Sarah Visits NYC

So yesterday Sarah LaPierre (picture below) came up to NYC to visit me.



She has never been to the city so I had somewhat planned a full day of touring. Our day started by going to Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant:


IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST RESTAURANTS I HAVE EVER BEEN TO! <- the caps and exclamation mark don't do it justice. The restaurant itself is gorgeous. The entire ceiling is all fabric and the sides are bamboo imprinted walls with lighting that is truly exquisite. I had an ice tea with actual different fruit chunks and seasonings in it (looked like a mohito- spelling?). For lunch I had tempura shrimp roll and angry chicken. The sushi was great! I wouldn't expect it not to be, but the angry chicken was an "adventure." I true adventure. Out of the country sort of adventure. It was a roasted chicken breast, which was seasoned and cooked to perfection over what are called fingertip peppers- (side note: The wait staff were as informed about the food as any food network host would be.) What made this an "angry" dish was that fingertip peppers can be very mild to the point where they are just delicious or can be VERY spicy (Scoville units: 6-8 out of 10), and there is no way to know which pepper is which. Just so you know I didn't know anything about these peppers until after this experience :) The first pepper was very mild and tasted amazing. So I was under the assumption they would all taste the same. I took about a half a pepper and paired it with a piece of chicken. Within three seconds of swallowing- wow. I have never felt as though my mouth was bleeding from a pepper being so hot, but that was the feeling all the way down my esophagus. It was really funny actually. Good thing that there was plenty of water at the table. My mouth actually burned for about 10 minutes and was sensitive to anything I put in my mouth. It was an experience. The waitress told me that a woman once ordered the dish after she informed them about the peppers and started flailing her arms to try and get the waitress to get her milk. I would have enjoyed seeing that. So our lunch was really good and after that we walked to Little Italy (about a 2 mile walk). We went through Soho, Noho, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and the East and West Villages on our way to Mulberry street and at our destination had a world famous cannoli. From there we walked to Spring Street where we went to "Rice to Riches," which is Ellen Degeneres' favorite "restaurant" in NYC and was in the film Hitch. We ate some rice pudding.



After stuffing our faces with more food we took a taxi to Lincoln Center.



We went into the Metropolitan Opera house and then went into Juilliard's library which had a lot of books about art- duh. We ventured to the lawn roof, which is a building that you can walk on top of it's roof that is a lawn- kind of cool. We then walked to Central Park and spent about two hours meandering around seeing all the major sights including the boat house, Bethesda Fountain, Sheep's Meadow (relaxed here for a good 30 minutes), and we also went to The Mall. After Central Park and walking at that point about 4-5 miles, walked back to my apartment. We watched some shark week and then we were off again. We went to In the Heights broadway lottery and didn't win, but got tickets, came back to the apartment (watched more shark week) and then Sarah had her first NYC pizza and broadway experience- very exciting. We went to Famous Famiglias for a "slice of pie" and then went to In The Heights.



It was good as always (3rd time seeing it). Actually, it was the best out of the three times I saw it- the original cast was back from L.A. I believe. After that we went through Time Square and then came back to my apartment where I slept on the comfortable floor :) In the morning we got up and I went to work. We were supposed to go to lunch, but I didn't have time so she came to my work to say goodbye and she got on a bus to Delaware. It was a great 24 hours! A lot of fun spending time with someone who wanted to come visit me :)

Pommes Frites and a tour of NYC

So on Sunday Night I went on an adventure with Emily. We went to "the other side" of town- Astor place. I went on a subway! I normally never go on a subway, only either walking or taxi, but anytime I go out with Emily (I am inserting a picture for reference)

Anyway, anytime I am with Emily I end up on a subway, which is good I guess because I wouldn't go on it if she didn't make me. Nonetheless, we went downtown to Astor place which has a lot of "hole-in-the-wall restaurants" including the heavenly place called Pommes Frites.



It is a place that only serves French Fries- a comfort food lover paradise. They have over 20 different sauces that you can choose from. I chose War Sauce, Wild Mushroom Mayo, and shared Parmesan Peppercorn. It was amazing! I had my French Fries and a milk shake from a Mr. Softee on the street. We then went to The Strand. A book store with new and used books that has 14 miles of books- there art section was out of this world! It was great. After browsing we went back home- on the subway again :)

Yacht Pictures

So I definitely had fun on the yacht.

A long post-(S)

So it has been a while since I have done a post, and a lot has happened in the past four days. I will start with last Wednesday and Thursday. I worked for a whopping 40 hours in 2 days, though I only did that in order to be allowed to take off Friday and Monday- and it was worth it. On Friday I took a train up to upstate NY to see and stay a night with my friend who I went to Pre- School and Elementary school with. It was great seeing him. While I was up there we went to lunch for my birthday and I asked him to bring me to both of the houses I used to live in. They are below:





The white house is the one I was born in (not literally) and the other one that is now maroon was just painted and looks horrible- it used to be yellow. My mom would have a heart attack! After seeing the houses I wanted to make one more stop. It was the house of a kid who I hadn't seen in eight years. We had grown up pretty much together, but lost contact. I went up to his door and knocked. It was as if I had never left. They immediately brought me in and I got to see his brother and sister who were 9 and 7 years old when I left- it was weird to say the least. I had dinner with them and we talked about how much fun we had when we were younger. We even went to a creek where we would alway fish and swim in:






Oh, by the way this is the kid who I haven't seen in eight years:



It was amazing. We were down by the creek and for the first time in A LONG TIME, even if it was for only an hour or so, I felt no stress at all and didn't remember a thing that was going on in my life. I felt as though I was 12 years old again and that I never left this place- it was amazing.

