The second day in the Land of the Brave was spent, where else, SHOPPING! Practising the favourite hobby of all capitalists, we headed off to do some outlet shopping at Woodbury Common – one of the largest outlet shopping in NY state. Definitely larger than Gilroy, which used to be our neighbourhood bay area outlet shopping. Hey, I make like a tourist, I’m allowed to go shopping
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The other thing that is all-American (for me, at least) is diner food. This for me is as ubiquitous as wonton noodles stalls in Hong Kong, mamak in Malaysia and fish & chips in the UK. It just sums up the whole American experience for me – refillable coffee, lemonade & iced tea, steaks, soups, salads…simple, easy food. It does not profess to offer the most delicious food on earth, but for me, this represents good ole Americana food (even though alot of it is probably tex-mex – another American creation ). Two of my favourite diners are iHop & Denny’s . Maybe it’s the nostalgia , but as students we used to hang out in them ALL THE TIME, guzzling coffees whilst revising, hanging out after a night out or just whenever we feel like a big slab of T-bone at 3am. It’s reasonable prices is also friendly on the student purse strings.
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First up, iHop, also known as the International House of Pancakes. The nearest iHop from us whilst we were in uni was about 20 mins drive away, which means we only go there occasionally. I must apologise for the pictures below – after a super duper long day of shopping under the scorching NY sunshine, I was bone-tired and could hardly eat…so they are taken way too close as I really couldn’t be bothered to do my usual scouting for the best position. And how weird that the last time I was at an iHop (8 years ago) , Elvin was probably there as well . We’re just missing our third amigo, and our fourth no-longer-an-amigo .
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Elvin ordered the smoked spicy sausages with hash & fried eggs
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Meanwhile I ordered (naturally) T-bone steak with three eggs & hash potatoes
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They were both served with a short stack of the famed buttermilk pancakes with a dollop of melting whipped butter. Would you expect less?
Can you say YUMMY? I have been dreaming of this meal for years – sad huh? The buttermilk pancakes were drenched with maple syrup, mixed in with the whipped butter. Heavenly. Yeah, yeah…pancakes are for breakfast, but the beauty of iHop is pancakes are for ALL THE TIME! Fab . Bacon did not enjoy the pancakes as much as he was not used to the american-styled thick stacks.
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Now, how does iHop measure up with our next favourite diner, Dennys? Dennys was literally located just across from our campus, making it an easy target for an all-day everyday refuelling stop. We would stay there for hours at end, taking advantage of the refillable coffees to fuel last minute revisions – we were actually chatting rather than doing real studying . I can vividly remember my last meal at Dennys (sounds so morbid, huh), it was a few days before I left California for good….and of course, it was another T-bone steak . Strange how they don’t sell T-bone steaks in the UK? Where does it all go?
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We couldn’t actually find a Denny’s in Whippany, so when we saw this Denny’s attached to our hotel in Niagara Falls, me & bacon jumped on the chance to pay a little nostalgia trip for me and another novelty for bacon.
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We started off with a side Caesar salad. Bacon loves Caesar salad….the side serve looks large enough for two so I dug in as well . Very nice.
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I stuck with what I know (and missed sorely) – whaddaya know, another T bone! This time I opted for coleslaw & rice pilaf. Denny’s win hands-down (compared to iHop), cooked perfectly rare.
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Bacon was more adventurous and went for the prime rib breakfast fajitas. Not too sure if he could have actually manage to finish this for breakfast – portions were definitely dinner-sized! Prime rib strips were tender, scrambled eggs just the perfect amount of fluffiness (seeing that bacon hates scrambled eggs) and veggies just perfectly charred. This is no 5 star dining, but good wholesome food that fill you up and make you fat. . Could do with more salsa though.
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Not many people would recommend diner food if you told them that you’re heading to the Land of the Brave. It doesn’t help that these diner chains are usually out of main city centre drags, so if you only stay within the city, no sub-urb diners for you then . For me (and bacon) , Dennys most definitely win hands down in the battle of the diners. iHop of course does better pancakes, but Dennys’ food is just that little bit better. Ahh…let me just drown in my nostalgia now (with a side of fat & refillable coffee).
