New York à la Keiko: Ze Weekend snapshots: Eat Eat Eat Sample Sale Eat! [what to do in NYc]

Monday, September 24, 2012

Ze Weekend snapshots: Eat Eat Eat Sample Sale Eat! [what to do in NYc]

On day -1 of the first day of Fall wearing my new The Row wool skirt

Argh! Not another weekend of eating you say? I hear ya!

Over the weekend, I had these intense food cravings like I was a preggo lady (I'm not preggo) and I just had to go out of my way to satisfy these cravings and D was super cooperative. "If my baby wants congee, she's going to get congee!" -grins and bangs softly on table.

On Saturday, we were suppose to go see a Mets baseball game at Citifield stadium. I am not a fan of baseball but D is and I thought that I should attend at least ONE pro baseball game in my life. It is also a way for me to integrate myself more as an American bahaha...not really. Anyway, when tickets sale went over $20 on the day of, we cheaped out. Even though we didn't attend a game, we did still want to go eat at White Bear in Flushing. I was looking forward to eating some wontons after the game which was only one subway stop away from the stadium and a great motivator to sit through hours of balls throwing. I'm telling you, the craving was huge because I, for a fact, would never venture out to Flushing which takes almost an hour by public transportation, to eat one plate of wontons. I am usually discouraged to go unless we had a car!

White bear wontons with spicy oil $4.75

Won ton noodle soup

Ten ren red bean icy milk

After satisfying craving #1, we stopped by the stadium which was already closed and desolate post game because we wanted to look for the brick D bought to support the Mets. After circling over hundreds of bricks and neck pains induced, we gave up on looking and got back on the 7 train to head to Woodside/Sunnyside. We were curious to see all the shops and restaurants offerings in the area. We walked from 63rd Woodside to 40th Bliss street and found maybe one restaurant we would come back to try called 'Fat and Salt'. We didn't venture too far from the train tracks so didn't fully explore the area. We then hopped back on the train and headed downtown to Congee Village for my craving #2. Congee. There was a long wait for a table of 2 but we patiently waited. We were supposed to cook dinner at home but I had this big craving I could not put to rest. It was since my sister's visit during Labor Day weekend and we passed by the resto and I was like..mmm I want congee but we did not go in! After din din we FINALLY headed back home but not before getting off two subway stops earlier to be able to walk off our heavy meal. That's when it started pouring and we sprinted home and... I wore white. Sexy time. We walked so much that day, it felt good.

Citifield stadium

Looking for D's brick that we did not find

Congee Village Restaurants to satisfy my congee craving

On Sunday, I returned to The Row sample sale as Sample Sally gave me a heads up that sale was now at 90% off retail instead of the 70% on the first day. I was going to check it out anyway because the reduction was up to 80% on day 2. When I got there, the stock was depleted to maybe 1/4 of what I saw on day 1. There were however, small piles of sheer tees and tanks for $10, cashmere knits for $30, pants for $20, modal dresses for $15 and more. I was going crazy but I had to restrain myself. Last week, I had my eyes on this ONE long silk skirt at the sale but did not get it. It retailed at $1,250 and so at 70% off , it would have been $375. No thank you. That day at 90% off, the skirt was $125 but at the cashier, it was further reduced to $65 for some reason I did not want to contest. It's white, flowy, silky and so elegant. I will find a special occasion to wear it and hope for a Marilyn Monroe moment.

After, I met up with D after his gym session (he's so disciplined) and we passed by 71 Irving Place Cofee and Tea Bar. D says 71 makes him feel very much like a New Yorker (which he is) but I guess this is a local gem frequented by mostly locals away from all them tourists.

This is also one of the first coffee shops D brought me to when I first moved to NY. It holds a special place in my heart (insert hearts here bling bling!) and the coffee isn't so bad :)