4 Days in New York City
Day 1: Chinatown and Williamsburg
We left Philly early and drove two hours to Brooklyn where we were going to stay for the next few days with our friend. Traffic started picking up once we got to Jersey and definitely got bad once we got into Manhattan. Driving in any metropolitan area isn’t easy so Keon was in for a mental challenge. He managed to stay as calm as he could and we both felt relieved once we reached the parking garage.
And then we went right into it. We dropped off our bags in the apartment and headed straight to Chinatown to do a food crawl. We managed to hit up 5 eateries and 1 bar in the span of about 5 hours.
Cheong Fun Cart — A small food cart that serves rice rolls with your choice of toppings. We tried one with pork and egg and another with fresh shrimp. The line is really long and it was supposedly set to close at 2pm, but people were still lining up around 3pm. The rice rolls were really good but few things are worth a very long wait for me, so I’d definitely come back but at an earlier hour.
Mei Lai Wah — The pork buns are so tasty here. There is also a line but it moves quickly and the buns are ready shortly after ordering.
Deluxe Green Bo — Xiao long baos are a popular order here and we took it to a table nearby to eat. They didn’t give us any spoons (and we forgot to check and ask while we were still there), so we ate it with our hands and made it work.
Pulqueria Restaurant & Agave Bar — We started getting full so we took a break to grab a drink and take a break from the eating for a bit. This is an underground bar and restaurant and the cocktails were good!
Taiwan Pork Chop House — A few doors down from the bar, this is a sit-down place. But don’t mistake that for it being fancy, you’re still sitting on small plastic stools outside and have to spend time waving down a server. We ordered the chili wontons and popcorn chicken.
Keki Modern Cakes — We ended the food crawl on a high note with cream puffs from Keki and they were insanely good. Highly recommend.
We siesta-ed before heading back out, starting at Domino Park in Williamsburg. We walked along the water and enjoyed the sunset before heading to Other Half Brewing for a few beers. Other friends met up with us and we went to Horses and Divorces for another drink. It was close by but we were also intrigued by the name and it was worth the stop. We ended the night dancing at Freehold and getting tacos from a nearby truck.
Day 2: Boat Party
We didn’t sleep til around 3am after our night out so waking up at 9am was a little rough, but we needed to get ourselves together before going to a boat party our friends invited us to. We went to Target for a few things and then went back to have a quick lunch before heading out.
The boat party was about 4 hours long and consisted of lots of music, dancing, fun game, and spectacular views. It was Keon’s first time in New York and we all said that this was a great way to have an unofficial tour of the city because we got to see the NYC skyline, a lot of the major buildings (like the Freedom Tower and Empire State building), Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and more.
We were definitely pooped by the time we left the boat, so we grabbed some pizza from Artichoke, which I was really looking forward to and it was delicious as the last time I had it.
We stayed in tonight and watched A Man Called Otto, which I fell asleep during because I was so tired.
Day 3: Random Things Pt. 1
The next two days are filled with random plans. I met up with an old colleague to catch up over coffee in West Village and Keon went to get a haircut. He went into a random barbershop and started getting his hair cut by one man, but switched barbers halfway through because the first one didn’t seem to know what he was doing.
We met up at Chelsea Market to walk around and grab food. We went back to Brooklyn after lunch to get a workout in and rest before grabbing dinner with friends. We later grabbed drinks at Talea Brewing and then enjoyed Filipino food at FOB. We didn’t know they were BYOB so our friend ran out to grab some bottles of wine. All in all a good dining experience.
Day 4: Random Things Pt. 2
Today was our last full day in NYC and it ended up being more packed than we thought it would be. We worked out in the morning and went down the street to get bacon egg and cheeses because we briefly talked about them the night before. On our way, I recognized Sabrina Ionescu walking down the street (we confirmed that she actually lives in the same building as our friend) and pointed her out to Keon. We both must have been starstruck because we kind of just stood there and watched her pass us. In hindsight we should have said hello. We mainly didn’t want to bother her but it might have been okay since she didn’t seem like she was in a rush nor was she walking with anyone.
Anyway, the bacon egg and cheeses were delicious and we ate them on a rooftop and took in the breeze.
Keon got ready and left separately to go see the World Trade Center, the Wall Street bull, and Madison Square Garden. These were things I already did during my first trip to NYC so I didn’t care to do it again and instead I stayed behind to catch up on a few things. I left not too long after to go meet him outside of MSG for some dollar pizza and NY Pizza Suprema (so good).
It started raining on us and we still don’t have an umbrella. We speedwalked to Hudson Yards, about 10 minutes away, to meet up with my old team for some drinks. It was nice catching up with everyone, though we couldn’t stay long because we had tickets to go watch the New York Liberty play at Barclays. There was a “You Are a Winner” sign on one of our seats and we thought we won something big. It turned out to be a spin-the-wheel and we won a sheet of stickers. The Liberty were down for a little while but came back in the second half to win the game! It was really fun to finally attend a WNBA game and to see the many groups of little girls having the time of their lives and get inspired by the WNBA players.
We ended the night with some ramen and then got ready to leave the next day. NYC is always a blast and I’m glad that Keon had a good first time. Could we see ourselves spending some time there after our big trip? Probably! But we’ll ask ourselves again after this next year and see.