Playing tourist with two old friends

(And by old I mean age!)
(just kidding, guys)


The weekend before last, two old friends were in town which gave me an opportunity to play tourist. When you go on vacation or visit some place new, you usually jam pack a lot of activities and cover a lot of ground in a limited time. When you live some place, sometimes you just don't take the time to do stuff, because you assume you'll just do it later, it'll always be there, etc. etc. Before I moved out of L.A. (wow, I just said that, didn't I? I moved OUT of L.A.!) I tried to go to places I had never been before. There are just too many things to do! (On a side note, this reminds me of why I wanted to move. Life is too short to not go and live some place new and challenge yourself to try new things! It's good for your brain!)

Here is a list of our activities (photo documentation on FB if you're a "friend"):

Friday, 10/15, 1:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.

-lunch @ Pao (South Village)
-free Friday evenings at MOMA (midtown)
-happy hour @ Moda (midtown)
-stroll through Times Square
-dinner @ Cafe Fiorello (near Columbus Circle/Upper West Side)
-stroll through Rockefeller Center
-drinks @ Pig N' Whistle (midtown)

Saturday, 10/16, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

-brunch at Zabar's (Upper West Side)
-a stroll through Central Park and photo stops at Bethesda Terrace
-pit photo stops at The Met and the Guggenheim
-lobster rolls for lunch @ Luke's Lobster (Upper East Side)
-Grand Central Terminal
-New York Public Library
-Union Square
-a quick break at their hotel in South Village
-drinks @ SoHo Room
-live music/dancing @ SOB's (South Village)
-late night dinner @ Cafe Habana (Nolita)

(Sunday was off to a much slower start for obvious reasons...even had to take a mid-afternoon nap...mind you, it does take me an hour to travel downtown, i.e., I went to bed at 3 a.m.!)

Sunday, 10/17, 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
(I had to call it an early night since I had class/work the next day and two papers to write....sigh)

-Chinatown - dumplings @ Prosperity Dumplings and a bad beef noodle soup at a place I choose not to remember
-Little Italy
-Iridium jazz club (Theater District) (my friend new someone who got us in for free)

I missed out on late night dinner in East Village. And I missed out on other touristy activities that they did Monday, like exploring the Village and Chelsea.

Tuesday night

-wine & cheese @ Nectar Wine Bar (Harlem)
-dinner @ Vareli (in my 'hood)
-drinks @ Haakon's (also my 'hood)

In the end it was a little sad to say goodbye (for me at least!). They were a small reminder of home. And also it was kind of like an end to a vacation for me as well! I need to stick with my original plan of trying something new at least once a week.

More Kao adventures later.

NYC Wine & Food Festival!

Bacon and the Blues

This past weekend was the Food Network's NYC Wine & Food Festival benefiting the Food Bank for NYC and Share Our Strength. It was Thursday through Friday, with tons of events all over the city. People bought tickets months in advance (I heard the Burger Bash sold out in early January!). Ticket prices varied depending on the event.

Just a few weeks ago my friend told me about the volunteer opportunities. He had gone last year. So we signed up and gave our available times and they assigned us to events. Thursday night we were assigned to an event called Bacon and the Blues Hosted by Todd English. It was at a new hotel called the Andaz at 41st & 5th Ave. The hotel was pretty nice. All the hotel staff ladies carried small laptops and dressed in all black and all had a matching crossbody satchel to carry their things. The laptops were used for checking people in and out because they didn't have a traditional "front desk."

The event seemed to be pretty nice, from what I could see. It was $75 so it was one of the cheaper/smaller events. Only about 5 or 6 restaurants were participating. Each restaurant presented 1 or 2 small items which involved bacon. One room had a live band and an open bar. Another room was a bar just serving Coors Light (I think). The event seemed very well coordinated...but the volunteer staff was not. It was very chaotic and confusing, with our team leaders feeling pretty clueless too. My friend and I got picked to take tickets out front and there was a lot of confusion over where we were to stand, if we could have a table (the answer was no, the hotel doesn't even have a real front desk after all!), and whether we were to cross check people's names with their tickets. Part of the confusion was because we didn't know who was really in charge. Was it Food Network people? Or Food Bank staff? Or Thrillist, a small men's entertainment magazine sponsoring the event? Very confusing and chaotic.

