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Where we were staying in New Jersey, there were blocks and blocks of bog standard strip malls, like anywhere across North America. I have an affinity for these strip malls, they tend to contain nail salons, the usual big names like Walmart and Target to smaller establishments like Trader’s Joe (I love Trader’s Joe!) and other independent stores and restaurants; from clothing stores to a pizzaria and locksmiths. You just never know what will you find next. It is most definately preferable to the high streets in so many towns across the UK which are usually full of just big name shops.

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I would love to say that I found Jimmy Buff’s in one of my drive-throughs; but the fact was I first found out about Jimmy Buff’s on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives – my latest favourite TV show. The host, Guy Fieri, goes around the US visiting great independent diners and ‘dives’ – this range from large pancake diners to chinese restaurants to a food truck.

However the beauty of strip malls was that I did not even need to hunt it down; we spotted it as we were driving out of the car park from clothes shopping and I had to stop. It was about 11am in the morning, but we had not have any breakfast, so we ordered the trio of pushcart hotdogs. I would’ve loved to get a selection of their giant hotdogs, but I thought that it would be too heavy for us as we were planning for lunch as well.

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The seating area

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The simple counter

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Our hotdogs were cooked fresh – deep fried, not flat top cooked, boiled or grilled.

The chilli dog. Very delicious indeed – this is probably the best chilli dog I tasted up until then. The skinny hot dog is deep fried, which preserves the juiciness contained within the dog casing. The chilli was bolognase-like…but it went very well with the dog.

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The cheese dog. Yeah, we could’ve probably gone for chilli cheese, but the generous amount of all the toppings would probably not be able to contain more than one topping. As it were, the bun was falling apart before we finish eating it.

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The beauty of Jimmy Buff’s? Bacon recognised the person that cooked our hotdogs from tv – it was the owner’s son . A family business through and through; and not just for TV. How great is that?

Jimmy Buff’s
CASTLE RIDGE PLAZA
354 Rt 10 west bound & River Rd.
Tel: (877) 9HOTDOG

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• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• Awesome America: Korean Fried Chicken War!
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!
• Awesome Tour of Sydney-progress so far…

Upon returning home I was struck by the ugh flu bug that have been doing its rounds…bleark. It was so bad I took three days off work – the longest sickie I’ve had in ages. Anyway – thought it was time I continue my Awesome America series or I may start forgetting…so let’s see….maybe we can start with the war of the Korean Fried Chicken.

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I love fried chicken of all types, and have been hearing about this marvel that is Korean-styled fried chicken. Apparently the fried chicken is dipped into some sort of cramazing sauce – sweet & spicy. Hmm. Sounds yum. Obviously with the UK being a general all-round desert for Korean food, it’s not available here. I had noticed a few restaurants specialising in Korean Fried Chicken during my previous trip to the Big Apple – so I couldn’t wait to go back and actually try some.

I did some research prior, and it seems that the most popular chain is Bon Chon. Established in Korea, it is expanding speedily in the US at the moment. The inside of Bon Chon looked more like a sports bar than a chicken restaurant – hm. Not quite sure I like that; I have an idea in my head of what a chicken restaurant should look like, but thats just me.

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We ordered the spicy chicken drums – when I ordered drums I thought it was the drummet of the chicken wing, not the actual drumSTICKS. That really sucks, because bacon hates drumsticks! Anyway, we ordered 10 wings, which apparently translated into 5 drumsticks. It would really had helped if the waitress had explained this before – all she asked me was drum or wing.

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The skin – as you can see, is super duper paper thin crispy and separated from the meat.

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This was served with a side of pickled mooli, which was supposed to temper the heat slightly. However, we found that the marinade, although we asked for the hot version, was very, VERY mild. I can taste the sweet soy and ginger flavour, but the spiciness was very tame. Hm. Not entirely convinced. Amazing skin, so-so marinade and flavour. It could probably do with a dip as well?

We were there mid-afternoon, and the place was pretty quiet. The wait staff kept coming over to ask if we were ok and if we wanted anything else…like every FIVE minutes. That gets very annoying and grating after the second time. Ugh. It was not cheap, but affordable.

