USA Sep 2011 – Day 10

My last day in Chicago and I was just planning to chill out, do some more North Face shopping and randomly check out the Vietnamese area of Chicago to sample some Pho.

First stop was “Argyle” where I found a pho restaurant with really good reviews. I didn’t realise it was the Vietnamese district if you want to call it that until I got there. From my friends place to there took about an hour but it was definitely worth it.

The pho restaurant was called Pho 777 and it was very good. The portion and broth were good and the spring rolls were tasty. I would try other things too but I don’t have two stomachs like a cow.

After lunch I went back to down town to the North Face store to purchase some more goods before heading back.

In the afternoon I was helping a friend move apartments as she needed muscle power. Its not often you’d adopt the role as a removalist on vacation but I had nothing else to do and besides I would get a free lift to the airport in return. Sounds like a good deal to me … I spent about 2 hours doing that before catching a lift to the airport bound for London.

Chicago O’hare airport terminal 5 is rubbish. It’s supposed to be a proper international airport but its somewhat lacking in the customer entertainment and restaurant category. The main terminal fares much better and up to international standards but they need to work on terminal 5. All the restaurants are before you check in actually its next to check in. Once inside you only have a trolley shop to buy anything.

When I boarded the flight my plan was to sleep as much as possible as when I land I was going to head into the office to do important work for my client. When I discovered the 2 seats next to me were empty, I was extremely happy as I could stretch out and sleep … that was until later on in the flight, some old man asked if he could sit on the aisle. Sleep fail.

Smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 9

Today was my friends wedding day and it was the main reason why I went to the states. However I couldn’t justify going for a weekend thus I took the whole week off and went to NYC and Philadelphia as I have not been there before.

I was looking forward to the wedding and catching up with friends from my past travels.

We began the day with a hearty breakfast downtown at Meli Cafe & Juice Bar. I ordered a “Mana Mou”, it was like a mash up of potatoes, peppers, mushrooms and steak, yes steak smothered with layer of cheese. It was delicious! I can’t say the same about the fresh orange juice as it wasn’t sweet, needed some sugar and some ice.

The location of the wedding took place at Morton Arboretum which I guess is like a botanical garden. The wedding venue and setup was quite simple and pleasant. A small gathering of family and friends, that’s all you need really. I remember some weddings especially Asian ones where about 300+ people gathered. I think that is a bit much, especially when most of those people are friends of the parents and not anyone close to you. Its like they are there to make up the numbers.

It was quite a cloudy day and it even rained but when my friend and bride walked towards everyone and to her husband to be, then the sun came out and it was a lovely ceremony.

After the ceremony we all gathered at the reception venue which was a Brazilian steak house selected by my friend whom loves to eat but you couldn’t tell by her physique. I had no idea we were going to a steak house so I was in for a mouth watering treat and celebration. I did also manage to get the macaroon tower from my friends place to the wedding reception without a single macaroon falling from the tower and nothing collapsing.

The Brazilian steak house had an etiquette for eating or rather being ‘served’. On your table is a card, on one side its green meaning yes ‘give me food, now’ and on the other side red meaning ‘crap I can’t eat anymore, please stop!’. It was basically all you can eat carvery with waiters coming around your table with long skewers and if you wanted that particular meat, you’d ask for a slice which they’d cut from the skewer. All up there were about 10 types of meat to choose from plus a huge salad bar. You could order any drink you like so I just stuck to Coronas and celebrated with everyone. This by far is up there with the best reception I’ve been too! The hospitality and atmosphere was second to none and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Oh and no one ate the macaroons from the macaroon tower. All that effort!

After all that eating on the way home my friend suggested we get some more dessert! What a crazy idea that was. Instead of buying stuff we opted to bake something at home and that particular thing was ‘whoopie pie’. It was the first I heard of it and was going to give it a try. A whoopie pie is basically two macaroon large biscuits (by large I mean 5x size of macaroon then stacked twice) which was filled with a sweet butter style cream. Essentially I think of it as a giant macaroon. How did it taste? A bit on the salty side for me. I think my friend added a touch too much salt.

Smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 8

Today I was headed to Chicago and the weather in Philadelphia looks nasty with heavy torrential rain. This culminated in flight delays and a boring session at the airport with nothing to do.

The plan in Chicago was to attend a wedding, do some last minute shopping and chill out for a few days before flying back to London.

I eventually board the flight about 1.5 hours after it was scheduled so it wasn’t too bad. The flight itself was around an hour and a bit.

