we started off the day at the B&H Photo Video Superstore which is kinda like best buy, but unlike the big box store, it is a family owned business focused on photography and videography and has a selection of electronics much more extensive than best buy’s. they also serve pretzels and coke, the drink and not the drug, to costumers, probably so they don’t dehydrate from spending hours and hours there. like how daniel and I did (not on my own accord). we were there for two hours- two hours of wandering around aisles of cameras and laptops and hard drives. I was bored out of my mind, but daniel walked around all wide eyed and excited. it was very cute of him, but I do not wish to repeat the experience.
after b&h, we stopped by the macaron cafe midtown because I needed to be rewarded for being such a dutiful and patient wife at B&H. we ordered a few macarons, complimented by a very yummy hot dark chocolate drink. I read somewhere that the macaron café has the best macarons in nyc in 2009— they weren’t bad but definitely not the melt-in-your-mouth goodness as those of ladurees. the restaurant is adorable, run by real parisian frenchies, dressed in stereotypical french clothing too!
then, we went for lunch. we headed to the upper east side to papaya king which, apparently, is the hotdog place to go in nyc... since 1931. it has been rumoured to be a favorite of sjp and much admired by julia child. in himym, ted cites papaya king to be one of the greatest things of nyc. pretty impressive, eh? well, when we arrived at the restaurant- and I say restaurant only because I do not know what else to call it- we were much surprised at how tiny it was! I thought such a famous restaurant would be bigger and less gaudy but it was about the length of four hot dog stands and had practically no standing room (well, it was also overflowing with costumers). daniel and I ordered two frankfurters and a beef sausage and curly fries and a mango drink. oh boy, the mango drink was sooooooooooo good. while the frankfurters and beef sausage were also good, they do not compare with toronto street meat… but the hot mustard is a hundred times better than toronto street meat hot mustard. I liked it so much; it was the condiment to the fries instead of ketchup. lunch cost us less than $10 so I was definitely satisfied with the meal.
both the macaron cafe and the papaya king had been researched, meaning I had read reviews and articles, visited the websites, and looked at menus before deciding on dining there. I had intended on doing dinner at yet another well researched eatery but on our way to the subway from the MET (where we spent the afternoon and I made daniel take pictures of me sitting “on the steps of the MET”), we needed refuge from the bitter cold and unanimously decided on dining at the restaurant with soup it in its name. what is better than soup on such a cold day? but it turned out, the soup burg is not a soup place, much to my disappointed, but great burgers said the patron sitting at the table next to us. both daniel and I ordered burgers and yes they were great. possibly the greatest burger I’ve ever had. and apparently, the third best burger in all of nyc (time out ny). not bad for some unresearched random restaurant we entered because of its deceiving restaurant name.
during dinner we starting chatting with the man who recommended the burger and his lady friend who happens to be a shoe designer for kate spade and diane von furstenberg, among many others and lives in the upper east side (how like eleanor waldorf!) and when asked where to have dessert, recommended crumbs, a cupcake place a block away from the soup burg. since the first recommendation was such a success, we took the second as well and went to crumbs after dinner. daniel and I shared a chocolate cupcake with a vanilla butter cream filling and icing on top and it was deliciously decadent. I loved the cupcake and my mouth is watering as I write about it. had it not been so cold outside, I would have bought more and carried it 'round town with me (but alas, my gloved hands needed to be hidden in pockets from the wind and not exposed while holding a bag).
we ended the day with a trip up the empire state building. the view of the city at night was spectacular!
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