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Earlier that day (yeah, we hit two Korean Fried Chicken place in ONE day!) we were also at Kyo Chon, another Korean Fried Chicken place in NYC. This at one end of K-town, just around the corner from the largest Macy’s ever. This place resembles a McDonalds rather than a sports bar – complete with paper boxes to eat out from and a separate counter to pay and collect.

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When we ordered, the cashier actually told us that the hot was going to be VERY hot. We obviously paid that no heed and told her that it was ok. Boy oh boy….

We ordered 10 of the signature (non-grilled) wings. In HOT.

As with most Korean Fried Chicken, this wa cooked fresh, and we were given a buzzer to alert us when it is cooked. I sent bacon to get us a selection of sauces. It wasn’t too bad a wait, but then again it was 11am, no lunch crowd in sight yet.

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The last time I saw wings as beautiful as this was when I visited the home (literally) of the buffalo wings. These were absolutely great to look at – lovely crisp crust, completely covered by sauce. And when I bit into it, I nearly died. Boy was it spicy OR WHAT?! In three bites, we were flushed red, fanning our tongues…the whole nine yards. The piping hot fresh-out-of-hot-oil did not help in tempering the heat. However, I soon found out that dipping it in one of the sauce (my favourite is the honey dijon) helped tremendously. The slight sweetness of the sauce complemented really well with the spicy chicken – not to mention that the creamy texture did justice to the crunchy chicken skin. To die for.

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It was all very delicious – I give it my two thumbs up! Compared to Bon Chon, Kyo Chon was more like what I expected it to be, buffalo wings on steriods. Super spicy, super tasty, and super yummy. I love buffalo wings, and these babies feel/taste like the buffalo wings that I know, just edgier. Things might have gone better at bon chon if I ate there before trying Kyo Chon. Don’t get me wrong, Bon Chon was delicious, with that amazingly crispy skin; but Kyo Chon blew my mind. Top fried chicken. I get what the hype is now. I totally get it.

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Kyo Chon
319 5th Avenue (at 32nd Street)
New York City, NY 100
Tel: 1-212-725-9292

Bon Chon Chicken
314 5th Ave 2nd Floor, (between 31st St & 32nd St),
New York City, NY 100

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Psst. Are you still reading? Seeing that we’re on a fried chicken post…some bonus material for you then.

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The American KFC! Some people may not like it; but it’s still miles and miles better than the English KFC. It has hot & spicy, it is CRISPY (unlike the mostly soggy KFC in the UK), serves mashed potatoes and whip up a pretty good coleslaw. And serves Southern biscuits. Delicious; but nothing compared to the other KFC .

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You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Jimmy Buff’s
• Awesome America : Buffalo with Wings
• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• Hainanese (Hailam) Chicken Chop
• A little prayer, a lit candle

I’m not entirely sure that a trip to Red Lobster deserves an entire blog post by itself. Heh. Well, I’m going to anyway, as I never did document my visits to Red Lobsters years ago. Red Lobster is a nationwide seafood chain, serving up lobsters (doh), crabs, shrimps and more. However, my favourite memory of Red Lobster is most definately their deliciously naughty Cheddar Bay scones. Served warm, buttery, soft and herby, I had dreamt about them for many years since I left CA.

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As usual, when we went in for an early lunch, I was not hungry at all, having just had breakfast. Seeing that the Red Lobster by Times Sq was the only one that we’d seen in New York, we thought we would pop in for a quick lunch anyway and share a platter.

The yummy Cheddar Bay biscuits. The best part is they are FREE – comes complimentary with every main course ordered. OMG. When I was a penniless student, I used to go into Red Lobster, order the cheapest entree, and get two lots of the biscuits. And then doggy bag all of it when I’ve finished with a basket of biscuit. Yeah, I have no shame . The biscuits are really beautiful. So buttery it should be made illegal, as soft as a marshmallow, it literally melts in your mouth. I have to admit though, I don’t really like the main courses as much as I love the free starter.

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We ordered a Seafood Platter, which came with a starter of Caesar Salad. Crisp and tasty, like a caesar salad should be – just nice.

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And here it was – the shrimp and lobster platter. A pot of buttered shrimp, a shrimp skewer, a lobster tail, wild rice, fries, ketchup and melted butter, this was seafood dipped in butter. It tastes better than it looks, and suprisingly not as greasy as all the butter would lead you to believe. The seafood was suprisingly fresh, and the butter counteracts beautifully with the well seasoned seafood. Bacon even went as far to declare that this was the best meal he had in the States – and with the places that I bring him, this is no easy feat!

