Surprise Weekend Trip -- New York City!

To celebrate our first wedding anniversary, my sweet Jeff surprised me with a weekend trip to New York City! He planned the whole trip - bought plane tickets, booked hotel and made the dinner reservation. He had to break the surprise a week prior so I could take Friday off from work; however until we got there, I never found out where we were staying or where we were having dinner on Saturday night. Sneaky!

We arrived around 1 pm and checked into The Alex Hotel in Midtown East. It was a trendy boutique hotel within walking distance to Grand Central Station. Our room was spacious and modern with a king-size bed and a flat screen. After we got settled, we couldn't wait to go straight to one of our favorites, Joe's Shanghai (鹿鸣春) in Chinatown! We enjoyed their famous soup dumplings, beef noodle soup and scallion pancakes...Yum..

After lunch, we walked around SoHo and shopped a little before stumbling into a local dive, Nancy's Whiskey Pub. Nancy's is definitely Jeff's kind of place -- jukebox, shuffleboard table, and beer is the main alcohol served. Two Guinness and a Blue Moon later, we were heading to the Meat Packing District. "Fig and Olive" is my kind of place -- long wine list, martinis, cocktails, fresh olives and delicate cheeses. While sipping on my perfect pear martini, we got some recommendations from our bartender about a few places where the locals enjoy. "Employees Only" in The Village is full of character and was extremely packed when we got there. We were actually lucky to get a table by the bar within half an hour (thanks to my charm, as Jeff put it..Ha!). Their arugula salad with oyster mushrooms was nothing like I've tasted before. My entree, duck breast, was midiocre, but Jeff really enjoyed his orecchiette with house-made Italian sausage.

On Saturday morning, we walked around Central Park sipping coffee. Lunch was at our favorite Umbertos Clam House in Little Italy. Their linguini with white clam sauce was one of the best we've had (second to Daily Catch in Boston though!), and their New England clam chowder was authentic but a little pricey I must say.

After stuffing our faces at Umbertos, we decided to walk off our lunch in the sunny afternoon in The Village. I always felt very much at home in this area, and it reminds me of our neighborhood here in Chicago. We stopped in a few shoe stores, clothing shops and old record stores. One of my co-workers in the NYC office recommended a live Jazz place in the area, "Garage," so we stopped in since we're just around the corner. We sat by the window people-watching, enjoying the sunshine and listening to live Jazz. While we were thinking to ourselves, what could be a better way to enjoy an afternoon? when all of a sudden, "Spotted: K-Fed in a cool-guy hat walked by with a stunning blondy~ xoxo, gossip girl" Jeff was really quick to spot him, but we didn't have time to take a picture for proof...shoot.













We got back to our hotel in the early evening and got ready for our Saturday dinner reservation at The River Cafe. Honestly, I was a little puzzled when we were going over the Brooklyn Bridge. But I was pleasantly surprised when we got there! It has a famously unique location with exquisite dining, seamless service, unbelievable views (NY skyline) and live piano. We shared a bottle of 2004 Napa Valley R-Collection Cabernet Sauvignon with the standard 3-course meal. I loved my sauteed foie gras as appetizer, rack of lamb for entree and assorted sorbet for dessert. Jeff was really fond of his seafood trio (lobster ravioli, shrimp, grilled baby scallop), Canadian venison and chocolate toffee cake. It was an incredible dining experience! And I really enjoyed watching all of the
beautiful people there :)

Sunday was my chow-down day (not that I haven't been the entire trip!) of the Taiwanese cuisine in Flushing. We met with Aunt Sha-li and Uncle Darren at the Flushing Mall where I gorged on Ah-chung noodle, stinky tofu and 鹹酥雞!

What a fun weekend we had! Thank you bud! Happy 1st Anniversary and many many more to come!