New York Getaway

After we left Baltimore, we drove to Cherry Hill which took maybe 3 hours or so. We were only stopping by our place because we were then on our way to New York City. Once we were ready we drove to Hamilton train station and caught the New Jersey Transit train. It only costs $15 each way and you don't have to worry about traffic and parking and all the rest. We made the most of the opportunity for resting and slept most of the way. We knew it was going to be a big weekend.

When we arrived we walked from Penn station to Chelsea which is Downtown. We stopped at a great little cafe called Koffecake Corner where I had the best Almond Croissant ever. In case you were wondering, previously the honour of that title was held in my opinion by the tiny coffee stand in Sydney's Central station near the Elizabeth Street exit. 

Then being refuelled and ready to go we arrived at our hosts' house and were welcomed with a glass of wine that was pretty much kept constantly refilled for the duration of our stay.

That night we went to dinner at Uncle Boons, a kitsch little Thai eatery which was absolutely lovely. We ordered the Laab Neuh Gae or Spicy chopped Lamb salad with mint, pickled onion, cucumber, chillies, & toasted rice powder. This is the spiciest dish on the menu. It came with a severe warning / disclaimer from the waiter and everything. I honestly would rate the spice level as mild, but according to our hosts there is not much a very high spice level in NY. From my experience things are not so spicy throughout the East Coast either. But I digress... The larb went beautifully with the sticky rice. Something I never pair together usually but I enjoyed very much. 

Laab Neuh Gae

We also had the Kao Pat Pu or Traditional crab fried rice with egg, cilantro and lime. The crab meat in this salad was so juicy and all the dishes were generous portions. We also got the Pet Palo or crispy duck leg in soy anise broth with caramelised tangerine, Chinese broccoli and duck egg - because I can never say no to duck, as my dad says "once you try duck, you can never go back to chicken".

Uncle Boons

We also ordered the Massaman Neuh or boneless beef ribs with Massaman curry, potato, red onion, peanut, and green peppercorn. Who doesn't love a good Massaman? No one, that's who! Lovingly marinated and slow cooked meat that melts in your mouth, with the little peanut cruch... mmmmm... I love it! Oh and don't forget to order a side of Roti bread to mop up all that beautiful sauce. Go on, get in there ;-)

Besides all the amazing food they also have a varied and quirky drink list. The boys were kept happy with the Beer Slushies (yes really!) while I opted for the Singapore Sling. Even this classic cocktail got the Bangkok treatment as you can see below.

Singapore Sling

In the end what made Uncle Boon's such a great little experience besides amazing food and drink options (which should not be underrated), was the overwhelming care that went into ensuring that you get the full Thai experience of being welcomed into the family. The restaurant feels like an embodiment of a Thai family them and their quirky spirit. 

At this point we were well fed and watered, our host suggested we walk over to a sweet little bar that he knew which was a few blocks away. This was New York speak for about a 20 minute walk, but I love walking so I was not complaining. Also, after all that Thai food, it was really nice to walk it off :-)

We eventually made it to The Eddy where we all sat down at a cosy little table together. Our male host and myself ordered the mulled wine which was beautiful, though the fact that it was served in a fine china teacup and saucer was a source of ire for our poor host. I thought it was perfect. Our lady host ordered the Crazy 88 which came complete with a fan and parasol! Tim ordered Frances the Mute which is like a fizzy eggnog I think, but they serve it without a straw so it was hilarious to watch him try to guzzle it down without one, surprisingly it was quite the challenge. We were actually having so much fun at our table talking, laughing and playing with the drink props provided that the table next to us got a little jealous and decided to order a round of the Crazy 88 and the Frances the Mute to join in the fun :-) I really loved this place and would recommend it to anyone. We left when they were closing and decided that maybe that would do for our first night. It was 3am when we were leaving so we didn't do too bad.

