A few weeks ago, Amy and I took our first trip to New York City. We were super excited as neither of us had ever been, even though we've both had tons of friends that have lived and worked in the Big Apple.
5 days jam packed with sights, culture, friends and most importantly food! In this post and the ones to follow, I'll be running through some of the things we did, but definitely focus on the restaurants. I hope this will serve as a guide to any of you that are looking to visit the amazing city of New York!
Day 1.
We landed around 7pm EST and after checking into the hotel, we headed straight out to explore the city. It was a wet and cold day, so we made ramen our first stop.
Totto Ramen
This tiny ramen spot was recommended by a ton of friends, whom said it was the best ramen outside of Japan. The wait was pretty long (45 minutes) and wet (it started sprinkling while we waited outside), but everything was super efficient. The waitress takes your order while you're waiting so as soon as you sit down you're served your food, minimizing any additional waiting. Excellent, since by then we were starving. We sat down at the counter and the chef turned up the Calvin Harris on his iPad. The music in this place is loud, but perfect for the mood.
Chefs prepare your bowl to the beat of Calvin Harris
I ordered their standard chicken ramen and Amy ordered the mega ramen with wavy noodles. Sad to say, I wasn't a fan. The broth tasted ok, but chicken fat doesn't hold a candle to the pork fat I'm used to in West Coast ramen. Their "hot sauce" was loaded with black pepper and once mixed in, pepper was all I could taste. Oh, and onions. A fist full of green onions. Like, more onions than you would ever think to put in a bowl of ramen.
Onions with a side of ramen
Price wasn't too bad if you're used to SF prices, about $11-12 a bowl, but the bowls were significantly smaller. In hindsight, that turned out to be a good thing since it left room for more food later on in the night.
Momofuku Milk Bar and Fuku+
After ramen, we decided to get some dessert before we hit up Time Square. A couple of really really long blocks later (why are the blocks so long in New York?), we ended up at Milk Bar. Luckily, this location also held Chef David Chang's casual fine dining concept, Ma Peche, and gastropub, Fuku+.
We ordered the cereal milk ice cream with corn flake sprinkles. Who knew leftover cereal milk would be so good? A hint of salt really brought out the sweetness of the ice cream. Not sure which cereal they used, but tasted like Captain Crunch to me.
We would later come back to try their cookies, which also made for great souvenirs for our friends back home.
Amy and her ice cream
While Amy was waiting for her ice cream, I headed to the back of the building to Fuku+. I had heard a lot of great things about the chicken sandwich and definitely had to try it out. It was pretty empty inside, but I can definitely see it being packed after work on Fridays. Really cool vibe.
I ordered the mini chicken sandwich ($6) and a michelada to wash it down. The chicken was bomb, so moist and well seasoned. They have bottles of Chef Chang's ssam sauce and I doused the sandwich in it. The michelada was a little strange, a can of tecate with ssam sauce squirted inside, but it complemented the sandwich well.
Mini Chicken Sandwich and Tecate michelada
From there, we got our tourist on, and hit up Time Square and the World Trade Center.
Check back soon for the rest of the trip!
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