W New York Times Square

We stayed at the W New York Times Square during our most recent visit to the Big Apple.  We got upgraded to a room overlooking the Hudson.  The room was supposedly the same size as a normal room (small), but the view was nice, and I appreciated not staring directly into someone else's room or office.

Since they were undergoing renovations, I have no idea where breakfast usually was for the Starwood Platinum amenity, but this time it was at the Blue Fin restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel.  The free breakfast was pretty generous.  I got the Power Drive juice, which was orange, carrot and ginger, and loved it.  One could also get a bakery basket, coffee or tea, cereal and yoghurt.  I got some cereal and yoghurt to go, but did not try the rest (trying to keep healthy!).  What seemed silly though was there was this section that said "feel like a little more", where you could "upgrade" your breakfast with some additions for $12.  Your choices were buttermilk pancakes (normally $15), breakfast sandwich ($14) or poached eggs ($16).  Well, thanks for the $2-4 discount.  I suppose something is better than nothing, but I just wanted to gripe about it.

The hotel overall was fine, Lingon tends to like W Hotels, I'm so so on it.  I did not like the area, literally right by Times Square, which was crazy busy.  I wouldn't stay here again if I could help it.  I would choose a quieter location, and probably a less happening hotel like a Westin or Sheraton with a less edgy interior.

Road Trip to Niagara Falls - Including Scranton, PA

My sister Mushu was born in Boston, and I feel like I often hear my parents' story about how they went to Niagara Falls and how beautiful it was.  They went again as a family when we were older, but I did not go on that trip.  I had wanted to go for a long time now, and finally decided to do it on this weekend when Lingon and I were in between NYC and Boston.  I did some research, and decided to book us a hotel on the Canada sight, where people unanimously agreed was much more beautiful.

On the way there, being a big fan of Pam and Jim and The Office, I decided that we had to take a stop in Scranton, PA, where Dunder Mifflin was set.  Using the Google, I found out that the place the office was located did not really exist, but the Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Company that was in the little clip before the show was real, at 215 Vine Street.  As we exited the freeway and headed towards there, I noted that Scranton seemed rather unexciting, but probably was a nice quiet place to raise kids!  Like Pam and Jim!  We got to our destination, I took a picture, then off we went.  On the way back to the Freeway, I saw Mifflin Ave.

We continued our trip and took a detour to Ithaca.  I had wanted to go to hotel school at Cornell for about a year, but ultimately got rejected by the college anyway, and that made me sad.  I heard the campus was really pretty, and wanted to check it out for myself.  The campus seemed pretty dead, given that it was a Saturday around finals period.

Then off to Niagara Falls itself.  We stayed at Sheraton on the Falls, and I had requested for an upgrade from our basic room to the corner room with a view of the falls.  Of all the upgrade requests, this must have been one I wanted the most, and I was granted my wish!  Yippee!!  I cared not so much for the room, but more for the view of the falls, and boy was that a great view.  The town itself, in Ontario, Canada, seemed like an amusement park.  It even had a ferris wheel, which we rode later that night!

After parking the car, we had decided to go to this town called Niagara-on-the-Lake.  A friend had recommended the restaurant at Peller Estates Winery, and I actually had a reservation there, but at the decided to cancel it for something more spontaneous and casual.  In fact, we may have eaten at the touristy downtown instead had Lingon not decided we should check out this town.  On our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake, I decided we should check out the winery anyway, since there was a food cart festival, but lo and behold one needed tickets for this and tickets were sold out.  So we decided to go to the town instead.  The town was really really pretty, kind of reminded me of the town of Banff, just one main street, with really pretty buildings, trees, etc. all around.  We walked along the lake (where there were a lot of gross bugs), headed back to town, parked the car and took a walk up and down, looking for a place to eat.

I was insistent on eating at somewhere that would give me OpenTable points, and we tried to go to the top rated restaurant but were turned away as it was full.  We settled on Zee's Grill, which was also very highly rated and had availability.  Turned out to be a very fabulous meal.  We had a salmon salad amuse bouche, the bacon wrapped prawns for appetizer, and beef and lamb for our mains.  Yum.  I even did not mind the lamb - which is a good thing!  The mashed potatos were so good.  Yum.

