s o u l i z b l o g

The usual food stops in new york were made: pizza, corn at cafe habana, omurice at kenka, banana pudding from magnolia, soup dumplings at joe’s shanghai, yummmmm. Tried some new places too. 

Chickalicious Dessert Bar in East Village. A very small space creating sweet concoctions in three courses, all in front of your eyes. It was cool to talk to the chef as he made our food for us. I forget the names of everything we had, but i remember everything to be really good. 

Next was Momofuku Noodle Bar. David Chang’s first restaurant of his Momoempire. Not only was the food delicious, their service was excellent and very laid back. I noticed the servers weren’t in uniform, but in their own clothes. Their recommendations were pretty good too. I loved everything I got: summer squash salad with tofu vinaigrette (top left), shiitake buns (center right) and the soy egg (center left). My friend got the prix fixe, which was also good and moderately priced. 

OMG this shortcake icecream was soo good. Craving it so badly right now. 

As mentioned, I went to New York last month. Specific posts related to NY food and other stuff will come, but this post will serve as a more general one, I guess. 

So Sarah was working the entire time we were there, so we had the opportunity to do a lot more touristy things than we usually do. I finally watched a show on Broadway. For some reason, Avenue Q was a lot funnier when I first watched it in London. 

Crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. Actually, we walked about a third of the way(maybe even less), took a picture, and walked back. 

Going to the Yankees Stadium was the most exciting thing that we did, in my opinion. The newly built venue reinvents the traditional baseball viewing experience by adding full bars and high end restaurants all around the park, an art gallery, and even selling sushi! This only led me to think, when will our Dodgertown reinvent itself? I loooove our stadium, but I must admit it is a bit outdated. 

Watched Game 4 and 5 of the NBA Finals in New York too. I don’t know what got over me, but I think I felt as though I had to drink more beer and cheer extra loudly to make up for the fact that I wasnt home to watch our team win the championship. Got way too drunk and excited durng the games. Game 4 was amazing though, wasn’t it?!

There was a day celebrating the Puerto Rico heritage while i was there. This is 5th avenue on the Upper East Side after a parade went through it. I’ve never even seen a single piece of trash floating around this side of town, let alone such a large mess left over. The residents must have been pissed off. 

 

I am tired now. I will leave you with this picture, good night. 

That’s us four. Though we’re the closest of friends, each one of us are soooo different in terms of hobbies, personalities and fields of work/study, but one thing we do share is a love for food. Sarah(on the way left) went to culinary school after Berkeley so she’s the official caterer for the group/food critic. Wonnie (way right), being the engineering nerd as she is, always makes comprehensive spreadsheets and color coded maps (that includes highlights and reviews) of all the restaurants we should try whenever we go on vacation (she has these documents secured in binders that represent each city. i love it!). Me and Sinae (in the middle) just like to eat and diligently take pictures of all of Sarah’s creations and Wonnie’s recommendations. Our trip to New York last month was a special one because all four of us were there to combine efforts and enjoy our time and food together, haha. There was lots of time spent looking at maps and waiting in line for tables, but everything was worth it because all the food we ate was dellllllicious and we were able to spend the short amount of time together sharing what we all love.

Tomo Sushi, West Village.
the sashimi slices were ridiculously fresh and cut so thick. quality like this is hard to come by these days.

Cafe Habana, Nolita.

Song, Park Slope, Brooklyn

Pocha32, Koreatown.

Halal Cart on 6th &53rd.

Grimaldi’s, DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Tanoreen, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Kenka, St Mark’s.
my katakana skills failed. been too long.

Pio Pio, Upper West Side.

Joe’s Shanghai, Chinatown.

Magnolia, Upper West Side.
dude, this location is sooo much better than the wv one.

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.
I was one happy girl. I must make us look like gluttons, but wateverrrr. Food is awesome in ny!