Tasting the City

A friend of mine took me to try "real" food in New York. I asked for chicken and got half a chicken on my plate!!! It was very good {but boy was it expensive!}...

My good friend Rob, his brother William, and their parents took me out to this wonderful restaurant just the next night!

It was nothing short of AMAZING!

We had a lobster platter surrounded by clams, muscles and veggies.

Rob's mom thought I should get a lobster tale.

SO GOOD!

We also had a plate full of lamb ribs.

Have I said how good this place was yet????

SOOOOO GOOD!

I think we got six dishes in all--family size.

We barely made a dent!

(Rob and William were happy about this as they slowly slipped the leftover containers into bags to take back to their apartment.)

And if six platters weren't enough, desert anyone?

This is supposedly only a "half" size!!!!

AHHH! IT. WAS. SOOOOOOOOO. GOOD!!!

The Magnolia Movement

For the last few years, there has been an explosion of cupcake specialty bakeries here in New York to support the cupcake craze phenomenon.

So, what did we do?

Supported the craze, of course!

Magnolia Bakery is one of the more famous ones.

So, we had to go.

(Famous = $40 a dozen!)

Ben was meeting up with us later, so we decided to pick him out the most manly cupcake we could find.

I think he appreciated the pink frosting and sugar candy daisy we chose.

As always, I got chocolate with chocolate.

So good!

After our cupcake fun we spent sunset walking the Hudson.

Everyone else leaves next week.

What am I going to do for the next two months alone??

The Time Has Come

...to catch you up on the past week!

We went to "Sylvia's: Queen of Soul Food" in Harlem.

The big black woman served us, and when I asked her for her recommendations of what to eat she said, "Oh, Honey! Every thang's good. Jest depends on whacha hungry for."

And she was right!

Best sweet potatoes and cornbread on the planet!

Definitely one of my top recommendations!!!

There was SO much food, I decided to save some for later.

But PROBLEM. We decided not to go back to the apartments, but went for spontaneous adventure instead.

I gave my leftovers to Kimberly--the homeless woman that rides the 1 train a lot. I've given her an apple before. She was very excited.

Spontaneous adventure: The Brooklyn Bridge!

We found the port, and could even see the bridge, but we couldn't figure out how to get on.

The boats were so much fun. I loved the sea breeze and the sound of the boats creaking on the water. We even had a nice light rain come down on us--so lovely.

Of course, we had to go back and try the bridge again...

Yay! After nearly an hour and walking in a lot of circles, we found where the people get on!

Jade, Ben, Megan

On the bridge!

The air was so lovely!

I could have sat up there all night.

We walked all the way across to the Brooklyn side!

We thought, "No big deal, we'll just jump on the subway when we get to the other side and ride all the way home."

We were wrong.

When you get to Brooklyn, highways run along side the path, so you can't cross the street from the path to any of the subway stations. You walk passed several stops...and you just keep going, and going.

By the time we got to a subway station it was nearly midnight and still over 80 degrees (plus humidity!). Everyone was clearly tired, and a little grumpy. And then we waited 20 for a train. It took us well over an hour to get home.

AND we didn't know there were multiple trains running on the same track because of construction. So, although we got on our usual track to get home, we got on the wrong train and ended up in the middle of Harlem...late at night... it was scary. seriously.

We all stared at the ground and walked as fast as we could. A gigantic rat nearly ran across my foot, and a few groups of large scary looking men were noticing how out of place we were.

Megan was practically running to get home.

Amid the building tension, this drunk man started following us and talking to Ben.

"Damn! Where did you get all of these womans? You're the king, man. How many? Three womans! One day I'm going to be king like you, man."

We all giggled and felt much better.

(But still walked briskly the rest of the way!)

What an adventure!

Next... Coney Island!

Right off the train we got fish and chips and homemade lemonade at Nathan's!

Fish and chips taste so good when you're looking out over the ocean.

Ben is eating frog legs!

"Food and tattoos," all you could ever ask for at the fair.

