365 | Day 16-18 | January 16-18, 2010

Location | New York City

New York Harbour

So after another 3 day hiatus, I’m back with 3 different 365’s. This past week, 3 of my college friends (and a new friend) came to the city to visit. 3 of them had been to NY before and 1 was a NYC virgin, but no matter, we had an amazing time!!!

The first thing we did was have dim sum in Chinatown. We were seated with another family! (The other family must’ve been horrified to see us eating like starving monsters). After that we walked around a bit and the headed to the Brooklyn Bridge. This is where the photo is shot from. We walked around Brooklyn a bit and went to Jacques Torres. Afterwards we headed up to Central Park and took some more shots before we went to Ktown to eat and then back to my apt to pre-game before we headed out for the night.

That night we went to Pegu Club for drinks/lounge experience, then over to The Park for the clubbing experience. After all of that we went to the 53rd and 6th Ave Halal Cart for a 3am snack…

Family Style Chicken and Rice!

So ridiculous. We were so hungry even though we had eaten food at The Park… but they wanted more! Chicken and Rice is just amazing in the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday was much less productive. Ngoc and I went to Clinton Street Baking Co. early to get a table and went across the street to Cafe Pedlar for some coffee. The latte was not as good as it normally is (sob). We got a table 2 hours later and had a feast of pancakes and french toast.

After that we went to SoHo, but went our seperate ways. Ngoc and Gio went to Times Square to get tickets for a Broadway Show (we ended up seeing Chicago) and Linda and Chia went shopping. We met up at 7 for Chicago (starring Ashley Simpson-Wentz).

After that we went to Times Square to walk around a bit before heading over to Otto for a 10:30pm dinner with Chris Choi, CC Song and Denny Chan.

The left around 2 am to go back to Michigan (they wanted to just drive instead of leaving at 6am).

That leads me to today. Due to it being such a nice day, I walked around my area. First Union Square, then up 5th Avenue. I stopped in at a new chocolate shop – L.A. Burdick.

Harvard Square cake from L.A. Burdick

I ordered the Harvard Square cake to go. It was rich, dense and delicious. It was very small, but I’m not sure if I could eat more than that!

What a wonderful weekend! :)

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18

01 2010

365 | Day 15 | January 15, 2010

Location | New York, NY

Happy Birthday Joey!

It’s my little brother’s birthday! Ok, so he’s not really my little brother, I adopted him… because I tend to adopt people. I met Joey in Taiwan 4 years ago. It was such a great summer that I often refer to it as a benchmark for the best summers of my life! Suffering through 110* days, hiking up a mountain everyday, and running around Taipei was such an amazing experience.

Joey and I grew close due to our fear of a certain person I will not mention. Let’s just say he had over 76 missed calls from her.

Although I’ve only seen Joey a few times since Taiwan, I still think of him as a really adorable little brother to pick on. Although he may be your typical “guy,” he’s also very sweet and loves Doraemon! :) (Uhhh I have given him waaaayyy too many Doraemon items).

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15

01 2010

365 | Day 13-14 | January 13-14, 2010

Location | New York, NY

Oh People.

I missed the 13th because my day was spent in the office until 8:30pm, so there wasn’t any inspiration to be found in my Excel sheets. This weekend a bunch of Michigan friends will be hopping into town so I’ll have plenty of photos to take and things to write about.

So don’t laugh, but today’s post is about the new People cover. Working for Time Inc, the brightest spot in our week is when People Magazine comes out. Today’s issue is on Heidi Montag’s plastic surgery addiction. Here’s some quips from people on our floor:

“She’s starting to look like a tranny!”

“Wow, this is shocking”

“I think her face looks really manly”

“She’s 23, why does she even need these surgeries?”

I know, I know. It’s such a trivial thing to be the big discussion topic on our floor, but it’s really the bright stop (which goes to show what we’re working on every day). It’s true though, she’s 23, she’s not unattractive, and now she looks kind of worse than before. Actually I think she looks A LOT worse than before. Why would you do that to yourself? (*cough* low self esteem *cough*).

Well more interesting 365’s to look forward to as soon as I get out to take some nice shots!

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14

01 2010

365 | Day 12 | January 12, 2010

Location | New York, NY

The Pantheon in Roma

Lately I’ve been aching to go back to Europe. I miss the history, the food (the gelato!), the friendly people and just the magic that you feel in Europe that I don’t feel while in the states.

What I miss most is just hanging out around the Pantheon. When I first read about the Pantheon, I couldn’t even fathom it’s impressiveness until I actually saw it in person. Ngoc and I went there 3-4 times in our 3.5 day stay in Roma. Not only did we try every famous gelateria in the area, we went back to some of them more than once.