I miss Red Lobster already.. It was lovely when I was a student and it is still unpretentiously lovely now. Highly recommended as a family restaurant as they cater for kids, but it serves up good value tasty seafood for adults as well. I wished they would seriously consider opening a branch up in the UK, although it would probably triple the prices!

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• eating ibiza

Before we accidentally bumped into Eileen’s Special Cheesecake, we were actually on the lookout for La Esquina Taqueria & Cafe, Mexican cuisine exordinaire. Another non-tourist haunt, this was recommended to me by a blog friend as serving one of the better mexican food in the NY area. Seeing that it is literally diagonal from Eileen’s, I still have no clue how we missed it.

Serving up mexican food street-food style, it is tacos galore, and even proper sandwiches in baguettes. There is a sit-down cafe next to it, but we decided to go it takeaway-style from the taqueria, where food is freshly cooked and the service is speedy.

Lining up. Looks like the streetfood kiosks that pepper California.

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Bacon ordered the pepito, the grilled steak sandwich in a crusty baguette with chimmichurri sauce. You could taste the freshness of the ingreddients, and that was nice.

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I had the fish taco, pescado a las brasas. Grilled skewer of fresh fish with red slaw and salsa verde, this was freshness to the max – obviously I didn’t realise that one portion meant one taco – could’ve done with a few monre. Fortunately I didn’t order more, otherwise I wouldn’t had been able to finish my ‘side dish’.

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Taco soup. Hardly a side dish, this was a hearty meal by itself. Chockful of tangy tomatoes, creamy avocado, chicken and crunchy black corn tortillas, this was heavenly. It was the first time I had taco soup – and ever since returning to the UK, I had had this three more times, once in a mexican restaurant and I made it myself twice. I fell in love with this dish, and I think the magic is due to the amazing creamy avocadoes and swirl of sour cream – somehow mine just never taste 100% the same, but 97% is close enough for me! Yummys.

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La Esquina was refreshing, a definate well-loved trendy neighbourhood haunt. It has a slightly speakeasy-like aura surrounding it. Minimalist food with extremely fresh ingredients, this really impressed me. Flavours are not masked with lashings of tinned salsa or cheese/sour cream combo that is so prevalent in Mexican restaurants in the UK. Everyone seem to know exactly what they wanted except for me and bacon, the token tourists. I am ever so pleased that we stumbled upon (well, more recommended to, thanks Megan!) this little slice of real New York, and the flavours of Mexican food delighted my tastebuds to no end. Ahh….I remember now why I used to love Mexican food. Thank you La Esquina for bringing me back.

Resource
La Esquina
106 Kenmare St
New York, 10012, United States
(646) 613-1333
Underground: Spring St Station

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• Taco rice & Taco Soup!
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We were actually searching for a Mexican street-food stall in SoHo that was located literally across the road from Eileens. Being completely blind, we just missed it for some stupid reason, and instead walked into Eileen’s for cake and directions. It was late and I was tired, and the little unassuming cake shop pulled at me like a magnet due to its quaint little size amongst other building blocks. I couldn’t have planned it any better. Eileen’s, it turned out, was a very famous and popular NY-styled cheesecake shop. Eileen herself actually gave us directions (by literally pointing across the road..doh).

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Founded in 1975 as a wholesale bakery, the retail doors only became a reality when people started knocking on her door to buy cake. You can still see evidence of this inside – a small eat-in area of about 8 seats is supplemented by a gigantic wholesale-sized kitchen. Eileen herself was baking up a storm when we got there; apparently she was expecting a French film crew in the next hour. She still came out for a chat with her customers, which in my opinion, provides independent establishment with the extra personal touch compared to modern carbon-copy cafes

If you believe the internet, Eileen’s serves up one of the best (if not the best) cheesecake around in New York. And I agree. Deliciously smooth and light, tempered by just the right amount of sugar – unlike the commercially available cheesecakes with their faintly sickly sweet taste.

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We ordered two mini cheesecakes – the original and the pecan.

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The original

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Pictures all around the teensy store. That’s the famous Eileen, by the way.