I am staying with my friend in Chicago and the first duties involved that afternoon was picking up sweets and cakes for the wedding. My task was to handle the macaroon tower and make sure it doesn’t fall while driving. Originally we had the plan to ride bikes to the cake store but luckily we didn’t as there would be no way to carry these things let alone a macaroon tower. Despite a few scares in the car due to some bad braking the tower made it back to my friends place all in tact.

For dinner tonight I requested to try out Deep Dish pizza which is a chicago speciality. We headed on over to Pequads where it got quite busy with a long queue despite being a two level restaurant. It must be a very popular establishment for deep dish pizza. My friend also brought her friend along from Church, she was the most beautiful and amazing girl in America (I’ve been conned into to writing this – haha). For dessert we went to this unique ice cream place called Cloud 9 where the ice was shaven from a huge block of flavored ice and then toppings of chocolate and nuts were added. I cannot say I’ve tried this before and the closest thing I’ve come to it is probably ice-kachang in Malaysia.

Smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 7

Today was about exploring Philadelphia and trying out the different eateries at the Reading Terminal Market. Despite the humidity the forecast was generally overcast and occasional breaks of sunshine.

The first stop was definitely the Reading Terminal Market with so many places and cuisines to eat from. The difficulty was choosing which one places to eat from and how much food I can take. I had to do about 3 laps of the place first then decide on what to eat.

I tried a pretzel dog, a beef roll and a peanut butter cookie. That’s all I could handle but was tempted to sample the chicken wings and a few other goodies. I did sample gator gumbo which is like a stew with alligator meat. Gator itself has texture like fish but taste like chicken, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.

To burn what I just had eaten I decided to walk endlessly to the Delaware River and check out what was there. Its a very quiet city (people-wise) as I had expected more people in Philadelphia. Perhaps most people are indoors studying or working. Nothing exciting goes on here as far as I can tell, maybe its the wrong day of the week.

In the afternoon I caught up with my friend and I got shown around the University of Pennsylvania. We tried some tacos and pork buns from this food truck which weren’t bad. There wasn’t any seating around where the truck was so we basically sat on the side of the road tucking into our food.

Dinner tonight was at Morimoto’s which I was very excited about. I wanted to eat from an Iron Chef’s restaurant and sample the strange and not so strange delights. The decor is very modern inside and they could have been more creative with the table lamps as they look like phallus’. The price isn’t too bad but it just depends on what you eat. We got some yummy oysters followed by a bunch of sushi rolls and for the main I got a giant seafood platter.

Afterwards we all went to sample some beers at a quiet pub called Eulogy and then we went to a famous ice cream parlour called Franklin Fountain afterwards with its “Mt. Vesuvius” item as seen on man v food. There’s no way I’d attempt that, its simply too much dairy! Apparently the root beer and ice cream is nice but just the sound of it makes it unappetising for me. Only one of us ordered that. I just went for a waffle and 2 flavors of ice cream.

Smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 6

Today was my last day in NYC as I had to fly to Philadelphia. I had no idea you could catch a train there from NYC which takes about a bit over an hour until my friend told me. They were shocked I was actually flying there as I flew down to see them.

I found it very difficult to get to La Guardia airport as I didn’t read the map properly or that there are no trains that go directly there. I think you can get a train and then get a bus which I tried to do and failed.

After waiting around for a bus I gave up and hailed down a taxi instead which was fast and cheerful. Actually no one said anything to each other.

I flew on a small plane to Philadelphia which flies at a lower altitude and slower than the bigger planes. There were only about 20 people on there and I assume the rest were on a train or a bus.

I took a taxi to the hotel as I didn’t really want to mess about catching trains and el trains and then getting lost. The taxi ended up being about $35 including tip for what appeared to be a very short trip! I didn’t know what to expect in Philadelphia and I did not expect it to be so humid!

I stayed right in the heart of Philli and everything was a stones throw away which was nice. I was really looking forward to the Reading Terminal Market which was a food mecca for the locals and tourists alike but that was tomorrows outing.

Before meeting my friend for dinner I was just wandering around to see if there was anything interesting to see. The first thing I did see was the North Face store. For the next hour I was trying things on and buying up the place. The clothes were so cheap compared to London as its hugely marked up.

For dinner we went to a spanish tapas restaurant. As it was restaurant month many restaurants had special menus on and at discounted prices so my friend opted to choose this particular place. The food was amazing trying different types of tapas meant we could choose almost everything off the menu. It was a very popular place and was packed.

We didn’t do anything after dinner as my friend had class the next day. The university of Pennsylvania sits in Philadelphia and in some ways almost integrates into it. Downtown is only divided by a bridge.

Smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 5

I didn’t do much today besides getting out of bed really late and thinking about what to do and what to eat next. I decided to do some shopping to buy shirts, shoes and other work related attire. Before doing that thought I headed down to chinatown again to see if there was anything else I wanted to eat and also check out little italy which is practically next to each other.

On the subway I witnessed a blatant act of criminality which the perpetrators didn’t really care about who was watching. These two guys came on to the train. One guy sat down and proceeded to take off his shoe and then socks. He then took a small bag from his pocket which we all knew was drugs probably heroin or cocaine. He then put this small packet between his toes, slid the sock back over and then feet tucked back into the shoe. Next he took out a cigarette box, and pulled out a wad of cash and started counting it. This was done inside a carriage of a train with kids, parents and commuters watching. What a brave foot soldier!

I ended up getting another bowl of Pho as I thought when I would get another chance to get this tasty dish back in London as its not the same.

I shopped at JCPenny to see if I could find some cool shirts. It was a bit disappointing as I thought there would be more variety and things to buy. I did buy a few shirts but nothing else. I went to Macy’s which felt a bit like Myers/John Lewis/Harrods all rolled into one. Mostly expensive brand names which I wasn’t really interested so I rode the escalator to every floor to see what was there. I see why women love shoes as Macys has two floors of shoes for women yet only a block of space for men’s shoes.

By the time I had finished shopping I had to rush back to the apartment to drop things off before heading to the Bronx to see a Yankees game. I managed to get some sweet tickets for about $50Us which was great. The last baseball game I seen live was at Wrigley stadium in Chicago. This place had a different feel to it, much bigger and grander than that of Wrigley stadium.

The game went on for about 2 hours and in the midst of it, plenty of hot dogs and beer were consumed, all at inflated prices of course. The Yankees did up winning the match.

Smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 4

There are more than one Chinatown in and around New York City and today I was apparently going to the real one down in Queens.

I met up with my friend in downtown and we navigated our way around the metro and headed towards Flushing Meadows where the US open is at. Upon arriving at Flushing you could actually smell the Chinatown from the subway. Its a unique smell, one of grease, of spices and instantly you think, what am I going to eat?!

First we headed to a food court with 20 or so asian cuisine stores which served japanese, vietnamese, chinese and taiwanese food to name a few. Food was made to order so it wasn’t the rubbish you see sitting in the windows at a buffet. I wanted to eat here but my friend insisted we find the proper traditional food court where you eat with the locals and you just sit on stools.

It took us a while to find this place going up and down Main street and still we couldn’t find it. Google had to intervene to restore our mission and eventually we found it. We had asked this store owner earlier where it was but she had no idea! The food court was where she was but you had to go down a narrow hallway then down a flight of stairs to find this eatery.

My mate was right, this place was really authentic and I felt like I was in a foreign asian country with all eyes on me as I was not meant to be here. Everyone was old and just sitting around on stools or sitting on tables inside tiny restaurants that could fit at most 10 people. The area was a food court but it was tiny, somewhat claustrophobic. All the restaurants seem to have no english menu’s so it was going to be difficult to work out and know what we were going to eat. I felt really uncomfortable here in this tiny food court and while my friend was keen to give it a go, I opted to get out while I could! I was not ready and willing to risk getting sick on this trip. So the destination for lunch was the original food court which was a great option as I ordered a lobster for dirt cheap and boy was it delicious. Our appetites were not satisfied after the food we consumed at the food court so we walked around chinatown and tried different types of nibbles like dumplings, buns and other treats.

Next stop was going back to Manhattan and checking out the awesome views from the Rockefeller Center. I wanted an uninterrupted view of New York City skyline and this place delivered. I didn’t want to go to Empire State Building because it’s more busy and I think there would be interrupted views and the crowds would be heaving. I managed to get some nice panorama shots of the city but didn’t quite get the full 360 views. I probably got 190.75522 degrees of the city skyline.

From Rockefeller Center I went onwards to the Brooklyn Bridge while my mate opted to go home to rest. While he hadn’t planned anything tonight, I gave him the offer of meeting at Katz Deli for dinner! Who can refuse a delightful pastrami sandwich on rye bread? Well not me.

So I ventured down to Brooklyn and wandered around. I saw a film or tv show being shot in the neighbourhood then made my way to the river. Locals were riding about and running along the track. The UN meeting was also on so the skies were littered with Chinooks and helicopters ferrying the delegates to the UN headquarters. The police and other military were on manned gun boats in the water so security was pretty tight.

