Things I’ve Learnt In New York

For a city that speaks the same language, London and New York have a lot more differences than I had intially thought.

• A biscuit isn’t a biscuit. A cookie is a biscuit. A biscuit is actually a bread roll. The mind boggles.

• Anything with cheese flavouring tastes really fake and is bright orange.

• They don’t spell flavouring right.

• Despite speaking the same language, I am very difficult to understand.

• A hamper here is a dirty laundry basket. I learnt that one that hard way, presenting a case study on gift hamper success to a large group of people.

• It’s not customary to let people off the subway before you get on. It makes me feel very British, and highly irritated.

• The subway is a whole new beast. It’s not like the tube. It goes all sorts of ways on different days, it stops in funny places, sometimes it doesn’t stop and the announcer man talks so quietly that one can only guess what he said.

• A pizza pie is a whole pizza, rather than a slice. I thought it was a calzone (it seemed sensible to me)

• Cockroaches are much bigger than I thought. MUCH BIGGER.

• The pound sign isn’t a pound sign. It means the hash sign. Imagine my confusion when on the phone being prompted to press the pound sign. In my head I’m picturing the (£). The American voice on the phone is meaning the (#). Luckily I could call a fuzzy memory from my American colleague and pressed in the nick of time, but I had total phone pressure.

• The chocolate tastes funny.

Have you been to New York? What did you find different to your city?

2014 Travel – The New York Edit: The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty has been on my bucket list for the longest of time. Its an iconic monument and ive always felt that it would be a really interesting place to visit. Imagine having left your life and spent months on a boat crossing the ocean; cramped conditions, poverty, sadness, and then out of nowhere, when you feel like you have finally lost the will to live, looms a statuesque woman, holding the torch of liberty and guiding you from the old world to the new. Does anything seem more magical?

I got to New York and booked the visit. Top Tip – and one I didn’t know about – if you want to visit the crown and take in the views from there, you need to book 4 months in advance. Cue huge sad faces from me, and a need to pull my socks up and go visit what I could see.

The ferry trip was amazing. I was one of the smug few who had got on top of the ferry and headed for the side looking away from the statue, as opposed to the scores of people all hanging off the side where you could see her in the distance. I had actually thought about it, and figured that the boat would have to turn to head towards the island, and therefore I would eventually be on the right side for the money shot. Mwahahahaha. I was. Excellent.

When we got to the island, we were presented with free audio tours (take note, Harry Potter tour and your pricy, on-top-of-the-ticket-price audio tour) and I learnt some pretty amazing things about Lady Liberty herself, I was on statue geek cloud nine.

I love this photo. It looks like she is presiding over Manhattan

Did you Know? Although she looks like a solid mass, the statue of liberty is actually constructed like a bridge? They built her frame and then cloaked it in large copper sheets, moulded to her shape. So she is actually only the thickness of two pennies. This is due to the speed of the winds in the bay, and to prevent her from cracking under the force.

She is made of copper, which is why she is green. For the first two years, she was the same colour as a penny.

One of her designers was Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, who later went on to lend his name to the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

Have you ever been? What icon have you always wanted to visit?

2014 Travel – The New York Edit: Molly’s Cupcakes

I flippin’ love cupcakes. The good ones. The ones you bite into and they are soft and full of flavour, covered in frosting, and the more intricate the better. I love the light flavours the most – your lemons, peaches and berry flavours; I’m not a huge fan of the chocolate varieties (I know this makes me a strange person) and I can’t stand the overly sweet ones either. I like my frosting to taste like frosting, not sugar (that’s probably the slightly late to the party diabetic in me, kicking in).

An example of a fantastic cupcake, as photographed by moi

There are tons of places that do cupcakes really badly though, aren’t there? The ones where you want to drown your sorrows in cake, and are left only partially submerged at the end, or the ones where you have been to the gym and feel a cupcake is the only way forward, and you inhale the calories and are very, very disappointed.

If you are looking for a cupcake like that then this review isn’t for you and I’m sorry (not sorry) that I can’t be of service.

HOWEVER….

When wandering around my new neighbourhood one Sunday morning a few weeks ago (lost) I stumbled across Molly’s Cupcakes. Sure, a cupcake is perfect breakfast fodder, so I sat down to regroup and munched on a ‘peach cobbler’ cupcake.

Oh.My.Word.

The little shop is packed with fantastic flavours, and the best thing? The frostings are more like whipped cream, and really not too sweet. I took the boy back there when he was visiting, and we split a butterscotch caramel and a lemon meringue. Amazing. Divine.

MUST EAT ALL THE FLAVOURS!