As we set there agape staring at the walls of reccomendations and awards, it finally dawned upon us that we were indeed in a treasured NY institution. Like wow. And not only does Eileen serves up a good cake, she is friendly and helpful as well. She seems to know most of her customers that walked in whilst we were there, and having been there since 1975, it’s no suprise that she is probably as local as they come.

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Later that day, I literally bumped into the one place that I wanted to visit. I obviously didn’t realise that the cult following of Magnolia Bakery had resulted in a number of branches all across NY City. Hm. I was walking around Mid-town, and suddenly started spotting girls with paperbags from magnolia. Interesting. And then I spotted it.

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Made famous by the SATC girls gossping over cupcakes, this NY institution was instantly elevated to the levels of glamour. Who would’ve known that cakes (especially cupcakes, the bane of children’s parties) could be elevated to glamour? Tourists (like myself) came from all over to experience the SATC phenomenan – heck, I don’t even watch it. But Magnolia Bakery transformed the cupcake industry as we know it. There are now dozens of Magnolia-wannabe bakeries all over the world, concentrating on pastel colors and sickly sweet frosting. Hey, I fall for it hook line and sinker too . I even had cupcakes for my wedding before it was all in-rage like it is now.

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It was, as expected, super busy inside.

Cakes Cakes!

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So anyway – because we had already eaten about 3 times over, I could only order one measly cupcake for us to share (REALLY could not fit any more in!). And it would just have to be the cult Red Velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

First impression, not bad. Slightly plain-looking without the usual crazy pastel colors, but I don’t really care.

Digging in.

I’ve only really tasted one other red velvet before (other than mine) and it was Hummingbird Bakery’s. Magnolia’s is lighter than Hummingbird, both cake and frosting. This is most definately a good thing, Hummingbird excels in pretty presentation, but I do find their creations too much on the heavy side, dense cake and heavy frosting. Magnolia is also lighter on the sugar, which is really good as the frosting at Hummingbird usually ruins it – it’s nice, but far too much of it and far too sweet. Whereas Magnolia struck a good balance between flavours, lightness and sweetness.

I came away slightly dissapointed by the whole experience. It is probably the massive commercialisation – I don’t know what I expected, a hole in a wall? It feels like the KFC of fast food – nice enough, but the commercialisation ruins it slightly. Even though the cake is passable (slightly better than average I would put it), the whole experience is far from the homey home-grown bakery that was potrayed when Carrie & the girls gossiped in it.

Even though Eileen’s started off as a wholesale commercial venture, it had somehow manage to maintain the home-made neighbourhood feel about it, giving the cake character and the whole establishment history. Magnolia’s started off as an independent bakery, and morphed into a faceless commercial money-making giant – complete with branded gifts, countless stores and massive queues. Oh the irony.

Resources

Eileen’s Special Cheesecake
17 Cleveland Place
(corner of Kenmare and Centre Sts., opposite Lafayette and Spring Sts.)
New York, NY 10012
Spring St. Subway Stop

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Magnolia Bakery
401 Bleecker St (W 11th Street)
New York, NY 10014
(other locations across NY)

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One of the places that I was extremely excited to try out was one of the momofuku (meaning lucky peach) chain of ethnically diverse melting pot cuisine. Too cool for school, none of their restaurants/bars are advertised on the outside – I missed the noodle bar and had to walk past it a few times before I realise it was there. Located in the East Village, chef & restauraner David Chang really hit the point with four unique, diverse and critically acclaimed eateries that dances on your tastebuds.

I decided to visit the more casual noodle bar instead of the 12-seater ko, who only took reservations online. This was the first in the small empire that David Chang build, and I had to just taste for myself the to-die-for pork buns & udons. Heavy Korean and Japanese influences pepper the menu on all four momofukus, but they are most definately not typically ‘asian’.

The utilitarian communal benches

momofuku is just ‘one of those restaurants’ that menu du jour really IS menu du jour. The choices are not repeated like for like and varies from lunch to dinner. Some restaurants serves the same daily specials day in day out, taking away all the excitement and point of having a daily special.

So this was what we had – pork brisket buns, miso ramen and chocolate chip cake truffles.