Ah, New York, New York. My heart went all a-flutter when I spotted the Statue of Liberty down below as we circled Newark after 7 hours of flying.
It felt that it took us longer to get through immigration than to actually fly across the continent – queues in newark immigration is ridiculliously crazy, even worse than what I remembered JFK to be, which was annoying. We waited so long that our luggages were already removed from the carousel as bags from the next flights were going around it. You’d think that’s the end of the drama wouldn’t you? Nooo…more await us at our lovely rental car counter! After a super long wait at Newark’s Dollar rental car (never, EVER rent from them – they were horrendous – two hours late with car delivery and not apologetic AT ALL) we were let free at last to roam the freeways of the great state of New Jersey. We found Elvin’s studio in Whippany without a glitch – about 30 mins away from Newark.
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After a quick shower, we were ready to eat. Well, I was, bacon was bone-tired and after wolfing down the stale sandwiches offered up by Continental (he even wolfed mine down!). Why would anyone in their right mind eat that sort of garbage is beyond me. Stale dry roll with tasteless cheese – I much rather have a Ryvita. Anyway, it was onwards and upwards to the deli that me & Elvin had been plotting to go to for a couple of months – the infamous Harolds’ Famous NY Deli Restaurant.. We did get lost fighting the sat nav to find this place, as it was located in a semi-industrial estate – not quite what I was expecting at all.
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An unassuming front right smack at a Holiday Inn carpark hides one special little deli indeed, where everything in there is ANYTHING but little.
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They are REALLY not kidding, they are really the best in everything they do.
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Specialising in comically oversized deli food, Harold’s really do make food for giants. I was there for the comedy effect, but was suprised by the deliciousness. The comical sizes in no way stops it from producing one of the best deli food around – it was tasty, fresh and well flavored. I did the ordering for the four of us – there wasn’t much we could order as each portion ‘feeds 4-6′ . Uh-oh.
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We started off with a visit to ‘The World’s longest pickle bar’ – pickles of every variety
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After much persuasion from bacon not to pile my plate sky high with pickles I settled for a small selection. My favourite is the half-sour pickle.
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Love the old school scalloped frosted glass plates…reminds me of the 70s . It wasn’t long at all that our starter of the Jewish mainstay Matzo Ball in Chicken Soup appeared, complete with a tin mug as the scoop. The bowl was the size of a Lazy Susan – and the matzo ball was the size of a balloon. Scared yet? Here is the soup in comparision with our normal-sized plate of pickles.
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Elvin giggling at the size of our starter
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The matzoh ball was amazingly fluffy for something so large. I love the chicken soup – nourishing and tasty, like what chicken soup is supposed to be. I nearly did not order this, but the novelty of digging into a massive matzoh ball was too hard to resist…and I was glad I ordered it. Unfortunately we were unable to finish it due to bacon being full from his stupid stale sandwiches and elvin’s aunt seemingly on a diet…this was definately the place to check the diets in at the door!
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Stomachs full, it was time for our next course. We ordered the Large platter (feeds 3-5 apparently), consisting of your choice of two meats. We chose Hot Pastrami and NY’s best Corned beef. I wished we could’ve tried them all instead – but it would mean killing a whole adult cow.
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It was truly heavenley – tender fresh beef ( I couldn’t decide which one I love best – the hot pastrami & corned beef were both soooo good) eaten with pickles , some truly delicious coleslaw, spicy mustard and slices of bread.
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Me & Elvin posing with the platter of beef – ignore my shiny face – my skin always misbehave after a long flight
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Bacon & Elvin’s aunt did not eat much at all, leaving me & elv to munch our way through 1/2 a cow. We ate until we could not bear to move an inch anymore, and decided to just take the rest to go. There was still a good 1/2 portion left on the platter by the time the four of us were done with it – that was how much meat there were. Me & bacon had pastrami sandwices for breakfast for the next week….*burp*
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You’d think by now we would’ve been too full to even CONTEMPLATE dessert. Well, we very nearly. Elvin had his heart set on the World’s Largest slice of Chocolate Cake – but at this point we were so close to breaking point….However, we seemed to have projected our thoughts to our nice next table neighbours – they offered us their cake!! I had taken a picture of their cake (I asked nicely) when it arrived earlier, predicting that we would not be able to order it after wolfing down the cow and giant matzoh ball. Ahhh….the kindness of strangers warms my cockles. They even suggested that we wrap our leftover meat with breads and pickles from the pickle bar, perfect for tomorrow’s lunch. How sweet are they?
