NY State of Mind [2018/22]
You might have noticed that the pace at which I pumped out content on this blog tapered off dramatically in 2018. So much so that when it came time to write this blog post, I realized I might as well combine it with more recent work-related travel to NYC (from 2022, lol). By the time I finished this post, I was about to embark on a summer internship in NYC... so my 2023 perspective on NYC will be even richer. Nevertheless, the text here was written during 2022, mostly about my first visit to NYC as an adult in 2018 (sidebar: I did visit NYC in 2003 as well, with copious adorable pics like this one on the subway with Alana and this one on Wall Street — my parents really started us young!).
Once my summer 2018 travels ended, I embarked on my first full-time job post-graduation... and that ate up a lot of free time. Luckily for me, working in consulting meant that I was weaned into the lifestyle change with fun work travel! We spent the first two weeks of work in Chicago and New York.
I wish I had anything notable to say about my 2018 Chicago visit, but to be honest, we just spent time at the office with Training the Street and some PowerPoint design tutorials. I went to an oyster happy hour, purchased Garrett's popcorn, and saw the Bean again with Alison and Josh! ...That's pretty much it. Then I went to New York to hang with friends for the weekend. Shockingly, I hadn't been to NYC since 2004 by this point!
September 2018 visit
New York is one of those places where you can always find people you know. I went for breakfast at The Bean near NYU with Tian (açai bowls, my fav "vacation food") back when she was just starting law school. Then I met up with Alice Ma, who toured around with me for the day. We went to Mimi Cheng's for fusion-style dumplings (mid), followed by The Strand, which was so nice. I will always love bookstores. We then went to Boba Guys (<3), the 9/11 Memorial and Oculus (these weren't around yet when I last visited as a kid!), and walked further th Chelsea Market, the High Line, and eventually... Hudson Yards! I posed with the OG BCG office logo the way kids pose for the first day of school.
Afterwards, we settled in at 230 Fifth Avenue for some rooftop raspberry drinks. It was nice to catch up and clear the air on teenage angst back in the day. Jono from Australia came to link up too! Shortly after meeting in Serbia, he was now studying abroad in Boston and happened to be visiting New York for the weekend.
Jono and I then went to a Korean restaurant called Hangawi. It seemed to be highly rated and even had a Michelin Guide (note: not star) plaque outside the restaurant. To my horror, I soon learned that it's a VEGETARIAN Korean restaurant. Truly, did anyone know those existed?? Then we walked around Brooklyn. While bustling, all I saw were long lines to get into places and sketchy areas. I somehow didn't feel as safe here compared to the anonymous big city.
On the way back from Brooklyn, I finally saw a stereotypically "NEW YORK!" subway performance, with a guy dancing around. As any good tourist would, I stopped by Times Square at night and felt overwhelmed. New York City is too much of a city for me, usually.
The next day, I went for brunch at Gotan with Joseph and Kenny! Joseph was avidly looking for content for @ravenousrobillard on Instagram at the time. This was the first time I met Kenny, and we quickly became fast friends. He even invited me to join a party he was hosting later that week, although I couldn't attend since it was the same day as my flight. It's amazing to realize that small gestures like that can form a basis for friendship — I have much to learn on being proactive like that.
Anyway, our next stop was Central Park. While meandering around, Joseph and Kenny stumbled upon some of their other Penn friends and a water polo team asking for money (they kinda seemed like frat bros, tbh). We capped off the afternoon by walking around Fifth Avenue (I was truly struck by the set of American flags by Saks. It even became the cover photo for our This is America playlist) and stopping for a juice break. I went for a matcha drink with almond milk, mint, and honey, but they DEFINITELY forgot to add the mint and honey, smh. Don't they realize that I require copious natural sweeteners with my five-year-old palate?
At that point, Joseph got summoned back into the office ("weekends off" aren't in the vernacular for 1st-year banking analysts), so I went to meet up with Alice again at the MET. We saw the "Heavenly Bodies" exhibit, which I found to be sooo pretty. Is this... avant-garde? Funnily enough, I talked about the MET with some friends recently. I accidentally associated it with Gossip Girl instead of high-profile art, which is what they were trying to highlight.
Then I met up with Jono and Leanne to catch some views at the Rockefeller Center at sunset. As a pro-tourist tip, going to the "Top of the Rock" provides nice views of the Empire State Building (vs. going up the Empire State Building and thus missing the iconic building in your NYC sunset cityscapes). The three of us then went for Boba Guys again (truly, RIP NYC Boba Guys stores during COVID), where I found my favourite drink which has since disappeared: the chocochata, aka a chocolate horchata boba. It was right next to Ivan Ramen, which is supposedly famous but wasn't worth the hype, in my opinion.
