Intrepid Museum with Hubby

I have about a dozen articles that I have pre-written about our New York Trip. I'll publish them soon. Anyway, here's a very short one about the Intrepid Museum.

Hubby the ultimate nerd (I mean that in the most loving way) loves machines. One of the places that he wanted to visit while we were in New York was the Intrepid Museum. The museum is actually an aircraft carrier named The Intrepid which was converted to an air, sea and space museum.





The intrepid even has a Concorde airplane, on loan from the British Government.



Even a small submarine which US troops would stay on for two months at a time to patrol the seas.



Nerd heaven, he he he :-)

Cha Chan Tang Bubble Tea, Chinatown NYC

After dinner at Hop Kee, our family wanted to have ice cream at the Chinese Ice Cream Factory but it was already late and they just closed for the day!

We saw a Bubble Tea restaurant nearby and decided to try it out instead. The restaurant is called Cha Chan Tang.





The interior of the restaurant was quite nice and hip. Check out the cup and saucer wall!



The wallpaper's a photo of a typical busy street in Hong Kong.



There are mock windows on one of the walls that house flat screen TVs that feature videos of a typical Hong Kong street, with double deck buses and stuff. The mock windows were made to make you feel like looking out a window in the streets of Hong Kong. Sorry, the lady on the left blocked the images.



Hubby and I had the Jasmine Taro Green Tea with Bubble. Bubble is "sago" it turned out. Our order wasn't quite the lovely combination that we had hoped. Yuck!

Cha CHan Tang also offers other savory dishes though. I'm not sure if they're any good since we only tried the bubble tea.

Hop Kee Chinese Restaurant -Chinatown, NYC

Hop Kee was our destination after our shoping spree at Woodbury commons and we did have some appetite after our retail theraphy.





Hop Kee Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown is very famous among the Filipino community in New York and New Jersey. So famous in fact that the Chinese waiters even speak Tagalog!

We ordered so many things, my favorites are the squid and the snails :-) I love the sauce on the snails. It's great to make "simot" with the rice :-)











The fried chicken was unique too and quite tasty. It's not your usual fried chicken, they added some sort of marinate to it before frying which made it so juicy.




(Hubby's the photographer that's why he's not in this photo)

Woodbury Commons

I've been looking forward to this shopping trip since I got my US Visa. My mom has been raving about it for many years and loved shopping there.

My cousin, Ate Binky and her family were kind enough to drive us there. We haven't seen each other for probably a decade but when we saw each other it seemed only yesterday.

Our drive to Woodbury Commons was very picturesque, despite the oncoming winter, we still saw some spectacular colors along the way. It's our first time to actually go out of New York City and see the Garden State of New Jersey. Well deserved name too :-)



Woodbury Commons is a collection of shops and boutiques from various popular and signature brands that offer discounted prices for their products. A lot of tourists go to Woodbury commons to do just one thing... SHOP!



If I didn't have some sort of self control left, we would be probably bankrupt by the time we get home. Ha ha ha! I love the shopping and I love the scenery at Woodbury Commons. It was very cold, which gave me the perfect excuse to linger at the shops :-)



I love going inside the home stores like William Sonoma, Crate and Barrel, Le Creuset. There are just so many things that I want to bring to my kitchen. I did practice some restraint since my cupboards at home are already bursting at the seams. But oh to leave those lovely things looking for a home .......



The place already felt like Christmas :-)



I love Woodbury Commons, a must stop when you're in NYC or New Jersey. Thanks Ate Binky and Kuya Dominic for taking us :-)

Fiesta Grill - Journal Square, New Jersey

Hubby and I were invited to go shopping at Woodbury Commons by my cousin Ate Binky and her family. We were to meet at Journal Square in New Jersey.

My cousin Butchie, hubby and myself decided to meet early to have lunch at a Filipino restaurant there called, Fiesta Grill.



Me to Butchie; "I've been here (in NYC) two weeks, but I am not craving for Filipino food yet"

Fiesta Grill is pretty straightforward and unpretentious. The food is served cafeteria style. Just point and pay.



As we got to the restaurant, I didn't realize how much I missed Filipino food! We ordered six viands, a full order of crispy pata and two orders of Buco Pandan! Between the three of us, wiped out everything that you see here in this picture. Yikes! (Ok, just a reminder, I was with two hungry GROWN men)





The food at Fiesta Grill was good too, like it was made by somebody's mom. As we sat there, it's like we never left Manila, down to the condiments on the table.



Everyone was even speaking in Tagalog or Ilonggo. The only difference is that everyone's wearing coats, bonnets and thermals instead of sando and tsinelas.

Great N.Y. Noodletown

November 4, 2010

It's been raining all day and the fog was so thick. I stayed at the apartment today and just curled up in the sofa with a warm blanket and some tea. I watched the boats go by the Hudson river. I'm so glad that we are staying for a few weeks and I don't feel rushed to be on the go all the time. It's nice to take pause and reflect on how blessed my life is.

Despite the rain, we did meet up with my cousin Butchie to have dinner at Great N.Y. Noodletown, in Chinatown. Butchie always takes us to his favorite haunts and I appreciate that very much because it really gives us a taste of what it's really like to live in New York City. We go where the locals go, not just to the tourist traps and popular places.



Anyway, we had the Shrimp Dumpling Noodle. The broth is light and the dumplings had shrimps and mushrooms in them.



We also ordered the Seafood Fried Noodle, which was also good and tasty and surprisingly not too heavy in taste.



Then, we ordered the Beef with Broccoli, which was quite ordinary, frankly. We barely touched it.



My favorite is the Baby Pig. Yes, it's really called Baby Pig. I love crispy roasted pork. The sauce that was mixed into the rice, was really good. It has a slight hint of anise, as with most Chinese roasted dishes.



All the food that we ate kinda reminds me of home. Thanks Butchie!

For dessert we went to the Chinese Ice Cream Factory again! It's hubby's reward for the five blocks that he walked from the subway. Our agreement is that he's allowed to have ice cream here in New York City, but when we get home, no more ice cream for him. Well, maybe only on special occasions, like Christmas and New Year, ha ha ha.

The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

The Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is hubby's favorite ice cream place in New York CIty.



The Black Sesame Ice cream is sooo good.

Bonchon Chicken at 5th Avenue

OMG! OMG! This is my most favorite restaurant in NYC!



I love the crispy chicken wings with soy garlic sauce. The skin is oh so crispy while the chicken meat is so tender and juicy. I can probably eat the whole platter by myself, but it's very unbecoming of a lady. Ha ha ha!







'Nuff said!

Thanks Butchie for taking me and hubby!

The Cloisters Museum and Garden

The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe, was assembled from architectural elements, both domestic and religious, that date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century. The building and its cloistered gardens—located in Fort Tryon Park in Northern Manhattan—are treasures in themselves, effectively part of the collection housed there. The Cloisters collection comprises approximately three thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about the ninth to the sixteenth century.

Except from the Cloisters website http://www.metmuseum.org/cloisters/

Couldn't write it better myself :-)

I love the scenery leading up to the museum. My new friend Fanny, invited me over to her apartment for a quick breakfast before taking a leisurely walk up to the Cloisters. I'm glad that I took that walk instead of taking the bus or the subway. Look at these lovely sights! I only had the Cybershot with me :-( the colors are move vivid in real life.









Inside the museum was very nice too. There are a lot of interesting artifacts, tapestry and paintings. The museum is very serene and relaxing. It's been a pleasure wandering its corridors.











The museum also has several gardens which I absolutely love! :-)



Thanks, Fanny! :-)