Identifying with Fruit

Best of America (kind of): Phrased that I used a lot in the US ‘Not really but I can eat’.

I went to NYC for roughly 1 week and a few days and I basically just ate and walked around all the time. I did do some shopping but my best memories are related to food in some way or another. I could only fit so many pictures at once so if you want to see more then click here. 

I ate a lot of things for the first time. As well as just eating higher standard food than what I’m use too in the UK.  

1st pic: I had been travelling for around 11-12hrs to get to NYC. I’m pretty tired and kind of had an upset stomach. I remembered why I stopped drinking lattes before flying as well as why I should eat before I fly. Combination of bad plane food and a strange dutch couple kind of staring at me from the side and talking to each other about me. It wasn’t the best plane ride I’ve taken but certainly not the worst. After I landed I had an indian taxi driver trying to convince me to get married which made me fear he was taking me somewhere different to my original destination. After I finally arrived at Michelle’s I breathed a sigh of relief. We hugged for a while and then began the catch up talk. We started talking and she cooked dinner. We cracked open the liqueur bottles I brought for her and we drank, ate and talked till the early hours of the next morning.

2nd pic: This was actually my 3rd meal of my second day in NYC. I had pancakes at 11am which were kind of disappointing. Since they were disappointing I ordered pancakes with bacon with Ryan around 1pm.  Second breakfast and I was kind of full before we even got to the diner. It was around 2pm that I left Ryan and headed back to down town Manhattan to meet Michelle for lunch. So it’s 3pm and thankfully we only have a small bite to eat. I’m pretty stuffed by now and I wouldn’t eat again till 10/11pm and then it was a small bowl of left over rice and some awesome dumplings.

3rd pic: I had met Ryan earlier in the morning and we had lunch. Burgers at Island burgers. It was a pretty good burger although the waitress kind of wanted to rush us out. I hung around with Ryan in mid town for a while till I realised I was suppose to meet Michelle for lunch. So I rushed down town to find Michelle. We went to an American-Italian style bistro. These beets were absolutely delicious. Light and soft like a poached pear. Then a subtle sweet flavour of the beet. I also had a delicious Parma chicken sandwich (egg soaked before it was cooked). I’d wouldn’t recommend the chicken marinara sandwich. The sauce is a bit too over powering and the sandwich loses taste overall.

4th pic: Michelle had to work late as well as Ryan and Katie. So I decided to cook dinner for Michelle. I was surprised to find maggi in her local supermarket and decided to make Gehektesteppel (spelling is wrong). It’s basically a cooked mince dish and potatoes. Whilst waiting for Michelle her flat mate returned. This was my first encounter and I think I got a long with her and her bf. They seemed pretty cool. We then talked for a while and decided to eat together. Since Michelle was still at work we ate first. They bought back some Dominican food and after I had cooked the feast was complete. We ended eating pretty late and then Michelle and Carolin were up late cooking for Thanksgiving. I stayed up with them because it was kind of surreal. At one point I felt like a child watching two mothers talking and cooking and I silently watched whilst sitting from the side.

5th pic: So I kind of planned my trip to include Thanksgiving with Ryan and Katie. After only around 2hrs sleep I met Ryan and Katie (for the first time) and also Katie’s mum and dad. In the morning we went to Macy’s Parade and it was kind of meh. It was interesting because the kids got all excited but as an adult it was just kind of “It’s getting cold and I can’t see shit” kind of feeling. We parted ways with Katie’s parents (little awkward because I thought we were going out to get things but it turned out that wasn’t the case) and then set out plans to Thanksgiving dinner plans. Katie and Ryan had already bought most of the stuff needed for Thanksgiving however I really wanted to try sweet potato pie. So me and Katie headed out whilst Ryan started cooking the ham. We got some booze and some cheesy popcorn as well as the pie and then headed back. After a few hours Alex joined us and we finished up preping and cooking dinner. I’m glad I didn’t have anything to eat till Thanksgiving dinner because man I was stuffed. I had a second plate but kind of struggled to finish tbh. We then took a rest and played scrabble and then had pie. I was ready for bed.

6th pic: So I spent the morning with Katie and Ryan. I then met Michelle down town for lunch. We had Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) and a bowl of spicy noodles. The Banh mi was really great and cheap. The lamb noodles were nice but too spicy for me. My mouth was on fire and I had to stop eating. Later in the evening I would meet Michelle again. However this time I got to see Pry and Chibi. I was surprised and totally psyched up after seeing Pry. We went for falafel and it was really delicious. This place made my top 3 of places to eat. However the best thing on their menu was an egg plant spread which was amazing. It wasn’t grainy at all and had a really silky smooth taste to it. I would go back to that place and buy a tub of that spread just to go home and dip everything into it. Later on in the evening we went to Fat Cat. It’s a kind of social club but with live music. We played scrabble and listened to some good live jazz till 2-3am.

