Back in Gotham City (from Imelda Marcos to Bacon, baby!)

Day 4 (Wednesday)

Happy 161st Birthday, Central Park

It’s now Wednesday, and we’re now at the halfway point, this trip has gone pretty fast. Well as always we’ve got an exciting day ahead.

The Subway Train Life

 I’ll share a little bit about my adventures while I spend my day at work. I have to go to Brooklyn during the day, so I take the Q train from 34th Street Herald Square.  I like starting my day early at work (around 7:30am), so from my hotel on W. 30th St, I walk a couple of blocks to Herald Square to catch the Q Express train. It’s a quick 15-20 min ride (with just 3 stops from Herald Square and bam, I'm at work! I love it! Why? Well, most Californians could relate to this. In California, where I’m from, we have to drive to just about everywhere.  So driving a car is the perfect mode of transportation. This is why whenever I visit the city, I embrace public transportation. Just give me a Metro card and I’m off exploring NY.

where. 

 Lottery Adventure...again

Kinky Boots lottery winner

Whilst at work, and with it being a day of Broadway matinee shows, Nancy wanted to try her luck with joining a lottery on her own. She went towards W. 45th St. and signed up for the Kinky Boots lottery. I recommended the show to her. I saw the show early this year (I tried the lottery, and got picked), and this time, the lucky streak continued and she got picked as well…YES!!! Billy Porter won the Best Actor award for his role as Lola.  Long story short, Nancy was so glad to have gotten tickets, and to watch Billy Porter in the role. This is definitely one of those flashy shows with a bunch of show stopping numbers. 

The Smoke Joint in Brooklyn 

Hacked and Stacked Pulled Pork Sandwich

Around lunch time, I asked my co-workers to please give me a name of a nearby restaurant that’s NOT McDonald’s hahahaha. They had me walking 4 blocks down and I made it to The Smoke Joint. It’s basically a BBQ place. Never really thought of NY as a BBQ kind of a place. But since it was recommended, I went ahead and tried it. I was so glad I did so….I ordered the Hacked and Stacked Pulled Pork Sandwich with Cole Slaw and Pickles. The pork was so juicy and tender, and BBQ sauce had a perfect blend of sweet, sour, tangy taste….it was perfect for lunch.

An Off-Broadway Show

Most of you know that we’re big theatre fans. Each time we visit the city, we have a list of shows we must see. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t remember the last time I lined up at TKTS. It must have been over 10 years ago. Rush and lotteries have changed the landscape of getting discounted tickets and we’ve been very fortunate in getting them.

For this trip, our Broadway show wish list included, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (#1 on our list), Hedwig, A Gentleman’s Guide, and an Off-Broadway Show called Here Lies Love. Nancy and I made plans to rush for this show last Monday. I’ve been following theatre newsgroups regarding how to score rush tickets to this show. They typically sell rush tickets 1 hour before the 8pm performance, and to increase your chance of getting tickets, people typically line up 1-2 hours prior to this. Well, last Monday, Nancy texted me, her college friend, Ommar, got us tickets to Here Lies Love (Wednesday 8pm). Thank you, Ommar and Jonathan!!! Yay!!!

Pre-show dinner

Dinner at The Library with Ommar and Jonathan

From Brooklyn, I took a train towards the East Village. We all had dinner reservations at The Library which was located inside The Public Theatre where Here Lies Love was playing. All I remember was the walk from the train station to the theatre. I was wearing my work clothes, and I just remember being drenched in sweat. It was hot and humid. I was relieved when I finally made it to the air-conditioned theatre. That's where I met up with Nancy. Jonathan and Ommar arrived around 7pm, and we all had just enough time to have a quick dinner before the show.

A show about a First Lady (and not about her shoes)

Here Lies Love is a musical about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines. It’s such a big hit in New York, and I’ve been putting off watching it, trying to find the chance for Nancy to join me. And this was it…the chance to watch this show together. Why this show? The show allowed me to look at how this piece in Philippine history unfolded. It was hard not to look at Imelda Marcos,  and think of Evita (Eva Peron). There were many similarities, a girl with big dreams who went from rags to riches.

The show was inventive. It’s not your typical show ...it's an in your face kind of a show....the songs were quite moving. The tickets we got as gifts were located on the main floor...it's a standing room only ticket.....there were NO theatrical-style seats on the main floor. You, as an audience member, move with the show, you move with the stage. The show was so inventive, the feel inside the theatre was electrifying, the crowd got to be a part of the show….it was just amazing to be immersed in the process. There were many highlights for me, but I don’t want to give away the story. Heheheheheehe

So that’s about it for Day 4….those were the highlights.

