Pretty quiet and uneventful but peaceful and happy. My parents fussed a little in the morning but soon enough, they left me alone to my own devices. My dad went shopping for a cake and came back with the cutest Asian fruitcake, just like the ones I used to have as a kid. He also brought back roughly my weight in fresh fruit, because there was apparently a great sale going on and he "couldn't help himself."
Well, at least the fruit was delicious. Especially the Japanese Nijisseiki Pears. Let me tell you, these things are heaven. So juicy and succulent, with a smooth yellow skin that you don't need to peel. I think I may have to temporarily separate from my beloved mangos for a while, because I think this is all I will be eating over the next few days. They were so good that I decided to do a little research online for any Asian-pear related desserts. Unfortunately this fruit is traditionally best enjoyed fresh as it is, but I did find an interesting recipe for ginger-pear ice cream that I thought would be fabulous as a custard cream for macarons. But then I found a recipe for these beautiful yuzu-ginger macarons and...pretty soon I had forgotten about my original endeavor and wound up for an hour on dailydelicious. Such is life.
Anyways, today we will venture from the recipes/boring stories of my life and head into a blog-adventure around NYC, to some of the places I have visited and loved the food from.
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| Guess someone else wants to go too. |
I first visited NYC a few years ago with my 8th grade class on our trip to the East Coast. At that time, I didn't know it was one of the food-capitals of the world nor did I care very much. I just liked to not be in school for once. But from my first experiences there, I didn't like it much. It was crowded, noisy, and you could barely see any sunlight due to those damn skyscrapers.
So, several years later during my freshman year of college, when my friends proposed a NYC excursion during the long Thanksgiving break, naturally I was a bit nervous. NYC can be a scary place, if you don't know your way around. Luckily for us, we me up with high-school friend attending Columbia University, who very graciously took us around the city the first time, and honestly, it was so fun, I resolved to visit the city again as often as I could.
After two more trips there, here are some of the places I loved and encourage you to visit too:
Dylan's Candy Shop: full of the cutest chocolates and candies I have ever laid eyes on. The chocolate bars are to die for.
Levain Bakery: The best cookies on the planet. Period. (Did I mention they're like five pounds a piece?)
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| What beauties. |
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| also where Pusheen got her noodles |
Image: http://www.300threads.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Flushing-new-2.jpg
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| I could literally taste this now. |
Image: http://lh3.ggpht.com/-VunVtPrXlE8/UA6vfS9HYCI/AAAAAAAAbxE/dq-FAeTBb0I/NYC%252520Ice%252520Cream%252520Tour%252520006.jpg?imgmax=800
Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery: We were only in here for five minutes because I had a sudden craving for cupcakes. My friend pointed out the Pistachio Cupcake to me and told me I had to try it. It honestly didn't look like much and was dirt cheap for a cupcake, but it was so delicious, I wafted it down before we reached the end of the block. It was that good. It was 100x more amazing than the Sprinkles cupcakes.
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| Those sexy cupcakes there should all be mine. All mine. |
Image from: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/227/457868231_5763c7b393.jpg
Ten Ren Milk Tea: This was truly a surprise for me. I had expected the usual sweet milk tea and nothing more but this milk tea is awesome. It tastes...like really really real like I was drinking real tea mixed with milk and a little sugar instead of the powdered stuff. It was really refreshing and barely sweet enough for my tastes. But it was just enough. I would go there 100 times over if I could.
Xi'an Famous Foods: This is the perfect spot to hit after a long cold day of walking miles around the city. Plus it's so cheap. And so damn good.
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| Such a dinky little store, but they sell some pretty amazing noodles |
Image from:http://www.glenwoodnyc.com/manhattan-living/wp-content/uploads/resource/xi'an-manhattan-noodles.JPG
Cafe Lalo: My friend told me that apparently, this place is so famous because a movie was filmed there once a long time ago. And I can tell why. It's bright, cheery, sophisticated and romantic, perfect spot for couples to hit after dinner for some cake. And they sell tons of cakes. We only had drinks that day because we were waiting on dinner reservations but all I could do was stare at those cakes the whole time we were sitting there. I regret so much not buying a slice.
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| You see what I mean about the cakes right? |
Image: http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/27/43/be/great-cakes.jpg
Land Thai Kitchen: This place is a very cramped Thai restaurant a few blocks from Cafe Lalo and takes forever to get a seat at. But the food was delicious enough that I would go there again just for that pad thai. My friend got the drunken noodles and while it was good, they were way too spicy for my taste. Perhaps I am just a wimp.
Vanessa's Dumpling House: sells the greatest fried pancakes and dumplings in Chinatown (I got one with Peking duck in it) It's so cheap and so huge, I wished I had shared it with my friend while we were there. But I couldn't. It was just too delicious.
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| look at the duck! |
Image from: http://www.blissfuleats.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Sesame-Pancake-with-Peking-Duck.jpg
So I probably missed out on a few places we went to but here you have it, some the greatest places (to me, so far) to eat in NYC.
Think I will spending all day at this place next time haha:
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| Is this real? Laduree in NYC?? I think I am going to die.
Image from: http://www.ala-parisienne.com/gmkbpn/-vu6fAEYNm7w/T71Oxy9xIMI/AAAAAAAADhU/US_qWkrw694/s1600/Ladurée+Madison+Ave+store+front+à+la+parisienne.jpg
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