While taking tickets, I ran into someone from UCLA I hadn't seen in over 10 years!!

Later on, we were able to sample some of the foods (but no drinks) and then there wasn't much else to do. There were more volunteers than needed. Some of the other volunteers were posted at different parts of the hallway to direct people to the elevator or the bathroom (which was totally not necessary). No pics because we were told we weren't allowed to take any (a ton of press were there though! I wished I was one of them!).

On a side note, I told my friend that there were a lot of good looking people at the event and he said he didn't agree. Later, I realized, no, it's not that they are good looking, it's more that they are well-groomed and impeccably dressed. Up to that point, I hadn't been anywhere in NYC where I saw so many of one type of people in one concentrated area. (I spend most of my time hanging out in the 'hood or on the subway!)

Blue Moon Burger Bash 2010!


Friday night we were assigned to the Burger Bash (which I guess is a recurring tradition at this festival). It was at the Tobacco Warehouse in Brooklyn. Not actually a warehouse anymore. Not even a real building anymore. Just the old brick remains of walls (no roof). I guess it's a place people can rent out for weddings. This was a huge event. 2,000 tickets were sold (and it was sold out!). There was a huge tent pitched for the main part of the event. There were about 30 volunteers who showed up. Besides this event, I basically did nothing all day because I woke up at 11 a.m. and then I had to head out at 3:00 p.m. because it takes me an hour to get to Brooklyn.

Again, no pictures allowed, but I snuck some with my camera phone. Unfortunately I didn't get any good shots with my "dumb" phone (which used to be smart two years ago but somehow is no longer). This one girl, a college student, took a picture of the ice sculpture by a sweets/cupcakes place (I forgot the name) and I asked her to text it to my email but I never got it. :( She must've typed in the wrong addy.

Coca-cola, as you can see from my little pic, was a major sponsor.
Also NY Times was there with this really cool digital photo booth. Once you took a picture it was instantly printed and also sent to a slideshow being broadcast on two large screens at the booth. The photos were in B&W and had this soft, newspaper-looking effect. Click here to find me in the gallery! (hint, I'm in two different pics)


Like the previous event, there were more volunteers than needed. I guess they wanted to make sure they had enough help and to account for no-shows. There were plenty of staff at the event - people specifically hired to do set up and to wait tables, etc, so it's not like we had to do that. At first I just stood around trying to look useful. I answered three questions (Where's the bathroom? Where's the Coke counter? Where's the Shake Stand booth?). Later I was pulled to put wrist bands on latecomers with tickets. I also handed out some fliers.

This was a pretty good event and if I had $225 to spend, one day, I'd go. A ton of restaurants were there, all serving some type of burger. Most of them also featured some kind of side item. Burgers were either quartered or they were sliders. Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, Ted Allen, Gail Simmons, and other food people I didn't recognize or recognized but couldn't name (because I honestly hardly ever watch the Food Network) were there. Mayor Bloomberg was there too.

At the end of the event people were staggering out the door, totally plastered. It's a good thing you don't have to drive in NYC.

We weren't supposed to eat any of the burgers (and definitely not allowed to drink any alcohol, which was a bummer because Blue Moon taps were flowing at every corner), but some of the chefs were pushing them on us. Try it! Have some! Please! Before the guests arrived I had a quarter of a burger from Lure Fishbar (it was good but a bit too rare for me) and a slider from Morton's Steakhouse (yes they make burgers!). It was good. Throughout the event I noticed other volunteers eating (I saw one drinking a beer! gasp!) but I no longer felt like eating. My friend got one from The Dutch (a restaurant that hasn't even opened yet!) and it came with a small cup of maple stout float (which I gladly consumed for him).

At the end of the night there were plenty of leftovers so I snagged two burgers "to go" and ate one on my way out. It was a lobster burger but I forgot from where.

