NYC 2011 - Day 3

This morning began with some yummy rice balls at Oms/b. It was one of my favourite grab and go places when I lived here. Very close to Grand Central, less than ten minutes walk.

Oms/b

NYC 2011 - Day 2

Our 2nd day in NYC started with riding the subway down to Flatiron building.

Flatiron Building

NYC 2011 - Day 1

Six days, six of us, a fun trip to the big apple in mid August. Although I didn't really have time to do my own stuff, it was great to just be back there again, see my new york friends, and also share some of my favourite spots with my Vancouver friends :)

I have planned the schedule out for all six days way in advance(I'm kinda crazy like that). Except switching 2 days around and cutting a few places off the schedule because we ran out of time, everything went pretty smoothly according to plan.

I never actually finished writing my other trip posts... so I will try to finish this one first and get back to the old ones later :P

We took a red eye out of Vancouver to New York. The plane delayed a little bit, but flew fast for only a little over four hours, so we arrived in JFK around 7:30am. Between the options of booking Super Shuttle or taking yellow cabs into Manhattan, the numbers came out about the same, so we took two cabs to Grand Central, 3 people each car, turned out to be $45 flat rate + 5 something dollars toll fee + tip, per car.

The reason I picked Grand Hyatt was of course of its location. I used to walk by it everyday, so it is nice to actually live in it this time. It's still under renovation though, I think it will be done very soon in the next few months.

Lobby looked very temporary for the moment.


The usual check in time is 4pm but we arrived around 9am in the morning. I did call in advance asking if we could check in early so we could have somewhere to put our luggage and fresh up before we head out for the day. The front desk was very nice but they told me the best they could do was to put in a request for me since the hotel was fully booked that day. We were lucky enough to get a room first and other two on the same floor but not until later that day. By the way, the hotel does offer luggage holding service. I'm not positive but I think it might be free if u're checking in, and if you have checked out already, they will hold your stuff for 2 dollars a piece.

So after a quick fresh up at my friend's room, we began our day. Since we're right next too Grand Central Terminal, we started our tour there.

I'm stealing a pic of grand central from my friend's photos. (thank you~)

Charm Modern Thai

This is a very delayed post on Charm Modern Thai :P I have been here numerous times, it is one of our regular lunch spots. Somehow I thought I have written about it already but it turned out I haven't yet. Charm Modern Thai offers a lot of vegetarian choices :)

Inside

Giovane Cafe

This is again from a while back. That morning I saw a friend's Facebook post with a picture of a couple nyc taxis parked on the streets of downtown Vancouver, it looked pretty interesting, so at lunch I wanted to go check it out and see what was going on. I thought maybe they might have been filming Fringe.

Very cool to see a nyc subway entrance in Vancouver :)


We asked a nice girl staff and she told us it wasn't a movie or anything special, just something for Nickelodeon.

Since there was nothing else to see, we kept on walking towards the water and see what was good to eat around the area. Then we walked passed by Giovane Cafe.

Estea Beverage Club

This is from a few weeks back when one of our badminton sessions went a little longer than usual and we had to find a place to eat that opens late somewhere in Burnaby. My friend picked Estea.

CHAU Veggie Express

We have been recently told by a friend that there is a new Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant called Chau VeggiExpress opened up in Vancouver.I was very excited to hear about it and wanted to try it out asap. It's just pretty much impossible for vegetarians to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant in my opinion. I've tried going with my coworkers before and always order this one veggie item on the menu and later I found out the sauce on the side is fish sauce... So I just stopped going :( There is actually another vegetarian Vietnamese place I know of, which is located in Burnaby/New Wesminster area, that has been around for a long time, Paradise Vegetarian Noodle House. The thing is it's so far away for me and it seems like every time I'm in the area and wants to eat there, it's always closed for vacation. If you would like to try it out, make sure to check on their website to see if they're open.

Outside.

Commune Cafe

Another one of the coupon deals I got for Commne Cafe.

Grounds For Appeal

Had been going to the same old places for a while, so we started looking up new ones again. A friend suggested a bunch, one of them was Grounds For Appeal. It looked like a nice day for a walk, so we went :)

Spero Spera

On one of those great sunny days in June, enjoying the sun and following it through random streets, we somehow ended up in yaletown. I can't remember what was the other place we were trying to pick between with anymore, but I'm sure glad we decided to stay and try out Sepro Sepra.

Bob Likes Thai

This is from a Friday night a while back. We were craving for some Thai food and my friend that lives on Main Street, just a few blocks away from then still a relatively new restaurant, kept mentioning to me about how she's been having it like five days a week. It made me wanted Thai food even more. So a few of us met up there one friday night after work.

Inside

It was pretty full already when we got there. They had to put some smaller tables together for our group to sit.

Miura Waffle Milk Bar

Usually once a week we would go for a lunch at Yaletown and it would somehow always end up being Thai food :P This time, there were only three of us and we thought we should go for something different. Even though it wasn't the nicest day for a walk, we decided to venture our way up Davie Street to Miura Waffle Milk Bar for some waffle 'sandos', which is derived from the japanese word ンドイッチ sandoicchi, which means Sandwich. (from their website)

Inside of Miura Waffle Milk Bar. (I have been forgetting to take pictures of outside the restaurants I've been to >_<)

Shizen Ya

I was looking through my food pictures and realized I've missed quite a bit of things from a while back :( Probably about time to have them posted up. A while ago, I think it was one of those rare winter sunny days, I took a nice walk and visited a cute little restaurant on Hornby Street.

Bonchaz Bakery Cafe

Group deals are getting more and more popular lately. As a big online shopper, I've joined a few of the group coupon sites myself. A while ago I got a voucher from Living Social for Bonchaz Bakery Cafe. It is only a few blocks away from my work, so I thought it would be nice to try it out at lunch :)

Inside Bonchaz Bakery Cafe

Beautiful Island

Another badminton night, we weren't exactly sure where to go for dinner afterwards. We wanted to change from our usual spot but not too far away either. Beautiful Island ended up to be our pick. We have been there a few times before.

Where to buy vegetarian products Part II

So sorry this took me a while to get to, finally here this is, where to buy vegetarian products Part II. There are quite a few Chinese vegetarian product stores in the greater Vancouver area, most of the ones I know are in Richmond. Whole Vegetarian Food is probably the one I go most often. They have four different locations if you look at their website. I usually go to the one inside crystal mall in Burnaby, but that store is pretty small. If you want a bigger selection of things, I would recommend going to the one in Richmond on Cambie Road. Unfortunately I haven't been to the other two locations, so I can't comment on how they are.

It has been a while since I last visited the stores. The pictures I have taken are from a few months ago last year. They're from the Cambie Road Store.

It's located right across from Aberdeen Centre, next to President Plaza, and there's limited parking right in the store plaza.

Ezogiku Noodle Cafe

It's March already, so why is it still friggin' cold?! I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one asking this question. But yeah, when it's cold, you would want something hot and noodle soup is always a good option. My co-workers have been going to one of the closest ramen places to our company, Ezogiku Noodle Cafe, by Vancouver downtown library.

Taiwan Trip - Part VI

I don't really remember what I did this day. I assume nothing particularly interesting happened that's why I can't recall. I do have pictures of what I ate that day though ;)

Lunch or Brunch -

I wanted to have noodles from a close by vegetarian restaurant.