Favorite Food in New York

I grew up in New York and it's always held a special place in my heart so I thought I should do at least one NY-themed post. One of my favorite things about NYC is how easy it is to find delicious food. I've seen a lot of places come and go but here are some of my favorite places that have been around for a while. The service in all of these places is really warm and makes you feel extremely comfortable. If you get the chance to visit any of these places, you'll immediately see why they've been around for so long.

Japanese - Kyo Ya ((212) 982-4140, 7th St between 1st Ave and Ave A). Everything here is extremely intricate and well cooked. I love the sweet potato tempura (a large chunk of sweet potato on a bed of fried watercress), the chawanmushi (super fluffy egg custard and seafood), and the black bean an mitsu (the most intricate dessert you will ever have in your life)

Hot Dog - Gray's Papaya (corner of 72nd and Amsterdam). It's the last Gray's Papaya left in the city. The hot dogs have that perfect snap when you bite into them and the hot dogs only cost $2 each.

Tapas - Las Ramblas (West 4th near 6th Ave). Delicious tapas (my favorite is the sauteed mushrooms). They also have great sangria and a good selection of wines

Cheesecake - Eileen's Special Cheesecake (17 Cleveland Pl). The cheesecake here is perfectly fluffy and not too sweet and not too sour. You can buy them in units of mini, which are about 3" in diameter, or in units of large, which are about 10" across. Plain is my favorite.

Italian - Max Soha (123rd St and Amsterdam) The restaurant is super cozy and the perfect place to enjoy a pot of Grandma's Lasagna.

Cookie - Levain Bakery (74th St between Amsterdam and Columbus) This place makes the Platonic ideal of a cookie. Warm, soft, and chewy; their chocolate chip cookie is to die for (it closes at 7pm)

Peking Duck - Mr. Tong's ((718) 897-8202, 9720 Queens Blvd) The chef here used to work at Tung Ching Garden, which was one of the best Chinese restaurants in NYC. Tung Ching Garden has since closed but the chef at Mr. Tong's continues to make a delicious peking duck with crispy skin and ample duck meat. They will also make the requisite duck soup with tofu and vermicelli from the leftover duck bones.

Cream Puff - Beard Papa's (Broadway between 76th and 77th) The cream puffs are light and airy and the cream is sweet and vanilla-y.

Chicken and Rice - Halal Guys (53rd and 6th, SE corner!) These guys serve the same food as the cart across the street but they are open during the day and have no line! Hurray. I like to get the mix of lamb/chicken with white sauce (so crucial!) and spicy sauce. I think they now also have a storefront downtown.

Waterloo, Canada

I spend part of my time in Waterloo, Canada, which is home to the Perimeter Institute as well as the University of Waterloo. These two building have very interesting architecture and are worth exploring a bit if you are in the area. My favorite part of Waterloo, however, is the St Jacob's Farmer's Market (www.stjacobs.com/farmers-market). The market is open on Thursdays and Saturdays all year and you can buy really fresh and local vegetables, fruits, and meats for incredibly cheap. It's also just a cool place to wander around and spend a morning people-watching.

Bushels of Peppers at St. Jacob's

Tulum, Mexico (Part 2)

We had lots of really good food on our trip to Tulum. We stayed on the southern part of the beach so we had a couple of meals at restaurants along the beach road. Beach restaurants are quite a bit more expensive than the restaurants in town but some of them are really quite good. I recommend buying some snacks and breakfast stuff at either Chedraui or Super San Francisco (they've got good breakfast pastries too if you want to stop by on your way to an excursion) to save having to order everything.

Tulum, Mexico (Part 1)

Tulum is an extremely beautiful beach town 2 hours south of Cancun. It's off the grid so all hotels there are small. The sand is white and as soft as flour and the water is clear and calm most days. Pelicans fly overheard and you can often spot them diving into the ocean to eat a fish in the morning. It's perfectly easy to spend days just laying on the beach and jumping into the water whenever you feel like it.

I like a bit of adventure with my vacations so during the afternoons when the beach got too hot, we went on a few really awesome excursions around Tulum. I would recommend renting a car if you go because it just makes getting anywhere much easier.

Denver, Colorado

When I first got to Denver, I did not really like it very much. The city was kind of grey and the 16th St looked like a standard run-down strip mall. But then I did some walking and Denver turned out to be super interesting! There are lots of great restaurants, bars, and interesting old buildings. It's also infinitely walkable, which I really like in a city. Here's a rundown of some of the awesome things I found.

Peru!

We went on a GAdventures tour through the southern part of Peru and it was awesome. After getting some churros (con chocolate, crema, and dulce de leche) in Lima, we flew to Cusco to begin our acclimation to the high altitude. A good way of checking if you have altitude sickness is to drink a pisco sour once you are in Cusco and see if you immediately become intoxicated. If so, drink as much coca tea as possible because it really helps a lot (whether this is a placebo effect or actual effect, I have no idea). Once in Cusco, we had a delicious meal of lomo saltado (sauteed beef with vegetables and fried potatoes) at ChiCha. The beef was very tender and the mushrooms were a nice surprise. We also had a chance to walk to San Pedro market, which was filled with cool things to see (many different types of potatoes, cheese, butcher stands, and fruit markets).

Toronto area, Canada

I visit Canada pretty often and always discover new things when I go there. I'll list some of them in this post.

The nice thing about Canada is that in a lot of towns, there is enough space for a fairly large park so you can basically go for a outdoorish walk no matter where you are. We went to Dundas Peak near Hamilton and walked along the Bruce Trail in November and found some really lovely foliage.