New York Eats

YATA!!! HELLOOOO NEW YORK!!! Haha about 2mins after this was taken Times Square was completely flooded with humans!

We were staying in the Lower East Side which just so happened to be within walking distance to our very first meal- Katz’s Delicatessen (205 E Houston St, New York). The Ruben sandwich (US$17.45) is pretty much the most perfect sandwich I’ve ever had with hand-cut juicy pastrami, sauerkraut, Russian dressing and melty Swiss cheese. I didn’t get rye bread because I have issues. Oh and grape soda is the absolute best drink ever.

Yep the damn Cronut (croissant-donut hybrid) at Dominique Ansel’s Bakery (189 Spring St, New York) was on our list of places to hit. I mean cmon, the purpose of my trip was to eat as many donuts as possible so how could I pass up the chance of trying a Cronut? After being peer pressured to queue for more than 3 hours for barbecue back in Texas, I guilt tripped Helen and Lex to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5.50am so that we could trek 2km to the bakery and stand in line for Cronuts.

This was the queue when we arrived, Helen did a quick head count and estimated us being 54th in line which was pretty good considering about a week later we heard reports of the queue snaking 3 blocks down.

At 8am on the dot Dominique Ansel himself opens the doors and is greeted by cheers. He crowd controls the groups entering the bakery before ducking back in and carefully packing the Cronuts into gold cardboard boxes. There is a limit of 2 Cronuts per person for the very reasonable price of US$5each.

SUCCESS! I HAZ THE CRONUTS!!!

We make our way to the back of the bakery to the courtyard before opening our precioussss.

It’s generally advised you use a knife to cut through the Cronut but I uh couldn’t help myself and just took a massive bite heh. Look at all the layers! Ain’t she a beauty?! There’s maple cream in the middle, a sweet but tart lemon glaze on top and the whole shebang is covered in sugar. Surprisingly I think I would’ve been fine without any filling or glaze! But oh the layers! It just melts in the mouth! You know you want it.

The dreaded sold out sign appears about 30mins later. Would I line up again? Hmm probably not but I would happily eat another if someone happened to get me one out of the kindness of their heart 😛

A mini break from the eats and we visit the M&M store (600 Broadway, New York).

Spent much too long at the FAO Schwarz toy store (767 Fifth Ave, at 58th Street, New York City).

Ogled the lego displays and bought a whole lot of toys.

Admired the Rockefeller Center lego display at the Lego Store (620 Fifth Avenue, at 50th Street, New York)

Used all my self restraint from buying everything at the Hershey’s Chocolate World (593 Broadway, New York).

There were many visits to the Momofuku restaurant, we managed to visit Momofuku Noodle Bar for ramen and then later we had the famous fried chicken but it’s Momofuku Ssam Bar (207 Second Ave, at 13th Street, New York) that stole my heart with the glorious giant BBQ pork bun and the steamed pork belly buns.

Worst photo ever my bad! But most delicious desserts ever! The cornflake soft serve was phenomenal, the crack tart is exactly as addictive as I thought it would be and the compost cookies made for the tastiest breakfast the next day haha

Mandatory stop at Shake Shack (E 23rd St Madison Ave, New York) for a Double Shack Burger (US$7.20), Cheese Fries (US$3.70), and a Shack Lemonade (US$2.50) for me. I know, I know I should’ve gone for the Frozen Custard Shake but my lactose intolerance is slowly getting the better of me :/ tmi? haha moving on now… While the burger was all fine and tasty I couldn’t help but compare it to In and Out burgers which just about blew my mind. I loved eating in the park and people watching and the fries were heaps better than In and Out’s but burger wise it was a bit of a let down.

The beginnings of the pizza overload! After a food coma induced nap, Helen and I found ourselves starving and wandering the streets at 3am in search of food. We stumbled over Rosario’s Pizza (173 Orchard St, New York) with slices of pizza available at US$2.50-$3each. I fell in love with the pepperoni pizza not just because it looked exactly like it does in the cartoons with perfectly placed pepperoni slices but because of the cheesy layer and foldable crust.

But then there was even tastier pizza at Best Pizza (33 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn) We chose the white pizza (US$21) base (no tomato but with garlic), half anchovy, kale & caramelised onion and the other half with mushrooms, parmesan & caramelised onion. The pizzas only came in one size: ginormous. Helen and I battled bravely but in the end succumbed to carb overload.

Aaaand the best pizza of the trip belongs to Motorino (349 E 12th St, New York) with caramelised brussel sprouts, crispy ribbons of pancetta and a generous under layer of mozzarella. The more normal sized pizza was much appreciated and we devoured it in seconds. Oh yeah it was around this time I may have changed my hair 😛

Then there was brunch with the super lovely Hannah at Clinton St Bakery (4 Clinton St, New York). I was in dessert heaven with the Blueberry Pancakes (US$14) which came with an amazing warm maple butter which I promptly drowned everything in sight with. Oh and I couldn’t resist a side of sugar cured bacon (US$6) which were insane though I kinda wished I ordered the normal bacon for more of a crispy factor.

A stop off at il laboratorio del gelato (188 Ludlow St, New York) for samplings of crazy flavours like the corn, malt and root beer.

Last but not least was a visit to the Doughnut Plant (379 Grand St, New York).

It was ridiculously hot that day and we’d originally only decided to get just 2 donuts to share. Until we saw the menu and surprisingly found that we WEREN‘T sick of donuts. So we started off with the moist milk laden Tres Leches (US$3), Carrot Cake (US$3) which was heavy on the spices, Peanut Butter & Jam (US$3.25) which was just plain awesome and the Creme Brulee (US$3.25) and that Doughnut Plant’s donuts were pretty awesome with the favourite being the Creme Brulee which had the perfect crack of toffee on top and smooth custardy innards.

Helen went to take a pic of the donuts in the display case only to be distracted by some more flavours… Lime and Coconut (US$2.25), Peanut Butter and Banana Cream (US$3.25) and Strawberry (US$3). I’m not the biggest fan of coconut so that was all Helen’s, the PB & Banana didn’t quite stack up to it’s PB & Jam brother but the Strawberry was pretty intensely flavoured and didn’t taste artificial which was tops.

Seriously I must watch way too much teevee because everything just felt so familiar to me, from the shops at Times Square to the bright yellow cabs screeching to a stop and to the New Yorker drawl. It… felt like home… Absolutely loved how everything was open to crazy hours and how people walked with a purpose and didn’t dawdle along the sidewalk. One week was not enough so I definitely have to return!