The cake in it’s full size – just compare it with the coffee cup behind it.
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And this people, is 1/2 of the slice of chocolate fudge cake that was donated to us. It took me & bacon another good couple of days having bits of cake for breakfast for us to finish this 1/2 of cake. Note that by the end of the night, this cake had been eaten by 8 people – and yet it took us another few days (more like 4) to finish it.
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On the way out, some giant cookies…
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Just compare my face with the rows of giant cakes in the chiller…
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The kitchen. Notice how unassuming the whole place is.
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Harold’s is an amazing place – reasonably priced ginorous portions of tasty deli food. It is not really near NYC at all, but well worth a side trip if you are driving through New Jersey. Obviously, go EXTREMELY hungry, and go with people….very hungry people. And be prepared to doggie-bag the rest home, the woman from the next table was right, nothing better than bread soaked with the juices of the leftover meats for tomorrow’s lunch. Mm mm good…
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Appetite for more? Well, click on the Man Vs. Food Youtube below!!
Saturday May 15th 2010, 5:59 pm
Filed under: escapism
If you had not notice yet, I’m back in the land of the freezing! Had a fab time in the land of Liberty – a very expensive time even though I did not had to pay for accomodation. Let’s see….I broke someone’s GPS, and now need to replace it. I ate until I nearly burst. I purchased about 10 different items of handbags/wallet/wristlets (well, a fair few is to be given away to friends and family). I purchased three dresses, three tops, three pairs of sneakers, a pair of havianias and a pair of UGG boots. All for me, except the sneakers which are for my family.
And a whole carry on suitcase of candy. Thank goodness for very generous hand carry allowance by Continental.
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Scary huh. I thought so too.
We were in NY and Pennslyvania, but spent most of our time in New Jersey. I even went to Canada.
Posts are most definately upcoming…but this time around instead of by day I am going to just blog about different bits of my experience back in the land of brave. This is because I spent many days shopping (oops) and had not taken any pictures during shopping. Watch out for massive food postings, sights of NY and the magnificent Niagara Falls.
This is a post-dated post (wrote it on the day before I left)…I would probably be somewhere in the land of the brave at the moment, possibly either in NY or NJ
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It’s been way too long since my departure from the land of the brave. I only lived there three years, but it was one of the three most dramatic and memorable years in my life. Part college life, part first time freedom, but I love the good ole US of A. I love the food, I love the cities, I love the climate (well, I DID live in California) and I love the people. Ever so polite with great customer service, many have tried to replicate by have sorely failed.
When I left so many years ago (2002 to be precise) I did not think that it would take me such a long time to return. I always had grand plans of returning to do my MBA, and possibly starting a career there. I was young, I was ideallistic and naive. Now I am not so young but still ideallistic and naive. I did not realise how difficult it was for me to return to the US of A as a tourist, not to mention as a resident. My Malaysian passport would be the major hindering factor. Bureaucratic red tape, low exchange rate and general lack of holidays whilst I was in Malaysia held me back like nails to a coffin.
Well, I’m back now. It might not be for good, but at least I’m back. It might not be home (California was), but it’s close enough.
Sunday May 02nd 2010, 9:35 pm
Filed under: oz tales
By the time this is published, I would already be in New York….or more precisely, New Jersey. I promised that I would get all my Australia blog posts completed this week, and I did!! It did take me 2 months to complete my travelogue….sorry . I promise that upon my return from New York/New Jersey/Niagara Falls, blog posts would be out before I leave for my next trip; which is back to MY for dreybee’s wedding!!!!
This week really seemed like marathon posting week – I dedicated every night to blog posting and manually uploading pictures after my efforts of bulk-watermarking my pictures failed miserably.
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The very last day of our Australian adventure was a bittersweet mix for us – it was another glorious day marred only by my feelings of dread on stepping on that plane in the pm. We also decided (well, bacon left me actually ) to spend the day apart; bacon went on the Sydney cycling excursion provided by VisitNSW whilst I headed off to the beach. So it’s no pictures from me whilst bacon kidnapped my camera.
