Entries Tagged 'Travels' ↓

Had a bit of a wander around at lunchtime today, had to get The Mister out for some air to try and get rid of his germs and had 3 new experiences!

• Yogurt – peach yogurt, organic stuff even, is not white with bits of peach in it, it’s orange. Not what I was expecting however after not having experienced orange cheese, orange  yogurt will do! Did taste peachy but I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.
• Wool ’shop’ – found one near where we live and it was on L5 of somewhere – wasn’t a shop when we got there, it was an office building I guess; we had to buzz L5 and go up in a clackerty lift to a floor that had an acupuncture studio and a room with 2 ladies knitting in it with wall shelves and baskets of wool and buttons and patterns and all things you’d expect to find in a wool shop, just not in a shop! Very strange and intimate. I felt quite bad for them when I left without buying anything!
• Lemsip equivalent – thanks to Jif we found a Walgreens and set about looking for the Lemsip-stuff he’d recommended. Found it on one of the many shelves of cold and flu stuff but in a section that had little locked glass doors on it. A button nearby instructed ‘press for customer service’ – so I did – and out boomed over the loud speaker a voice saying “Customer Service required in the pain and sleep aisle”. Hmmm, all eyes on me. The manager eventually came rushing over to unlock the cupboard. It was a bit like buying champagne in the supermarket minus the announcement!

Woke up way too early this morning, but was rewarded with a beautiful orange sunrise.

We’ve been in our apartment a week now and we’ve eaten out once and had takeaways once (that The Mister walked down and got, haven’t attempted delivery yet!). Other than that we’ve been cooking, mostly similar stuff to what we have at home, stuff that can be made with a fairly blunt knife, a couple of pots, and only ingredients that we can use up in 4 months.

Found some ravioli in the basement supermarket that said it was handmade and fresh so we thought we’d give it a go. I made some tomato sauce to go with it. And it was good. For a no-name supermarket the ravioli was fantastic! Spinach & ricotta.

And there’s a great view from the kitchen!

Due to The Mister suffering from The Man Cold we headed home a bit early today – but good news, he wasn’t too sick for a coffee stop.  Saturdays Surf, the closest cafe yet to work – and it’s nothing more than a coffee machine in a surf shop. We felt a bit out of our element in a surf shop but man, because they concentrate on the coffee, no food, no tables, no crockery, just takeaway cups – it’s good. VERY good.

We’re rating it second to Ninth Street Espresso from Chelsea Market, and so great it’s so close to work. The Mister reckons it’ll be easy enough for me to find my way there to get our coffee each day (hmmm, thought that might change here). I’m still getting a bit lost around Soho, that’s where the street grid begins to disappear and there are a few very chunky cobbled streets that all look the same …

Got locked out of the office this morning … well, we don’t yet have security cards, so had to go find another of the coffee places from the New York times article. This one is reasonably new and the few tables along a bench seat were all taken – interesting name – La Colombe Torrefaction.

Another very good coffee, had a bit of a ‘healthy’ green flavour, a bit like some carob coffee alternative I had once as a teenager when babysitting for some healthy people, and it was a good temperature.

I got an email from Matt today asking me what the first thing was that I was going to bake in New York. I have given it a little bit of thought, except that the apartment doesn’t have baking ingredients or baking pans although I could probably find a tray to bake cookies on.

However, I did use some baking ingredients the other night to make cheese sauce for Sunday night’s macaroni cheese dinner (should’ve just bought it in a box from the supermarket – there are all kinds of brands and sizes available!). Given the stories and pictures we’ve seen that depict all cheese in America as being orange, our cheese sauce was very white – the butter here is white and the cheddar was white. It was edible enough though.

And speaking of butter, we’re trying our way through tubs of butter substitute, you know, like the Olivio we use at home – the product labelled olivio here is VERY salty, and the other we’ve tried with the name ‘I just can’t believe it’s not butter’ (what a ridiculously long name, “hey honey, do we need any I-just-can’t-believe-it’s-not-butter?”) has a strange sort of raisiny taste and is quite slimy after it’s been in a sandwich all morning.

So much to get used to! Anyway Matt, who needs to bake when you can just buy a tube of croissant? Squirt it onto the oven tray and put it in the oven (no, we haven’t tried it!)

Today was our first day in the office in Soho (can’t say much about who we’re sharing with until I find out if they’re OK with it, but sure they will be). Weather was still awful as I tromped in my gumboots, lugging my laptop, cables, handbag and lunch to the subway. Our office buddies are very creative, lots of designers and marketing people and American accents (swoon) and the offices are very ‘Soho loft’ with wooden floors, bags of donuts, funky pictures and various NZ trinkets as some of them are ex-pat. We’ve got desks right in the middle of them all and have inherited stuff from people shifted into offices.

Here’s The Mister smiling opposite me – if we wanted to spend 4 months together we sure are – never at work have I had to look at him all day!!

Wow, what a stormy couple of days we’ve had – there has been non-stop rain and howling wind since Friday. 29 floors up and we’re feeling the swaying – The Mister was convinced I was just imagining it until I pointed out the light-shades swinging from the ceiling!

However, we got out a couple of times, went around the supermarket for a proper look (one we’ve discovered practically in our basement!) and spent a few hours wandering around Bloomingdales – got to see lots of very bored men sitting around in various women’s departments!

Found another good coffee spot (from the New York times list) in Soho a couple of blocks from where the office is – Ground Support.

Again ordered small cappuccino which got us what we wanted, was quite strong but good. And only $3.50!

Not on the New York times coffee list but have found an excellent espresso bar not too far from where we live, like 6 blocks, called Fika.

Beans are from Sweden and we have to order cappuccinos – excellent temperature and taste, will definitely be going back there and scouting out the other 2 locations. Excellent oat raisin cookies too!

Bit of an orange-themed day today which was very cool. Plus another trip down memory lane – to Ninth Street Espresso in Chelsea Market.

In my mind, better than their cafe at Ninth street although theoretically they should be the same. There was a bit of a buzz at the bar because of a piece in the New York Times this morning about New Yorkers finally taking their coffee seriously – a write up of cafes where coffee is all about the art of espresso, single origin and chemex. We’ve already been to a couple of the places listed and have got the paper to tick a few others off the list.

We got some flowers from the corner store last night, such colorful places – who can believe you can get so many orange roses for $10? Slowly adding a bit more orange to the apartment!

We had lunch at a very orange cafe called Forty Carrots,

then the long-awaited dinner in the restaurant above the Museum of Art & Design that glows orange at night – it does and has spectacular views over Columbus Circle and Central Park.