(no subject)

My cute pink flower flip-flops just broke. At work. Thankfully, I have spare flip-flops in the car, but still. I liked them a lot!

Woe.

NYC Days 3 and 4

(pictures behind the cuts!)

I spent all of Monday with my sister, since it was her birthday. We started out with ( pedicures. )

After this, we moved on to lunch at Le Pain Quotidien, an extremely cute, very organic bakery. They don't really have individual settings, just one, long table that everyone sits at. Also, they have the Best Bread Ever. We got a Tuscany platter, which had a tapenade, pesto, ricotto, parm and prosciutto, all of which were delicious on the bread, along with apricot preserves, 4 berry preserves, and a very, very delicious hazelnut praline spread. Better than Nutella! Also, I got Belgian waffles, since I've been craving waffles for forever, and they were extremely good. They came hot off the press, delightfully crispy on the outside and steaming and tender and soft and chewy on the inside. Mmmm.

Then we headed off to the Met to see Anglomania, but on the way, I was distracted by a ( fat pigeon perched on a ledge. )

I like pigeons. Well, I like scaring pigeons. Really, it's almost the same...

There was also a very stunning house with a ( nicely gargoyle-y gate-keeper )

.
He was accompanied by a ( draconic gate-keeper )

.
The dragon looked very dignified. Yay Park Ave.

I took some pictures of the door to Anglomania, which was an exhibition on tradition and transgression in British fashion, as exemplified by a bewigged mannequin in livery, paired with a punk rocker with torn livery and a very tall, very colorful mohawk. Sadly, my pictures were extremely out of focus, and we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the exhibit. chi_zu's description is quite nifty. I just wish that there were more of the exhibit, particularly since it ended after a few rooms. I think my favorite piece was the turn-of-the-century Worth gown, absolutely gorgeous.

We also schlepped through the arms and armor section (swords!), and I was particularly amused by one piece of ( samurai armor. )

The large noseguard rocks.

We also spent a good deal of time in a wing that sort of reconstructed an Egyptian temple rescued from flooding.
( Pictures )

This gallery of the Met is just lovely and relaxing, and you can look outside to see families playing soccer in Central Park. Though there is a completely random hole in the window... I kept imagining it was some bullet hole from some sekrit assassination attempt in the museum, which just tells you that I have been reading too many museum-conspiracy-theory-type books. Ok, just Da Vinci Code a while back, but that's enough for anyone!

I really loved the contrast between the old and the new, giant expanses of glass next to worn-down stone, shiny geometric planes next to curvy hieroglyphics.

( Random subway sign )

Random subway sign. I thought it was a Chinese surname with an Indian given name, which would have been cool, since it was the Canal St. station, but my sister reminded me that first names go first here. Duh.

The next day, me and the sister person ventured out to St. Mark's, which is an awesome little district. Sadly, the izakaya-like place we were going to go to was closed for lunch, as were many other interesting looking places. However, somewhere down the street, we saw a ( giant pink storefront )

It's this place called Bamn!, which is a ginormous vending machine/store for food! It is very awesome, very pink, very automated, and very Japanese.

Just for fun, we got a ( mac and cheese croquette )

It's basically deep-fried mac and cheese. How can you go wrong with that? Ah, Japanese takes on Western food, how I love you! After that, we wandered down further in the rain and ended up at Pommes Frites, a little hole-in-the-wall Belgian fries place that seriously has the Best Fries Ever. I say that lots of things are the Best Things Ever, but these really are the Best Fries Ever. Ever!

They are wonderfully light and crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside, and I could just eat them by the bucket. But they come with a multitude of sauces that you can pick from, from rosemary mayo to "war sauce" (peanut satay, mayo and raw onions) or mango chutney. We ended up getting peanut satay, since the mayo, raw onions, ketchup and malt vinegar are free sides, and oh, so good! I was also quite amused by the very Bavarian interior, and the fact that all the tables and counters had little holes in them for you to place your paper cone full of fries in.

After that, we headed off to run errands with the idea of maybe going to the Strand as well. But it was pouring rain, and my sister remembered that there was a Beard Papa's around the area, so off we went! Sadly, they were out of the green tea ones and the pumpkin, but they still had mocha cream puffs. We split one, and they were quite good! Also, rachelmanija, there's one or two in LA, and I am so excited because apparently one just opened in SF and one will be opening in Redwood City as well! So I will be able to get them without schlepping to NYC or Taiwan!

That was basically the extent of lunch. But even though I had delicious food all throughout my NY stay, this may have been the best fooding day, just for the randomness and the little hole-in-the-wall bits.

And on the other side of the continent, my rats were having fun with the rat-sitter. ( Rattie picture spam )