Day 5 (Thursday)

It's now Thursday, this day is the actual last full day for Nancy in the city. So far, we have been fortunate to have a great trip. As with all of the other days, I had to work today, while Nancy got to explore the city. I forgot to mention that on Tuesday, she had  lunch at Ippudo for more ramen goodness. She texted me this picture and I drooled. hahahaaha How I envied her at the time!!!!

Early morning rush attempts

Since it was our last  full day, you better believe that we're going to try our best to find discounted tickets via lottery or rush. I was at work, so it was all up to Nancy to try her luck with getting rush tickets for us. Nancy first tried to go West 44th St. to scope out the Hedwig line. By the time when she got there around 7:30 am, she was already 20th in line - this was the line for a chance to score Standing Room Only tickets to the show The trouble with this line, you have to stay in line until 7pm - that's when they pass out the SRO tickets. She didn't feel like doing that so she left.

She then went to West 50th St for a chance to get rush tickets to Lady Day...(with Audra McDonald). When she got there, she saw a sign that no rush tickets will be sold that day...so she left again. It was already a little after 830 am at this time, and she decided that instead of trying to rush for other shows, she suggested we take our chances and do the Hedwig lottery at 6pm, and if we don't win there, we'd head over to the If/Then lottery at 6:30 as a Plan B (remember to always have a Plan B).

Meeting up with her fellow Paulinians

with Rowena, Mary Rose, and Grace

With Rowena at Herald Square

This trip allowed Nancy to have her "me" time which included a chance to reconnect with her college friends, Mary Rose and Rowena (from New Jersey), and Grace (from Houston). Right before lunch, she and Rowena strolled around Macy's. When the rest of her friends arrived, they went to Turntable Mad for Chicken near W. 34th Street. 

Evening Lotteries

After work, I met Nancy at the Theatre District right before 6pm.The crowd started to build up for the Hedwig lottery. Without joking, there must've been 300-400 people who entered their names in the lottery and only 20 tickets (or something like that) were being given out. We weren't so lucky with Hedwig....our names weren't picked...but, no prob, we had a Plan B, we always had a Plan B or C.  :-)

Plan B - If/Then
"If" we don't win at Hedwig, "then" we'll rush at If/Then. Again, 20 tickets were given out....and guess whose name was called 2nd to the last ticket winner???? Nancy's name!!! Yes!!! We got 2 orchestra seats for $25 each....5th row!!! No complaints!!! Mission accomplished. We got to watch If/Then that evening. I have to admit, it's not my favorite show, but to see Idina Menzel and watch her sing for a couple hours, that was enough to make us enjoy the evening. She was larger than life!

One last New York meal

Warm Bread Pudding at BarBacon

After If/Then, we decided to walk over to Totto Ramen in Hell's Kitchen, but when we got there, we were told it was going to be a 1/2 hour wait. We weren't that interested in waiting, so we opted to go 2 blocks up to BarBacon recommended by my friend, Fletcher......where everything you order from food, drinks, desserts - all of them have a hint of bacon. Instead of buffalo wings, we ordered Pig Wings, it's pork shank covered in Sriracha BBQ sauce and sitting on a bed of sauerkraut. It was just like eating short ribs....juicy/tender!!! We also ordered Oysters rockefeller with spinach and bacon. But I gotta tell you, the star of the show was the dessert....warm bread pudding with chopped bacon peanut brittle. It stole the show!!!! It was amazing. This was soooo good! I will come back for this.

Till next time

That's about it......5 days with 5 shows, and lots of yumminess in between. I can't wait to go back, I don't know when yet, hopefully before the end of the year.

Day Eight - Last Day in NYC - DiFara Pizza - savoring our last day

Oh boy! It’s finally Day 8, our last day. Our flight back to LA was scheduled to leave Newark at 7pm. So we decided to make the most of it on our last day. Here are the highlights:

The quest for Bialy

  We ventured over to the Lower East Side to try our first Bialy. We went to Kossar’s Bialy, and fortunately the lady at the counter gave us fresh, warm garlic bialy’s. . The lady who assisted us hails from Pangasinan in the Philippines, there are hints of her Ilocano accent, and every now and then, she'd sound like a New Yorker!!! Nevertheless, she hooked us up with bagels that just came out of the oven. Ahhhhhh…..I’ve only had bagels in my life and never had a bialy. I enjoyed my first bialy; I kept it simple and just used regular cream cheese….so good! We engaged ourselves with a bit of a conversation with the lady at Kossar’s and she suggested we go 2 doors down.