The fabulous thing about momofuku is the fact that they were entirely okay with us ordering a set between the two of us. It was 3.30pm, and we had already eaten lunch, but my eyes were obviously bigger than my stomach. Alot of restaurants out there would push and push for us to order two meals or a bunch of drinks….or served us with a fucked-up expression on their faces. Ugh. I never return – irregardless of how good their food might have been.

Bacon had other ideas on this sharing thing, and the slurpee-like machines behind the bar amused him. He ordered a lychee flavoured soju (Korean rice wine) frozen cocktail.

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We sat at the bar, and I simply love how we looked directly into the open kitchen.

I love suprises (of the good kind only) and our barman/waiter served us some hor d’oeurves that the chef had cooked up that day – pork pate with mustard pickle on toast. Yums.

Before long, our pork buns arrived. Bear in mind that this was supposed to be a prixe fixed menu for one,therefore we only got one bun

Like wow. I had never had brisket so tender in my life-literally melt in your mouth. It went exceedingly well with the pickled slaw and cucumber. The dough of the bun was warm and soft, just perfect. Very impressive.

Next came the miso udon. Bearing in mind that bacon hates miso, he loved this dish. And certainly it did not taste like any miso-out-of-a-packet that I consume on a regular basis. Creamily savoury (what sort of magic miso IS that??!) with a swirl of chilli oil, it coated the home made noodles (it was more like the Malaysian-styled pan mee (flour noodles) rather than fat round udons) very well and imparted a savoury flavour to the otherwise plain noodles. Toppings of ramp (wild garlic), scallions, naruto maki, oyster mushrooms and toasted nori (seaweed) completes this hearty and tasty bowl.

I had to move the seaweed aside – yes, bacon hates seaweed as well.

Food over, it was time for desserts. I most definately was not going to have the soft serve ice cream, so chocolate chip cake truffles it was then. Served in a large asian teacup, we had three large truffle which was a cross between crumbly chocolate cake and chocolate coated in white chocolate crumb. Truthfully speaking, it could’ve been better, and if there was one area where momofuku had been let down, it was the dessert.

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Momofuku Noodle Bar
171 1st Avenue
East Village
New York, NY 10003

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I love buffalo wings, but had no idea it actually meant chicken wings that were invented in Buffalo, NY. I had always thought it was just some random name. Don’t know why, as Yorkshire puddings were invented in Yorkshire and Bakewell Tart were invented in Bakewell ect ect. I guess the name buffalo just seemed so – generic.

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And Anchor Bar was where it all began. One night back in the 60s, Teressa Bellissimmo went into her kitchen at the bar to cook something up for her son and his friends who had popped over after closing time. She fried up some chicken wings (which at that time was only kept to make stock) , and slathered them with a sweet, sticky and spicy sauce and a bleu cheese dip – and the rest is history.

The Anchor Bar is located at a generic-looking suburban strip. Considering it was a weekday, it was pretty packed inside.

We ordered the 50 wings platter between the both of us much to the amusement of the waitress. We had a half-and-half of the original and spicy bbq wings. No, we didn’t finish it all, I had the foresight to take the rest away for Elvin . It is not cheap, and obviously the more you order the cheaper it becomes, but even at a platter of 50 wings this cost us $37 for the platter, making it just under $1 per wing.

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No fuss presentation, a metal platter with chicken wings, bleu cheese sauce and celery sticks.

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It was crispy, sweet, sticky and tender all at the same time.

My verdict? Absolutely delicious. The tender chicken meat contrasts beautifully with the crispy coated skin and the sticky-sweet sauce. Every bite crunched into the thick crispy batter before sinking into tender juicy chicken meat. Bacon was annoyed, as he would not be able to enjoy buffalo wings in the same way again after having been to the original one. I cannot decide between the original medium version or the spicy bbq version. They are both equally good in their own way, dipped in a pot of bleu cheese. Yums.

Bacon sucking on his chicken bones.

I know we were hungry, but seriously, it looks like we’ve eaten more than 1/2 of the 50 wings!

As with most things, its better eaten fresh. Elvin wasn’t very impressed with the takeaway – by that time the crunch had already been lost and the whirl in the microwave did not help the tenderness of the chicken meat. However, we continued to have it for breakfast for the next few days, so obsessed we were.