I could see the Statue of Liberty from where I was just below the Brooklyn Bridge. After taking what appeared to be hundreds of photos, I climbed the bridge (more like walk around to the start) and then walked across the Bridge. One lane was for cyclists while the other was for pedestrians. People were walking in all sorts of directions and this New Yorker dude told me off for walking on the wrong side. Tell this to the others as well so it makes some sense mate!

Katz Deli was the venue for dinner and it has been something I’ve been looking forward to here in NYC. I ordered the famous pastrami sandwich on rye bread and it was mouth watering. While they build your sandwich they cut you a small slice of pastrami and this delicious piece of meat simply melts in your mouth. The sandwich is not easy to finish, after having the first half I struggled to eat the second half as I had being overcome by the amount of meat in the sandwich however my friend was happy to polish it off.

Smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 3

Today was another hectic food extravaganza starting with 2 ramen meals at 2 different restaurants just to compare the taste and atmosphere.

Both popular restaurants and both located down near the lower east side which happens to be where my second food tour covers.

Ippudo is an extremely busy establishment with a bar designed with glass table tops and ramen/noodles placed beneath the glass. The queue snakes from inside the restaurant and pours out on to the street. Never have I seen a such a long queue for ramen.

I went inside and put my name on the list for a table for 1. Within 5 minutes I scored a seat at the bench where the chefs cook in front of you. Ippudo is authentic, it really felt like I was back in Japan. When a customer walks in all the japanese waitresses and chef scream out ‘welcome’. Both the chefs and waitresses communicate really well together and bring food to the customers in a matter of minutes.

I ordered the ramen house special with no sides as I knew another meal a few blocks away was waiting for me. The ramen broth was light and delicious. The ramen itself was soft and the pork almost broke into bits when you poke at them with your chopsticks. A perfect meal for lunch in a nice surrounding and highly recommended!

I walked a few blocks down only to backtrack the other way. I’d gone in the opposite direction to that of Momofuku. The decor and atmosphere wasn’t the same as Ippudo, it was much more modern and had a decadent feel to it. Again I was seated in front of the chefs which was great as I could see what they were doing and what they were cooking.

From the menu I ordered the shrimp bun and also the ramen house special. The shrimp bun was delicious and I felt that the ramen here was richer and had a slightly bitter taste to it. I didn’t manage to eat all of this ramen.

With a full stomach I proceeded to my food tour of the lower east side. I had to ask the guide if we were having full meals or just sample size portions. Thankfully my stomach was happy to know that it was the latter.

First we had some kinish (potato), then some postrami from the famous katz deli, followed by a slice of pizza at johns pizza, then some sweets at candy store, then some dumplings from this hole in the wall eatery, then some pickled cucumber and condiments from the pickle brothers and finally some tasty donuts from this bakery. Good god that is a lot of food, especially with dinner around the corner.

After the food tour I wanted to go across Brooklyn bridge and then walk around and walk back to burn off some food. What I thought was the Brooklyn bridge turned out to be another bridge so I wandered around the area anyway to see if there was anything interesting to see. Nothing much really.

I met my mate downtown at a restaurant called Blue Smoke. It was like a jazz pub/restaurant which was recommended by my mate’s landlord and also my client here in London. They apparently are famous for their tasty ribs. We didn’t have a booking so had to patiently wait for an hour drinking beer before we got a table. It was worth the wait as the ribs were probably the best I’ve ever eaten.

smiles

USA Sep 2011 – Day 2

6 hours of sleep is sufficient for me, enough to adapt to the new time zone, just about enough to rest those weary legs for the days instalment.

My legs decided to walk from 46th street all the way down past 1st to Grand st and explore Chinatown. Actually I really wanted to go there to see how my favorite vietnamese dish Pho measures up in New York City. I also wanted to sample Banh Mi sandwiches and see if there’s any difference in flavor or taste.

The best way to explore any city is using your feet. It took me about 1.5 hours to get to my destination but along the way I can see the different shops and department stores I wanted to shop at towards the end of the trip and entering the different “towns” in the city i.e Korea town, \srab town, little Italy etc.

I had to strategically eat my way through the day today as I had a food tour at 1430 so it wasn’t going to be an easy task. Ideally I wanted to eat at 11, walk off the food by 1430, eat till 1730, walk that off and prepare the stomach for dinner at 1930. Obviously that never went to plan, my stomach has a mind of its own and it doesn’t talk to the brain properly or ignores it.

