Leave it to my friend Aki to get a hankering to see Christmas trees after Christmas. Regardless it was a weekend full of fun and yummy activities.
The Deco Food + Drink
When she came into town on Saturday, the first thing we did of course was eat. This food hall just opened and we were curious to try it. It was just a soft open so not all the places were serving food, and others had run out since it was already about three. I made do with furikake french fries and the pork buns and tea eggs from my mom which I had brought. Shared those with Aki who in turn shared the wine she had brought.
American Museum of Natural History
First Christmas tree stop! The subway and museum were PACKED. It was insanity. However, right around the origami Christmas tree wasn’t too crowded. Something else we wanted to see was the blue whale, but there was a long line of people waiting to see it so we just peeked at it from afar and got the hell out of there.
New-York Historical Society
After that we went to the New-York Historical Society, That wasn’t too crowded and also pretty interesting. They had a Tiffany lamp exhibit, which was very beautiful. The Paul Revere exhibit was somewhat interesting, and most interesting to me was this timeline that showed when certain words originated. Aki liked it too.
NR – Cocktails and Ramen
After that we walked across the park to the east side. There was a new ramen place that Aki wanted to try. It’s actually Japanese cocktail slash ramen place (although I didn’t have a drink).
The ramen was really good.
Lotte New York Palace + Saks Fifth Avenue
After dinner we walked back down to midtown to see the Christmas tree at the Lotte New York Palace (which for the longest time I thought was the former site of Le Cirque, which of course it’s not):
We also went to Saks 5th Avenue. The light show seemed shorter this year compared to last year.
The Met + Grand Bazaar + Flor de Mayo + Saint John the Divine
Since I live on the Upper East Side, it’s pretty easy to walk across the park to get to the Upper West so that’s what we did on Sunday. On the way I had to pee. Since I’m a member at the Met and can bring a guest, we popped in there. Aki ended up adding another tree to her collection.
On the way to the flea market, we passed these other vendors on the sidewalk. Several of them had free samples. Potato chips, goat cheese, vodka, and bourbon. The vodka lady was superfriendly but the bourbon guy wasn’t. Oh well. The goat cheese was frigging delicious.
The flea market itself was just okay. I’m not into buying junk. They also had some food vendors, and we had more samples. One was a piece of a gluten-free oatmeal cookie, which was good, while another was this rum cake, which was DELICIOUS. Very moist. Totally should have bought a piece.
For lunch we went to Flora de Mayo, where we shared this sliced steak dish. The flavors were really nice, as well as the cilantro rice, but the meat was kind of chewy.
After lunch we headed up to Saint John the Divine.
We were surprised to find they now charge a $10 admission fee. However, at the front was a Christmas tree with origami cranes so at least we could see that.
Another tree added to Aki’s list.