My other one (also forgot from where) became Sunday brunch:



I deconstructed it and reheated it separately and then put it back together. There were greens, caramelized red onions, slices of strawberries, and bacon on a brioche bun. :) With a fried egg, a cupcake from the place with the ice sculpture (a bit mashed getting it home), some fruit, coffee, and juice, and I've got brunch!

Day 40

It's Day 40. How forty days have already passed is beyond me. I'm not going to lie, I miss L.A. terribly. I miss the sunshine and palm trees. I'm already sick of looking at brick walls and concrete. (Dirty concrete, mind you.)

Things I found myself missing or craving:

- California wine (well, this is more the fact that I have to go to a specialty wine shop to buy it rather than just any grocery store...AND that it often costs more than double what it would have cost at my neighborhood TJ's in L.A.)
-McDonald's chicken McNuggets (fortunately, no shortage of those here. This is otherwise inexplicable).
-view of palm trees (as aforementioned)
-heck, view of anything but ugly old buildings
-my car (and driving)
-my $500 ergonomic OfficeMaster PT-74 "cross-performance" chair (for obvious reasons...my back is killing me!)
-my firm bed (ditto above)
-California fruits (I had no idea! And they say it gets worse in the winter!)
-pho
-personal space (as previously discussed)
-germ-free living
-shopping (it's just too much work here...plus no money).
-weekend brunches (it's just not the same here)
-my friends (of course!)
-a real, non-communal kitchen to call my own
-a couch
-all the clothes, shoes, and bags I left behind
-having a disposable income
-my old crummy comforter that probably cost nothing compared to the expensive down comforter I bought for use here (sometimes old crummy things are more comforting)
-proximity to real nature
-the sounds of birds chirping in the morning
-Step class at the UCLA gym
-cereal that costs less than $5 a box
-big box stores and chain restaurants (gasp! I said it! I'll admit I've been wanting Target, IKEA, Ralph's, Olive Garden, and PF Changs! Maybe even Black Angus! and Red Lobster! I'm a suburban girl after all...wah!)(Yes, I realize they have some of those here!)

-the list goes on...

I mention McDonald's and chain restaurants because for some reason, I kind of miss them or crave them even though I can access them here and even though I hardly went to those places back in L.A. In fact, I usually complained about them. In fact, I'm usually all about the independent stores! I can't figure out why I really wouldn't mind some pasta fagioli soup or endless salad from Olive Garden right now. Maybe because there's some deep-seated familiarity in those tastes and flavors. And having something familiar in an unfamiliar setting is easier to, ahem, digest (pun intended) than constantly being in the unfamiliar. I dunno...but I'll cut the philosophical discussion for now...


Anyhow, despite my long list of things I miss, it's not to say however, that there aren't cool, exciting things here or cool, exciting things that I am looking forward to trying. And it's also not to say that there aren't things that I definitely don't miss in L.A. But I won't mention those. :)

With that, today's theme song:

Trader Joe's comes to UWS!

Trader Joe's opened on the Upper West Side earlier last week. And it was a big deal. Well there are other Trader Joe's in town, but much farther from me and I heard the lines just to get in were crazy - like it's an exclusive club!

For those of you who don't know, Trader Joe's comes from California! Woohoo! It is headquartered in Monrovia, a hop skip and jump away from my hometown. I've been going to TJ's since as far back as I can remember (in the 1980s!) when my neighborhood Trader Joe's was just basically a liquor store with a couple of aisles of nuts, cheese, and dairy products, and that was about it. It has grown and expanded substantially since then.

In the past few years, I've been eating food and buying groceries almost exclusively from Trader Joe's, to the point where, why, just a couple of months ago I was complaining about the lack of variety. I have heard of people who disliked TJ's. OK one person. I was flabbergasted. I mean, some items, admittedly, are hit or miss. But the "miss" items go away quickly, as they are always coming up with new items. Unfortunately, some good things go away and never come back (oh, guacamango salsa! and coffee-flavored soy milk!). Since TJ's opened in Westwood, I found myself stopping by there several times a week on my way home. One day (why, just a couple of months ago), I stood in front of the prepared foods section, and looked at every single salad and sandwich they had. And it dawned on me, I had had every single item on the shelf!

