NYC / DAY TWO (Part I)

Saturday, March 7, 2009. There's no better way to start a Saturday morning than with a fresh cup of Starbucks. Luckily, there was one right around the corner from the hotel. So we made our first stop of the day there. Soon after, we were headed towards Chinatown on foot.

We took the northeast length of Church St. towards NoLita. But once we hit Canal, we had entered the area more popularly known as NYC's Chinatown. NYC's Chinatown is a bastion of Chinese immigrant culture; a true mecca where East meets West. It may not be as "flowery" as San Francisco's Chinatown, but NYC's Chinatown is gritty, in-your-face, and you will find people from all sorts of backgrounds and creeds meeting at this epicenter for some of the best cheap eats and cheap buys in the city.

Countless store fronts offering everything from T-shirts, to "cubic" silver jewelry (one business woman described her jewelry as "cubic" silver, to which we quietly snickered), to the fakest of the fake in Prada, Balenciaga, and yes, even a "good" fake Muse by YSL (even I had to double-take that one). I scored an NYC onesie for my nephew, Noah, and the girls were on the hunt for a "good" fake bag. From past experience, Gina was keeping her ears in tune to shop keepers calling out "Gucci-Gucci, Prada-Prada" on the sides of the street; hoping to get one of the mythical invites to the big white vans, or to a shop keeper's "secret room." When she bit at the call of a random, younger-looking guy from the street, he led us into a huge store, and took us to a back door that he had to unlock with a key. Gina and Carrie followed him down the stairs, while Aydee and I stayed up front. It was straight out of a scene from a movie where friends get separated in a seedy part of Chinatown, and the two who were led away are then forced to live a life of slavery in some hidden sweatshop underneath the city streets. I was secretly prepping myself to lead a campain to save my missing friends, but then Gina resurfaced after a couple of minutes.

GINA: Wen, can you come down here? We need your expertise.

I felt like I was about to be betrayed by one of my best friends, so I pulled Aydee with me. At least the two of us would be gutsy enough to fight back if anything were to happen. What if we were pulled down to some back room, where Carrie was being interrogated by undercover cops? Or what if Gina had secretly been an agent for some underground Chinatown crime syndicate, and she was being paid gazillions to lead us to our fate?!

We followed Gina down into the basement of the building where boxes of shoes were piled up, ready to be shipped out or delivered to nearby stores. We kept walking towards a room, where we could see light peering out from the side of the hallway. I was almost certain that this was the end of the road for us all until I heard the conversation from inside:

GHETTO GIRL #1: Girl! I want this Coach bag! You think I can use this at church?

GHETTO GIRL #2: Emm-hmm! Lemme find out how much that cost... (calling to one of the workers) Excuse me! How much this is?! This one righ' hea'!?

At the other corner of the room stood Carrie, wide-eyed at the multitude of Chanel and Marc Jacobs knock-offs that were staring back at her. She didn't know what to do with herself. Almost instantly, I was being asked what I thought about this bag, or that. As if I actually knew what I was doing. So I reached deep inside myself to find my "fake bag detector" cap, put it on, and got to work. I'm not a Coach fan, and all the fakes were just a repulsive as the real ones. So I wasn't of much help with those, aside from checking on the quality of the bag's hardware, zippers, and/or pockets and straps. When Carrie was eyeing a fake Chanel, I steered her from plain, smooth leather(ette) bags, and told her to stick to textured looks.

WEN: If you're going to "fake it till you make it" (I stole that from Kimora), then it's better to go with something textured. Textured pieces tend to be harder to scrutinize.

She ended up with some random Coach carry-all, and a decent-looking Chanel tote. Gina was eyeing a Fendi. And although I pointed out that the Fs in the logo weren't as close together as the real ones are, we found one that was decent enough to pimp. When we were the last ones in the room, we bartered with the girl who was making deals with the customers, and she "gave us a deal" because we "look like Chinese." Wow. A moment where our Asianness worked in our favor. *TEAR*

When we finally ascended back from the secret bag dungeon, we were eyeing food. We ended up at some random spot at the corner of Walker and Baxter streets. The name of the place escapes me, but from the outside windows you could see roasted ducks hanging on one side, and yummy-looking desserts on the other.

Roasted Duck (and the reflection of the street against the glare of the window)

Desserts

The little restaurant was filled with Chinese patrons, along with obvious tourists. People were eating everything from duck to bowls of piping hot noodle soups, rice dishes, and dumplings. We all kept it simple. Aydee ordered a dish of fried rice, I ordered a combination plate of roast pork and roast duck over rice, and Gina and Carrie each ordered a plate of Beef and Pork in egg over rice dishes respectively.

Carrie's Dish Before...

Gina's Dish After...

After having our fill, we were back on-foot, and headed towards the nearest train station. Destination: Central Park. We were on the hunt for an uptown train. We found one around Mott and Canal, and we descended down to the train station below.

We got off somewhere between 60th and 70th, and walked towards the park along E 72nd. As big as it was, we barely scratched the surface. Carrie was on the search for landmarks from the movie, Enchanted. I have never seen the movie, so I was oblivious to it all. But she seemed to be elated once she saw the famed Bethesda Fountain at the heart of Central Park. The fountain was off, probably because of the winter weather still lingering around, and people had gathered around for a side show that was going on.

Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, NYC

After watching the show for about 15 minutes, we were on our way to the other side of the park. We continued on W 72nd, and were on the hunt for Buttercup Bake Shop (141 W 72nd St., b/t Amsterdam & Columbus). Buttercup is the brainchild of one of the originating founders of NYC's now legendary Magnolia Bake Shop, which is credited as the bakery that started the U.S.' growing obsession with cupcakes and cupcakeries. The shop is located on the business-lined stretch of W 72nd, between the busy streets of Amsterdam and Columbus. The flavors are plentiful, and the aroma of the freshly-baked cakes are tantalizing.

I quickly got to work, and started to survey the different flavors of cupcakes. I decided to get a handle on four: Red Velvet, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Buttercup Golden with Vanilla Icing, and Sour Cream Spice. I brought them to the table, and after examining them (and taking pictures) we took our forks and dug into each cupcake like a bunch of vultures. The red velvet was clearly a winner; easily ONE of the best red velvet cupcakes that I've ever had. But it wasn't the hands-down winner. That billing goes to peanut butter & jelly: peanut buttery cake with a grape jelly filling, and a peanuty icing. Simply amazing! The buttercup golden was good as well, but the spice cupcake was a little drier than the rest. All in all, it was a great experience.