My $80 Trip to NYC

I didn’t think that I would make it to New York this year, but then I caught wind of an $80 airfare and booked it!

IMG_8581.JPG IMG_8587.JPGIMG_8589.JPGIMG_8593.JPGI visited New York this exact same weekend last year for Jessica and Ted’s wedding. Since they were celebrating their first anniversary, I stayed in Long Island City with Jeannette, Yvan and Juliette. When I arrived, they were all finishing their vacation in Mexico (arriving later that day), so the doorman gave me the keys and I dropped my stuff off. The day was sunny and not too cold, so I took a walk by the beautiful waterfront in Long Island City, with a great view of Manhattan. Here’s some history on the cool Pepsi-Cola sign.IMG_8779.JPGI also passed by the Queens Library bus and then a few feet later saw that they’re building a public library right on the waterfront too. Juliette loves books, so I’m sure she will love walking to the library as much as Makai does!IMG_8600.JPGFor lunch I went to Blend on the Water, a Latin fusion restaurant with a fantastic view of the East River and Manhattan. I had a latte and a bellini (not a great combo) and sampled butternut squash soup, mazorca (kind of like elotes), and maduros (sweet plantains).

IMG_8615.JPGThe next morning I had plans to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular (featuring the Rockettes). Long Island City is directly across from Midtown Manhattan and is only one stop on the 7 train, so it’s really easy to get back and forth. Problem is that the train was not running on the weekend because of construction! So, I had to take a bus farther out into Queens (Court Square) and then take a different train into the city. It sounds harder than it actually was. It was pretty easy and went pretty quickly. While waiting for the train I spotted this guy with a half of a clown costume on. So many questions!IMG_8778.JPGI really enjoyed the Rockettes show. It was late morning, so there were a ton of kids, a lot of movement and talking, but it was still very enjoyable. I need to bring Makai to the show some day! I was impressed with the high production value. Lots of video, lights, lots of actors on the sides of the auditorium and on the floor, at times, kept the audience really involved. IMG_8687.JPGAfter the show I wandered around Midtown, mostly on 5th Avenue and mostly around St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Rockefeller Center. It was nostalgic for me because I used to live not far away on 49th and 9th and used to often walk over to this area to browse around or do some shopping. I bought Makai an I HEART NY shirt from a street vendor, as one should. And then I visited the mind-blowing, three-story Uniqlo store. I hadn’t been to Uniqlo since we visited Japan and was happy to be back. I bought things for me and Dallas and Makai!IMG_8703.JPGFor dinner we went to Jackson Heights for Indian food at Samudra, a vegetarian Indian restaurant. We had samosa, masala dosa, malai kofta, gobi manchurian, gulab jamun, and kheer. I wasn’t sure about going to a vegetarian Indian spot, but the food was sooo good!IMG_8724.JPGJuliette tried a bunch of our food and was very good at dinner. So sweet.IMG_8722.JPGAfter dinner, we made a quick trip to the local Indian market and then we headed to Jeannette and Yvan’s favorite Bengali dessert shop, Rajbhog. The dessert in the middle is jalebi. The cashier gave me one for free and then tried unsuccessfully to sell me an entire box of them! They were good but SUPER sweet. The four of us split just one and the photo is only a quarter of a piece. 

IMG_8726.JPGNext morning: NYC bagel at Bricktown Bagel and Cafe in Long Island City. Delicious!IMG_8727.JPGI took the train (7 running again) into the city and got off at 34th Street / Hudson Yards, which had the steepest escalator ever. I tried not to look up because I was I was getting dizzy! At 34th I saw the movie Burnt with Bradley Cooper. It was just OK.IMG_8733.JPGAfter the movie I went down to my old neighborhood, the West Village. I used to go to Joe’s Pizza. Plain slice. When I was a 20-something broke New Yorker who lived around the corner, this was my main source of sustenance. Only $2.25. I haven’t had a plain slice for years. It was so good that I ordered a second! (For $2.75).IMG_8739.JPGCan’t go to New York and not see street writing. I was shopping on Broadway and saw a ton of promotion for Justin Bieber’s new album.IMG_8742.JPGI had plans to meet up with friends for dinner at Socarrat in Chelsea. I was getting tired from walking around, so I went about an hour early and just sat and enjoyed some sangria at the bar. IMG_8741.JPGSoon I Jeannette, Jessica, Tien and Shannan met up and we enjoyed tons of tapas, paella, pitchers of sangria and many belly laughs. Miss all of these guys so much!IMG_8746.JPGOn my last day in the city I had planned to meet with Jess and Shannan for lunch near South Street Seaport. I’d only been to this area a time or two, so it was interesting to walk around. There was a lot of construction going on. Shannan ended up not being able to make it and Jess and I ended up walking to Harry’s for lunch instead. After lunch, I hit one store and then it was off to the airport. Great trip to New York and great to see everyone!

