Sleeping pattern has stabilised somewhat, woke up at around 8AM, we got ready and decided to settle for breakfast across the road here in Jersey City. Fast, cheap and easy, a place called Seattle Coffee Roasters. We had two breakfast meals with a coffee & latte, for $15. Nothing flashy food-wise, but good enough for the price. But on the coffee...
It’s only our second day here in NYC, but what I’ve noticed so far, is we are spoilt for choice when it comes to coffee back home (Brisbane, Australia). I was surprised at how hard it’s been to find a decent espresso here. Since arriving in the US, including our time in NYC, I find Americans in general are contempt with the straight coffee (filtered/instant, whatever you want to call it). All the cafe’s here evolve more around the food/choice, rather than the coffee, then food next.
The closest thing I could find, although only being here two days, is Starbucks. Okay so I’m a coffee snob, it happens when you work in the Brisbane CBD for 10 years or so, if only American’s (New Yorkers in particular) knew what they were missing. It would be a business opportunity here for sure, got me thinking about it.
Anyhow, my point is this has been a bit of a food mission for me and it still is (to taste/eat/try all the foods I know of we don’t have back home), but on the mission list now is to find a decent espresso! To start off day two, at “Seattle Coffee Roasters”, was another failure for me..but i’m determined to find a decent coffee!
After breakfast, straight into the PATH station to catch a train into Manhattan. First stop, Rockerfeller Plaza to do the “Top of the Rock” observation deck. For those of you who don’t know, you get a decent 360 degree view of NYC. A lot of history with the Rockerfeller Plaza that I didn’t know, so it was cool and educational.
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| View of central park from TOTR |
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| Meter actually ran out, KN insisted I pretend to look through the thing, lol. |
Back downstairs to do the NBC studio tours, another side mission was to find a toilet/restroom, also another challenge for convenience in NYC. We found one, booked our tickets, and went on the 1.15pm tour. Turned out to be a small group of 7. They start off the tour with a video on the history of NBC Universal, and the group is hosted by a couple of NBC Page’s. If you’re a fan of the show “30 Rock” which we are, you’ll know what the NBC Pages are. If you don’t, they’re basically post-grads that work on placement programs for NBC for jobs in news, entertainment and production. Part of their program is hosting tour guides in the studio.
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| Skating rink at the Rockerfeller Centre |
The tour was pretty cool, highlights would have to be seeing the studio for Saturday Night Live, and the end of the tour where they have a small set up with camera’s and a green screen where you can read a mock up news story and have it recorded on dvd, and a photo op at a news desk.
I only saw one celebrity that I recognised on the way out, a well known drummer called “QuestLove” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questlove), who has produced music with a lot of RnB/Hip Hop artists. He had the whole Afro with comb in hair going on. I tapped KN on the shoulder and pointed out to him, and he looked at me, pretending to not notice he’d been spotted.
Unfortunately we couldn’t take any pictures with a camera, but I took some mental images like the guy from the movie “Hall Pass”, sorry can’t share. But you can use your imagination.
After the NBC Studio Tour, I had a hankering for some soul food. A place I’ve heard of plenty of times before and also featured on the Australian TV show “Master Chef”, a restaurant by the name Sylvia’s. Tried a cab uptown instead this time, wasn't too bad, didn't take long and totalled $20 inc tip.
I ordered the bbq ribs, mac n cheese and collard greens. KN had the fried chicken, potato salad, and candied yams. It was all delish! Waiters were nice and friendly, took a while to order, but was worth the wait. Interestingly there was another group of Aussie tourists behind us, could hear them talking with their accents, and we lost a bit of tourist coolness as we were in the proximity of another group of Aussies.
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| You can't see the cornbread coz I ates it all, so good! |
Full on soul food, we exited to replenish our tourist coolness, moving away from other Aussies. Caught a train back to midtown I guess, to check out “Serendipity3”. Along the way we stopped into another cafe, ordered a latte. It tasted like hot milk, that’s all, another disappointment for me. I’m still determined to find a decent coffee. Back to Serendipity, a well known place featured in a number of chick flicks that I’ve never seen.... Okay maybe I saw bits and pieces of ‘some’ of the movies, when KN was watching them. One in particular stars Michelle Pfiefer, can’t recall the name.
I saw other customers with these massive Sundae’s, packed with so much ice cream and fudge, it’s crazy! We were still full from Sylvia’s, but for strange reason, I ordered a “Can’t say No Sundae”. I read the menu, and said NO. But when the waiter asked for our order, the words from his mouth said “Excellent Sir, Can’t say no Sundae”. Damn those over-sized hypnotic menu’s with subliminal messages through wavy funky fonts. The menu’s were so crazy, reflected by the decor of this restaurant, that KN couldn’t even find the list of frozen hot chocolates. The waiter eventually pointed it out, she ordered an original frozen hot chocolate.
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| I have the iPhone 4S, the flashy new camera caters for guilt trips. That Sunday is actually freaking HUGE! |
The best part of that Sundae was the 'humble pie' inside it, which is basically the same peanut butter stuff you find in peanut butter cups, mmmmmmm.
After finishing our dessert (the small portions of it), we tried to walk off our indigestion to the subway and retire to our hotel room. Full of food, dessert, and tired from walking throughout the day, we finally made it back. A short while later, we decided to venture into the Newport Mall to pick up a few things, but also to take a sneak peak.
Another big mall (Simon Mall – Newport Plaza) and so convenient to this hotel. I’m surprised this place isn’t more popular than it already is. After a quick look through, we did call it a night, passed out again like a light. This city has it all! But decent coffee... or will I be proven wrong tomorrow?
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