oh hey. found the flatiron building.

took another trip over to nyc over st. patty's day (so yes, this is a little late). it was kind of a belated birthday trip of sorts, to celebrate with jess, my mom (who was in town on her way back to hk from a business trip in chicago/st. joe), nana and smingle. yay! more adventures to distract from sad, not-so-funemployment...

friday, march 16th
hopped on the 10am bus from alewife to penn station, which, for the first time in my experience, was actually completely packed. for the record, i'm fully aware of how little i am. so when i can feel my knees getting crushed by the reclined seat in front of me, that's saying something. not to mention, the woman in said seat had already struck me as someone who goes around feeling way too entitled for her own good when she kicked a girl out of that row by trying to convince her and the people around (including her unofficial guardians for the trip in the seat in front) that she was absolutely required by world wide bus to sit next to (read: in contact with at all times) her 9-year-old daughter. (hint: this is false.) but anyway. not worth dealing with for one five-hour bus ride and probably the only time i would have to deal with this woman. moving on...

get to penn station and meet up with anna. we find a starbucks to just hang out in and catch up while we wait for smingle to get through her crazy traffic jam and into the city. super nice. i do miss hanging out with college friends, but everyone kind of exploded out of pittsburgh, geographical-location-wise, after graduation. smingle arrives. we hang out some more since we had dinner plans near by and soon anyway. getting filled in on all the changes that have gone on back at cmu makes me feel extra old. which is super impressive considering i only graduated in may. but something about five years at architecture school will do that to you. i am looking forward to visiting again over carnival, even if i'm only going to be there for a couple of days.

next is dinner at gallo nero. is delicious. mmm...i do love risotto. i pretty sure i go on to have risotto one more time on this trip and then again back in boston, when we go out for restaurant week. heh. oops.

amazingly delicious crostini w/ prosciutto, arugula + mozzarella

my porcini mushroom risotto

share desserts of pear tart + ...something else...whoops.

 then they head off for their showing of phantom and i meander my way across times square to find and meet up with jess and mom, who are nomming on some delicious-looking japanese food, but seeing as i just stuffed myself at gallo nero...i only help out for dessert, green tea mille crepes. ;) so good. pretty much what it sounds like. a big pile of thin, light, airy (green tea flavored) crepe pancakes stacked on top of each other and then cut into a cake slice.

green tea mille crepes w/ green tea ice cream! so good!

then its time to head back to the hotel, catch up, hang out and, in general, share some down time and watch some tv. and get birthday presents!!! :)

saturday, march 17th - st. patty's day
for the record, not as crazy as i had thought it might be. win!

headed out for brunch at almond. a super cute restaurant in the flatiron district. had the amazing almond hash, which is really hash but with duck confit in it instead of corned beef. fancy, right? so. good. for real, tell me that doesn't look awesome.

almond hash w/ duck confit. seriously may be the best brunch ever.

jess' brunch of french toast with banana and berries.

then headed out for a stroll, window-shopping included. and yes, the architecture nerd in me did in fact feel the need to pause and consider the flatiron building for a second before continuing with the window shopping. we went to eataly which is essentially a grocery store, food court and novelty store combined, but all of authentic italian products. this place was amazing. all the super fresh food looked so good. if it weren't for the fact that we had just gotten stuffed at brunch, i'm sure we would have found something to nom on. again, like almost everytime i'm there, we checked out the marimekko store just because, while pricey, i do really love all of their stuff. the patterns, the products, the design. after a while of strolling, we settle on going to see a movie and went and saw jeff, who lives at home. not going to lie, it was a strange movie. still not entirely sure how i felt about it. but if you're interested in watching jason segel and ed helms play very unexpected character-types, this may be the flick to see for you.

oh hey. found the flatiron building.

 ooh! the doughtnut plant! so, i had been planning on going to this place the last time i had a whirlwind weekend extravaganza with the j-twin, but we never got around to it because when we were in the mood for it, we weren't near it. and when we were near it, more than likely, we had just finished stuffing ourselves with other delicious noms and couldn't possibly have then fit in a doughnut. but we made it! and i got myself an incredible peanut butter and banana cream doughnut. it was amaziiiiing! worth it! sigh...

super proud of my doughnut plant find.

mmm...

 so that was all on the way to a nice simple dinner in chinatown. simple, but delicious. because up until yesterday, that was probably the most authentically chinese meal i've had in a looooong time. mmm...taste like home.

sunday, march 18th
remembering how nicely delicious it had been the last time we all went together, we found our way back to le pain quotidienne for a simple, rustic, european brunch. i love their belgian hot chocolate. they just serve you a hot bowl of frothy milk with the chocolate on the side, so you can make it as chocolatey as you want. mmm...delicious. had a breakfast of yummy bread and yummy eggs. (how good does that look?)

deconstructed hot chocolate.

like i'm sitting in some european countryside. :)

again, headed out to do more shopping, both window and actual. got myself a nice hat from H&M and a shirt from Gap. :) minimal shopping for the unemployed. but still nice.

this was a pretty simple day. topped it off with a dinner of more italian food at basso 56. pretty sure this was where i had my second dinner of risotto for the weekend. again. delicious. seafood risotto with clams, mussels, calamari...mmm...and once again, ended the night crazy full. but hey. worth it.

monday, march 19th
jess had to go back to work, so it was just mom and i left to our own devices. we went back to le pain for breakfast. i kept it simple this time with a banana + maple syrup oatmeal and mom with some kind of cranberry porridge. we found our way back to the hotel again, hung out and packed up our stuff, before heading out to drop her off at the airporter stop. then i carried on to penn station myself to grab a small bite to eat before catching the bus back to boston.

a super fun, chill weekend full of some really good food and company, topped off with fantastic weather almost all weekend. :)

look forward to doing it again some time.