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!