New York City

So I went in NYC the other week for TARCon 9…and to get the hell out of Lenox, and I ate my ass off. I know NYC is chalk full of fine dining establishments, but there’s also the other spectrum; the cheap eats. While in South East Asia some of the best meals I had were on the street, or in some little shit-hole restaurant and NYC isn’t all that different. There are tons of options for some really good food for very little money.

Now the first thing I did (as I usually do when in NYC), is go to the Museum of Natural History, which is like my most favourite museum ever. Unfortunately I only had a little bit of time, so after checking out the Dinosaurs (which was a stupid thing to do all things considered), I had no time left for anything else. I need to go back though, as there’s a Charles Darwin exhibit that I NEED to see.

Anyway after that I went to go check out a Tehuitzingo. This place is a Mexican Grocery store in Hell’s Kitchen (no not that awful TV show), but in the back they have a little kitchen with two little ladies cooking up some of the best taco’s in NYC. They had everything from Beef, pork and Chicken to the more strange tripe and tongue. I decided to play it safe and just get a beef taco and two spicy pork tacos. They were great taco’s, and sure beat the hell out of Hot Harry’s (although those do do well when the craving hits). If you like taco’s, and find the place, it’s definitely worth a visit.


After going to see some live music, I just happened to pass a White Castle on the way home, and bought a sack of burgers. Now I don’t know what it is about White Castle, but these are things I can only eat drunk. Sober, they suck, drunk…awesome.

The next day I went to probably my favourite place in NYC, the Shake Shack. The shake shack is a great burger joint set up in Madison Square Park, and they serve truly awesome burgers, and concretes. In this day and age where most places cook the hell out of ground beef, so it’s dry and crappy, this place will still cook it up nice and pink of you ask. Plus the park is a great place to grab a bite and just walk people. They even have a licensed part of the patio if you fell like a drink.


The next place I ate was Puglia’s in Little Italy for the TARflies lunch, and had some great Italian food, including Cannoli’s which you almost had to wrestle people over. For some reason, I didn’t eat much else that day, which was a big mistake given how much I drank. Jon and TJ went to Gray’s Papaya for a snack, and why I didn’t join them is beyond me. I first ate at Gray’s during one of my first trips to NYC back for TARCon 4. Darcie and I just happened to stubble into the place, and decided to have a Hot Dog, and I’ve been going back ever since. You get 2 dogs and a drink for something like $2, so it really can’t be beat.

After dragging my ass out of bed I headed down to China town, but not before stopping at the shake shack for another burger. Then it was off to Jin Fong’s for some tasty Dim Sum. There is no dim sum in either Kingston or Lenox, so I was happy to be back in place that actually had good Chinese food. The price can’t be beat either since I ate a ton of dumplings for only $10. Plus, the tea and water helped get rid of the hangover.

After Dim Sum; Kris, TJ and I went wondering around China Town and went to New Beef King which sells Beef Jerky, and only beef jerky, and holy do they do it well. It’s not that dry leather stuff you find at grocery stores. This stuff was still pretty chewy and meaty. I think I bought too much though, as I’m still eating it now.

The Ashtray Says, You've Been Up All Night

So I'm back! So now what? I wish I could say life was good, and I'm settling down into a routine, but honestly life kind of sucks right now. It also doesn't help that I've been having a difficult time sleeping since I got back. At first it was just the jet-lagg and stuff, but now it's the everything else that's going on. There are a few things I'm trying to wrap my head around (well one main thing, and then a few other little things), and all it's doing is keeping me up. I wish I could just turn off the brain before going to bed, but other than knocking myself unconsious, I don't think that's going to happen. Oh well hopefully it will all work out soon.

It doesn't help that I just have no idea what I want to do now. Do I stay in Science, or try something else? I really like food, but I don't think I could ever be a chef, so what else is out there? Suggestions?

So as for this Blog, well I'm still here, and food is still here, so I'll probably just keep it going, and see what it develops into. I just wanted to thank everyone for the comments they made, and the emails I got on the road. It was pretty lonely out there sometimes, and the messages from home really helped that out. I tried to keep this Blog fairly positive, and like 90% of the trip was insanely amazing, but traveling alone for that long, was really wearing me down at times. At times I was just sick of meeting new people every few days, and having the same "Where you from? How long have you been traveling?" conversation. I got tired of meeting really reat people, and then having to leave them. I got tired of consantly deciding where I would have to eat, and where I would have to stay with out having someone to bounce ideas off of. Mostly though, I just got tired of me. Sometimes I would be trapped with myself for days, with no one else to really talk to, and quite frankly there were times when I would have walked out on myself if I could. I mean fuck, I just wouldn't shut up most the time. Give it a rest buddy, just let me eat in piece.

Honestly though, I had a great time, and met some of the greatest people I'll ever meet. So if any of you are out there reading this, thanks. You all made this the trip of a life time, and hopefully we'll meet again. The food was great, the sights were great, but it was the people, both travelers and locals alike who really made this trip for me.