Doughnut Plant

Yes…it was just a few doors down and we entered Doughnut Plant. Oh. My. Word. Crème Brulee Donuts and Tres Leches donuts…hands down!!! The only regret I had? I was already quite full from enjoying my bialy. I wish I knew ahead of time so I could make room hahahahaa. But now, I’m a believer. So rich, so good. I shall return the next time I'm back in the city.

Little bit of Chinatown

We realized that the Doughnut Plant was just a few minutes away from Chinatown. We decided to walk 10-15 minutes. Our kids wanted to buy new cell phone cases. We practiced a little bit of our bargaining skills and walked away with 2 new cell phone cases for the brand-spanking "old" hand me down iPhones!!! LOL

The kids were happy, and then Ethan reminded me about DiFara Pizza…..he said maybe we should go to Brooklyn. It was around 11am when we decided to go to Brooklyn. We were in a bit of a time crunch. We need to be in the Newark Airport by 5:30pm my target time, in order to make it to the 7pm flight with no issues. So I figured, why not? Let’s go to DiFara.

DiFara Pizza

I’ve been meaning to go to DiFara for the past few months that I’ve been traveling back to NY, but there was just never a good opportunity. Of course, I had to pick our last day in NY to venture out to Brooklyn. So we took the Q train from Canal St to Brooklyn and interestingly enough, there were a few passengers dressed in “seaside” type of costume. Turns out they were headed to Coney Island for the Mermaid Festival.

We got off on Avenue J and walked to DiFara within a few minutes. It was right before noon, and there was already a line that formed about 50 ft deep. I didn’t realize that Di Fara opened at noon. I knew there was going to be a line, a wait, but didn’t know the process or what to expect. I thought the pizzas would be ready but no….they’re all made to order. It’s a good thing that we ate quite a bit at Kossar’s and Doughnut Plant. When DiFara opened, it took about 20 minutes for us to place our orders. We were advised that it’s going to be about 1 hour from that point when the pie will be ready. 1 hour?          I didn’t mind. Why? Dom DiMarco!!! He was the one who was preparing the pizza. Watching him was like watching Leonardo DaVinci at work. It was a show in itself and we had front row seats.

Preparing his signature pie

We watched Dom DiMarco and his no non-sense way of making the pie. It was very simple, he didn’t use any measuring cups, and for the pizzas in the oven, he didn’t rely on any timers. He just knew! The place in itself was no non-sense. His daughter took the orders and just used a yellow pad, no computer, or no iPads….but she just knew how to organize the orders. There were only 3 of them working there…one guy in the back, his daughter took the orders in front, and Mr. DiMarco prepared the pizza. It was an organized symphony. What was most interesting was every time he was about to slice the pizza, he topped each pie with fresh basil. Gorgeous! We watched as everyone ahead of us got their pies. Finally, after nearly an hour, our Classic DiFara pie was ready. Oh man….it was a slice of heaven. The pizza game changed for me that day. All that mozzarella, hand grated parmesan....so simple and it was that good. We simply enjoyed, no wait, we devoured the pizza. Again, my mouth is salivating just thinking about those 2 hours. Hahahahaha DiFara is my new benchmark for future pizzas. I’m hoping to come back again in the future!   

Taking wonderful memories back home

So long, NYC.

*sigh* We finished our pizza around 2:30pm. We decided it was time to head back to Port Authority. We still had to catch our bus that took us to Secaucus. From there, the hotel shuttle drove us to Secaucus Junction, and from the junction we took the train to Newark Penn and then off to the airport. I will, however, not worry about all of the bus trips and train rides…in fact, those rides were part of the adventure. I will forever remember the excitement in Ethan and Madison eyes when they first set foot in the city. I will remember all the lucky wins we had with the lottery and rush tickets…..all the glorious foods, and all the amazing sight-seeing adventures. Now that we’re back in California, my kids have been on a NY high, they’ve been reading up on anything about NY, and are looking forward to their future visit.

Next adventure

Since this entry is now nearly 2 months delayed, I have since returned back to NY at the end of July. This time, Nancy joined me, no kids - just me and her. I have written my blogs for that trip as well and will post them up shortly. For now, thank you, New York City.