Written by AK Solis
Recently, I traveled to NYC for a couple of days with my girlfriend. We stayed in a quaint Airbnb in lower east side Chinatown. Our main objective was to eat the best food we could and explore the chaos that is NYC.
Friday - As soon as we landed, we met up with some friends at Chelsea market. The market itself is this huge hodgepodge of restraurants, stores, and bars. We took the highline to get there, an abandoned railroad train traffic reformed in to a cute walkway going above below in and out of the concrete jungle. After that, we did the typical thing -- Wall Street, NY public library, then Times Square, finishing off the night with a dessert tasting room at Chanson Patisserie. It was spectacular; having tried cocktails in molecular form, alphonso mangoes, champagne FOAM? Decadent, to say the least.
Saturday - Tiff and I went to pick up our Broadway tickets to see Book of Mormon that night. On the way, we were surprised by an international street fair. The whole place was teeming with culture; things like dollar chicken satee, peking duck buns, and halal everything had lines of hungry people waiting for deliciousness. Speaking of halal, we also visited the OG Halal Guys cart. After that, we headed to the upper east side where Tiff fantasized about where Gossip Girl scenes would take place in real life. We then walked to Central Park where we ate our halal on top of a boulder. It started to rain when we all-of-a-sudden witnessed a marriage proposal. We made our way back to the theatre where we watched Book of Mormon. I would rate it a 10/10 — the humor is raunchy, sarcastic, and definitely not family-friendly but what a sight to see in the NYC. Then, we tried walking to a pizzeria only to find out it was closed (still not over it), thus collecting ourselves enough to go to another pizzeria. Turns out the one we went to was Joe's Pizza, renowned for being featured on Spiderman.
On the way home, we passed by Times Square where a stranger happily took kissing pictures of us in the pouring rain. It was iconic.
Sunday - We went to the 9/11 memorial, then the museum. Truly a heavy, but a necessary experience. My 9/11 memoirs are minimal so it was compelling to see how many people this true travesty had affected. After that, we walked all the way to Little Italy. The entire place was lively with hosts of every restaurant hollering at passer-bys, convincing us to come to their restaurant and why their pasta was so much better than the rest. We ended up at Jake’s, where I arguably had the freshest pesto cavatelli I’ve ever had. Had enough time to stop by another restaurant where we only had some white zins, tiramusu, and creme brulee.
Monday - We took a train early in the morning to a well-known bakery called Dominque Ansel, known to be the first ever place to have created the “cronut”. Then, off to the Museum of Natural History. It was HUGE and would probably have taken the entire extent of our trip to get through the entire thing. We then mosied on over to Hell's Kitchen, where we had a dinner reservation at Ageha Sushi. Stumbled upon a speak easy called Bar Centrale then went to a really poppin' dive bar called Mickey Spillane's. Got NY pizza late night, then headed home.
Tuesday - It was the day to explore our own neighborhood, so I’ll try to list where we went and my two cents!
Sun Hing Lung: specializes in rice rolls. five stars!
A Place Known For Mongolian Beef Jerky That I Forgot The Name To: was incredibly sweet and tender.
Cheeky's : diner-like sandwiches. You walk inside and automatically think starving Boheme. They had weathered papers describing hours of operation, "opens kinda early closes kinda late" the AC was dripping lightly onto a bench. Every pipe was exposed, everything worn down, cashier was like, 14 and the whole place was really urban. It was so raw and real, and I loved it. We ordered the chicken which had fried chicken on a biscuit, pickled coleslaw, on a buttermilk biscuit with gravy. We were accustomed to judging flavor profiles of everything we had eaten on that trip. I think the crew overheard us because one of them came up to us with beignets and said, "compliments of the chef". It was fantastic.
Wa Fung Fast Food: roasted pork fast food.
Brooklyn Bridge. The view of the city was unreal.
Di Fara Pizza: We primarily went in to Brooklyn to this place because it was Tiff's favorite. It was a humble hole-in-the-wall in the heart of the Jewish district. In short, it was amazing. I ordered a slice of margherita pizza and a glass bottle of Pepsi. Sauce was sweet, cheese perfectly cooked, bread a little chewy in the right way! Before we headed back to the city we went to a rooftop bar and if i thought the Brooklyn Bridge was the most amazing site, I was wrong. The view from the bar was the most breathtaking one I've seen in awhile.
And that was that! An amazing, fast-paced adventure and I’ll definitely be coming back for more.