First Wives Club at the Oriental Theatre

My mom and I have a tradition of going to see a play or musical or opera or dance show every year and for the past two years this tradition was put on hold because…. Makai. I blame him! I actually thought we went to something in 2013, and only missed last year, but I can’t remember now. I don’t think we did. This year we finally got our act back together and saw First Wives Club at the Oriental Theatre. We went to matinee, so we didn’t really do the dinner and a show thing, although we did stop for treats at Magnolia Bakery afterwards, order in Roots that night and went to Chicago Diner the following morning. So, there’s that.

First Wives Club wasn’t really even on my radar, but I came across a really great (half off!!) deal on really great (8th row, orchestra) seats and couldn’t pass it up! To be honest, I wasn’t sure when it first started, if I was going to like it, but I settled in and it ended up being really good. The second half, I liked better.. but I understand how they had to set everything up in the first half. Funny. And some really great performances. Now I need to watch the movie, which I’ve never seen!

Here are all of the dinner-and-a-show days we’ve done over the years:

2012: Buona Terra and Showboat at the Lyric Opera
2011: Gosu & Beauty and the Beast
2010: El Nandu & Hubbard Street Dance
2009: Rhapsody & Jersey Boys
2008: Landmark & Dead Man’s Cell Phone at the Steppenwolf Theater
2007: Costello’s & Blue Man Group
2005/6: Hillary’s Urban Eatery (HUE) & Wicked
2004: Petterino’s & Mamma Mia
Ze Olde Days (1999?): Riverdance in Milwaukee
Ancient Times (1997?): Lorie Line

A Visit From Cousin Jessica

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Dallas’s cousin Jessica from Honolulu lives in Brooklyn now and was in Chicago over the weekend. She was nice enough to make time to come out to Logan Square and meet Makai and have dinner with us. We wanted to go to Revolution, but there was a wedding reception there and they were jammed so we went next door to Chicago Diner, the popular vegetarian restaurant. Jessica has a mostly veggie diet, I’d only been there for brunch, and Dallas had never been there, so it worked out great. And actually, it was really tasty and baby friendly.

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Jessica was nice enough to bring Makai a few gifts, which I made him model the next day :). And for us, some totally decadent macarons that she brought from La Maison Du Macaron in New York and some amazing Belgian pastries from Hendrickx Bakery in Chicago. Leave it to the New Yorker to tell us where to get some amazing croissants in our own town!

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It was great to visit with Jessica, since it had been about four years since we last saw her! And good to introduce Makai to more relatives!

Brunchy Brunch to Forget Our Troubles

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Finally visited Chicago Diner in Logan Square with Jess. This vegetarian restaurant has been in Lakeview for 30 years and last winter they opened a second location in the old Logan Square Kitchen space. I had the Soul Bowl – seasoned quinoa, eggs, chimichurri, brussels sprouts, mashed sweet potatoes, black beans and avocado. I don’t know how these things all were supposed to combine together, but each separately was delicious. Except the chimichurri. No one makes it like El Nandu!

After brunch we went to the Logan Square Farmers Market (the indoor market at the Congress Theater). When I went home this was when I first discovered our water damage nightmare!

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A week or two later I went to Harmony Grill with Kristin to get out of the awful house. By now it was (and still is) all torn up. Carpet out, holes punched in the drywall. Industrial fans and humidifiers. Ugh! Thankfully, we both had the Eggs New Orleans – fresh lump crab cakes, two poached eggs, & sliced tomato on English muffins with hash browns – and they were delicious!! I hate when the crab cakes are mostly filler, and luckily these were not. Kristin had a Groupon and we got our meal for free. Nice!

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We’ve had to be around the house a bit more on weekdays to let contractors and insurance people and plumbers and appliance delivery guys into the condo. On a few occasions, Dallas and I got up early to have breakfast at Cozy Corner. The food here is pretty simple, but everything is always so good and very reasonably priced. Recently I had the California Omelette – avocado, bacon, & tomato with Swiss cheese – and also the strawberry and banana french toast.

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One day I woke up and sneezed thirty hundred times. I had to get out of the condo construction zone, so Alden and I went to Jam. This place opened probably almost two years ago, but whenever I try to go to Jam on the weekends … it’s … jammed! So a weekday was the perfect opportunity. Alden had been to the Ukranian Village location before they moved to Logan Square and wasn’t that into it, but we both liked this place. I had the Malted Custard French Toast – with macerated cherries, lime leaf cream, and pink peppercorns- and Alden had the Corned Beef Sandwich – with horseradish cream cheese, marble rye, potato chips. Oh, and they surprised us in the beginning, after we ordered and before our food came, by giving us a mini black and white cookie.

Veggie Bite

Veggie Bite opened in the building where Threadless used to be, on my old street, a few blocks from my old apartment in Wicker Park. I was intrigued by the concept… vegan fast food. I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan, but a fair amount of the meals I eat are meat-free. That being said, I do enjoy eating meat. I considered going to Veggie Bite one day when I was in Wicker Park, but 1) it wasn’t open and 2) I didn’t realize that they weren’t just veggie, but also meat-haters. Their pushing an agenda on the windows turned me off. To each his own, but it doesn’t seem like anyone was enjoying their food anyway.