Cruising the Double Cs

Today was my girls day out with my childhood friend. She came from out of town by train, so I met her at Penn Station.

It was around noon-time when she arrived, so we caught up over some lunch at Rae's Delicatessen on 33rd.

Guess there weren't a lot of menu options at a deli for my friend who is vegetarian, so she got the veggie burger on toasted whole-wheat bread and I the teriyaki chicken in a pita wrap.

The teriyaki chicken was full of flavor, a little too much actually. The first couple of bites were quite satisfying, but towards the end it got a little too salty with the soy sauce. I ended up fishing out all the veggies and eating the bread bits to mop up the flavor intense chicken.

Teriyaki Chicken Pita

The meat itself was quite tender and fresh. The tomato and slice lettuce combination worked well to cleanse the heaviness of the chicken. I wonder how much sodium was in this pita.

Hubby's veggie pattie tasted a lot like the the ones my Mom would make at home, with homemade veggies and mashed potatoes. It tasted strangely Chinese. As you can see, she's a ketchup-lover just as I am, and without it I'm sure it would have tasted bland.

Veggie burger

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) due to the saltiness, I could only finish half the pita. But that's quite alright because I was saving room for the most important course - dessert!

Especially on this particularly day, it was another heat wave stricken day. I was so thirsty as I was walking around that I finished my bottle of water and kept on wanting more (but funny I didn't want to go to the washroom at all). 

We did some shopping around Herald Square, then went over to Chelsea Market. I've never been before, but it was like a paradise for foodies like my friend and I! 

Store listing

With a myriad of gourmet stores to choose from, we didn't even know which one to go to first. We walked around and saw that there were fresh lobsters, and then the most diverse selection of cheeses at Lucy's Whey and fresh fruits at the Fruit Exchange. It was mind-blowing!

Retro cook books

There were a series of artwork featuring superheroes performing everyday chores, like batman on a motorcycle (doing groceries?).

What's my oil level?

Everyone has to do laundry right?

Thought this Fat Witch was pretty cute.

 And oh my goodness these were absolutely adorable!

Elmi eat-me!

Unfortunately, these are fake

So is this (but they can make you a real edible one)

Cookies mania

Now this is what I call a higher echelon dog...

Gourmet hot dogs

After feasting our eyes in gourmet heaven, we grabbed some Ronnybrook's Ice Cream at their Milkbar (sound familiar?). It was between ice cream and gelato, and we chose this because they didn't have the olive-flavoured gelato that she wanted to try. 

She got blueberry and I got coffee. I shoulda gotten blueberry instead because it was intensely creamy with a bold and natural blueberry aroma. The coffee one on the other hand was rather bland, and you couldn't really taste the coffee in it at all. 

Coffee vs. Blueberry

Blueberry is the winner!

As we sat on the bar stools enjoying our cones, we noticed there are drawing sent in by kids thanking the farm for their dairy products. I really enjoy their drinkable yogurt, in blueberry and mango flavors. 

You Mooove Me 

As we were browsing through Anthropology, I came across this book that struck me as relevantly retro. In it offers many valuable lessons for ladies, such as smiling, which is always, always for free.  

There were these nicely painted coffee cups that reminded me of Russian dolls for some reason.

Our next stop was Chinatown. We were looking for some decorations, and this was a perfect (albeit expensive) design for lanterns. I really like the bottom one with the pink floral designs.

Lantern magic

Then we chilled a little at Chatime, which is now my all-time favorite bubble tea joint. I got a large green pearl tea with 30% sweetness (there's even 180% sweetness for the uber sweet-tooth). It was wonderfully refreshing to counter the summer heat, and the bubbles soaked enough sweetness to taste pleasantly chewy. 

Green Pearl Tea

Hubby got the passionfruit green tea, which had a nice lemony aroma to it. 

And of course, who can leave Chinatown without a healthy dose of...

Egg Tarts!

We got an assortment of bakery goodies from Dragonland Bakery and White Swan. 

Notice how the chocolate cake has the word "chocolate" on it? It's fool-proof!

What could possibly be inside this Mets bag?

More egg tarts!

And a cocktail bun!

I got these coconut buns for breakfast for hubby, whose always on the run and never have time to eat a proper breakfast =(

Coconut Bun

So I guess you might have guessed which two C's I'm referring to - Chelsea and Chinatown. I would definitely love to revisit the first one, but the second one beckons only when I crave for bubble tea. 

It was an awesome day spent with an awesome friend, and I would love to have more days like this  reminiscing good times and enjoying new ones!