Just before I got to Chinatown I noticed a few marquees up and herds of people gathering around a square. It turns out today was also the annual NYC Dumpling Festival. This unplanned food event was an obstacle that I did not see coming and as a result had to think about how to consume these dumplings with the tight food schedule already in place. I may not have any room left in my belly for the treats later on.

I powered on past the festival and thought about whether I could or couldn’t do it. However I know one thing for sure that there was absolutely no way I’d enter the dumpling eating challenge.

When you get to Chinatown in lower east side you can definitely smell it in the air. Its not a bad smell but you can smell the grease, the concoction of ingredients being cooked and perhaps even a hint of MSG.

The first item I had for the day was Vietnamese Banh Mi, which basically is a freshly baked baguette filled with goodness. The goodness comprises of pickled carrot, daikon, your choice of meat, coriander, cucumber and some spreads like egg butter or mayonnaise. I opted for the bbq pork which was the preferred choice on the menu. It was a bad choice I thought as the meat balls look a lot better. The sandwich itself was crunchy and the filling was very tasty. The only thing I didn’t like was the bbq pork as it was very dry and the texture made it almost inedible had I not removed some of the meat.

Next up was Pho with rare beef and cooked brisket. The broth was clear and there wasn’t large amounts of MSG in there, which was good. The noodles were very thin and I could do with a bit more of it. Overall I think the Pho was good but not exceptional, I just though maybe they could have been more generous with the meat.

I could not fit any more food at this point so I spent the next hour or so watching the locals play soccer. I thought this would give me time to digest the food before the food tour in 2 hours. Despite it being a friendly game, it got very competitive and some players even sustained injuries.

After about an hour sitting down under tree, I started walking back towards the dumpling festival where the idea was just to take photos and not eat anything otherwise I can forget about the food tour. When I arrived there, the eating competition was about to start. The person who could eat the most dumplings in 2 minutes was going to have their names in the guiness world record books for just that. The rules were simple, no water, only eat and finish a dumpling before you can continue to next one and the judge will check the contents of your mouth before continuing on. The lowest number eaten was a measley 5, the average was about 10 and the winner consumed 18. Personally I would have done about the average as well.

The food truck tour started at the elevated railway bridge. We continued walking on this bridge for a good mile or so. The railway track and bridges have been converted all into a walkway with plants, art features and various other things. Its a nice place to go for a walk without crossing the street and looking out for cars.

At the end of the track there is an area where you can eat food from a food truck. The food trucks here are not your average corner trucks. These ones come with chefs and bigger kitchens to cater for the large crowds that gather. Some of these trucks earn about $100k per year and up to even $1m if you become that popular.

I befriended a nice local couple on the tour and so we went for drinks at a sports bar to watch some college football. They wrote down a list of restaurants and roof top bars to visit which was nice of them. Turns out they both lived in london for a short while so there was something in common.

I was really tired at this point and I still had to go meet my friend for dinner in Harlem. I hadn’t read much on the area so was bit nervous whether or not it was hostile there. Dinner was at the famous Sylvia’s restaurant serving soul food which I’d never had before. I was very much looking forward to this place after the tv shows and adverts about this place.

Once I arrived at Harlem and got to the road level there were four policeman standing in front of starbucks and several african-american guys next to them. I just thought here we go! I stood there waiting for my friend constantly spinning around to see what was around me. I was probably over-reacting from all the things I’ve heard about this place but really with the amount of people around, its not as bad as it sounds at the time. I even spotted one guy in drag, which was totally out of the ordinary.

Sylvias is about a stones throw away from the subway station so after meeting my mate we didn’t have too far to walk. Upon arrival we had to wait for a table so we got chatting with the bar guy who poured us drinks and we spoke about football. He is a Chelsea supporter so the taunts from him were forthcoming, friendly of course for a rival supporter. Once we were seated we ordered a combination of things so we could sample all that is Sylvias. We got cat fish, deep fried chicken, ribs, mac n cheese, corn bread, coleslaw, rice and some collards?. The food was great and I could have easily done another set of ribs. Upon leaving the restauran I shook the bar man’s hand and he vowed Chelsea is the team to beat in the 2011-2012 season.

After the sylvias we were going to hit the bars and clubs at the meat packing district which apparently from my mates research had plenty of these. I really wanted to go to a rooftop bar so we went to one called Rooslvelt Bar recommended by the couple I’d met earlier. The decor inside this bar and the outside area is superb. The views are just as good overlooking other sky scrapers. This place would be nice for after work drinks. However it is quite expensive for the simplest of drinks from the menu but you’re paying for the view.

Smiles