Day 8: Boston --> NYC

On minimal sleep, I dragged myself out of bed because my flight left right before lunch and I wanted to visit...

The Friendly Toast

King cakes: 2 mini pancakes with bananas and chocolate chips and peanut butter in between with whipped cream on top with a side of bacon

Black and white milkshake with raspberries.

Nothing outstanding. I think I may have been spoiled by the Bongo Room already.

Interestingly when I was at the airport check-in kiosk, I ran into Bruce Buffer who was talking to the ticket agent. Bruce was heading to NYC for some business meeting and some other fans noticed his presence and they asked for photos & autographs. Since I already got Bruce's photo and autograph, I decided to leave him alone.

My flight from Boston to New York was on Jetblue and it was my first time on Jetblue. Just on the massive leg room alone, Jetblue has supplanted Westjet as my favorite airline. If Jetblue could just throw in some freshly baked muffins like Westjet.

While taking the train from JFK into Manhattan, a blind elderly black man was making his way through the train asking for spare change. So what? It looked like someone literally scooped out this man’s eyes leaving him with empty eye sockets.

Welcome to the city.

Times Squares and the accompanying sensory overload

Virgil’s Real Barbecue

Ribs, brisket, mac & cheese and cheese grits.

Brisket was a tad small and the grits were more like a glop of processed cheese with a small portion of grits added afterwards. The grits were still alright, but not what I was expecting. Decent meal overall.

For some reason on multiple occasions I found myself *desperately* searching for a washroom. In some areas, there wasn’t an easily accessible washroom and I’m not shameless enough to go to a mom n pop restaurant. A great example was in Greenwich village where I eventually stumbled into this grocery store.

Mamoun’s Falafel

Fafafel

Baklava

I think this is only the second time I’ve ever had a falafel and I can’t say I’m overly fond of them. The baklava was solid.

Washington square arch

I met a friend from UBC and his girlfriend near Times Square. After a bit of walking we went into some random restaurant just for drinks. Unfortunately, I was robbed blind as I ended up paying $4.50 for a pint of milk. We headed to the Rockefeller center, but I didn’t have my NY city pass with me and I didn’t want to pay twice for the same attraction. As a result, we went our separate ways.

Momfuku SSam Bar (#26 in the world according to S.Pellegrino)

Fried duck necks – pickled corn, garlic chive, long beans. The green paste was anchovie puree?

Very tasty and full of flavor. The corn was infused with something I couldn’t put my finger on. Only $13 and here I thought fine dining was just a synonym for massive rip off.

I also had a bottle of OB beer (seoul Korea) and I was told that it tastes like Bud Light. That was exactly what I got: badly flavored water.

Veselka

Borscht

Kutya

Both were great.

Thanks to the heatwave (32+ ^oC), subway stations were 5 – 10 ^oF degrees hotter than the surface. Some people react differently to the heat. I just sweat and feel terrible. Others just start break dancing.

I love the city.

Steps – 29,968 (some carry over from the day before)

Distance – 25.86 km