The next morning we woke up at about 11 am. Not wanting to disturb our lovely hosts who were still asleep, we set off to explore a little on our own. First Tim took me to Blue Bottle coffee shop. This is a lovely boutique style coffee shop. You can see in the picture below how they developed their own drip coffee cup filter which is really cute. As I prefer espresso coffee, I decided to skip this house speciality and get a latte. The barista made a perfect coffee for me but sadly I did not enjoy the spicy twist in their blend. Tim did order the house speciality of course (he loves suggestions!) which was the drip coffee and he LOVED it. He is the biggest coffee snob out of the two of us too. He used to work in coffee so he always brings the coffee-speak to the table and it has rubbed off on me over time hehe.

Blue Bottle Coffee

Next up was Chelsea Market which is literally across the road from Blue bottle coffee. We headed over with our takeaway coffee and had some Tuck Shop which was amazing. After a night out nothing beats a good Aussie Pie and a coffee for breakfast! The funny thing was that our host did the same thing some 2 hours later when he finally woke up without our even knowing. I had a delicious Guinness Steak and Mushroom pie, yummy! Tim had a special pulled pork.

Tuck Shop

Visitors should be warned that there is very limited seating in Chelsea Market. We couldn't find a seat but managed to squeeze into a corner of some stairs without blocking the thoroughfare which was a major score - the weekends are SUPER busy. We walked through a little and there are so many cute little shops and even an actual Etsy market. As in the website, my mind was a little blown. They also have an Anthropology store that we browsed a little and were given free water bottles in. I love that shop but currently I'm on a budget so it was browsing only *sigh*

Chelsea Market

When we finally left the market we went to explore the High Line which was ok, but I find it is an exaggeration to call it a tourist attraction. It's a walkway for goodness sakes.... The day we were there was a sunny winter's day. We have been here in winter for what feels like an eternity so it was good to be getting some Vitamin D. The thing is it was so busy you kind of had to walk single file pressed up against people, like marching in the Korean People's Army. That is not so pleasant in my mind. I can't even imagine in the warmer weather or peak tourist season how ridiculously crowded it must get.

So we walked to the end and slowly made our way towards Midtown. This was not Tim's first time in NYC but he had avoided this part of town to explore it with me. It started off nice enough, though very cold of course. I had on my snow jacket thank goodness or I don't know how I would have survived it.

It was at about this point in the city near the Macy's that we saw a girl dressed in all brown with reindeer antlers that jingled. Tim and I both said at the same time "she really loves Christmas" and then had a bit of a giggle. But not long after we saw a group of girls dressed like elves, we commented that they were all probably going to the same Christmas party. Then we saw a group of guys dressed like Santa, but we didn't think too much of it. It was December in New York, it didn't seem too far fetched. But as we got closer to Times Square we started seeing more and more people dressed like this. We could no longer dismiss it. Also it was quickly going from kinda cute to scary. All the people that were dressed up were quite young and they walked around in packs. I am sure that that area is the busiest at any time of year but with all these hundreds of 'Santas' there was not even room on the side walk and people were spilling onto the busy road. But the part that made them scary was that most of them were intoxicated - at about midday mind you, so I can't imagine what a mess they would be by the night. Also, they were not dressed like jolly happy Santa, but sleazy, dirty versions and skanky elves. It was all very disturbing. We just wanted to get away from those horrible pushing Santas at this point and we realised that we were in the WORST part of the city if you are looking for somewhere to eat. Every single place was packed out. So we turned around and headed downtown again.

Along the way we found a hole in the wall place with Thai and Sushi. Normally I would not eat in a mixed up lot place like this but we were getting desperate by this time, not just to eat but to find a place away from the crowd. This place was had lots of empty tables which for once was a godsend. The food was incredibly cheap and almost impossibly pretty ok. 

It was just nice to get warm again. While we were there we decided to finally Google why there were so many damn Santas around. It turns out it is a thing called Santacon, which is like a Santa piss up really, so exactly what I suspected from the start. If you Google it, they claim to be a charity but, none of those individuals is doing it for charity.... They even have to make a rule that Santa's should be nice to children and not make them cry... Like I said, Santacon is horrible! So it was funny that being so out of it by this point from being up so late the night before and tired from walking around in Baltimore for the last two days, I had not noticed a whole table of Santa's was behind me! Tim was laughing when I saw them, he already calls me Grinch because I hate Christmas songs and my distaste for these Santas just really set him off.

