The Girl Who Ate Everything

Actually, the title isn't true. But it's kind of true.

This morning I shared the last two egg custard tarts from Mei Lai Coffeehouse with my visiting friend, Lee Anne, whom I may stuff with lots of...stuff. I've never had one that had been refrigerated before; it's pretty good! I mean, it's always good, but...yeah, that had no point. Warm, fresh egg custard tarts are great and cold ones are good too since they're a bit more solid. Egg custard tarts are one of my most favorite Chinese foods, although I guess it's not very Chinese.

After checking out of my dorm, we headed up to 60th Street for Lee Anne's haircut appointment. What did I do in the meantime? Can you guess? Yes, yes you can. WHAT DID ROBYN DO?

Robyn went around to foodie places. First, I went to Fauchon, a French food market type place that has lots of tea, chocolates, honeys, preserves, cookies, pastries, and all around stuff that is really unhealthy for you but probably tastes good (because most unhealthy things do taste good). I didn't get a good look at the pastries because I was just browsing and it was rather uncrowded so I didn't want to...drool on the display case. Actually, I'm not very into French pastries (oh, don't get me wrong, I think they taste wonderful) because I like something less complicated. Maybe. Like a huge red bean bun. Oh yes. But anyway, they have HUGE ASS MACAROONS. HUGE. Like four regular ones (I guess they're "macarons", not macaroons...ah, alright). The first time I had one of these was from Wegmans and ever since then I've really liked em (they are a mouthful of heaven apparently). However, you don't see them sold very often and I certainly don't eat them much. I've seen them at Something Sweet bakery on 1st Ave and 11th Street and La Maison du Chocolat. I plan to go back to Fauchon just for a huge-ass macaron.

After that, I wandered down Park Avenue to Grand Central. I've been there a few times so I knew what lurked inside: LOTS AND LOTS OF FOOD. Or lots. ...no, lots and lots. I ended up getting a muffin at Zaro Bakery out of all the enticing foods subject to the awesome buying power of my wallet. I love carrot muffins so I like comparing different ones, mmkay--I'm going to use that as an excuse. The muffin was okay, not bad, not memorable. I think all carrot muffins should have nuts and this one HAD NO NUTS, but it had lots of raisins. I'd rather have nuts than raisins.

Oh, back to the food. There's a lot. The lower level? Lots of food. The upper level? Still lots of food. The lower level is probably more fun but the upper ain't too shabby. Zaro's stuff looked mighty tasty....mmmm...b...bread. But I didn't want an entire loaf of bread for one of the first times in my life. I know a lot of people say blaargh to Junior's Cheesecake but I've had it once and you know what? I ENJOYED IT. The slice was mega-huge so I couldn't finish it, but I thought it was damn tasty. I don't have a very discerning taste but anyhoo, if I were feeling more piggish I would've gotten some from Grand Central. The only time I've eaten their cheesecake was after walking there across the Brooklyn Bridge. You gotta walk that off somehow (although that probably walked off...a tablespoon).

And I went to more food places. Maybe. (thinks) Ah yes, I went up to Payard after eating my muffin while gazing at Lever Labyrinth and that freaky but cool huge pregnant lady sculpture nearby. I couldn't see much inside Payard but it looked nice and very expensive. I should've gone inside...oops (I though the whole thing was like a restaurant). I'll just have to go back SOME OTHER DAY.

That was the main fooding of my day, which didn't involve much food. Oh, I mean "main fooding" as in what was interesting. I moved out of my dorm so now I'm at home and upon coming home I ATE A LOT. It just wouldn't stop! HOLY MOLY. My mum got a loaf of that butter soft Japanese bread that is so buttery you don't need to butter it (actually, I would butter it so it would just be really really buttery) and we picked up eel sushi and spring rolls from Market Basket, a place that's about 5 minutes from my house yet I haven't eaten at in a long time. The sushi is pretty good (to be honest, I can't recall a time I had bad sushi either because I truly haven't or I don't have standards; it's probably the latter) and I love Vietnamese-style spring rolls. My mum and I tried to make these once but the rice paper always broke on us. Hm. Besides that my mum bought biscotti, which was just okay. I ate two pieces even though it was just "okay" because I SUCK. Market Basket makes good cookies (like chocolate chip-esque ones) and their tarts are good but biscotti...maybe not. I haven't tried most of the other things as they come in large packs and I just want ONE muffin, dammit, not two!

Oh, and I drank a lot. I almost always drank water in my dorm aside from the time a friend gave me some hot white chocolate mix. Today I drank about two cups of tea (I made the mistake of deviating from chai tea for the second and using some kind of orange tea, which wasn't as good; I ended up not finishing it) and a cup of hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was okay, made from a Wegman's mix, but nothing really compares to something like City Bakery's. And that was the last hot chocolate I had!...a few months ago. It affected me to the point that I just couldn't take any more hot chocolate. However, a thin hot chocolate works fine.

So I ate a lot today. NO SURPRISE. Tomorrow (er, today) I'm going back into NYC to finish a food webzine that if I haven't linked already, I will when it's totally done.