I would most definately recommend a visit to Anchor Bar if you were ever in the area. Truly an experience for the tastebuds – and this is what travelling is to me. Some people travel to shop, some people travel to relax, I travel to eat. Well, I do other stuff as well, but I believe that when you travel, you need to go native and not settle for the obvious cacaphony of fast food outlets. And Anchor Bar is truly something special. Probably as good as my experience in the hotel in Mexico where Caesar Salad was invented; but thats another story for another time .

(yes, I love visitng places where famous dishes are invented )

The Anchor Bar
1047 Main St
Buffalo, NY 14209

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We left New Jersey bright and early (well, 9am), with good intentions to get to Niagara Falls by mid-late afternoon. It was another bright lovely day, and the 6-hour drive that would take us across three states seemed less daunting when it was bright and sunny. Obviously we didn’t factor in the possibility of having to stop to do some outlet shopping (more handbags for me!) and lunch. But the worse has got to be the sat nav. Our borrowed sat nav took us through the smallest possible roads through one-street villages and towns instead of using the freeways that would had really been preferable! But I think the worst was when it broke down on our way home. We had stopped for shopping on our way back (uh, serves me right) and somehow the screen of the sat nav cracked whilst sat in my bag!! That was the end of it – thankfully I had printed out directions back to Elvin’s place from Niagara Falls, otherwise I would had still been stuck in Pennslyvania in a out of town factory outlet.

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By the time we finally got to Days Inn in Niagara Falls it was 5pm. With the amount of long way rounds that the sat nav brought us, it’s not too bad timing actually. We dropped our bags, and I grabbed our passports and insisted on heading over to Canada for dinner. Heh. Thank god our hotel was the closest to the Rainbow bridge, the pedestrian and motor vehicle bridge that connects NY with Canada.

It was a short walk of about a mile or so across the bridge to Canada, but it was such a pleasant walk…

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Looking over at the American Falls.

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Maybe its the slightly surreal mist that surrounds everything in Niagara Falls, but everything looks ever so twilight zone like.

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Straddling countries.

We had to go through immigration when we got to Canada, and it tickled me when she asked us how long are we in Canada for and we answered oh, just for dinner. Heh. What did she expect, all I had was a camera and a handbag.

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The Canadian side has a slightly surreal feel to it, looks like it’s ready for a big influx of tourists, but not quite, as most of the shops and restaurants immediately after the bridge looks abandoned or closed down. I guess this is similar to the cowboy town feel that I got from the NY side as well – probably because the season had just started.

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However, the Hershey’s world was still open!

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And I got a giant peanut butter cup for Elvin. Heehee. Made with Canadian milk, it is apparently creamier and less grainy than the American version. Wasn’t the most clever idea I had, it was a solid block of chocolate with a tad of peanut butter inside, and considering the size, it was really hard to slice into it – we had to hack it with a knife.

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Excitement done, we walked towards the ‘centre of town’ – Clifton Hill. Just turn left after the rainbow bridge.

In a typically indecisive mode, we could not decide what to eat. It doesn’t help that we had no Canadian money, and all the shops are a right rip off if you try to pay with American dollars, the exchange rate that was quoted to us was 0.8. And seeing that the exchange rate was really hovering around USD$1 to CAN$1.25, this was really unfair! So in a streak of rebellion, I decided that we were just going to walk around and return to the Dennys at our hotel (which I had previously blogged about).

But truly, the views from the Canadian side was magnificent.

Like wow. The twilight helped as well – very surreal.

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View of the Horseshoe falls. Definately breathtaking views – must be slightly annoying you can’t really see much from the American side.

The view justifies the long journey we made across three state lines.

It is just unfortunate that alot of people who visited Niagara Falls do not get to make this crossing due to visa constraints. They had also stopped accepting drivers’ license as a valid form of ID for Americans, so you would need a passport to actually return to the USA. I remember using my Californian ID for reentry from Mexico – I assume that those days are long over now and a valid passport is always required for reentry,

Bear this in mind before crossing, as you would not be able to make a U-turn whilst you’re on the bridge; it will bring you right back to the American immigration officers who would need to see a valid passport/visa. A bunch of students trying to return with their I-20 had problems with the immigration officers when we were there – and their lack of luggage shows that it doesn’t matter if you were there for an hour or two weeks, just make sure you hold a valid reentry to the US. And oh, there is a toll of 2 quarters on your return walk back into the USA, so just bear that in mind. Always keep quarters – they will forever remind me of doing laundry

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The next day it was up bright and early as we were going to go on the Maid of the Mist and then start our long drive home. Well, 9am. However the Maid of the Mist do not start operating until about 10am, so we had some time to kill which we spent walking around the park.

