travel diary – Page 5

West Village Wandering

Hung out at NYC’s West Village with the cousin, and it has a very different feel from a lot of the very neatly-formed grid system in most other parts of Manhattan. Love the quaint, somewhat ‘untidy’ charm of the oddly-angled streets, the shopping’s fantastic, and the bars, cafes & restaurants in the area are pretty cool. =)

We started at this cute little coffee shop called Bee’s Knees, because C needed her java and I needed something sweet. (I don’t know why I am idiotically not looking at the camera, lol.)

The joint is small and cozy, with seating options consisting of just a bar counter by the window, or an angled\roundish-shaped communal table. I had their signature dessert, the Cake-cup. Picked the Red Velvet one, although it was such a close fight between that and the Salted Chocolate Caramel as I love my chocolate (tough life, heh). It was delish!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the shops, stopping for a drink at this super cute place called Elephant & Castle, which incidentally is also the name of a major junction in London.

The aimless wandering (amidst a LOT of chatter & gossip) brought us to Magnolia Bakery, which I remember coming to over ten years ago, on my first trip to the Big Apple, Sex & the City crazed fan that I was.

It was just before Easter Sunday, and they had the prettiest Easter cupcakes – of course I had to buy some!maryjulian Ombre Denim Shirt; similar here | Knit faux fur cardi from HK | MNG sports-inspired skirt | Uniqlo knit tights | Accessori necklace (coming soon) |

April 4, 2013June 18, 2013 by Jade Categories: StoriesTags: New York, NYC, new places, cupcakes, dessert, New York cafes, Magnolia Bakery, travel diary1 Comment

To market, to market

NYC’s Union Square has this Greenmarket that happens four days a week, throughout the year (yes, even in the bitter cold of winter!). It gives small local family farmers opportunities to sell their fruits, vegetables and other farm products to New Yorkers, which I find is a lovely way to help sustain local produce. I decided it was worth a troop down, and it was beautifully sunny (albeit still terribly cold!) on Saturday, so I bundled up warmly and off I went!

Taking a bite out of the big apple. Heh.

I loved all the pretty blooms on sale, both fresh and dried.And if you like dogs and other furry friends, there were tons of little (and not so little!) cuties out to play as their owners bought fresh milk and cheese.Homemade honey & maple syrup. Mmmm…

Cheesy.

And if you needed help with something, or wanted a romantic sonnet written for a loved one, well…

March 26, 2013June 18, 2013 by Jade Categories: StoriesTags: New York, NYC, winter, food, travel diaryLeave a comment

Hop, skip & jump away

I love skating – I started out with roller-skates when I was about seven or eight, progressed to in-line skates (begged my folks for them!) when I was eleven, and played around with ice-skates when I was fourteen. I still in-line skate to unwind about once a week – albeit with none of that stunt action involving steps and ramps anymore – but I haven’t hit the ice in quite a few years.

I’ve always wanted to skate outdoors (kinda hard to do that in Singapore, yo!), so I braved the cold, grabbed my skates and went down to Central Park. It also helped that it was a gorgeous, sunny, blue-sky kind of day – although still pretty darn cold, don’t be fooled!Pretty snowdrops in the park. So lovely!Plucky duckies taking a swim.

And that’s me looking extremely pleased with myself! (And flouting the no-mobile-phone-no-bag-on-the-ice rule, heh.)

March 19, 2013June 18, 2013 by Jade Categories: StoriesTags: maryjulian, New York, NYC, winter, fashion, park, travel diaryLeave a comment

Treasure Trove

So I checked out the Brooklyn Flea over the weekend, and even though we got a little lost driving around trying to find it (we heard it was along Lafayette Ave, for some reason) I didn’t regret it one bit. For winter, the flea is held in the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building, now restored, redeveloped and known as Skylight One Hanson.

It’s such a lovely space – and not only because it’s indoors (warmth, oooh!) – now a cavernous event space composed of the Romanesque Beaux Arts Bank Hall and the Art Deco Vault. Yes, I’m such a sucker for history and classic structures, and I really appreciate how great care was taken to preserve the architectural prestige of the marble floors, carved teller stations, magnificent vaulted ceiling and the huge mosaic of New York on the main wall.

That’s me rather chuffed (and hence smiling stupidly) at finally finding the flea, getting out of the cold, and finding it to be such a lovely space.All manner of vintage clothing to be had (went mad!) and knick knacks galore.

Kermit acting all biker and hanging out with Piggy, Scarecrow from the land of Oz, Snoopy, and the rest of the motley crew.There was art by local artists, and a lot of handmade stuff by local artisans. If you like Etsy, you’ll also go crazy at this place. I had to resist buying pieces of really cool furniture! Another draw of the Brooklyn Flea is the great food to be had! If you a a java addict like some of my friends are, you’d have enjoyed the freshly brewed Brooklyn coffee. There was also this cute little shop called Butter & Scotch that sold smores pies, green chile & tequila caramel corn, hot chocolate and all manner of sweets and craft cocktails. Pretty sweet (pun fully intended).

Also worthy of mention was this ramen shop, Yuji Ramen, that has been getting some press (here too)of late. Now, being Asian, and a huge ramen lover myself, I was pretty skeptical – this must be some watered-down, Americanized version of noodles tweaked to please the local palettes. I do pride myself on keeping an open mind though, so made sure to have a taste.

He does mazemen style ramen, which means the noodles are served dry & tossed, rather than in hot soup. I tried both the Spicy Tuna as well as the Uni ones. Expectations were low, especially for the tuna one, but it turned out that the tuna one was super delish! No pictures unfortunately, because I devoured them both like the glutton that I am. Sorry! =p Am going to head down to try his omakase dinner at Whole Foods this weekend, and help him raise money to start his own restaurant in the meantime.

Will update on that soonest!

March 15, 2013June 18, 2013 by Jade Categories: StoriesTags: New York, NYC, winter, food, flea market, new places, vintage, travel diary1 Comment

Winter Wonderland

It’s back to Niseko once again – time to snowboard!! While it’s the superb powder snow that keeps me coming back here, the awesome food to be had is a close second. For our first dinner here, we went to this place that was featured in Anthony Bourdain’s show. Just a little off-tangent on Anthony Bourdain – I received his first book, ‘Kitchen Confidential’, as a gift years ago, before he was famous (the one where he mocked television ‘celebrity chefs’, and bascially said he’d never become one – haha!) and I was enthralled by his sense of adventure, his irreverent writing style, and the loving, detailed descriptions of food. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it. (Although his questionable principles on television, I’m not so sure of, heh.)Thanks to the foodie friends among our group, we made our way to this place, Raikuichi. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. =)

This place is most famous for its soba, and the chef (don’t you think he looks like an Asian Steve Jobs??) started making it right in front of us while we were mid-meal. The attention to detail and precision was pretty fascinating.