Mai had to attend a conference in New York for a few days back in early July. I haven't been back to New York city since late 2007 so I decided to tag along. We flew into JFK airport late Friday night and took a cab to the Paramount Hotel in the Theater District. The video above shows how small our room was.
Our hotel was literally half a block from Times Square. Times Square was crowded all day all night.
Day 1 - Lower East Side, Brooklyn Bridge Park, East Village, Theater District
Our first stop in New York City on this warm Saturday afternoon was Cocoron in the Lower East Side. They specialize in Japanese Soba. Small, very charming and most importantly their food was delicious! What Mai and I enjoyed the most was their Homemade Silky Tofu (picture on the right, lower left hand side). I wanted to go back later during the week but we had a tight schedule.
Next we took a cab to the Brooklyn Bridge Park because the subway we planned to take was under construction. There was a nice cool breeze coming from the East River even though the weather was approaching the high 80's.
Mai and I with the beautiful downtown New York skyline.
We later had ice cream at the Brooklyn Bridge Ice Cream Factory. Great view of the city with delicious ice cream!
We headed to Grimaldi's for pizza on Front Street. As we waited, a huge fire broke out across the East River. It looks to be a fire caused by electrical wiring malfunction at the NYC Seaport Tourist area.
We were able to sit down and order our pizza after 45 minutes in line. Thin and tasty but not full of flavor. It was worth the try but I'm not exactly sure if it was really worth the wait.
Next we headed to the East Village to The Redhead for a few drinks and to pick up some bacon peanut brittle for Mitch "because everything tastes better with bacon". We also made a quick stop at Momofuku Milk Bar a block down the street for their 'crack pie'. Sorry everyone, no cocaine in this pie.
We stopped by Rockefeller Center before heading back to our hotel. Here is the NBC studios where they broadcast the Today Show every morning.
We decided to have Cuban food for dinner at Havana Central near our hotel. Great food but even better live music! Cheers!
Day 2 : Yankee Stadium @ the Bronx, Upper East Side, Central Park
Sunday afternoon game between 'the hated' Yankees and my Anaheim Angels at Yankee Stadium. And to top off the afternoon: Jered Weaver is on the mound!
Section 414, row 6, seat 20 and 21. These were "Obstructed View Seats" as you can see with Dwayne Wade in the way. Actually people would walk up and down from the stairs below where he is standing only between innings so this didn't both us much.
I was smiling because we were leading at the time :) Mike Trout coming up to bat!
The halls of Yankee Stadium. We decided to leave during the 8th inning because I knew the subways would get crowded if we stayed until the very end of the game.
Thanks for having us Yankee Stadium (without any incidents). Final score Angels 10 Yankees 8.
We made our way to the Upper East Side to have some macaroons at Ladurée. Very fancy and delicous. We bought a box of six macaroons and ate a few of them in Central Park.
Central Park always reminds me of this movie.
The heat started to rise as we walked through Central Park. I heard from someone that laying out in Central Park is equivalent to laying out at the beach in southern California.
We cooled off by having tea at Argo Tea Cafe in Midtown West.
We took a cab to Carmine's in Times Square. We had dinner here five years ago and remembered how great the food was. They did not disappoint. We walked over to the W Hotel (picture above) after dinner and we had a few drinks. We also met a nice couple from Houston. It started to rain so we decided to go back to our hotel room plus we needed to get some sleep since Mai had to wake up early for her conference the next morning.
Day 3 : Bryant Park, Washington Square, Midtown West
Monday morning I grabbed a sandwich at Pret A Manger (the same breakfast spot I had in Hong Kong) and had my breakfast at Bryant Park. You can see the Empire State Building towards the upper right of this picture.
I took the subway south to Washington Square Park.
It was a nice sunny Monday. There were actually people in their swimsuits and were swimming in the fountain. Swimming in a public fountain? New York really needs a beach!
Across the street from Washington Square Park was the house Will Smith lived in for the movie 'I Am Legend'.
I met with Mai for lunch and we had hamburgers at Shake Shack. Their burgers were actually very good! They were not as good as In-N-Out or Teddy's Bigger Burgers (Honolulu) but much better than Five Guys (sorry no picture). After lunch Mai went back to her conference and I had the whole afternoon to... take a nap. I was considering going to The Standard Hotel and the High Line but taking a nap in our air conditioned room seemed more comfortable. Mai came back around 4pm and we did some shopping. My favorite of them all was Uniqlo. Uniqlo is a Japanese brand and they are somewhat between H&M and Gap, very good quality at very affordable prices. This is their first store in the U.S. I read somewhere that they're opening in San Francisco this fall and Los Angeles sometime next year. I'm definitely looking forward to that!
We haven't had sushi since we've been here in New York so after a quick run down on Yelp, we found Umi Sushi. The service was great and their sushi was actually pretty good. They were also playing 'New Kids on the Block' in the background so that was an interesting touch. After dinner we headed back to our hotel and had a drink at the bar for my last night here.
Day 4 : Leaving...
I had to leave a day before Mai because I needed to get back to work. Since Mai had no plans this evening she decided to catch the show 'Ghost' which was next door to our hotel. She said a lot of technology was involved. The next day she completed her conference. Her flight however was 4.5 hours delayed. At least she made it home safe and sound.
Nice blog babe
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome blog! You also win Husband of the year!
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