My mom and little brother Danny came all the way from Beijing to visit me here in Philly and I was excited to show them around the city my first weekend with them, but Mom was so keen on visiting NYC, and when I thought about it, I realised that after having made the trek over here, it only made sense for them to also visit the Big Apple, which is just under a two hour train ride away from Philly. Plus that means I’d get to stay in a hotel, and even though I’ve finally gotten my summer apartment cleaned up, it’s a far cry from luxury. Most importantly, I could finally shower without sandals.
I rode the Amtrak for the first time! I felt spoilt by the cushy seats, a/c, and wifi (can’t stream though, including Spotify). Usually I take the Megabus from Philly to NYC because it’s cheaper, but for Mom, time is money; for me, money is money. Before hopping on the train, we stopped by Starbucks and Mom got a venti caramel macchiato, Danny got a grande strawberry frappuccino, and I finally tried the [grande] iced coconut milk mocha macchiato. It was pretty good, but I’m not a coffee connoisseur or anything. Accompanying me for the ride was The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.
Upon arrival, we dropped off our one bag at the Millennium Broadway Hotel. I couldn’t be more excited to trade in my dank summer apartment for the weekend. The elevator up was ear-popping fast, and from this height, we couldn’t see a single street–just skyscrapers as far as the eye could see. You should have seen me pressed up against the floor-to-ceiling window on the 40th floor trying to spy the street down below.
But there wasn’t too much time for ogling. We were in NYC and we had things to do! Just a few blocks away were the TKTS Discount Booths marked by the ruby-red stairs in the middle of Times Square. Mom joined the throng of people lining up for tickets while Danny and I hung back to choose a musical. Neither of us knew anything about anything, so we powered through several musical soundtracks on Spotify and ended up getting tickets for Matilda, the novel by Roald Dahl that we both read, and the 1996 film that we rewatched together just a few days ago.
With our tickets for the 2:00PM showing purchased, we had just over an hour for lunch, so we started walking toward Shubert Theatre, kept an eye out for restaurants along the way, and found ourselves at Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar.
Bacon-wrapped BBQ shrimp ($25.95): Applewood bacon wrapped shrimp, grilled and glazed with Guy’s signature BBQ sauce. Grilled seasonal vegetable kabob, grilled pineapple + old school rice pilaf.
Dragon chili cheese fries ($12.95): Topped with Dragon’s Breath Chili, sharp cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, scallions, sour cream + crispy bacon bits.
Bacon + chicken mac n cheese ($19.50): Creamy three-cheese sauce, diced rotisserie chicken, grated parmesan, crumbled bacon, scallions + cheese crackers.
Guy’s was right across the street from Shubert Theatre, and we were conveniently placed at a table at the front of the restaurant, so we were in the optimal position to see when the doors opened and the audience started moving in.
Please take this moment to silence your phones… and unwrap your candy.
That’s when you know you’re in for a good one. I would highly recommend catching Matilda before it closes on January 1. I had such great laughs and it was an all-around fantastic time. So much of the cast were children, and super talented children I might add! I mean, I guess what else would you expect of Broadway. Miracle is such a catchy song, and it was so cute when the kids were entering Crunchem Hall Primary School singing that song and trailing off with their verses as hope drained out and fear seeped in. Lavender is such an endearing, energetic character, very different from her portrayal in the film. Am I spoiling things by saying that Miss Trunchbull is played by a man? My favourite sequence was definitely School Song; I call it The Alphabet Song. The choreography with the letter blocks was so cool! I found a video of it on YouTube, but the recording doesn’t live up to the live show so I don’t feel like linking it. The transitions were incredible; it was like watching a magic show. The lasers that shot out when Miss Trunchbull announced the Chokey was hilarious. OH and Miss Trunchbull’s slow song was also really funny. Miss Trunchbull was an all-around star. When I Grow Up and Quiet are both such beautiful, sweet songs. Bruce was a breakout at the end with Revolting Children. As someone who has read the book and watched the film, I found the additional plot of The Escape Artist and The Acrobat in the musical very interesting. I love how Matilda tells the story. I’m sure so many children can see themselves in Matilda, her creativity, her imagination, her animation. Or maybe they don’t see it until they’re adults and lose it (though hopefully they don’t ever lose it), but only because they’re living it.
We had just eaten lunch before the musical, so we decided to walk to Koreatown for dinner instead of catching the Metro. On our way we saw a CoCo and I thought it’d be funny to get bubble tea from CoCo even though I had planned to take them to Gong Cha in Koreatown for bubble tea (it’s the ultimate place). CoCo is the only good place to get bubble tea where I live in Beijing, so I was amused by the fact that Mom and Danny had come all the way from Beijing only to have CoCo in NYC. Mom’s top was the perfect background for my humour.
My hair has been in dire need of maintenance; the last time I was in a salon was August of last year when I bleached my hair two times and dyed it three colours. We saw Kakaboka Hair Salon upon entering Koreatown and thought why not?
Kakaboka offers students 10% discount if you go Monday-Thursday.
My hairdresser ran her fingers through my hair and tsked, “Your hair is soooooooo damanged,” and all I could say was “Yeaaah…”
With my hair cut done, we continued wandering around Koreatown until we settled on Five Senses for dinner, which seemed to be quite popular. We weren’t hungry (courtesy of bubble tea), so the long wait suited us.
Dol sot bi bim bap ($17.99): Rice topped with vegetables on a sizzling stone pan with a fried egg and choice of beef, chicken, seafood or tofu.
