beXnlog

Big Day

Day 2 of Vacation in New York:

- Jacques Torres Chocolate. Our day began with walking around in a gray, almost-drizzle to this cute and cozy shop in Brooklyn. It didn't seem like we were in New York at all! Neither of us have been near the Brooklyn waterfront in ages and were unfamiliar with the neighborhoods under the 2 bridges. Items ordered: double espresso for me, a cappuccino for be and a pain au chocolate (dark chocolate-filled flaky pastry) for each. My espresso was fine, be's cappuccino could've been better* and the pastries were excellent. We unfortunately didn't get any chocolates but i'll check out Chocolate Haven and buy some then.

- Right after the chocolate shop, we headed over to Grimaldi's pizzeria. Since it was early-lunchtime on a rainy Saturday, there was no infamous line so we got a table near the wall covered in celebrity photos. Grimaldi's is consistently voted "the best pizza in New York" even though their menu is full of NOs: No slices, No delivery, No credit cards. We ordered a plain small pie, which was 6 medium slices. There are a few key things that make their pizza different from your usual place: they use fresh mozzarella with a buttery flavor, they spread the tomato sauce on top of the cheese (not under), you can taste the olive oil in the crust and fresh basil sprigs are added to each slice. Overall i really liked their pizza and i can see why it's voted the best, but my preference is for a crisper crust. Their crust is very thin but it somehow seems thicker, probably since it's not baked crisper in the brick oven. We each managed to eat 2 slices.

- Directly after pizza, it was time for the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. We opted for a more "refreshing" flavor since we had just consumed all the above not even an hour prior: peaches and cream. Since they don't use eggs, the consistency is lighter than your typical gourmet ice cream. The flavor of the cream is so pure, and since it's not overly sweet each bite tastes like drinking out of a little carton of cream. I regret not having some hot fudge, so on a nice sunny day it would be fun to go back since it's right on the water overlooking Manhattan.

- Our first non-food stop was the Transit Museum. be really enjoyed hopping onto the old trains (me too!) and going through the various turnstiles. We didn't really bother reading all the historical stuff (i read it all once before, a few years ago) so most of our time was spent checking out the old ads and finding secret compartments on wicker chairs from 1904. My main complaint is how you get into the museum - duh! it should totally be a SWIPE from your Metrocard, not handing over $5.00 to the person in the booth, especially since it's in an abandoned station.

- The Taste of Chinatown was our next stop. We got there around 4pm so we had a chance to check out all the places we wanted to: Vegetarian Dim Sum House (deep fried potato balls), May May Bakery (ginger lemon cider), Buddha Bodai (who RAN OUT of the wonderful "vegetarian snail" aka fried mushrooms), and Ten Ren Tea House (plum tea, pumpkin seed candy and smokey date candy). There were many more people than last year; Mott Street right below Canal was super crowded and Peking Duck House had a line that was about 1.5 blocks long. For about $5.00 you can totally stuff yourself!

- Next was the 5PM "Getting By" tour at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. It's a small world - i knew the guide AND another employee of the museum, which gave us some interesting insight into the place. I love things about the history of New York, but i wish the tour was more historical and i also expected to see more.

- Finally, we had a nice dinner at Pukk - a new vegetarian Thai restaurant in the East Village. The decor is ultra-modern: 360 degrees of tiny white circular tiles, clear yellow chairs, hologram light bulbs and fancy sinks. We started with the Spinach Toast = 6 deep fried won ton wrappers filled with fresh spinach and served with sweet lime chili sauce, very tasty. be ordered the Son in Law Tofu = crusted tofu with tamarind sauce and bok choy, while i tried the fake chicken Pad Thai. We both really liked our dishes; the Pad Thai was very peanutty and slightly sweet, not saucy and a little sour. For drinks we each had the Lychee Thai Iced Tea, which used lychee juice instead of milk, a very interesting, sweet and good taste. Their prices are very low and the portions are good; lunch is only $6.00! I'm definitely going back to try other dishes.

* The best cappuccino we've ever had was at the Honolulu Coffee Co. in the Ala Moana Shopping Centre in Hawaii. They guy who made be's drink warned him it would be the best - and dude did not lie. The froth was amazingly creamy and had extra-long staying power, and the coffee was strong, rich and fragrant. I usually stay away from such weak drinks as cappuccino, but that one had some serious flavor.

posted by beXn @ 2:10 AM