Afterwards, we hung around a bit at Leanne's place, then I moved into my BCG-provided hotel — The Archer. It's a super small boutique hotel, but I liked the thoughtful touches like daily sweet treats and cute purple slippers.
Work training was a bit of a frenzy. I didn't stay in touch with my training "case team" as the years wore on, although I'm curious where they've all ended up since (alas, I only remember Mat Hernandez and Nancy Dermott). We had a couple nice dinners at Dos Caminos (their tres leches = très delicious) and Morimoto (a since-closed down restaurant from the iron chef. Too bad, since it had amazing oysters, king crab, lobster, shrimp, wagyu beef, soy fish, and mushroom tempura... and super-cool washrooms). Auntie Lily and Uncle Allen also treated me to the famous Katz's deli! I capped off the week with one last Boba Guys drink before chasing an earlier flight home due to the weather.
February 2022 visit
After Harvard Admitted Students Weekend, I flew over to co-locate with my NYC-based case team on Saturday night. Alas, the flight from Boston to New York was delayed for like five hours (truly traumatized by JetBlue). At least I was posted up near Hudson Yards courtesy of BCG.
That Sunday, I briefly met up with my mom's friend Malou to handle an ARMY-related matter (I lucked out with Jimin's artist-made merch drop on her behalf). Then I headed over for lunch at a Lebanese place called ilili with Henry and Richard. At this time, they had just recently moved to New York and were living in Jersey City (now they're in midtown). ilili reminded me a bit of Byblos in Toronto, but tasted a bit better.
Otherwise, we had a chill day hanging around the city. It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day, which made me like NYC a bit better now. In particular, midtown/k-town/Park Avenue is a bit quieter and more peaceful (those are good things in my books).
I really enjoyed a bubble tea place called iMilky, which was "clean"-tasting without being too sweet. Supposedly, they have chains all over Asia. My only qualm was the cup design, which wasted a lot of plastic. We also visited Bryant Park, which reminded me of the Toronto Christmas Market with its cute street vendors and raclette. It also had a skating rink with $40 rentals (criminal!) and people practically falling all over one another. No wonder COVID hit the city so hard. The other post-COVID ramification was that entrepreneurial street vendors all sold KN95 masks! There were also a bunch of signs to get free COVID tests everywhere, but not a single soul seemed to man these testing booths. COVID PCR-testing to enter Canada at the time caused quite a bit of stress, since it took multiple days for results to come through but the test results had to be from the past 72 hours). S/o to Henry and Richard for humoring my (unsuccessful) wild goose chase around Penn Station in search for a testing site. If only I knew that all those empty testing booths would become easily accessible on a weekday (aka literally the next day).
Cop or drop?
I also had a blast exploring Dover Street Market with da boiz. It was seven straight floors of hypebeast apparel, which reaffirmed my affinity towards Loewe and Thom Browne. Not that I'd actually pull the trigger on their designs, considering the price. We did, however, get tempted by CDG k-way windbreakers. They kind of looked like fun Olympic team jackets! In fact, Henry ended up going back to buy one later.
We also saw some ostentatious Balenciaga CROC HEELS, as modelled by Henry.
Dover Street Market is a funny place because everyone there kind of looks like they hate capitalism while simultaneously wearing ridiculously expensive clothing. They all had funky hairstyles too — I saw a guy with bright orange curls, a girl with green hair, one with pink hair, and a guy with a buzzcut and tattooed SCALP!
For dinner, we went to KazuNori for handrolls. I'd never liked sushi rolls before, but KazuNori made me a convert. The VALUE!! I got the five handroll set, which was super filling. In rank order, I preferred: Yellowtail with scallions > Toro > Scallop > Crab and lobster (to my surprise).
We then walked to the Milk Bar flagship store. They had a promotion where you could share your experience for $10 off, so Henry and Richard each got a pint of ice cream for $2. I overlooked the promotional copy and got a single cereal milk/french toast soft serve for $7. At least it was tasty and not too sweet. I definitely preferred the slightly salty cereal milk flavour over the very cinnamony French toast one. Unfortunately, they were both light beige in colour, so the swirl wasn't the prettiest.
To cap off the night, we sprinted to k-town and indulged in some COIN KARAOKE!! How can this possibly exist? I confirmed a couple weeks ago that this is indeed a thing though. There were four tiny small-room booths in the back of a food court's second floor. We had a blast feeding a $5 bill into the machine for 15 minute of karaoke. Henry even whipped out his concert earplugs for this. Until next time (aka 2023), NYC!