So after I said goodbye to him and his family, my friend and I went to the ice cream place that I went to almost every week during the summer throughout my childhood: Weirs



After a GREAT ice cream cone I went back and watched movies until like 3am- can I live like this always please? The next day I left my little less than 24 hour vacation by getting back on a train for Manhattan. When I got back I had only a little time because I had to get ready to get on a yacht. I was going on a Sloan- Kettering celebration for the first graduating class. Let's just put it this way- An experience I will never forget. It was a yacht all to us- only like 50 of us. These pictures might explain...

You can eat bamboo?

Okay so I had a really cool experience last night. My mentor and her husband along with their two friends brought me to another country. It is named Flushing, Queens. I have never really had Chinese food ever because I always refused to eat it when my family got it when I was younger and I guess that has always been the case, until last night. First we went to this "mall" kind of thing, which had acupuncturists instead of salons and herb stores instead of clothing stores. We went to their "food court," which consisted of 20 or so round tables all packed with asian- oh, I forgot to tell you that I was the only caucasian in this mall. All of the signs were in different dialects of Chinese with very if any small english translations under them. We walk up to this hole-in-the-wall noodle stand I am watching this very small television at the front of the line that is replaying an episode of some "places you have to eat-thing" on food network and it was all about how amazing these rice noodles supposedly were and how you couldn't get them anywhere other than China- it was pretty cool. So they ordered me something that I still have no clue what it was. All I know it was on top of rice noodles that were amazing (I ate it tonight)- very spicy, but amazing. So after we had this little venture to have some take out for me to try tonight we went to another take out place on the main street and they had bamboo? I never knew you could eat bamboo. Well, I had to try it and it was amazing! Supposedly it isn't as good anywhere else so they told me not to be disappointed if I tried it and didn't like it at another place. So we got bamboo for takeout and at this point I was confused. Were we going to eat this takeout or what? So we walk down the street and we get a table at this restaurant. This restaurant is a very different restaurant. It had no table clothes, just round wooden tables that you would see at a school chili cook-off. The place was packed! Again, I was the only caucasian and no one seemed to want to speak english. So we sit down and I look at the menu: fried frogs, lamb intestine, lamb stomach, lamb liver, live fish- served to the table ALIVE so that you can do what you please with it (where is PETA?), jellyfish, and live shrimp just to name a few. I told them I was up to try anything as long as it wasn't living when I ate it. So they ordered everything in Mandarin and I had no idea what we were getting. But, when it came... it was soooooooo good.

First course:

Fried whole fish. Yes, I ate this, but I supposedly left a lot of the good stuff- that's right, they ate the head.

Second course:

no one really told me what this was, but it was good.

Third course:

bamboo... it was soooo good

Fourth Course:

This was a rack of lamb? Or at least it was their version. It was covered in different seeds and spices that I have never tasted before- very good.

Fifth Course:

Pork, cabbage, and these noodles that were transparent. This was definitely my favorite.

Sixth Course:

This was the weirdest taste of them all. It was their version of goat meatballs in green carrot soup. Very interesting, but a very weird texture. Let's just say it was VERY fresh.

The people I was with explained to me that you couldn't get this kind of Chinese food anywhere in Manhattan, since most of the restaurants there were being run by second and third generation Chinese. Over the years the recipes change to accommodate American tastes. This results in the "Chinese-inspired" food that we are all accustomed to today. It was very interesting and very good food. I still don't think I will eat Chinese food unless I am in a similar situation.


I also wanted to include a couple pictures from the last couple days:


This is Logan (Jonathan and Cat's son) who is showing off the card that they brought me from Florida with all of the CF elementary kids "signatures" wishing me a Happy birthday- it was a huge card.


This was the night that I went to see South Pacific at the Lincoln Center- it was an amazing show and such a beautiful venue.


A couple Central Park Pictures:





A friend of mine from Sloan- Kettering with some of the cast from American Idiot- another show I saw this weekend. Let's just say it was very controversial.

Work and Stuff.

So I have been working a lot lately. Nothing really new has happened. I have been getting a lot of good data though, so that is always a good thing. Other than work I went to trivia night with friends- which was A LOT of fun! I had the best comfort foods. (I ate so much since I didn't eat for a 30 hour duration- no appetite?- weird.. especially for me) I had mac n' cheese with bacon and then had chicken quesadillas. It was soooo comforting :) Then tonight I went see South Pacific. I have seen it three previous times between college productions and the tour, but I have never seen anything like this. It was amazing. One of the best broadway shows I have seen. It was very "old" broadway. The orchestra were all in tuxedos and the audience was all dressed up- it was cool. I was one of the youngest in the audience too! It was truly amazing! I will leave you all with lyrics that I truly apply right now:

"One dream in my heart,

One love to be livin' for,
One love to be livin' for
This nearly was mine.

One girl for my dream,
One partner in paradise,
This promise of paradise
This nearly was mine.

Close to my heart she came
Only to fly away,
Only to fly as day flies from moonlight
Now, now I'm alone,
Still dreamin' of paradise,
Still sayin' that paradise
Once nearly was mine.

I'll keep rememberin' kisses
From lips I've never owned,
And all that lovely adventures
That we have never known.

One dream in my heart,
One love to be livin' for,
One love to be livin' for
This nearly was mine.

Close to my heart she came
Only to fly away,
Only to fly as day flies from moonlight.

Now, now I'm alone,
Still a-dreamin' of paradise,
Still sayin' that paradise
Once nearly was mine!"

Playing catch up.

So I have not updated the blog in a "while," or so I am told. I have been working pretty much every day for many hours trying to get as much done as I can. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday and then went to Sheep's meadow. It was nice. Learned my car was in an accident this past weekend. My sister is okay, but the car has some damage so we will see how that all works out. I went to dinner last night with my high school French teacher and her husband, which was fun. Not in a very talkative mood. I guess we will see what happens in the next few days.