The next day, because Lingon is a Starwood Platinum member, we got a free buffet breakfast which included an omelette bar.  I miss those from college, and had a giant omelette made for myself.  Normally, they would let you use the Sheraton Club Lounge, but probably since it was a holiday (Victoria Day), the hotel was at 98.9% occupancy (the staff told me), and the lounge was full, they had us eat at Fallsview Restaurant.  Had we not such an amazing view, I would have loved the view from there, right across from the falls.

Then, we took the Hornblower cruise tour, which took us close to the falls.  The falls are located both in the USA and Canada, and are made up of the American and Bridal Veil falls on the USA side, and the Horseshoe falls which is mostly on the Canada side.  The boat took us close by, and especially by the Horseshoe falls we got splashed on, and would have been drenched if not for the free ponchos provided to us by the cruise company.  According to Wikipedia, "the combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 165 feet (50 m). Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by vertical height and also by flow rate."  I decided we had to take a selfie, to prove we were there, just like Pam and Jim.  Yup, having my major I-love-The-Office moment.  Lol.

We travel so much outside the country, without realizing there are so many beautiful things right here where we live.  Hip hip hurrah for more USA travel and exploring this wonderful country.

NYC Restaurants - Daniel, Uncle Boons, Rice to Riches, Osteria Morini

We arrived in NYC and sat in traffic for most of the way, knowing we had a 5.30pm reservation at the two-starred Michelin restaurant, Daniel.  Thankfully they have a 30 minute grace period (OpenTable typically gives you a 15 minute grace period, maybe they operate on New York time?), and we made it right at 6pm on the dot.  We decided to go for the 4 course menu instead of the large tasting menu, since some of that menu's items did not appeal to us.

We had an amuse bouche, some kind of cracker with some kind of something on it, that I distinctly remember as super tasty.  The bread was very good, and throughout the meal I think I had 4 pieces of bread (2 garlic parmesan, clearly the favourite, a brioche and some kind of wheat or grain bread).  The butter came with sea salt from Bretagne and some other salt from somewhere.  Damn I forgot.  But they were amazing.  And then another gift from the chef.  I remember the center one being carrot soup, delish, and looks like ish and shrimp.  Really good!

Then, I got SAINT-JACQUES (Nettle Wrapped Sea Scallop Salad, Young Leeks, Purple Potato Confit, Hazelnut Oil) and Lingon got THON ROUGE (Yellowfin Tuna, Shiso Bavarois, Young Radishes, Anchovy Meyer Lemon Coulis, White Sturgeon Caviar).  I liked his tuna a lot, and mine was interesting but just not bad..

Next, I got the FOIE GRAS (Grappa Flambéed Hudson Valley Foie Gras, Chilean and Mojave Grapes, Pistachio, Wisteria Flower Pink Peppercorn, Pickled Cape Gooseberry).  The portion was generous, and the accompaniments were great, and I loved it.  Lingon got GRENOUILLE (Florida Frog Legs, Velouté Hon-Shimeji Mushrooms, Garlic Chips Vadouvan Oil, Watercress “Pistou”), which was so amazing.  That soup was just so amazing.  I think this was the best course.

For the main, I had been really craving beef for weeks, so I got the BOEUF (Duo of Beef, Imperial Wagyu Tenderloin, Gourgane Crèpe, Smoked Bone Marrow, Fava Beans, “Bordelaise Jus”, and the Black Angus Short Ribs, Chermoula-Carrot Mousseline) which was good but not blow-me-away good, and Lingon got the LAPIN (Black Garlic Stuffed Rabbit Saddle, Swiss Chard Fricassée, Spinach Pasta, Jus “à la Moutarde de Dijon”) which I thought was just OK.  Not sure how I feel about rabbit, as I have not eaten it a whole lot.