My only concern? When I go back to London in 2 weeks I might have withdrawal symptoms from these babies.

If you have the good fortune to be in Chicago, Iowa City or New York City, then you absolutely have to stop by. Ive never beenb so excited by anything in my entire life, and if you know me, youll know this is apretty big thing.

As Marie Antionette did or didn’t say, “Let them eat cake!”

Find them here: Molly’s Cupcakes | 228 Bleecker Street | New York City | New York | 10014

2014 Travel – The New York Edit: Murray’s Cheese Bar

Everyone knows I LOVE cheese. Its one of those things that features heavily in my day to day, and I often don’t even bother opting for the dessert menu, plumping instead for the cheese.

So imagine my delight when walking down the street in my adopted neighbourhood, I spotted Murray’s Cheese Bar.

I waited till the boy arrived for his trip and casually pointed it out on a walk around the neighbourhood. “But we can’t JUST have cheese for tea?” I said out loud, while the little voice inside me screamed “WHYEVERNOT?!” “Yes we can” he responded, and my love for him was cemented forever. He gets the cheese.

We went in, and I nearly cried when I looked at the menu. Half is a list of actual meals that include cheese (think heavy on the mac and cheese, people!) and the other half has a Chef’s Selection, and a list of ‘flights’. These are three chesses paired with (if you wish) three wines that compliment, and the menu details the cheese, location and a short description of it, often including words like buttery and unctuous (great word).

Image sourced from Murray’s Instagram feed

We opted for the chefs selection, 8 meats and cheeses picked for you by the cheese sommelier (1 – what a fantastic job and 2 – sounds like smellier, perfect for cheese 🙂 ). When asked if there was anything I didn’t like I gave a blank and confused look and uttered “I.LIKE.CHEESE” while the boy was less struck for words and explained that he didn’t like blue cheese (I fear there might be something slightly wrong with him but lets gloss over that) I think as the waiter left I totally lost any composure I had and hollered “THE SMELLIER THE BETTER!” – Luckily I was among friends and everyone sympathised with my excitement.

On that note, I didn’t manage to take any photos. I thought I had, and when I got home I was devastated to find that I hadn’t captured anything. So the photos used in this post are from the Instagram feed of Murray’s Cheese Bar (phew!)

Image credits as above

It was awesome. Soft cheese, hard cheese, semi hard cheese, rinded cheese – it was all there. Pecorino (Italy), Old Chatham Ewe’s Blue (NY), Aged Goat Gouda (Holland)… they were all there. Any paired with some lovely accompaniments like caramel and honey, they were to die for.

My advice? If you have a dairy intolerance, probably best to steer clear. Otherwise, if you are in New York (specifically the West Village) get a table and enjoy a blissful dinner. It’s been the highlight of New York for me so far.

Murray’s Cheese Bar | 264 Bleecker Street | West Village NYC | 646-476-8882

2014 Travel – The New York Edit: Central Park

On Sunday I decided to take on Central Park, and all the sights I wanted to see. The park was the first major landscaped park in America, and designed as a calm for the city after unrest such as thousands of immigrants, cholera and poor environmental health conditions in the city. It is now a place where people flock – to watch free theatre, to exercise, to sit in tranquil areas and to just enjoy the great outdoors.

I was most looking forward to the Imagine tribute, as I love the Beatles. Sadly, it wasn’t the tranquil spot it promised, as there were thousands of tourists all wanted to pose doing the peace sign on the memorial. The Alice in Wonderland statue however, as wonderful. I have a special bond with Alice, as Lewis Caroll lived and died in my home town of Guildford, Surrey. I have grown up with her, and it was nice to meet her again.

The Bethesda Fountain – the statue references the Gospel of John, which describes an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda and giving it healing powers.

The Bethesda Fountain was put in Central Park to show the turn around after the cholera that damaged the city.

Strawberry Fields was officially dedicated on October 9, 1985, the 45th anniversary of Lennon’s birth. Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, worked with landscape architect Bruce Kelly and Central Park Conservancy to create a meditative spot, so named after Lennon’s favourite Beatles song

Alice and her cast of storybook friends found their way to Central Park in 1959, when philanthropist George Delacorte commissioned this bronze statue as a gift to the children of New York City. Inspired by the zany characters of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland, the sculpture was also meant as a tribute to his late wife, Margarita, who read Alice to their children. Engraved around the statue are lines from his nonsensical poem, The Jabberwocky.

View as I left the part from the South side – the Israel parade was happening and all the streets were closed off

The view on my walk to Times Square

Have you been to Central Park? What was your favourite spot?