New York - Day 4 New York Stock Exchange

We headed to Wall Street to see the New York Stock Exchange in the morning.

The symbolic bull in front of the stock exchange 

Nearby was the Federal Hall where George Washington stood at the entrance to be sworn in as the first President of U. S in 1789.  I learned that there was a ball after George Washington's inauguraltion, and that's how the Inaugural Ball became a tradition for every new President in the U. S.

Although it was drizzling in the morning, the weather was better as it had stopped raining the rest of the day.  It was more of a leisure day for us.  We strolled along in the nearby neighborhood and then went to Chinatown.   We went into a Chinese bakery, Tai Ban Bakery大班 which was located on 194 Canal Street. It was not too far from the metro station.  The selections were twice as big as what I can find from my hometown.   We later found out it had a very good review on Yelp's and apparently it was a well known bakery in Chinatown.  We were lucky to have tried their famous egg tarts in different flavors: papaya, mango, green tea and all were so creamy and flavorful.  The buns were bigger and cheaper there too.  We even bought some buns and cakes back to our hotel for snack and breakfast.  

There were many great restaurants in Chinatown.  For dinner, we went to this restaurant recommended by the local people.   We were very pleased with the food and the place.  The place was very comfortable with a big menu selection.  Two of the delicious dishes that we couldn't finish were the casserole of lamb with dry bean curd and pork's belly with preserved vegetables. The food was delicious and in generous portions.  It's definitely a very nice Chinese restaurant and we will return the next time we visit New York. 

Amazing 66 Restaurant皇上皇

66 Mott Street

New York, New York 10013

(212) 334-0099

We took the taxi back to our hotel.  We had taken the taxi a few times in New York city.   The fare was cheaper than Washington, DC.  It was a short distance going back to the hotel.  The fare was about $10 compared to $8 for the metro for the four of us.   There must be thousand of taxi  in New York city, so easy to find one wherever you go.  The city of  New York was just full of people and things to see.  Taxi and metro were very easy access both in DC and New York city.  That's why we didn't rent a car at all.

New York - Day 3 Statue of Liberty & Soho

It was drizzling in the morning when we took the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  

Fortunately, when we got there the rain had stopped,  and it was only cold and windy.  Since both my husband and I had been there before, the kids went up by themselves.  It was very nice that we were able to enjoy the beautiful view in front of us while we sat and waited for the kids.

We took the ferry to the nearby Ellis Island.  It was a port where over twelve million immigrants first entered the America between 1892 and 1954. 

After the tour, we took the ferry back to New York city and headed to the Soho district.  We deliberately went to Eileen's to try the New York cheesecake. 

Eileen's Special Cheesecake

17 Cleveland Place

New York, NY 10012

(212) 966-5585

We ordered these cheesecakes at $3.50 each.  They were all fluffy and not too sweet.  We liked the cookies and cream, and the Rocky Road ones.

Cookies and Cream

Chocolate Cappuccino

Rocky Road

After the delicious cheesecakes, we went strolling around Soho and we passed by this hole in the wall place that sold mini cupcakes.  What was so interesting was that the place was so tiny that it only fits one person.  It was set up as a walk up window where you buy your mini cupcakes.  The mini cupcakes were so cute but really small.  It was about the size of a quarter.  It was sold at 3 for $3.00. We didn't bother to try it since we just had our cheesecakes.  I later found out the cupcakes were really moist and tasty.  It was popular there even though the price was a little steep for a single bite mini cupcake.  I guess the concept is for you to try different flavors and still  keep the calories down to satisfy the craving if you choose to do so.

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Baked by Melissa

529 Broadway

New York, New York 10012

We wanted to try the New York pizza at Little Italy for dinner.  There were many restaurants to choose from and we found this place which used a brick oven to bake its pizza.  The pizza was thin and crispy, great place for dinner.

 Brick oven on the right

Grand Italian Food Center

Franky Cee's Pizzeria

186 Grand Street

New York, New York 10013

(212) 925-2954

Thin and crispy pizza

Eggplant Parmigiano

Chicken Francese

Lasagna

New York - Day 2 Rockefeller Center

After having breakfast at McDonald's.  We took the metro and walked toward St. Patrick's Cathedral.  There was some construction going on in front of the church.