This roller coaster was built in 1927.

It's famous. And it's old.

And, of course, we went on it!

It was SO MUCH FUN.

We also went on one of those rides that screams, "You know I'll make you nauseous!"

True. But still fun!

We got our fortunes told!

My fortune:

"Don't let opportunity knock at your door in vain. Grasp it and the course of your life will be different. You will be very happy with the one you have chosen for your life's companion. Be patient... You seem very impetuous and outspoken. This has caused your dear ones some moments of unhappiness..."

But what does it mean?...

Such a beautiful day.

Playing his stereo like a drum.

Drunk man helped himself to dancing with each of us. Kind of took me a bit by surprise to have a random Peruvian decide he was going to "teach me how to Salsa."

He too congratulated Ben on his "six womans!"

He said Ben was very luck... his friend said Ben was asking for a headache.

Finished the day off at an African restaurant.

The kabobs we so tasty!

That Thang You Do

Thank goodness today was Friday! For some reason this week has gone by so incredibly slowly, and today at work I was just dying! The sun was shining outside, and I was stuck in the office falling asleep at my computer. Finally I convinced my coworker to give me "permission" to leave early (mind you, I said my coworker, not my boss). He did. So, I did.

Here's the scoop for the day:

1. Most of my time at work today went to logging (transcribing/describing) footage for an episode of Border Wars on this group of illegal immigrants that tried to cross from Mexico to America but got caught in this river and drowned. It was horrible! You know those parts of television shows that are blurred out or even cut out completely because they're not appropriate for the general pubic? Well, someone's got to do the cutting...
Such horrible scenes probably contributed to my wanting to leave work early.
But I also got to transcribe the discussions in an anger management meeting with some of the inmates inside the Denver County Jail. ...very interesting.

2. I went salsa dancing! Let's just say, some young men like dancing very close...and some old men do too! Also interesting.

3. Went to a Gray's Papaya (famous for their hotdogs) and got a hotdog!

4. Went to Shake Shack (famous for their shakes) and got a custard sunday!



After a very long day, here was one of my favorite parts:

I had a very difficult time deciding what to get at the Shake Shack. I'm a very habitual person by nature, you see, and I always get oreos and chocolate sauce. But they didn't have oreos. So, I decided to ask the kind-looking man at the cash register. We'll call him Shawn. He leaned over the register and had a very in-depth discussion helping me decide what I wanted. In the end, Shawn smiled and said that we was going to make my sunday himself.
In spite of the crazy lines in this famous shack, he did in fact run over and make it himself! He gave me a larger size than I had ordered, added a few extra topping, and handed it over with another very gracious smile.

The Chelsea Market

The Chelsea Market is this very large underground strip of odd shops.

Kylee and I spent several hours exploring and we didn't even get through everything!

Crowds and crowds shuffled up and down this small passage way pouring in and out of the various shops.

One of the stores was a magnificent Farmers' Market type shop. Hundreds of different fruits and veggies lined the walls--most of which I had never even heard of! We saw purple pebble potatoes and ugly tomatoes. It was incredible!

Piles and piles of produce! --just wish they had cheaper prices...

A puny pineapple!

(look at the pink fuzzy fruit in front...

There was also a wall covered in candies.

So many chocolate pretzels, so little time!

There were also several bakeries that lined the market. It was fun to peak into the windows and see the machines in the back. Here are some crazy cupcakes from one of the shops. My coworker says cupcakes are the biggest deal here in New York--there are cupcake shops everywhere! I even had to run across town in the rain to pick up cupcakes from a specific shop for a work party!

But look at all that frosting!!!

We visited the meat packing place (with an iron cleaver as the door handle!).

...but we only stayed long enough to take this picture.

Look! A bar I can actually hang out in!

They even had a fish market!

This place was so great! Who knew there could be so many different kinds of tomatoes, cheeses, and pastries. I wish I could just capture a small whiff of the scent that wafted in and out of these bakeries, markets and diners.