehow. He did not disappoint. He started with a 3 types of picked beets on endive. I'm not a big beet fan and I normally don't like endive because I find it bitter. Matt has changed my mind. I think that the pickling tamed the bitter flavor. He then made a cilantro soup. I hate cilantro, but I thought that if anyone was going to change my mind about that soap-flavored herb, it would be Matt. I tried it and had more than I thought I would, but alas, even Matt could not change my mind about cilantro. I tried. The main course was the lasagna. Most people buy the sauce and noodles and call it day. Matt made the sauce and the lasagna noodles. Who does that? This is what makes Matt a gourmet. It was SO good. The noodles were thinner than most lasagna noodles and the sauce was so sweet. I loved it and I had 2 pieces. Then, Priyanka's friend Edina made a cake. Who are these people? How do they even have the materials at home to just whip up a cake? I was impressed. My friends will buy me a nice cake, but I can't imagine anyone having the time to bake an entire cake. Maybe Show. These people live in NYC. They have changed my perception of New Yorkers. I need to step up my hostess game. No more Costco parties- who am I kidding? We're having 15 people over Friday for a BBQ. You bet we're going to Costco. Maybe I'll plan for something homemade...
Friday- I started out the day by meeting Ellen in South Street Seaport to pick up Broadway tickets at TKTS. We worked our way up to the West Village for some lunch at Dirty Bird to Go which I thought was good, but expensive. The whole premise is that the chicken in organic and hormone-free. I guess that healthier chickens mean littler chickens because it was probably the smallest thigh I have ever eaten. It was tasty, but I don't know if it's worth triple the cost of Popeye's for half the food. We also went to The Ink Pad to pick up embossing materials for Jinn's birthday gift. It was a cool specialty store with more stamps than I have ever seen, but I'm not sure that it's for everyone. Then, Ellen and I went to Central Park to hang out. Before our Broadway show, we had dinner at Joe's ShangHai Dumplings with Amy and Sandi. This was probably my favorite new find in NYC. These dumplings were so tasty. All the food was very good. We thought that we had over-ordered, but we managed to finish everything. I think that my favorites were the crab and pork soup dumplings and the seafood fried flat noodles. Yum- my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I think that this will warrant a return the next time I'm in NYC. Haven't had dumplings this good in a while. We then went to watch Spring Awakenings, a new musical. I have to admit, I knew nothing about this show, but it has gotten some good reviews. The music was pretty good and the actors were pretty good, but I couldn't get into the storyline. It was supposed to take place in 1890 Germany, but the music was contemporary and I like my musicals to be more happy and cheesy. After the show, we met up with Bo and her boyfriend for some karaoke at Duet which Derek recommended. Show and Derek were supposed to join us, but unfortunately, Show's flight was delayed 1.5 hours. We managed to still have a blast. We were only going to stay an hour, but we ended up singing for 2 hours.
Sat- I started the day with some bagel and lox with Priyanka at a nearby bagel joint. I forgot how good a bagel and lox can taste. Another NYC food check. Jinn drove us out to her NJ summer house in Bradley Beach for a gourmet BBQ. Anyone going to Jinn's parties will never go hungry. She made pulled pork, hamburgers with garlic chunks, marinated chicken thighs, asparagus, portobella mushrooms, and red peppers. She also marinated salmon, but we were just too stuffed to eat cook it. We spent a few hours at the beach where I took a nice nap. I ended up napping 3 times that day. I think that all of the hustle and bustle of NYC caught up to me. It was really nice to be able to relax in NJ at the beach house.
Sun- For my final day, we made a visit to our friends Val and Jason's house in Brooklyn to meet their son Tyler. It was really great to catch up with them and again I was impressed by Jason's culinary skills. He made a steak with risotto while Val made a strawberry shortcake dessert from scratch. Like I said, these New Yorkers have made me realize that I need to make more of a culinary effort. It can be done!
It was a really busy trip, but I was happy that I was able to spend quality time with all of my friends and family. These are the only photos I have from the trip because Edwin took the camera with him to Nicaragua. This is a photo of me with my cousins Amy and Sandi after we gorged at Joe's ShangHai Dumplings.
Best news of all, Jeannette gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday. Here's a photo of uncle Edwin with his new nephew, Freeman.
1 comment:
Let me know when you're in town again and I'll take you to my favorite xiao long bao place. Actually, there's two and they're literally two doors away from each other in the same strip mall so we can eat at both! :P One has thinner skins and more broth, but the other makes better crab xlb. Then you can tell me how it compares to Joe's Shanghai.
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