For dessert, I got the “Saint Honoré” (LINZER SABLE, VANILLA-MASCARPONE CREAM, CARAMEL-BUTTER SALTED CREMEUX, CARAMELIZED CHOUX).  St. Honoré is the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. This classic cake, named in his honor, comprises a baked circle of “pâte sablée” at its base with a ring of “pâte à choux” piped on the outer edge. Small cream puffs dipped in caramelized sugar are attached side by side on top, and are finished with whipped cream, piped on using a special tip.  I fricking loved it.  The pastry on the bottom was divine.  Suitably flaky, extremely buttery and moist.  I could die for this.  Lingon got the CAFE (Jivara-Coffee Chantilly, Ginger Caramel Chocolat Fondant, Turkish Coffee Ice Cream), which he loved, but I did not since I am not the biggest coffee fan.  The dessert was really really really good.

Then, we got an anniversary cake!  Yay!  Happy anniversary to us!  Plus a small basket of madelaines and canale bordelaise to take home.

This was a good meal, but too fancy for me.  While the food was delicious, I think I can get better for less $.  Lingon was glad to have fulfilled his desire to try this place, but I don't think we will be back.

Also, out Travel and Leisure list had Uncle Boons for Thai food, so off we went, and we tried the items they had recommended, which were the lamb larb, beef massaman curry and the dorade (more for the nam prik chili sauces).  I have always loved larb, but probably most used to pork larb.  The lamb had a lamb flavour, which is not my favourite, but was not that strong and the herbs and spices and other flavours were very fresh and delicious.  The beef massaman curry was not bad, though not spectacular.  It came with what tasted like shredded julienned potatoes, which was different.  Lastly, we got the grilled dorade, which was the best dish of the evening.  The meat was clean, fresh and tender, and paired with the nam prik sauces was absolutely divine.  The whole shebang was rather expensive though, and for Thai I will, in the future, probably revert back to my Hell's Kitchen favourite Pam Real Thai for their unbelievably fragrant anchovy fried rice.

A stone's throw away was my long time favourite Rice to Riches, so off we went for some post dinner sweetness.  They seemed to have made the names of the flavours more interesting.  We got our favourite cookies and cream (now called the corner of cookies & cream...), which contrary to a lot of cookies and cream things which involve oreos, was more a white cookie.  New (at least to us, as I don't remember getting this before and I most certainly would have had I seen it), was "oreo"gasm, which are the oreos.  Still very very good.  And very very expensive.  For soupy rice.  But suckers we are.  And we enjoyed it!  I thought I took a picture, but cannot seem to find it!

I had been wanting to try Roberta's pizza in Brooklyn for a long time, since it is a huge favourite of our friends.  Finally I decided to un-lazy myself and take the train to Brooklyn to try them out.  I got the Bee Sting pizza (think it was pepperoni, mozzarella, chili flakes and honey).  The crust was nice and chewy and crispy at the same time, and the toppings were delicious.  A bit of a trek for this though, and probably will try to find something closer that does not require me to cross the water!

We went to Osteria Morini with our NYC friends who had been there often before.  They told us on Monday after 9pm was industry night where one could have pastas at normal portion size for $10.  Definitely jealous, since now we were paying more than 2x.  We got 6 different kinds of pastas, and I know I did not take any pictures coz I was too hungry and the lighting was bad anyway.  But memorable ones were the garagnelli (pasta quills, cream, peas, truffle butter, prosciutto) and cappelletti (truffled ricotta ravioli, melted butter, prosciutto).  I did not like the corzetti (pasta coins, house made lamb sausage, nepitella pesto), felt rather unremarkable, even though the server recommended it as one of the favourites or something.  Overall great meal!

After dinner, we went to Morgenstern's for ice cream.  We were told that it was fairly new, and there was always a line.  They had a durian banana flavour which I sampled and really liked!  We stood in line for about 30 minutes, and ordered salted chocolate in a cup with the cone on top.  A single scoop should have been $4.50, and we ordered 2.  I realized they had charged me 50 cents extra and when I asked why, the guy was like, oh it should only be 25 cents extra, and I suppose its the cost of a cone or a cup.  WTF.  So he refunded me my 25 cents, and in my jeans pocket I had 3 quarters of change from this place, which dropped out in the hotel room when I was packing and I forgot to pick that up.  Grrrr.  Hope housekeeping is making good use of my 75 cents.

