We were fortunate to get extremely nice weather for our first day in NYC, but sadly, it didn't last... though for January, I guess it still wasn't all that bad. On Sunday morning the clouds started rolling in and a cold breeze began to blow.
After grabbing some almond cookie green tea from Subtle Tea (oh, yum!), we took the metro down to Ground Zero. A sobering sight (on my last visit to NYC, in April 2001, I have pictures from the top of the towers), but surprisingly, there is still very little there. I'm not sure what I expected. I mostly just felt sad.
From there we walked to the Staten Island Ferry. It's kind of crazy that this is free, because it provides great views of Manhattan (even in somewhat dreary weather... luckily after taking pictures you can go inside).
After grabbing some almond cookie green tea from Subtle Tea (oh, yum!), we took the metro down to Ground Zero. A sobering sight (on my last visit to NYC, in April 2001, I have pictures from the top of the towers), but surprisingly, there is still very little there. I'm not sure what I expected. I mostly just felt sad.
From there we walked to the Staten Island Ferry. It's kind of crazy that this is free, because it provides great views of Manhattan (even in somewhat dreary weather... luckily after taking pictures you can go inside).
It also gets amazingly close to the Statue of Liberty!
After taking the round trip, we were quite hungry and took the metro up to Chinatown, where we had the best food experience of the trip at Prosperity Dumpling. Though not very sit-down friendly, it was still totally awesome despite being crammed against the wall trying to scarf the food down while people were waiting in line around you. Here's a snippet from my Yelp review:
"My husband actually said "This place changed my life a little bit." And it's true, for the next day everything was described by how many dumplings it could be replaced with. A $10 burger? 50 dumplings. Seriously though, this place was fantastic and make-you-look-twice cheap. We had 10 fried dumplings ($2), 10 steamed dumplings ($2), 2 sesame beef pancakes (I think about $1.50 each), and hot and sour soup ($1). The sesame beef pancakes were really special- the pancakes taste like some kind of Chinese focaccia, and inside is stuffed with carrots, scallions, and thinly sliced beef. The dumplings were also fantastic- though not homemade, they are cooked in giant pans in front of you and served piping hot with soy and sriracha- crispy on the bottom, and filled with delicious broth. The hot and sour soup, while not totally amazing, was huge for the price ($1...seriously??). Overall we spent $9 and couldn't come close to finishing everything. "
"My husband actually said "This place changed my life a little bit." And it's true, for the next day everything was described by how many dumplings it could be replaced with. A $10 burger? 50 dumplings. Seriously though, this place was fantastic and make-you-look-twice cheap. We had 10 fried dumplings ($2), 10 steamed dumplings ($2), 2 sesame beef pancakes (I think about $1.50 each), and hot and sour soup ($1). The sesame beef pancakes were really special- the pancakes taste like some kind of Chinese focaccia, and inside is stuffed with carrots, scallions, and thinly sliced beef. The dumplings were also fantastic- though not homemade, they are cooked in giant pans in front of you and served piping hot with soy and sriracha- crispy on the bottom, and filled with delicious broth. The hot and sour soup, while not totally amazing, was huge for the price ($1...seriously??). Overall we spent $9 and couldn't come close to finishing everything. "
We were so full after that, we decided we needed some exercise, even though it had started to rain, so we headed to the Brooklyn Bridge, which is just a great walk. But as you can tell from this picture... well, it was wet. My feet were squishing in my socks by the time we got to the other side.
Luckily, we had a fabulous hot chocolate place waiting for us on the other side: Jacques Torres.
I should actually call it "melted chocolate", because it was the thickest, richest hot chocolate I've ever had... it was like they melted a candy bar and served it up. Yum.
Well, after that, we were still full, still wet, and quite tired, so we took the metro back to our hotel, where we took hot showers and snuggled up for awhile and read. We knew we still had one meal ahead of us... so we waited until it got a little later, ~7:30pm, and headed to our last food destination (yes, we basically just ate this entire trip): Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. We still weren't all that hungry, and we weren't sure if we were going to be impressed by this place despite rave reviews, but I have to say, the fried cheesy portabello mushroom on the top of our burger could definitely make me want to return on our next visit. Oh Yes.
You are such a good writer--- Loved reading about it and I could just taste that hot chocolate!!
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