Beautiful Interior

Mass was still running on Sunday

Since we have been to the Museum of Modern Art before, we took the advantage of my little daughter being free of admission because she was under 16,  and we let her in by herself.  It was raining heavily at the time and we couldn't go anywhere.  We just sat and wait at the coffee shop and roaming around the MOMA shop.

We headed to the Rockefeller Center after my little daughter was done.  The rain had stopped and the walk there was really nice and cool.  We stopped at a street vendor for Halal food (Mediteranean) which we were told we had to try.  Holy smokes! It was love at first bite.  There were a few to choose from, but we chose:

Lamb over rice for around $7

I believe we might have picked the best Halal food in the area.  This particular one had a fixed address and mats in front of the vending truck.  I haven't seen it on any other street vendor's trucks.  It might mean he must have built up his reputation enough to operate his business here.  He doesn't need to move around.

Halal food at Rockefeller

You must try the Halal food if you are going to visit New York.  Vending trucks for hot dogs and pretzels, Halal food,  and roasted nuts are everywhere in New York.

I was surprised to find the food court in the Rockerfeller Center was inexpensive considering it was a prominently known area.  The coffee was $1.50 per cup and the pastries were around $2 each.   We sat there to rest before going to China town for dinner.

Rockefeller Center

We took the metro to Chinatown.  We were surprised to see the New York's Chinatown was huge. Without knowing which restaurant to go to, we randomly picked the first dumpling place we saw since we were craving dumplings.  Right next to this place, there was a Malaysian restaurant that we learned later was supposed to be good but never had the chance to try it.  Across the street, there was a small plaza with individual small gift shops inside. It's a little area with many things going around there.

Shanghai Asian Cuisine

14 A Elizabeth Street
New York, New York 10013

(212) 964-5640

The place was small,  but the steamed dumplings, the drunken chicken and mustard greens were so delicious.  We were happy we found a good place. 

New York - Day 1 Time Square

We hired a taxi to get to the airport and took the earliest flight to New York city.  It was only an hour long flight from Washington, D.C. to New York.  The last time I was in New York, we had rented a car.   This was the first time I experienced the local transits.  It was much cheaper to hire a taxi then taking a shuttle for the four of us from the airport to New York city midtown.   The shuttle bus fare was $15 per person and it would cost $60 for the four of us.   For taxi, we only had to pay a flat fee of $50 plus tips to get to midtown.  It was important to hire a taxi with a flat fee because we knew the the traffic would be bad in New York city.  The ride was long but the traffic wasn't that bad.  We arrived our hotel an hour later.   After we checked into the Four Point by Sheraton Midtown,  we had to look for a place for lunch.  Since our hotel was close to Times Square, naturally we would walked towards that area. There were so many people at Times Square.  We had our lunch at a big McDonald's there.  This is the exact building you see on TV where the ball drops at the countdown on New Year's Eve.

We spent the rest of the day at Times Square walking around, and the Forever 21 giant screen captured the people at the square.  It was fun to try to find ourselves on the screen.

 

We had already bought our tickets on line to watch the Mary Poppins Broadway show at 8 pm.  After walking around, not knowing what was best in the area, we didn't want to waste more time looking around.  We waited in line at Red Lobster for dinner.  The Red Lobster restaurant was so big that it had an elevator to get up to the third floor.  We had these for dinner:

Bread and Ceasar salad were always good.

Shrimp pasta was average.

This salmon was ok, the shrimp were overcooked.

This is coconut shrimp, it was a big disappointment.

Honestly, Red Lobster was hardly the choice we would usually pick to eat at home.  The only thing we liked there were the bread and salad.  The food was a big disappointment for the price we paid.

To come to New York, one should experience the Broadway show and we picked Mary Poppins.  The play was in the Amsterdam Theater.

Waiting to get into the theater

It was beautiful inside the theater, but I was so surprised that there was no leg room at all.  It was so bad that a tall man had to leave his seat and I wanted to leave my seat in the first half hour while sitting there.  As time went by, I got used to it, but I am a short person.  Can you imagine that a tall man had to sit there for two hours?  Nonetheless, the show was great.  It had outstanding music and performance. 

After the show, we were too tired to expeirence night life like a New Yorker and went back to our hotel for the rest of the night.