A little bit of everything: New york trip August 2011

This is a post about my NYC trip which happened in August 2011. soooo long ago but if i don't get this up, i will soon be talking about my Germany and Italy trip! heheheheh

The first day we reach NYC, we hired a car for 2 days so that we could drive to woodbury commons and get our haul back.

however, this time round, we did not go as crazy as we thought we would and i actually got a lot more stuff in the regular malls and left the outlet with just a few small items.

our first proper meal in NYC, apple bees at the premium outlet!

its one of my favorite eateries and the food is really different from the ones they serve at the apple bees in 111 somerset.

if they were to get the franchise, shouldn't they be serving the same food? hmmm.........

anyway, this is my shrimp with steak, topped up with sautéed onions!

we had the good old buffalo wings to share. i learnt to eat raw celeries when i went to tucson a few years ago and until today, i still miss taking it with ranch sometimes.

the next day, AX came to meet us! we did not plan for this but it was such a coincidence that he happened to be flying there when we were scheduled to be there so of cos we had to get together!

there i was, waiting for AX on one of the streets while he make his way there.

its really easy to get around in NYC because the streets run down the road in a very orderly manner and subway stations are very near to one another. that makes traveling there a real breeze.

for instance, If I'm waiting for AX on the 53rd street, its relatively difficult for either of us to miss it because if he walks down further, it will be the 54th street already and he would know to walk back up.

but because its really so much easier and inexpensive to cab around there, we find ourselves often taking the cabbing option too, but you will have to give some tips to the cab drivers too and its often about 10% of your total fare.

AX came without sleeping a wink and off we went for some ramen.

the ramen looked really good but the soup was a little bitter? it was our first bitter ramen and we were frankly, not very impressed.

the thing about food in america is that they seldom tastes so bad but anyway, we had a good time chatting and just getting together so it was alright :)

us walking down the street where theres so much to see!!

im a city girl so its not boring for me to spend 1 entire week just in NYC alone.

i could check out stores after stores, catch a show, carry on the shopping, have the great food, have a little beer or cocktail. who can get bored about this?

this is Time Square. time square with people of all kinds you cannot imagine and the best part about it is how everyone just went about doing their stuff, no one really takes a second look at even the most weirdly dressed guy.

difference is very much accepted in their culture and i love it.

the flip flop runner was just running on the same spot like that. cute!!!

at 1am, Time Square was still soooo busy.... with many stores still opened along the street.

i love the billboards the most. they are all so loud and vibrant they made everything seem much more alive and happy :)

The next morning, we went to canal street which is where Chinatown is for a dim sum breakfast before visiting the ground zero site which is still under construction.

and then..... to elizabeth and prince street for some more shopping and a visit to the special little mexican corn cafe.

The corns were all grilled first and then sprinkled with a very thick layer of powdered cheese, some chilli powder and lastly, set with lime.

i think the best way to eat it is to cut the corns out and then mix everything together.

getting hungry while thinking about it!!

The next morning, breakfast in a street cafe and then a stroll in Central Park!

it started to drizzle slightly when we reached and there were still a fair bit of joggers around.

a huge park with a great variety of trees, a beautiful green park in the midst of a city.

i think one visit is enough for us because the park is HUGE and we are both city people so..... we shall stick to times square for the time being!

in the afternoon, we checked out my all-time favorite, Red Lobster!!!

being the great seafood lover that i am, really, any restaurants that serves good seafood ends up on my favorite list but red lobster is the best because they serve everything i love in one combination.

lobster, crab leg and garlic shrimp. omg it was absolute heavens!!!

i've learnt the way to cook a nice scrimp scampi since we first visited red lobster a few years ago.

peel off the shells, devein the shrimps, add lots of chopped garlic, butter, a little salt, put the entire combination in to steam until the shrimps are cooked. there you have it :) shrimp scampi.

Can you see us?

this is a billboard with a camera and we had fun waving to the camera. haha.... talk about doing touristy stuff....

At Ripleys' believe it or not. the entrance fee was sooo expensive and we decided to skip it!

The famous Magnolia Bakery.

via wikipedia

Magnolia Bakery' is a bakery opened in 1996 at 401 Bleecker Street, on the corner of West 11th Street in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. An uptown shop opened at 200 Columbus Avenue, on the corner of West 69th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in January 2008. A location also exists near Rockefeller center at 1240 Avenue of the Americas, and yet another in the dining concourse of Grand Central Station, which opened in February 2010.^[1] The bakery is known for its famous dessert treats, including its cupcakes and old-fashioned Depression era icebox cakes.

Magnolia bakery opened in July 1996 with Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel as co-owners. They had three employees: Kathryn McCann (who was originally hired to be the bread baker), William (who washed dishes) and Avi (barista/counter guy). They offered four kinds of bread along with both cinnamon rolls and whole wheat maple walnut rolls during the first week of operation. Making bread proved to be impractical due to time and space constraints. Southern-raised Kathryn stayed on, however, to bake cakes and pastries, helping Allysa with icing cakes and testing recipes with her late at night. The cupcakes were Allysa's brainchild that resulted because when they would make 6" coconut cakes (instead of the usual 9"), there was extra batter going to waste. Thus, the cupcakes were born in early fall of 1996. They were originally only vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream icing tinted pink...the same as the icing that was on the nicknamed "Barbie Cake" of the time. They were baked in the afternoons and iced at night when the bakery was officially closed. There would be many people (mostly guys heading to Christopher Street) walking by late at night and when Allysa would tell them the bakery was closed, they would beg for just a cupcake. She obliged. Thus the craze began.

for a few days straight, we had the red velvet and the double chocolate cupcake.

the cake is heavy, icing is not too sweet, not too thick, it was a very good combination.

im not into cupcakes which are too dense so this mixture was very good for me though my girlfriend don't like it that much.

One night, we caught the Jersey Boys where i slept half the time.

G loves it. i thought it was too................ slow.

the stage!

the night we went to catch Jersey Boys, Beyonce was performing along the street too so there were lots of excited, screaming fans all queuing up to go in.

the security guards were having a tough time trying to screen out the real guests with the ones who were trying to barge their way through. @_@

Inside NY public library where one of the scene from SATC was shot.

the place is beautiful, magnificent and we were trying to capture it using the camera but being the point and shoot kinda photographer i am and G, being the cannot-be-bothered kinda photographer he is, we ended up with some shots of the interior in bits and pieces.

i thought its quite clear who the better photographer is ( not him )

remember to check out the oyster bar restaurant in Grand Central terminal when you are there.

the oysters are really fresh, of a wide varieties and reasonably priced.

they are known for their variety of clam chowder too, in either cream or tomato base.

we prefer to sit at the counter and watch the chefs prepare the oysters for us!

In Grand central station, this place appeared in many movies, another reason to why the touristy me insisted G on taking a picture there.

it was the day when we were supposed to fly back home and because it was an evening flight, we spent the morning checking out Rockefeller center the weekend flea market and then another japanese restaurant.

can you see the amount of people here????

lots of amazing stuff are sold here and among them are accessories, hand painted martini cups, coasters, lots of shawls, sunglasses, i-love-ny tshirts, caps, hats, you name it, they have it.

we bought some really nice coasters which were made from old photographs of NYC and they remain as one of my favorite items at home.

i love vintage things and am constantly amazed at the fashion which the people wore in those days.