So after lunch we meandered down towards Chelsea, stopping at a the Salvos (Salvation Army Store). I scored big time, buying a henley longsleeve shirt, a stripped tee dress, an oversized jumper and the most fabulous hat that I hardly want to ever take off now. It cost be all of $18.00 for everything *score*. So we I happily headed back to our hosts place. We were on our way to Brooklyn that night for a trimming party. What is a trimming party? Well none of us Aussies had any idea actually. Some scandalous suggestions were thrown around (what exactly would they be trimming?) but we really did not know what we were in for at all.

Rather than heading to the party we decided we should really take this opportunity to head into Crif Dogs and boy was I glad we did. I had the Jon-Jon Deragon which is a hot dog topped with sour cream, shallots and everything bagel seeds. The boys had the Chihuahua; Philly Tubesteak and chillidog hehe. So that was a great little stop :-)

We then hopped into another cab, and god are the drivers crazy there. I lived in China for six months so I thought I knew crazy drivers, but these guys were bordering on reckless. I was full on covering my eyes and sometimes even gasping in horror as we narrowly scraped by some really tight spots. I thought I had gotten into a cab not the 3D screening of Drive 3 for goodness sakes!!Whatever, we did manage to make it to the party in one piece, phew!

So we got there and there was a TWO-STOREY Christmas Tree!!!! We were having a Christmas Tree trimming party. This tree belonged in a department store. In fact the guys had asked the delivery boys if it was the biggest tree they had done, they said "We did one that was bigger, but that was for a town". As in the town tree people. I could not believe it. Also, as I mentioned eariler I do have some Grinch tendencies so I was not sure how this would go. We did have a lovely time, the guys were incredible hosts and we really loved the warm cider and the yummy hors d'oeuvres. It was all great until someone jumped on a keyboard and lyric books were passed around. Suddenly I was in the middle of a Carolling Christmas Party, ugh! I did not sign up for that. After a seemingly endless session full of enthusiasm and some Broadway worthy performances (I was a little impressed despite myself), karaoke Xmas hour was thankfully over and it was time for us to order a car to take us back to the city. 

Our host arranged an Uber which would be my first time using their service. We got into the man's car and he was incredibly a safe driver, very different to all our NYC cabs so far. Everything was great until BAM!!! We got hit from behind. It was so scary and everyone was pretty freaked out. We very quickly ascertained that we were all unharmed so that was good. Our driver walked out to speak to the idiot that hit us. Straight away the guy was trying to blame our poor driver. Lucky we were all witnesses and our host gave our driver our details if he wanted to take the guy to court and we quickly hailed a yellow cab. In the end we saved about $40 or more, so there is always a bright side.

So we had finally arrived at our 1:00 am dinner reservation at Takashi for delicious late night Ramen. Let me start by saying that before going here I did not actually like Ramen. I don't know if it was because the restaurants I had been to before were bad (they were a little shady come to think of it) or if this restaurant served incredibly good Ramen, but bottom line is we all loved it. Have a look at their cute little menu, this was actually the highlight meal for me from the trip. I was also persuaded to get the Crispy Beef Intestines which I really didn't want. They are served on the side, but as soon as I tried a little, I quickly tipped the whole bowl in. I don't even eat Intestines. You all need to try this place if you can.

Ramen Menu

The next morning was Sunday and our final day. We walked to Maysville for Brunch which is a place that ticks all the boxes. I ordered the Maysville Brunch which came with home made doughnuts, the Crispy Grits and a Bloody Mary for onlu $26. It was great and my grits were so fancy and nice. But the thing is after so many great places it was almost underwhelming. Just a little too standard Brunch if you know what I mean.

The Maysville

After the Maysville we were going head back to New Jersey but our hosts persuaded us to go to one last stop. This was Barcade and it was a whole lot of fun. Tim and I killed it on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle machine while enjoying a beer and cider respectively. We also tried the Indiana Jones, Donkey Kong and others I had never seen before. Our host being an 80s kid, was very excited by them, I was born in the late 80s so many of them went over my head. Wether you grew up playing these games or not it is a great little spot for all over 21s to enjoy.

So that concluded our trip, we then caught the train back, very exhausted but very satisfied. It was a great trip to the city and I especially liked staying with a local.