Now that it's been over a month since I've had TJ's, I excitedly got on the 1 train on a Friday morning just to shop there. It's very strange. So it's on three stories. The first story is just the entry level, and there is nothing there except the escalator to go down. The "main" level has dairy, produce, and the checkout stations (I say stations for a reason). The lower level has the other stuff. Note, there is NO wine or hard liquor. Some kind of weird law in NYC prevents grocery stores from selling any wine or liquor (but they can sell beer). I guess because the lines can get very long, there is actually someone standing at the end of the line with a sign that says, "end of the line." Then, instead of checkout lanes, there is just one lane and they call out the cashier numbers when there is one free. e.g., "29!" and you go to station 29. All of the chocolate/candy that you would normally see at every checkout station is, instead, consolidated to one shelf at the "end of the line" - it's very strange.

Shopping in NYC has a real old world feel to it, where people went to specific stores just to buy specific items (it's a lot of work!). Since I was disappointed that I couldn't buy any wine (not even $3 two buck Chucks, which apparently they have at a TJ's Wine Shop in Gramercy, aka far from me) I have been craving wine. Not that I even drank that much wine back in L.A.! Something about not having something easily available, makes you want it more...

Going to TJ's brought some feelings of comfort. Comfort in seeing familiar products. Even comfort in the decor. And comfort in consuming the familiar products (even though they had only a fraction of the salads and sandwiches they had back in L.A.). I'll talk about "comforts" more in the next post...such as my comforting bowl of ramen from Mitsuwa in New Jersey:

But that's another story.

Updates to my room

Updated photos of my room!

After four weeks of feeling like I was "floating" in the middle of my room, and not able to get a good night's sleep, I finally decided to push my bed back toward the window, dormitory/prison style. I originally moved it away from the wall because I thought it'd look more "grown up" and more like a hotel room. But I believe in the rules of feng shui (loosely) and there's just no good way to arrange this room. First, there's no way I can possibly see the front door when lying down, unless I had my feet pointed toward the door which is also bad. And there's also no way to avoid having my bed caught "in the gust" between the door and the window. The window is just too darn big. Finally, I decided that for most of my life, I have slept with the wall to my right anyway, I might as well push the bed toward the wall. This way I feel anchored to something, and not like I'm falling off the edges of a twin XL bed. This also reduced the light from the crack between the blinds and the edge of the window from shining directly in my eye.

I have been sleeping slightly better ever since. Note I said slightly. Still not perfect. Still need either black out curtains or a better sleeping mask (the room is just too bright! Night and day!). Slowly but surely...slowly but surely.

Also here is the run down on how much I have spent on bedding in the hopes of making my sleeping arrangements better (yes, I am the princess and the pea!)

• $100 down comforter from Costco.com
  
• $50 duvet + sham from Amazon
  
• $85 sheets from Costco.com
  
• $10 on the first pillow from Target
  
• $3 on the first pillow protector from Target
  
• $40 on the second pillow from IKEA (Gosa Raps!)
  
• $4 on the second pillow protector from IKEA
  
• $45 microfleece blanket from Costco.com
  
• $65 memory foam mattress topper from Amazon
  
• $7 mattress pad from Target
• $25 mattress pad from Amazon
  

But who's keeping tabs?

Also here's a pic of my mini-fridge, with both doors open. It's like playing Tetris to make my food fit:

Redefining your concept of personal space

In L.A., personal space is defined by being able to see the headlights of the car behind you through your rear window. In NYC, there is no such thing as personal space. You can wish for it, but you aren't going to get it, unless you want to live like a hermit and stay holed up in your 200 sq ft apartment. Space is expensive. And having it is a luxury.

