July 3, 2005
downtown fooding tour
*cell phone rings*
CJ: Hey, want to go to the pancake house tomorrow?
Me: Sure! I LIKE PANCAAAKE...uhoh, I'm getting another phone call. Hold on. *picks up other call*
Carol: Hey, want to go to the Clinton Street Baking Company today?
Me: Uh...sure!
*after I finished talking to Carol*
Me: I'm going to a place that specializes in pancakes with a friend today. And I'm going to the pancake house tomorrow. Does that make me a glutton?
CJ: Yup.
Yes, yes I am. OH WELL!
First, a photo:
- waffle time
And now, a rant.
I decided to take the 1:30 train from Ridgewood to NYC, figuring I would get there at around 2:30. Either the train schedule semi-lied to me or I missed something because I had to wait about 10 minutes in Secaucus for the next train to Penn Station, which literally puttered along the track until rolling into NYC. Rolling. Methinks trains in the US are technologically behind the trains in Europe and Asia.
While trains are much more comfortable than buses, they may not be much faster. Doh. Adding to the disruption in my traveling schedule, I hopped onto what i thought was a downtown E train, only to find that it was an uptown. IT WAS IN THE DOWNTOWN PLATFORM. I should've figured out something was wrong when none of the gates to the uptown platform allowed entry.
No problem besides the wasted time. I changed trains at 42nd Street and went down to West 4th to change to an F train. Sitting in the F train, the PA system cracked: "*fuzz fuzzle fuzz* C *fuzz fuzz*" Wuzzat? As we pulled out of the station I found out that the F was running on the C track. Al. Righty. This...why...w...uh? I was hating myself and the subway system by this point; I don't take the subway enough to be used to all the service changes and such.
I got out at 6th Ave and Spring Street, figuring that at my location there was no faster way to get to the restaurant except by foot. The next 20 minutes was a mix of running and brisk walking straight east. Surprisingly, running didn't make me asthmatic at all, thus throwing out the idea that my asthma may be triggered by physical activity (my main asthma-triggers are coughing, sleeping, and talking on the phone; I almost never get asthma in NYC, no matter what I do). I had a surprisingly steady amount of endurance considering the heat (and if you know me, I'm way out of shape) but maybe my body changed due to the incentive of pancakes and waffles.
Even though I was a little later than the 3:30 meeting time Carol and I agreed on, she was running a little late due to F train mishaps. So in the end, it all worked out. Kind of.
Oh, FOOD!
- waffles and biscuits
Even though the Clinton Street Baking Company is known for its pancakes, we decided to try an item from the July 4th menu, which was something like "vanilla buttermilk waffles of deliciousness with loads of cherries, almond slices, and maple butter that looks like gravy but is really sweet golden maple butter that you will become addicted to." We also each got a biscuit since they're known for their biscuits, which are featured on their postcards as being primarily made of love. ...and a large fraction being made of butter.
- biscuit-ness
The restaurant is a bit cramped but HELLO, BISCUITS. WAFFLES. Who cares? It's clean and bright, all the better to take close up photos of biscuits with. Everything was great but the best part of all was the maple butter (completely liquid, not like something you could spread). It's like a magic wand that makes everything it touches taste better!...this probably won't work with meat or broccoli but it works wonders on biscuits and waffles. Keep in mind that biscuits and waffles are inherently delicious, thus with maple butter, which tastes like caramelized butter juice (that would make a great beverage, don't you think?), they're the best. Bestest. Mm.
You've gotten the impression by now that I like a lot of food, but there are only a handful that have blown me away. The maple butter blew me away. (Another example of a highly rated foodstuff is the pizza bianca at the Sullivan Street Bakery.) AND IT'S JUST MAPLE SYRUP AND BUTTER! If I always had maple butter around, it would make deciding what to put on my pancakes much easier. "Maple syrup? Butter? OR BOTH?" The biscuit tasted better with the maple butter than the waffle since the biscuit was more adept at soaking it up, but I of course poured it all over my waffle. Can't get enough of that fat-sugar combination.
(If you're wondering, I have no idea why I'm not 400 pounds yet. I'm getting there though.)
Since this entry is already too long, I'll do a quick run-through of the rest of our day:
- piggy pudding
- Sugar Sweet Sunshine: I got Piggy Pudding, a layered pudding "cake" atop walnut shortbread; recommended for those who like pudding(myself). Carol got a blueberry muffin and hot tea.
- Happy Happy Happy: Carol got a madeleine but said it wasn't that good. I don't think it could compare to a regular one seeing as they specialize in gluten and dairy free desserts. It's too bad because it looked really yummy!
- Amy's Bread: I didn't get anything but Carol got a few goodies
- Polka Dot Cake Studio: Carol and I shared a super deliciously moist carrot bread pudding and I tried the vanilla bean lemonade. I'm not a huge fan of lemonade but it was interesting as it first tasted like regular lemonade (thankfully not super-sweet, quite tart) before releasing the vanilla-ness a moment later. Or maybe that was just me. Good stuff!
- Sullivan Street Bakery: I was way too full to buy anything but I told Carol to get a slice of pizza bianca. Unsurprisingly, she loved it. Seriously loved it. AND YOU WILL TO, IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YA.
- Sun Dou Dumpling Shop: Carol needed dumplings. 50 pieces of frozen handmade dumplings = cheap food to last ages!
- Dragon Land Bakery (or something like that): We were too full to think of buying anything. Doh.
So as you can see, it was quite a day of fooding that only took about 4 hours. ...actually, that's kind of long. But if I lived in NYC and didn't have to spent the time coming home, I would've done more! After sitting in a recovery room to let my stomach deflate, at least.
Posted by roboppy at 12:07 AM
Comments (5)
Maybe you haven't reached 400 lbs yet because you DON'T SLEEP.
Posted by: Amy at July 3, 2005 11:05 AM [#]
I'M TELLING YOU ITS THE E TRAIN CURSE!!!
waffles+biscuits= Aha!
lets do that again. AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN...
Posted by: Carol at July 4, 2005 11:33 AM [#]
Robyn!
God, I'm so envious I'm seeing green and red and pancakes too! :P I saw your photos on Flickr and all I can say is I'm jealous, jealous, jealous. I wish that I could just go to a place here in Manila and buy stuff like that. But since that's not the case, I'll just have to bake it myself. Wah!
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Hey Rob,
I agree, the subways are terrible. In fact, they've become my most commonly used scapegoat, second only to Bush and Bloomberg.
(Stares at waffles) I'd like one of those right about now. The cherries off the top would be good enough.
You know, I really should find out where most of the items on that list are. I mean, Sun Dou and Dragon Land I know like the back of my hand, but I'm clueless about everything else. I actually got lost in Chinatown on Friday afternoon. I'm ashamed (haven't been there for a while).
Allen
Posted by: Allen Wong at July 3, 2005 10:21 AM [#]