You all knew I was going to make this pun at some point – a tiger doesn’t change her stripes. Maybe I even had it in my plans before I went to Hungary, because it’s too obvious to not take advantage of. But I had NO IDEA that Budapest was going to be the source of some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life. Seriously.
I live in Manhattan. And for the most part, I love this Manhattan. But sometimes it’s hard. Like when it’s February. And rainy. And the 6 train is late every. single. day. And the wind is so wild that you think your air conditioner might fall right out of your 5th-floor-walkup living room window. And you have to keep that air conditioner in the window all year round because (1) you can’t control the raging temperature of your heaters and (2) you have no room to put the air conditioner if you take it out of the window because your apartment is the size of three office cubicles.
I’ve been dying to try out Big Gay Ice Cream for years but the moment was never right whenever I walked by. The moment *was* right on Monday. Aubrey, Emmy, and I celebrated Aubrey’s birthday at the West Village shop at Grove & 7th Ave – the original location is in the East Village on 7th St between 1st & A. When I arrived, I attempted to convince a French bulldog owner who was leaving to stay for a few minutes to surprise Aubrey, but the arrangement didn’t work out. What *did* work out was the ice cream situation I had in my hand minutes later.
Katie and I found ourselves in Philly this weekend visiting our third almost-sister, Jess. Both sets of our parents came up on Saturday morning and the first thing on *my* to-do list was to do a Federal Donuts taste test. Federal Donuts was recommended to me on my autumn trip to Philly, but we didn’t have enough time that morning to check it out. I was determined to not miss out again this time around. Federal Donuts is known not only for their donuts, but also for their fried chicken. I *love* me some fried chicken, but 9 am seemed a little too early for that on Saturday when I went to go pick up a sampling for our parents (okay, definitely mostly for me).
Before we went to Italy last month, everyone kept raving about the gelato. Our frousin Kara told us to eat it twice a day. We didn’t quite follow Kara’s rules to a tee, but we did eat a sufficient amount.
I have an extreme sweet tooth. A day is not complete without half a tray of brownies, seven or eight Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, or a package of Lifesavers gummies. Don’t worry, I’m actually starting to eat heathier, although I need to take a break this weekend for one of my 28 Things challenges. Last weekend I took a break as well because when Kat heard that I had never been to Dylan’s Candy Bar, she was appalled so I had to redeem myself and put it on the list.
I’ve been called a West Village wannabe for a few months now. I can’t help it. The West Village is my current dream world. I can’t stop thinking about living there one day. I don’t think I’ll be able to swing it with my next move, but perhaps with the next one I can get a nice brownstone townhouse on Commerce Street and live my days walking the quiet streets, wandering into small book stores, going to poetry readings, and eating at the 9,000 cupcake and gelato shops there.
For her birthday last year (in October twenty TEN), I got my fab roomie a few gifts courtesy of Groupon, for some fun activities that we could do together. Unfortunately, we let time get away from us and didn’t use any of them for over a year. The Butter Lane cupcake class expiration date was creeping up on us so in December (the same night we scheduled our painting class at Paint Along), we sat down and booked it for last Thursday.
A couple weeks ago, a few friends and I went to see the play “Memphis”. If you are keeping track (which I’m sure you are), this means I only have four more shows to see in order to cross this item off my “26 Things” list. Any recommendations? (No, not planning on seeing “Spiderman”.)
Last year at Christmas, I thought it would be a good idea to bring home a Dancing Deer gingerbread house kit from Whole Foods and make it with my sister. I thought it would be delightfully fun and turn out beautifully and it turned out being incredibly stressful and really freaking ugly. Proof is below.
Yesterday, Caitlin, Tyler, and I played “tour guide” to some of our friends from school who came up for the day. It was super fun and filled with lots of walking, holiday decorations, and good food (Caitlin always knows *the best* places to get special treats). Julie had two goals of the day, 1) to get Bobby to repropose to her in front of the tree in Rockefeller Center in front of strangers (lol) and 2) go ice skating – which, if you remember, is also on *my* holiday to-do list. Unfortunately, neither of these goals was achieved. Bobby respectfully refused to repropose and we ran into ridiculously long lines at all the ice rinks.
I suppose my obsession with food carts has been made public by this point. A particular food truck I follow on Twitter (@waffletruck aka Wafels & Dinges) has been tempting me for a few weeks now. So when my roomie texted me to tell me that there was a truck hanging out right near our apartment, I decided I would go today. But while checking out the website, I saw that it was only supposed to be there until 5, but that another truck would be on 6th and 21st until 10 pm. I took the E train up from work with my friend Jon and we both got a delightful little treat – even though the truck was parked at 7th and 21st instead. Check here for locations as it changes daily.
Basically the first thing people learn about me is that I really, really, really like cupcakes. Multiple people have recommended that I be a cupcake for Halloween (this was not the winning costume decision). Some of my favorite things to do in NYC are to: try out new cupcake places, eat cupcakes, talk about cupcakes, make cupcakes, bathe in cupcakes, etc. Therefore, I have decided I should share my favorite cupcake places with my readers (aka Mom & George) so that you all know where to go when you need to suck up to me / apologize to me.
Today, Nicole, Dave, and I decided to go to Pop Tarts World in Times Square. Yes, you read that correctly. Someone, somewhere, thought this was a good idea. The store is located on 42nd, in between Broadway and 6th.
10 miles behind me 