Oh NYC, I will miss eating there.

Tomasso's, SF

Tomasso's.  Does not take reservations.  More than an hour's wait at 5.30pm on a Sunday.  Boo.  We went to a nearby bar to get a drink.  When we came back, we ate like hungry people too.  We got a risotto with mussels, gnocchi, and 2 pizzas.  All very delicious and decadent tasting, but for the wait time, I'm sure there are other places that will serve us just as yummy without having to hang around longer than necessary.

Crystal Jade Jiang Nan, SF

Crystal Jade Jiang Nan opened in San Francisco late last year.  As this is a Singapore chain that I go to quite often when I am in Singapore, I was naturally curious about it.  After the first few weeks/months of reviews, it became clear I would not venture there on my own.  Overpriced with horrific service was my takeaway.

Every year, for Chinese New Year, Lingon gets taken out for work to some Chinese restaurant, and I get to tag along.  Usually this dinner is at R&G Lounge, but this year they had it at Crystal Jade!  Happiness!

So off we went to see the restaurant that cost $14m to build.  It looked like it could have cost $2-4 million to build.  I did not see the opulence that this $14m should have given.  Seriously disappointing.

For dinner, we were served in the high-end Chinese restaurant style, where your dish brought out and displayed, and then served.  We got rather high-end looking stuff.  Started with hot and sour soup, which I have not had for ages and certainly is not high end but totally hit the spot.  Then prawns, abalone (or maybe mushroom?), black pepper beef, scallop, eefu noodles, and for dessert tang yuan and some kind of kueh seeming thing.  I really loved the food.

The service was a lot better than I expected, probably coz it was a pre-ordered dinner meal.  However, I was really annoyed with service, due to the disgusting amount of waste generated by the restaurant.  They pre-poured wine at every single seating, though one whole table of perhaps 20 people were not even there.  I had picked my seat already, so I had specifically told them no wine for me, but then another waiter came by and poured wine in my glass anyway.  So, 21 glasses of wine, very generous pours, no one drinking.  I was very upset and told the service staff that, but they claimed they did were not wasting.  I mean, HUH?  At least they boxed up the rest of the meal, so I took some home and gave it away.  As I reflect on this dinner that took place a few months ago, I'm also annoyed at either the people who RSVP'd and did not show up, or the organizer who did not manage head count properly.  I hate waste.  Thanks for listening to me rant.

The surprise of the evening came at the end.  I was looking for the bathroom, or maybe my phone which was charging at the bar, when I came across the service staff making lots of noise.  I went by, and realized they were doing this thing called lo hei or yusheng that I had done during previous Chinese New Years back in Singapore.  The dish is made of a bunch of shredded vegetables and sashimi grade salmon.  According to Wikipedia, "all diners at the table then stand up and proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying various "auspicious wishes" out loud, or simply "lo hei, lo hei" (撈起, 撈起, in Mandarin lāoqǐ, lāoqǐ, meaning "scoop it up, scoop it up"). It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the diners' growth in fortunes, thus diners are expected to toss enthusiastically."  I got to practice a custom that I had not done for the past 13 years (wow!), and that was truly special.

In conclusion, I'm not sure I would ever go by myself to Crystal Jade in SF.  The dim sum looks way too high-end, and in general the place is too expensive.  I believe we had super exceptional service since we were there for an event, but I think any other circumstance would be a let down.

Miami

After our Key West adventure, off we went to Miami.  We stayed at the St Regis Bal Harbor, which is something Lingon had wanted to do for a while.  The hotel was beautiful.  The rooms were large and well appointed, with an amazing view of the ocean.  This defines luxury.  We redeemed points, otherwise the rooms were out of our price range.

 We checked out the grounds which were beautiful.

 Then we went to dinner at Khong River House, which I posted about here.

As part of turn down service, we even got these chocolates which I heartily gobbled down, followed by eating the leftovers from Thai food.  Lol.

