East Coast Adventures: Day 4

Photos from today's adventures are available: here


What a day... Randy got in last night so I gave him a crash course on what I've learned about NYC so far. We did A LOT today... we started of with a subway ride to China Town for some good ol' Asian style breakfast at Dumpling House (yelp review here)...


Would you believe it if I told you I got everything you see in the pic for $3.50? Well, you better believe it! It was delicious and absolutely affordable. My arteries shudder every time I see the picture of that greasy, oily goodness.

Then off we went down to the TKTs office in south port where we heard the lines were shorter for the discount broadway tickets. After about 40 mins of waiting in line we grabbed two tickets for Avenue Q. More about that show later...

Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by Wall St. next. Walking over, the neighborhood felt absolutely different than anything near the apt. I'm staying at in Hell's Kitchen. Streets are clean, buildings reach to the skies and Tiffany & Co. is housed here. We knew we were in the financial district. Wall St. is HEAVILY guarded. Makes sense considering Wall St. is the heartbeat of America whether you like it or not.

We continued walking down the street to Trinity Church. It older gothic style building definitely stands out amongst the fancy shmancy sky scrapers surrounding it. Inside, it is a haven from daily life. Hard to imagine this place is down the street from Wall St. Totally different atmosphere. Surrounding the church was a cemetery with tombstone from the early 1700s, some even from the late 1600s. Old stuff.

Walking around the block you come to the site of the former World Trade Center. The area, now widely known as Ground Zero, is very solemn and reflective. There isn't much, if any remnants of the original building or the physical damage left behind from 9/11. Still, there is an air of disbelief as you look at the massive amount of earth that has been cleared away in the area that the buildings used to stand. There really isn't much there, but a really great place to reflect upon events that lead up to where the world is today.

South of Ground Zero is Battery Park. It sits right along the Hudson River looking toward the Statue of Liberty. Everyone (and their dogs) were out at the park today. It was simply gorgeous, or as us Californians would say, a normal day :)
I couldn't justify waiting in a humongous line and paying a ridiculous amount of money for a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty just to stare at it from close proximity. So I stared at it from far away.

After all that, my stomach was asking for food. One place many people have been raving about to me has been Cafe Habana (yelp review here). And come to find out, it is worth all the rave. The restaurant is situated near SoHo and Little Italy, just down the street from NYU. Everything about that area reminds me of SF. All the hipster 20 somethings walking around with their tight jeans and clever T-Shirts. Now for the Cuban food pics...



Everything was absolutely amazing. Especially the roasted corn on the cob. This is going to be a dish I need to replicate. The combination of corn, chili powder, cheese and lime just creates a fiesta in your mouth. And the plantain omelette... what a combination of flavors... man. it was great! Oh, surprise of the day... we were walking to Little Italy and there was a carnival! And next thing you know we're in the middle of a parade. If you thought that was random... on the subway ride home, two guys in cowboy hats jump in our car and next thing you know... they're playing mariachi music in our car. I was surprised at first but after a while I couldn't stop smiling - just thinking of how random this was. I guess anything can happen when you're in NYC.

I could've gone back to California a happy man after that. But this is really just the beginning... the other exciting I had been looking forward to in NY was broadway...

Saw Avenue Q for the first time tonight. It was hilarious. Just imagine an adult version of Sesame Street. At first I found the puppets, actually the actors behind the puppets, a bit annoying but quickly adapted. The musical is definitely light and fluffy, telling it to you in face value, not watering down any racist jokes or adult humor. I liked it. A good laugh, but not sure if I'd see it again.

I was starving after the show. Randy and I walked up and down 9th Ave. from 42nd to 47th looking for a place to eat. Not that we couldn't find anything, but there was soooo much to choose from. OH, moment of the night... we were looking at this Brazilian restaurant and we hear this beautiful female voice sing "At Last". We glanced over... umm... it wasn't a lady singing it... it was a guy... yeah.... at first we were definitely shocked. I mean, even if it was a girl, it was an AWESOME singing voice. But now that we knew it was a guy... it was something else.... wow... I've seen/heard a lot of things in my life. But I've NEVER seen/heard anything like this.
Anyway... we chose an Indonesian restaurant called Bali Nusa Indah (yelp review here)


I had the Veggie pre-fixe menu and Randy had the Meat pre-fixe menu. It was good. Not great. A little bland compared to other Indo food I've had. The desert was good though! I think it was called a banana island? Fried banana with vanilla ice cream.

Boy... what a day... I just realized I'm half way through my trip :( sadness... I've done so much, but this city still has a ton of things to offer. What to look forward to the next couple of days...
Tomorrow: Broadway - RENT, more Central Park, Brooklyn?
Monday: The Met? Jazz at Blue Note.
Tuesday: Some other museum? Broadway - In the Heights.

And ofcourse a ton more foods to try and taking photos for you guys to enjoy.