Aumonim dae gu maewoon tang ($17.99): Mother’s favorite spicy boneless fresh black code soup. “The best in NYC”
Usually for dinner at NYC’s Koreatown, I just get cheese ddeokbokki at the food court, but Mom said I should have a “proper” meal, especially since she was here to take me around and pay for it. For the record, we went back to Koreatown the next day (twice) and Mom got ddeokbokki and said it was better than what she had in Beijing.
#creepershot #microfashion. But omg her outfit was just too beautiful. It’s so cute on this little girl, but I think it’s also an outfit that could totally work on a grown woman too. The top is mint coloured with a potted succulent tiled print, and the scalloped skirt is pastel pink with black polka dots. I really want to know where she got those clothes from! How do fashion bloggers know where everything is from or find similars for stuff like looks-for-less??
Danny and I were drawn into a bookstore, and Mom was drawn into the shop on the floor above it, which was called LuvLuv. The ladies who ran the shop were so sweet. Mom was shopping, but whenever she shops she always gets clothes that she says we can both wear so that we get more bang for our buck although our style preferences often differ, so one lady recommended clothes to Mom and another lady recommended clothes to me, and I just went with the flow to pass time even though I had no intention of getting anything. They showed us catalogues, recommended individual items, and showed us how you could style them by sharing pictures they took of themselves in those outfits.
They said they’d give us a discount if we bought multiple items, so Mom bought two tops and I got this hat. Straw hats seem to be trendy this season and I haven’t been immune. I’ve bookmarked this bolero and this boater from blog posts I read, but I don’t need those links anymore because I’ve got my adorable number with a 10% discount (originally $65). Mom is always pushing me to wear hats to protect myself from the sun, so she was more than happy to get it for me, although the brim is quite small, so I’m not sure how much sun this hat will actually protect me from. But it’s cute so whatevs.
We started off the next day by watching Mulan on Disney Channel. Both of my brothers watch a lot of TV (“Not me!” I proudly say as I waste hours away streaming TV shows on my laptop) but our TV in Beijing doesn’t have Disney Channel, so watching Disney Channel is a very special thing indeed. And we didn’t even need to leave the bed! My hotel experience this weekend really was pure luxury. I didn’t even need to wear sandals into the shower! I didn’t need to suck myself in the shower trying to avoid the walls and shower curtain as I was washing because the bar from which the shower curtain hung was bowed outwards, which gave me more space to move around. Whoever designed that was very thoughtful.
After a lazy morning, we stopped by TKTS again to get tickets for the 3:00PM showing of An American in Paris before heading out to lunch in Koreatown, but along the way I spied Mr. Bing in a row of food carts. If you know me, you know that 煎饼 (jiān bǐng) is my favourite; it’s even earned a place on my About page; my first Instagram photo was of 煎饼.
Danny and I shared the classic vegetarian ($10) because that’s the kind the 煎饼 lady outside our school (my old school, his current school) always made, unless we asked to have ours with some sort of mystery meat, which I never asked for. Even though the Mr. Bing 煎饼 used something more like tortilla chips than 油条, it wasn’t that bad, but then again, I haven’t had authentic 煎饼 off the streets of Beijing for awhile, so maybe my standards aren’t the best to judge by. I was just happy to have it at all. Although the price made me want to cry. I could get 煎饼 back at home for 4RMB (~60¢)!
Just a few carts down was Renegade Lemonade. Mom bought the classic lemon in a jar ($9) although I thought she would have gone for the raspberry rose, and tbh I would have really liked to try it too. The classic lemon was as delicious as you’d expect of a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. The best part was that we got to keep the mason jar!
We finally made our way to Koreatown, and since we had lunched on 煎饼 already, we went straight to dessert. (It is here when Mom gets ddeokbokki at the food court whilst Danny and I wait at the dessert place.) I took them to Grace Street and we shared The OG shaved snow ($10~): black sesame shaved snow with misugaru powder, strawberries, red bean, and mochi. Mom and Danny weren’t impressed but I liked it so much! I was sad that they didn’t like it. It was my second time here and second time ordering this same delicious (to me) thing. (My first time was when I was in NYC to tour Google.)
What other way to end our NYC trip than at the Palace Theatre for one last Broadway show before we headed back to Philly? I couldn’t believe how close we sat to the stage; I’m used to sitting far up in the balcony. An American in Paris is what you’d expect of any romance. It’s set in Paris, the lead woman is a ballerina, and all the choreography in the musical is ballet. Even the set transitions are ballet; you’ll get what I mean when you see it. Three men love one woman, but none of them know they love the same woman, and that woman loves only one of them, but she is torn between her head and her heart, or rather she loves them in different ways. For me, the climax of the story was right before the end of the first act.
The show that we saw was very special. At the end of it was the regular applause. The cast was all emotional. Jill Paice who played Milo Davenport stepped out and said something along the lines of, “You see us all crying on stage and are probably thinking, oh actors. But tonight’s show was especially emotional for all of us, because it was the last show with us for two people here.” Garen Scribner who plays the lead Jerry Mulligan and Sara Esty who plays the lead Lise Dassin are leaving the company to join the US National Tour of An American in Paris.
I’m not a sentimental person or someone who gets homesick, but it was so good to see Mom and Danny again. This summer of adulting has really taken it out on me and I’ve missed being babied. Of course, even within a week of seeing each other after having been apart from them for a whole semester, we still had our squabbles over directions and walking too slow and taking too long and agreeing on what to eat and no can you ask for the wifi, but I had a wonderful weekend, a wonderful week. Mom and Danny flew back to Beijing on Monday evening, but I’ll be seeing them in Europe in a few weeks, and with Dad and Ken too!
tl;dr– 2 days in NYC, 1 night, 3 trips to Koreatown, 2 musicals, lots of food
PS: thanksgiving 2015 break in nyc, a day trip to nyc, fall break 2014 in nyc