 The next morning we decided to run around Bal Harbor to get some exercise and to check the area out.  There was a shopping center with some really high end stuff.  Always nice seeing what crap is out there.  Then, we went to lunch at Chalan on the Beach, our favourite Peruvian place possibly ever, and got our must-eats, lomo saltado and ceviche.  The bread was amazing too, with their green special sauce.  MUST GO HERE!!

Then, bye bye Miami.

The Florida Keys and Key West

I feel terrible, because I have been gone so long.  Part of the reason is that I have such a huge backlog that posting seems really intimidating.  Lingon encouraged me to go on.  Part of me just wants to switch to Instagram.  We shall see...

So, this is from a trip way back in January to Key West.  We stayed there for a night.  We rented a car at the Miami airport and drove all the way through the Florida Keys.

On the way in, we decided to stop at the Conch House in Key Largo.  I must admit, I really wanted to go to Key Largo despite the Lonely Planet's paltry description of it, because of the Beach Boy's Kokomo.  The other part of the reason is it coincided with lunch time.  :-)  Conch is supposed to be one of those things one eats in this part of town, and this place was large enough to show up on Google maps, so here we went.  We ordered the conch fritters, conch ceviche, and tacos (maybe conch or some fish).  The restaurant had a certain charm to it (people do weddings there!) and the food was pretty good for randomly picking a place off Google maps!

Another random beach on the way in.  Forgot the name but it also was on Google maps.

The drive initially was rather amazing.  Warm air hitting the skin, miles of roads with the ocean on either sides of us.  Then.  It.  Got.  Really.  Boring.  Plus we hit traffic.  Anyhow, after some time, we arrived at our hotel, the Westin Key West, which was right by Duval Street, the main street of Key West.  So let me explain how we ended up booking this hotel, which cost us 20,000 Starwood points.  Initially I had booked us at the Sheraton which was in a much lesser location and cost 12,000 Starwood points.  However, we were on Curaçao for a wedding right before, and some new friends we made had recommended the Westin and said it was absolutely divine.  So I switched our reservation, against my better judgment.  I suppose the location was really great, but for 20,000 points, the hotel itself was rather awful.  The reception did not connect to the building that our rooms were in, and we had to wheel our luggage rather far in the open air to the hotel.  I did not mind that so much as I did the sad dark dated rooms.  For 20,000 points.  Don't get me wrong, I stay in lots of so-so hotels, and it's totally fine, but perhaps for 7,000 points or something.  It just seemed like a rip.  I would have paid 7,000 points willingly, maybe even 10,000 due to the location, but it just felt rather meh.  Anyhow, it is what it is.

We rested for a bit and then went to dinner at Firefly, a Southern restaurant that my college friend's friend managed/owned/ran.  As usual my eyes were wider than my stomach.  We got the bacon crab beignets, gumbo and blackened fish catch of the day, all of which were not bad.  They are, however, known for their fried chicken, but due to Lingon's supposed aversion to fried things, we passed, which was probably the biggest regret of that trip.  Then we got the key lime cake, which was not bad, but I always prefer pie since I have an affinity for crust.  Glad the restaurant was not that close to our hotel, since we were stuffed and we got to take a nice walk back.

Duval Street was rather happening.  I liked this one whimsical building that looked like a theater but I guess is now a pharmacy.  We also had to take a picture by the beginning of Highway 1 sign.  Here are a couple of day/night photos.

The next morning, for our dose of culture, we decide to go to the Hemingway house.  The tour was led by a guy who looked like Hemingway himself.  Having read a few Hemingway books, I found this tour to be a great enhancement to what little knowledge I had of him.  The man sure had lots of quirks!

Our final stop in Key West was the giant cookie shop on Duval Street.  Of course, Lingon opted for the oatmeal cookie.  Bad choice, since it was smaller than the other cookies.  I suppose the cookie master thinks that people who want an oatmeal cookie prefer it smaller since they are trying to be healthier anyway.  Pffft.  It was a pretty good cookie, and we somehow resisted eating the whole damned thing.

Goodbye Key West.  I will not be coming back anytime soon, but I sure did have fun!  One day in Key West seemed enough for us.  If I do come back, I want to check out the Truman Little White House, President Truman's winter home.