The Maid of the Mist is one of the oldest tourist attraction/ride in America, first launched in 1846. Not much seems to have changed since then, the boats still departs from both the Canadian & American side, taking tourists on a splashingly good time ride to both the American falls & Horseshoe falls. You get up close and personal with both falls and get thoroughly drenched.

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All kitted out with raingear

Sailing right at the bottom of the falls. My cameras got put away after a while due to the splashes.

As we were first in the queue. I rushed upstairs and got a fairly good spot, i.e. on the balcony. However, we were nearly pushed overboard by a bunch of overly exciteble tourists from China – whoever thought that the Chinese could be soooooo annoying? Nope, not being racist – I’m allowed to say that as I’m ethically Chinese . But seriously, the way they elbow you out of their way; I was just glad that I am a full head or two taller than most of them so could pretend to ignore their jostling and the fact that I understood that they were plotting on how to get to the front of the boat for the best views.

Lovely views from the bottom of the Horseshoe falls

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The boat ride was fairly short, and we were back on safe shores again within 45 minutes. Next stop was the observation platform, which bacon insisted was SHAKING. OMG, like wtff! It was very annoying as I was trying to snap pictures whilst bacon kept pestering me that it was dangerous and we should leave now. The worse is when he insisted that the platform was shaking. Not cool.

View from the observation deck.

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I was hoping to get through a post without mention of food, but this is too good to not mention. Something caught my eye as we were walking past the canteen:

Reeses peanut butter cup cake! It was creamy, chocolatey and peanut buttery – in a good way, as these things do sometimes get slightly sickly. Yummys.

That done, it was time for more walking through the Niagara Falls State Park. We walked through the Three Sisters Island, Goat Island and Luna Island, and stopped off at Prospect Point to admire the American Falls up close and personal and Terrapin Point for a up close view of the Horseshoe Falls. This is where the American side trumps the Canadian side. You get views of the falls, but it’s only on the American side that you get to go up close to the falls. Plus if you’re lazy and can’t be bothered to walk a few miles, there is always the trolley that goes around the park which you can hop on instead of walking.

Views from Prospect Point

From Terrapin Point

From Luna Island

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The Horseshoe falls

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Maid of the Mist boat making its way to the Horseshoe Falls.

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And Double Rainbows! Wonder why they call the crossing the Rainbow Bridge?

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Waterfalls over, it was time for us to leave. It was a good side trip, although it did take us ages to get there. You can also do it all in a rush; there are day trips by flight from NYC to Buffalo which brings you to Niagara Falls, Maid of the Mist and a short tour, and then whisk you back to Buffalo airport again and back to NYC in a day; but it will cost you at circa USD$ 500 per person. I believe that you need to go on a roadtrip to truly be in States, so driving it was for us then!

I did ask bacon if he wanted to return to Canada for lunch, but he said not to bother as he was keen to get started on our journey back. It had gone past noon by the time we got to the car and obviously time for lunch!! Wonder what we had for lunch? Stay tuned – I promise not to dissapoint!!!

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Resources

Border Crossing information

Maid of the Mist information & tickets

Days Inn. Slightly depressing and dated, but excellent location and price. Plus walking distance to falls & bridge means no need for additional parking fees – parking at the park is $10. And having Dennys on site is most definately a big plus!

NYC to Niagara & back in a day

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New York New York, if there is one place you have to visit and make like a tourist, it is most definately the Statue of Liberty. There are many ways to ‘visit’ the Statue of Liberty: you can take a free shuttle to-fro Staten Island which provides magnificent views if you’re visiting on the cheap. If you’re in a hurry, hop on one of them tourist speedboat which just literally speeds past the Statue and you don’t get to actually get out of the boat. Suprisingly this is the more expensive option. I chose the third option; hopping on the regular good ole Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty ferry.