Not long ago I wrote an mini travel review in regards to the Pantheon that was part of a writing contest on Trazzler. You can still read the review here.

I’m still thinking about gelato.

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12

01 2010

365 | Day 8-11 | January 8-11, 2010

Location | New York, NY

So, I love how the weekend comes and I already screw up my New Year’s Resolution. I didn’t have a chance to take any shots at all this weekend… BUT I did see Daybreakers on Friday and Avatar on Saturday, so does that count as inspiration? Sunday I went to ‘inoteca and Saints Alp. We were supposed to go to Baohaus, but unfortunately… it was closed! So ‘inoteca was the next choice. (Which was ok, overrated if you ask me).

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11

01 2010

365 | Day 7 | January 7, 2010

Location |  New York, NY

You’ll be disappointed to hear that today’s 365 has no photo, but I do have a topic… the Harvard Business Review. HBR is a fantastic little magazine that costs a whopping $16.95 when it’s a double issue. As my aspiration to do better in business, the articles are insightful, but… to get a subscription… it’s $99 for 10 issues!!!

Anyone want to get me a subscription?

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07

01 2010

365 | Day 6 | January 6, 2010

Location | New York, NY

Take-home box from Amy Ruth's

Hmmm, why does it seem that my inspiration tends to come from food? Today, as a divisional outing, we went to Amy Ruth’s in Harlem for lunch. I’d heard about Amy Ruth’s before, but had never gone. Right next to the 116th stop (it goes under Central Park!), we arrived and entered the next door “event” space. We were all seated and the event was “catered” style from next door.

Lemonade or Sweet Tea. Fried Chicken, Fried Catfish, Cornbread, Macaroni & Cheese, Collard Greens, Sweet Mashed Potatoes, and Peach Cobbler… MRMMMMM!

Luckily after eating I got a take out box to take some of the leftover food home — YAY! I just finished half of the boxed portion off for dinner. Yum…! Inspiration done.

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06

01 2010

365 | Day 5 | January 5, 2010

Location | New York, NY

So... Shake Shack is on the ceiling

Today is brought to you by Shake Shack on the ceiling. Yes, I know it’s a ridiculous thing… it’s not inspirational, but it DOES make me warm. So I discovered why my apartment was very cold. For some reason there’s 2 vents on my ceiling, one above my fridge, the other in my bathroom and they both have cold air streaming out of them… why? I have no idea why. It feels like air conditioning. Where on earth is that air coming from? No idea.

Is it coming from upstairs? Perhaps my upstairs neighbors, who are already wildebeests, are also living in an igloo.

Anyway, so I ended up putting a Shake Shack bag (which is perfectly square) over the perfectly square vent. Now I have a bag on my ceiling… but at least it’s warm now! HOORAH!!

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05

01 2010

365 | Day 4 | January 4, 2010

Location | New York, NY

Gianduja Custard at Shake Shack

Today’s inspiration is brought to you by the Shake Shack January Monday flavour of the month – gianduja. Gianduja is a type of chocolate that’s made of 30% hazelnut paste. Hence the lovely hazelnut topping on the custard. It’s $3.50 for this small scoop, but it’s well worth it because Shake Shack offers some really amazing custard flavors. Here are this month’s flavors:

  • Monday: Gianduja
  • Tuesday: Blood Orange
  • Wednesday: Salted Caramel
  • Thursday: Roasted Peanut
  • Friday: Carrot Cake
  • Saturday: Mint Chocolate Chip
  • Sunday: Cinnamon Toast

I’ll probably stop by again on Sunday for Cinnamon Toast. My favorite custard flavors are “Coffee and Donuts,” “Bellini,” and “Red Velvet.” I’ve had some weird flavors too (melon mint….), but usually Shake Shack does not disappoint. I’m looking forward to the bananas foster flavor around Mardis Gras! Only 3 months until then! :)

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04

01 2010

365 | Day 3 | January 3, 2010

Location | Ace Hotel, New York

Latte at Stumptown in the Ace Hotel

I have to say, I LOVE the Ace Hotel so far. I’ve been dying to check out the new Stumptown in the Ace Hotel, and today, here I am! At first I thought there was no seating, but I was so excited to hear that you sit inside the hotel lobby. Free WiFi, waiter service too…! Baristas dressed up in prohibition era type clothing… love love love this place! Not to mention that Stumptown coffee is amazingly good (trust me, better than any Starbucks).

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03

01 2010