New York’s massive variety of food excites my tastebuds like no other. Every corner you turn there are exciting restaurants, bakery, delis ect….from the bog-standard bagel & hotdog stand to classic pattiserie and even a congee bar in Chinatown.

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.

.

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.

.

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

We had to go past Buffalo to return to NJ anyway, which was reason enough to stop off for lunch in Buffalo. With Elvin & his Food Network obsession, he convinced me it was a good idea to go into Buffalo for buffalo wings. And what a brilliant idea this was.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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

I was so keen to blog about New York New York I nearly forgot my short trip to Canada! We had the choice to either head to Philly, DC or Niagara Falls, and I made the decision that I didn’t want to miss out seeing the spectacular Niagara Falls.

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.

.

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…

.

Looking over at the American Falls.

.

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

.

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.

.

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.

.

However, the Hershey’s world was still open!

.

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.

.

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.

.

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

.

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.

.

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

.

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.

.

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

.

The Horseshoe falls

.

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

.

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

.

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!!!

.

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

Okay, this is most definately a long overdue posting from my american adventure. I’ve been struggling with a cold for two weeks, and this is seriously the first week back that I feel 100% up again. Sniff Sniff….

.

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.

.

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!

.

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.

.

.

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.

.

.

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

.

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

.

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.

.

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.

.

Replica torch inside the monument.

.

Views from the pedestal viewing area

.

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

.

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 .

.

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.

.

.

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.

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

.

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.

.

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 .

.

Elvin ordered the smoked spicy sausages with hash & fried eggs

.

Meanwhile I ordered (naturally) T-bone steak with three eggs & hash potatoes

.

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.

.

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?

.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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.

.

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).

.