Eating Spree (Part Two): New York, New York..

WARNING: The following post is not suitable for anyone who dislikes food or on a diet to lose weight!

After hanging out in Flushing for a couple hours, we headed down to New York, New York for more FOOD….No joke, this trip was seriously dedicated to EATING EATING EATING!!! First stop, was again Chinatown and we headed to Singapore Cafe for lunch.

I read a review from Charlene’s blog about this place and had been craving to eat the Home-Style Stir Fried Radish Cake (left). The many times we’ve been to NYC, we never had the urge to step inside this Cafe. Charlene was right….the “Loh Pak Koh” was to die for! And I did not share! Haha! I ate the whole thing myself….yums! Husband ordered their Hainanese Chicken Rice (right). The chicken was good, the flavored rice that came with it was mediocre. We have had better ones in Penang Restaurant, but Singapore Cafe’s Hainanese Rice is affordable at $5.50!!

And something which I felt was rather a disappointment was the Roti Canai ($3) we ordered to share. It tasted like frozen ones I get from the store….=(….and I would pass on ordering this the next time! We did not chat with the staffs or owner there, but they were very friendly and the service was pretty decent! Husband and I spent less than $20 for lunch (we drank complimentary tea)and that includes 15% tips.

And we walked around Chinatown to enable us to digest quicker / better for the next round of food! Haha….Seafood and fruits are cheaper and I trust, fresher than in Boston. You get more selections on these and at great prices. Husband and I did eventually bought a few lbs of different seafood and some fruits at the end of the day (when we came back to Chinatown for dinner and before we headed back to Flushing where we parked the car!). To compare how cheap seafood was; Large Sea Scallops were at $6.80 /lb and in Boston it’s about $9-11/lb for the same ones. Jumbo shrimps (both White & Tiger Shrimp) were at $6.40 /lb and in Boston, they are about $8-9/lb (and sometimes not as big!).

We then headed to Time Square to do people watching and touristy thing as if it was our first time to New York, New York! Hehe… That meant, lots and lots of picture taking….=)…The weather was alright, not extremely frigid – so it was quite a nice day in the city! We sort of walked around quite aimlessly since we’ve been here tons of times and was only in NYC for FOOD….. I then suggested to hubby that we should get some dessert at the famed Serendipity 3 in Uptown New York. This place is supposedly famous for star sightings! Once we got there, there was a line in the shop and it’s a 2-1/2 hours wait to get a seat!!! CRAZY!!!! We’re not that crazy to stay in line for that long so we left and did more walking around.

That’s when we stumbled upon this Candy Store called “Dylan’s Candy Bar”, a little ‘Willy Wonka Paradise” for all things sweet! It’s 3 levels of sweet treats; the first 2 floor filled with candies and such and the third floor; a party room and a dessert parlor serving ice cream, cupcakes and shakes! So many different kinds of candies (unique ones, old-time ones, etc) here, I’m pretty sure you are able to find something you like! Let the little kid in you go crazy! By the way, this store is co-owned by Dylan Lauren – Ralph Lauren’s daughter!

After doing some window shopping around Times Square and Uptown, it was time for FOOD again…Dinner time before we headed back to Bean Town! Husband and I decided to indulge in some Wonton Noodles for dinner and off we went in a quest to hopefully find a little wonton treasure! And before we got to the Wonton Place, we bought some Chinese pastries. One from the street vendor selling freshly made Chinese Cakes (almost like waffle batter?) at 15 robin egg size cakes for $1. Batter was poured into this mold with 30 odd “robin egg size” indentations, covered with a similar mold, flipped around and cooked over coal fire! It reminded me of making Belgium Waffle with all the flipping action!

Then, we headed to Egg Custard King Cafe to get some egg tarts. This was again, after reading Charlene’s posting, that I decided to try it out too! Charlene was right, again…Egg Tarts were good! We bought 2 Portuguese Egg Tarts and 2 regular Egg Tarts. I prefer the regular one (even though we ate it one day later – cold; I’m sure it would have tasted better eaten fresh!) as the combination of the smooth sweet custard and the flaky savory crust was just right! Next time around, we’ll have to eat it fresh! My comment was the store being in the basement level was so stuffy and hot (even in winter). I could hardly wait to get out from the store to get a little breather, and can’t imagine spending 30 minutes or more eating in there! I hope it’s just the heater working very well, and won’t be as stuffy and warm in summer!

A few doors down, Wonton Garden caught our attention as the perfect place to fulfill our desire for some Wonton Noodles. I ordered Roast Duck & Wonton Noodle Soup, while husband ordered Roast Duck & BIG Wonton Shanghai Noodle Soup. This place is S.M.A.L.L. and again, slightly stuffy….The noodles and soup were ok…..the wontons were normal with meat and shrimp filling. Husband’s BIG wonton lived up to the name BIG and that was it. The skin of the BIG Wonton, was thick, the filling was slightly different than my regular wonton and did not taste that great. =(. I personally would not encourage you not to be fooled into ordering this the BIG Wonton Noodles…just go with the regular ones…..Oh yeah, we did also ordered “Xiao Long Bao” which was just ok as well…..Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be back to Wonton Garden for any wonton fix! =(

Did some shopping after dinner and headed to the train station back to Flushing (where we parked our car). Upon arriving at Flushing, we stopped by the Flushing Mall again to get DORAYAKI, a favorite Japanese dessert/snack filled with red bean paste! These are made into little fishy which are just so adorable and surprisingly another cheap eats – 2 for $1.60! To give you an idea how this taste like, think sweetened red bean paste sandwiched between 2 pancakes! =) Yummy……

The drive home took us a little longer, nevertheless we had so much fun indulging in cheap delicious food! We will definitely be back for more eating spree in NYC!