For my day, it was a perfect Saturday, one that I can imagine doing every Saturday for the rest of my life. Yep- what’s that about falling in love with a city? We got up fairly early as bacon had to make his way to the Rocks for the start of his excursion. I hopped on the ferry to Manly (yeah I know…again??) and headed towards the lovely suburb. By this time bacon had already fallen out of love with Manly, preferring the hub that is Bondi. I sat out on the deck, soaking up the rays whilst flipping through my ipod. Bliss. We arrived before long, and whaddya know, it was time for another one of these….
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Hee hee.
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This time around I took it to-go. I made my way towards the lovely expanse of the beach, and plopped myself down on a nice spot. I did some reading, plugged in the ipod and licking up every last remnant of my chocolate lick.
By 1pm, the beach was heaving with tourists and locals alike…so I decided it was probably best for me to make my way back to the mainland. Saying goodbye to Manly, I had one last bubble tea (heehee) from the Easyway station at the ferry terminal. Easyway is another huge bubble tea chain with franchises everywhere. I had the Sesame tea which tasted slightly odd with a nutty and creamy texture.
I got back to Circular Quay at just after 2 on an empty stomach – chocolate and bubble tea can only fill me up so far! I took a train back to Town Hall to seek for sustenence…..and purposesly seeked out the Malaysian Laksa House. I know what you’re thinking – Malaysian food in Sydney?? Beggars can’t be choosers, and this beggar is very very poor indeed..there are no Malaysian food here in Leeds within reasonable distance not requiring and all-day car trip. So there. I walked past all the other delicious bakeries, salad bars, juice bars, fast food joints…..with steely determination that I SHALL get my fix of nasi lemak before I leave. It is located in the far corner (last shop) of QVB’s food court, in a little self contained shop by itself.
No pictures, but it was heavenly. Coconut infused long grained rice with a side of achar, sambal, cucumbers, peanuts & ikan bilis and creamy nyonya styled curry chicken. Hey, it’s not my favourite dish for nothing you know . The loveliness of nasi lemak never fails me each time, with each bite.
Lunch finished, I did some light shopping before heading back to the hostel to wait for bacon. All done without a map. Go me! Bacon came back all exhillirated from his bike ride, which he cycled past the whole of Sydney and half of the Harbour Bridge
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His cycling group
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The ANZAC memorial
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The English styled pub he lunched at….like we don’t eat enough of it here!
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Dragon boat races at Darling Harbour
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View from Mrs Macquire’s Chair
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View from The Rocks
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bacon’s self-potrait……hee hee.
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Some church – apparently built in the traditional English style.
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Luna Park as seen from his journey over the Harbour Bridge.
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The Harry’s cafe de wheels branch at haymarket. The bicycle tour had a drink stop in chinatown, and everyone was amused when bacon came back with an iced soyabean milk (with bubbles from bubble tea) instead of the cokes and mineral water that everyone else had – I can’t believe in this day in age there are still people who gawk at soyabean milk. Go Bacon, show em’ how it’s done in Chinatown!
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Zona & Lee, our ever gracious Aussie hosts; picked us up just after 5 for a proper airport sendoff. Obviously to do this right we made one last pubstop . We did have difficulties stuffing my mahoosive luggage into their hatchback car, solved by our hosts having to put on their hats to save space. Yep, every little bit matters!
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I came home from this trip feeling melancholy. I can totally picture myself living and working in Sydney, and I came back with a heavy heart. It’s the same departing Hong Kong and San Francisco, in different degrees – although I did live in San Francisco. I’ve decided that I am going to try my darn best to finagle a move Down Under, and with any luck, starting my new job here in the UK will help in my eventual scheme to be Down Under permanently. Woo! Most of this was probably due to the hospitality of our Aussie hosts Zona & Lee (& Chris!) – there is nothing better than seeing a city through the eyes of a local, and it was that I enjoyed the most about this trip.
PS: I say that, but I’m going to come back from NY being in love as well. Grr. Although NY does not have beautiful surfs. Nor sunshine.
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