I've come to learn that it is completely unavoidable to be wedged in between two large, heavy set men when sitting on the bus or even a subway. First off, oftentimes seats are curved and pre-determined. It's actually better when they are, because otherwise someone might hog up 2 seats and they won't scootch to make space for you. With the pre-determined seats, you get the occasional a-hole who sits in between two seats (which doesn't make sense to me because there is a bump and can't be comfortable), but most times there is a little space showing where you can squeeze in. So unless you want to stand (sometimes you are just too tired to, and other times you'll find standing is just as crowded), you are going to squeeze your butt in between two large men. I've done it many times. This means shoulders, elbows, and unfortunately, hips, are touching. If I cross my arms and legs and lean forward I can oftentimes avoid any contact - and I do it, because I'm just not ready to touch a stranger!

It also seems like everywhere you go it's crowded or cramped. I don't know how restaurants meet fire codes. I don't know how people in wheelchairs use the restroom. Or even dine at a restaurant. I guess they just don't live here. Come to think of it, I hardly see people in wheelchairs. I never see obese people. Maybe slightly overweight, maybe heavyset (at least on the subway or bus when I'm trying to sit!) but not obese. This is certainly not an accessible city.

I actually feel relieved whenever I reach my little world of Morningside Heights, where the sidewalks are wide and you can actually walk in a straight line without bumping into someone.

On the plus side, it's kind of interesting that on any given day you can see hundreds of different strangers by simply going outside (in contrast, in L.A., you can see hundreds of cars of similar make, model, and color). It takes people watching to a whole new level (except you are often too close to people to watch them, must avert gaze and stare at the ground). Back home, if I was stuck in traffic on a weekend I wondered where everyone was going. You look inside cars and you see people yapping on cell phones, munching on food, or singing along with their radios. Today, I got on a packed downtown-bound A-train at 125th and wondered where everyone was going. Where are you all going!?!

It will take me a little time to redefine my concept of personal space. But, it will take me much longer to let go of my fear of dirt. (That's another topic).

Coney Island, Baby

A little behind on posting about my weekend excursions. So on Saturday, September 11, my crew and I headed out to Coney Island. Not because it was 9/11. But because it was a lovely Saturday. The weather was still pretty warm. I'd always heard about Coney Island but had never been, so here was my chance!

We took the D train, which is supposed to be Express (something I learned...Express means it doesn't make every stop, Local means it does. Not sure why they would use the word Local which doesn't make any sense to me just hearing the word, but hey, now I get it. But more on that some other time). Anyway so we took the D train and it took an hour to get there. We arrived around noon and it was pretty dead. Some places hadn't even opened yet.

None of us felt like riding the roller coasters, which seemed slightly fancier than your average traveling carnival or county fair, but still not as fancy as an actual amusement park. Not sure though, since I didn't ride anything.

First stop was world famous Nathan's hot dogs. Now I can check that off my list. It was decent, but certainly not as good as Pink's in L.A. (or even a Dodger Dog, for that matter). I did like the bagged potato chips a lot though (see picture). It was the perfect amount of salt for me.





Then because there didn't seem to be much else to do, we went to New York City's only aquarium, the New York Aquarium (also the nation's oldest aquarium). We had to "wait on line" to buy tickets (see picture...for those of you not following me on FB, more on that later) and got suckered in to buying a "Total Experience" package. For an extra three bucks (or four?) we saw a special 4-D presentation of Planet Earth. 4-D means they blow air and spray water on you. It was only 10 minutes long. Oh and they blew bubbles too.


The aquarium was ridiculously small, by California standards (hello Monterey Bay! and Long Beach!). You could tell it was the oldest aquarium in the nation. We watched a rather anticlimactic show of...you guessed it, California seals. And then navigated crowded halls of screaming children to look at equally crowded fish tanks. (Here is also where I heard the most number of people speaking with thick Brooklyn accents. e.g., mom: "'ey, kids, come 'ere, take a pictcha wit the wahl-rus")

Then we headed to the beach and did some jumping shots (not posted!) and headed back to the boardwalk. I had some good fried shrimp (a bit pricey though - $8 for 5 shrimp!). And we were pretty much on our way. Thus concluded our 7-hour Coney Island excursion.