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I didn’t book tickets beforehand, but as we didn’t want to go up to the crown that didn’t matter. I made sure when I purchsed the tickets that it came with pedestal access, which allows you to at least enter the Statue of Liberty pedestal and the museaum that’s inside. If you are planning to hop on the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty ferry, I would highly recommend at least ensuring that your tickets include pedestal access, otherwise all you would be allowed to do is just walk AROUND the statue. Mind, it’s still a pleasant enough stroll, but the museaum and view from inside is pretty cool. Tickets for pedestal and crown access are limited, and whilst pedestal access tickets are available for pre purchase online with a limited amount available from the ferry ticket counters, you can only get crown access tickets online. So plan ahead!

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To beat the crowds, we drove to Liberty Park and boarded the ferry from New Jersey. This beats us hiking it into New York city, making our way across downtown to Battery Park and fighting the crowds there. Liberty Park in New Jersey was pretty much deserted, and if you’re not staying in NYC and have access to a car, I would highly recommend this method. Beats queues ect. , especially if you’ve booked a Crown Access time slot. I was doubly glad when I saw the crowds piling on the return ferry to New York – the queues were looooong compared to the non-existent one towards New Jersey.

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The ferries from New Jersey goes Liberty Park-Ellis Island-Statue of Liberty-Liberty Park; and Battery Park-Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island-Battery park. So our first stop was Ellis Island, the symbol of immigrant America. It was the largest gateway (or immigration processing centre) for immigrants from all over the world to the Promised Land from 1892-1954.

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The Registry room on the second floor – where immigrants lined up in the hundreds to be processed and checked in.

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Downstairs – a star spangled banner with pictures of immigrants on the back. Simple yet impressive work of art.

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We headed towards the Statue of Liberty next. It might be the lull of the windy seawater in my hair (I love ferry rides) or the spotlessly beautiful weather, but it was a lovely ride the Liberty Island. It was almost surreal to think that many an immigrant had taken the exact same route, and what they must have felt and what Lady Liberty had meant to them, the end of a journey, the hopeful beginnings of a new life on the Promised land. Perhaps a reunion with families long estranged due to distance and economic migrations.

Personally I don’t think the experience would had been quite the same if I was speeding by on a speedboat on a gloomy and rainy day. The perfect weather most definately helps.

Whilst we were lining up for entry to the pedestal, we had people coming up to us asking us where did we purchase the tickets for entry. Unfortunately you were only allowed entry if you had the smarts to request for it whilst purchasing the ferry tickets – there is not even an extra charge for entry. So most people only got to walk around the statue instead of going in, which is a right shame. There are a maximum of 3,000 tickets available daily for entries to the monument.

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Spiral staircase up the Lady Liberty.

Incidentally, it had only been recently (2009) that access to the crown had been reopened again, after both the crown and pedestal being closed in the aftermath of 9/11. So do take the opportunity to go inside if possible. As bacon was height-adverse, we decided early on that it would not be a good idea to make the hike up to the crown.

Even then, to get to the pedestal outdoor viewing platform was a 10-storey hike. I couldn’t imagine going up on a spiral staircase all the way up the crown. Due to extremely tight security checks (complete with metal detectors and bag searches) we had to queue up for more than half an hour to get into the monument; so be prepared to wait. Also, food and drinks are strictly prohibited, so I had to finish my gummy bears and water before we got to the front of the queue. Lockers are available though if you’ve bought a picnic – and Liberty Island was most definately a good place to have a picnic.

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Replica torch inside the monument.

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Views from the pedestal viewing area

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Looking towards Manhattan. Isn’t the sky just BEAUTIFUL?

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And more views….bacon was very brave and actually went all the way around the viewing platform and we just HAD to snap a picture to prove it .

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If you missed out on tickets that allow access into Lady Liberty, you should still take the trip – the views from below is equally enthralling in a different way.

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All in all, it was a very pleasant day indeed strolling around – we thoroughly enjoyed playing tourists on both island despite getting lost in the maze that is New Jersey Turnpike and getting stuck in peak time traffic. It provided me with insight on what this famous landmark meant to the thousands of immigrants – the symbol of the Free World.

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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).

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You might also be interested in these :

• Awesome America: Jimmy Buff’s
• Awesome America: Red Lobster
• A little prayer, a lit candle
• Awesome America: Korean Fried Chicken War!
• Happy Birthday the Land of the brave!