so… new york, huh? that was my first time there and i’ll say one thing, that place is really something. i think almost every meal we had was amazing. there is a shitload to do and see; we could go back several times and have plenty of options left. getting around is a snap, there’s so much great stuff is packed into such a dense city.

of course some of the things that make me afraid to ever try living there are the flip side of those same pluses. all our meals were on a vacation budget, and that place is expensive (13 bucks for a six pack? drinker, please). it’s a little overwhelming and made me feel small, walking between narrow buildings on sidewalks packed with people. and we had to wait forever for all the best stuff.

i’m not complaining, i think as a vacation it was awesome and i want to go back, for sure. but in a wider sense, since that’s the other big city you go to if you want to live in a huge metropolis, i think i ended up where i belong. new york would be kickass if you’re a dude in finance making lots of money and partying a lot just out of college, i imagine. so much going on, so much energy. but once you start slowing down and relaxing a bit, new york seems like it’d just be exhausting. whereas i am a very relaxed person by nature already, and i warmed instantly to the southern california vibe. plus, too many people in ties, and i’m not down with the dockers and neckwear crowd. i still dress like a college radio dj when i come to work every day and i like it that way.

so what did we do? i can describe it in a sentence: wake up late to go to a big lunch, walk around building up an appetite for a huge dinner, and then get drunk. except the one day where we went to coney island to ride the coaster, which was creaky as hell, and see the freak show, which was COOL as hell. since pretty much all we did was eat and drink, here is a list of the deliciousness in chronological order, for posterity:

— pdt: neat cocktails and gourmet hot dogs you get by going in through a ‘secret’ phone booth in a divey hot dog restaurant. the everything bagel hot dog with cream cheese was killer.

— clinton street bakery: spectacular omelet (goat cheese and bacon!), and jessica’s french toast, once covered in their maple/butter syrup, was swoon-worthy. plus i had beer with breakfast for the first time ever, even though breakfast was at 2:30.

— death & co: another speakeasy-style place with super-fancy cocktails and excellent ambiance, although i blew it with my drink choice. must return.

— max: decent italian is not hard to do, but this place was just unfair — we left in pain from not being able to stop eating, it was so far beyond just ‘good’. i even ordered the simplest thing ever, fettuccine with meat sauce, and i just… couldn’t… stop.

— 151 rivington: some whatever basement bar on the lower east side but we had a sweet corner spot and they played decent music.

— nice green bo: in chinatown, we had some savory dishes, but most importantly, we had dumplings they called ‘crab and pork tiny buns’ that were seriously magical. we finished our meal and were full, and yet, we had to order another plate of these because it seemed wrong not to.

— peter lugers: good steak. not end-the-world good like maybe it had been built up to be, but hell, a good steak is always a great thing.

— library: even better jukebox, hipper crowd, a bit dark and loud, but fun.

— brooklyn brewery: the ‘tour’ was really just a 10 minute spiel on their history and basic brewing, but then, we drank a lot of their beer for cheap and it was awesome.

— loreley: german food (kerspatzle MIT SPECK!) and huge steins of beer, again how can you go wrong? i will post a video from this soon to illustrate.

— grimaldi’s: if you think waiting over an hour for a pizza isn’t worth it, you are so, so wrong.

— shake shack: tried to go here on saturday but it was raining, so we looped back on our way out before catching the plane. again, an hour wait, but definitely on par with the best burgers i’ve had in LA.

i really wanted to weigh myself before and after this trip, but let’s just say i don’t need solid numbers to know that i need to make best friends with a treadmill and weight machine this month. GREAT TIME though. even greater because we went out with gino and sarah, met up with emily, matt, gabe and alexis while we were there… such a good idea. vacations are even better with friends. too bad it’s over and i’m broke now, but i guess what this pesky ‘job’ thing is for.