New York à la Keiko: Weekender: Ballet, Brunch and Cronut™ (Well, finally, I get to talk about the infamous Cronut™ on my blog...)

Oops late post. How was your weekend?!

New York City Ballet in the David Koch theater

Dave is sick and his cough is not letting him get much sleep yet he's still cute as a bug to be around. If I get sick and lack sleep, I become a bitch galore. I felt slightly like a bad wife when I left him last Saturday night to see the ballet with a couple of friends. I bought these great tickets a while back and was looking forward to it. The New York City Ballet's George Balanchine's The Nutcracker was everything I had imagined it to be. It is my first time watching the Nutcracker but I knew all of the songs. My favorite is Tchaikovksy's Pas-de-Deux with the sugarplum fairy and her cavalier. That song creeps the heck out of Dave every single time I play it and he will shut it off or run away when I do. It's pretty funny to torture him but it is inexplicable why it creeps him out so deeply to the core.

Sugarplum fairy and her cavalier costume for The Nutcracker

Oh yea, I saw Kate Burton on my way to the ballet. She was reading a...book! Not a Nook!

Kate Burton from Scandal riding the NY subway!

Well, finally, I get to talk about the infamous cronuts on my blog... (Not sure when to use ™so I put it everywhere)

The next day, I was going to meet some friends for an early brunch but when I decided to bring them Dominique Ansel's Kouign Amann despite the freezing rain, I was about an hour late. That morning, I got to Dominique Ansel's bakery at about a quarter past 10. An hour + since the bakery opened shop. When I saw that there was a manageable line of about 20-30 people outside (probably a dozen more inside the bakery) for the cronut, I thought that this could be one of the shortest cronut queue possible -even the blizzard didn't stop fans from lining up- So I gave it a try. Piece of cake (cronut) I thought. I've done longer lines for sample sales (ahum, the Alexander Wang sample sale) so this was nothing! I was told that there might be enough cronuts for everyone so I hopped in line with high hopes. It wasn't however, a piece of cake. It was pretty cold outside and raining. I didn't even have an umbrella but I did not care. I was committed. At that moment in time, I was very thankful for my Canada Goose coat investment.

A guy in front of me was already getting his second batch of Cronuts™ and he was there since 8:45 a.m.! He said he has had Cronuts™ many, many times before and keeps coming back for more. I was eager to taste them after hearing that. In less than 40 minutes (I timed it), I was able to get my frozen hands on some Cronut (2 Cronut™ limit per customer). I was so proud of myself for getting them and not having to wake up at wee hours in the morning to line up which I thought would have been the only way to ever try these sugary babies! I was even able to hop back in line to get 2 more Cronuts™ so that I could get enough to share for brunch and also to bring home to my sickling husband and his cousin. Sooo did I like them? Not at first. I was actually pretty disappointed. Maybe because I was so stuffed after the big brunch but I was definitely not loving them like: "oh my god, give me more!" Or "I would line up for hours to get these!" I was however, content to finally taste them. Some (maybe just one) of my friends thought they were wonderful so that made me happy too. When I brought some home, Dave devoured a whole one in less than a minute. He ate it so fast. Couldn't he have slowly savored them while thinking of me waiting under the freezing rain to get them? He liked it which made my freezing my ass off worth every second. The other one was offered to his cousin but he only took a sliver out of politeness. So, we had almost a whole Cronut™ remaining and I didn't feel like eating it. It was not until bedtime that Dave reminded me that I should not waste THE Cronut™ and must eat it while it was still somewhat "fresh". I ate half and that's when I actually thought the Cronut™ wasn't so bad after all. I love croissants so really, what could be so bad about them? So maybe, maybe I would go back one day to try another Cronut™ flavor when the weather is lousy on a Sunday morning :)