7th pic: The last lunch before Ohio we went to a cuban cafe. Note I was Ryan for a bit in the morning and we ended up eating slices of leftover ham with slices of cheese. We did this for about an hour before I realised I had an hour before I met Michelle for lunch. We had plantains with guacamole and a cuban pulled pork with beans and rice. We also had this amazing corn on the cob (2 each). It was topped with butter, garlic and some kind of cheese. Squeeze of lime juice and I could eat it all day. That entire meal was pretty delicious. 

8th pic: I was in Ohio and the travel between states was quick and easy. US port authorities worry so much about international flights when they are more relaxed for domestic flights. Anyway’s Ohio was vastly different to NYC in many ways. It felt more like normal America. The kind of America that is portrayed through the 1950s atom family stereotype through in a bit of crazy religious types and a pinch of fear from the confederate states then think of the road. Summarizing it was a bit like the film ‘The Village’. I got to eat some nice hot dogs, I got to try fast food for the first time in the US which was Arby’s. I did all of this with my friend Melissa. We met Jimmy another day and went to a place called Melt. The portion sizes were way too large. You could basically share 1 plate with 2 people or 4 children. It was a lot of food. It was okay but the quantity was ridiculous. The waitress said to us “do you still want the twinkies?” like a fool I replied first with “Yes! gotta tried the deep fried twinkies.” It was disgusting… a mush of jam and cream and fat all together in a mouthful. It was the next day that we went to Wooster and I got to meet Jamie. Where she made me this really good cup of Mocha. I wished we got there sooner so we could talk/hang out longer but getting lost in the US without a sat nav is quite unnerving. We got lost on the way back and we only managed to get to the “WORLDS BEST CHICKEN” place with 5mins to spare. We waited till Jimmy got to Melissa’s however the chicken wasn’t as amazing. The afternoon I was leaving I Melissa’s mum made me Italian hot sausage (delicious) and Melissa’s sister made parogi’s (also delicious). I washed it down with some black coffee. First time I had both of these dishes. I was pretty full by the time it came to fly back to NYC.

9th pic: The day after I arrived back in NYC. I met with Michelle in the mid afternoon. We went for ramen and had gyozas. The ramen was nice, so many different flavours and I ate it perfectly with slurping sounds included and no noodle splashing. The gyozas were freshly made by the restaurant. They were mostly vegetable which worked great as you could taste the freshness more. All the different vegetables gave a lot of flavour. We were planning to eat Crif hot dogs (bacon avacodo wrapped hot dog deep friend) afterwards but Michelle told me about a really good takiyoki store. Since we just had ramen I thought it would go better with the food. Oh man was that takiyoki good. It was fluffy and light and the sauce was strong in taste. There was piping hot pudding left and the octopus had a nice bite to it. It was $4-$5 for 6 and for only $2-$4 more you can get yakisoba noodles. After wandering around for 30mins Michelle brought us to an ice cream store. It didn’t do many traditional ice cream flavours. I got black sesame and corn flavoured. There was also ginger, taro (yams), wasabi and some other odd asian flavours. We later on got drunk and ended up at the karaoke bar playing a dice game till 3am.

10th Pic: It was the last day I could go out for a meal and/or do anything properly. So I decided to go shoe shopping in the afternoon. I met up with Alex and we walked around some shops. I got 2 pairs of nice shoes for $110 and picked up some items for my secret santa. We then went to Max Brenner’s chocolate dream land restaurant. I had a milkshake and we shared a chocolate pizza. We talked for a while and then said our goodbyes as I was meeting Michelle for dinner. I met Michelle and Penn station after being lost there for a while and we then headed to flushing to have KBBQ. This was a must do before I left NYC. I was suppose to have BBQ with Michelle 2 yrs ago but it didn’t work out logistically. We arrived and ordered 4 different plates of meat and we received about 15 different side dishes for free. We stuffed ourselves and then headed home.

Epilogue: I went to breakfast with Michelle the morning before my flight and then rushed back to pack and sort everything out. I then made my way to JFK (I got on the wrong train once maybe twice) and then was happy that I got there 2 hrs early. The queue was long and by the time I got through security I had only 30mins before my gate opened. Unfortunately for me there was no Popeye’s chicken at the airport. Honestly I was disappointed. I was looking forward to eating Popeye’s chicken. I had it once in HK and I have to say if there’s one good thing about HK airport it’s that the food is pretty dam good there. After a turbulent flight and some more terrible air plane food. I arrived in Paris. I was looking forward to French Croissants and coffee and for a while I thought that wasn’t going to happen either. I couldn’t see a restaurant or bistro or diner the way to my gate. There it was a small little store selling baked goods and drinks. I got myself a coffee and 2 croissants. I then had a surprised phone call from Pier. We talked over my morning breakfast and caught up a little. I should talk to him more often or at least when he is free. 

Posted at 3:48 am    6
Tagged with: food  nyc  ohio  omnomnomnoms  tl;dr