NYC - Visiting the Old Haunts

We took it easy on our first official day in New York.  Smee and I had planned to buy some goodies, hang out Manhattan-style and return to some of the eateries we found on our previous trip.  This was the first time we've been here in a season other than Winter and we sure lapped up the Spring sunshine. 

Smee began the day with some fresh peach tea compliments of our hotel.  It was so nums, he went back inside the hotel for seconds. 

Inbetween browsing the stores on Fifth Avenue we paused to pose by the Rockefeller Centre.  Yups, we did.  No desire to go up to the Top of Rock this time.  No, no, there were goodies that needed to be bought!

Smee with the sign.  The Rockefeller ice-skating rink.

For lunch, we returned to Men Kui Tei for some ramen goodness.  That's correct, we had ramen last night for a late dinner and now we were having ramen for lunch.  You'll find this to be a bit of theme on this trip. 

Me with my happy face, waiting for Mr. Ramen Bowl to arrive.  To celebrate the occasion, I even remembered to wear the same top I wore last time! 

My tonkotsu and Smee's shoyu ramen.  Sure, it was nice but probably... not as nice as we recall?

Smee and I have somewhat become connoisseurs of ramen *rubs chin with thinking face...mmmm....yes we have*.  Our main disappointment is the inclusion of a boiled egg instead of a soy sauce ramen egg.  Mmmmmm...ggaaaarr, my mouth is watering at the thought of a such an egg...*drool*  Yes indeed, we've decided that if an egg is served, it must be served soy sauce style. 

Ready to eat but giving the ramen some respect before tucking in.

After some more wandering around Fifth Avenue, we managed to find ourselves drawn back to the Rockefeller Centre and we thought that this was no better a time to return to Minamoto Kitchoan for some Japanese treats. 

Smee ready to head on in

The lovely familiar packaging of the white chocolate filled, green tea powdered mochi balls.  Smee teaching the mochi ball a lesson for being so yummy. 

No trip to NYC is complete without a visit to the flagship store of Abercrombie and Fitch.

 The queue outside the store.  It was such a long queue, I couldn't fit it all in my camera. 

Uggggggghhhhh!!!  I have the worst relationship with this store.  It is so, so, so easy to hate.  The marketing of preppy, luxury casual wear is kinda tryhard-ish.  FFS, the only products they sell are jeans, hoodies, t shirts, trackies and other similar attire!  Having to queue for 30 minutes to go inside such a store is insane.  The idiot himbos who greet you upon entry - I wanna punch 'em out.  The annoying, dancing female staff member who shouts a fake "Hey, what's up?" after each flight of stairs - please stop blocking the way and as if you really care.  The loud, awful pop-dance remixes .. bleah!  (Admittedly, I think they've turn down the volume.)  The dimly lit interior - it's so hard to see!  (Admittedly, I think they've turned up the lights because it didn't take me the usual 15 minutes to adapt to the lowered luminance levels).

BUT but but but .... despite all of that, despite all the things that I find extremely irritating about this store, A&F marketing has worked on my subconscious because I always end up buying something and this case, that 'something' amounted to 8 items.  A&F have seriously effed up my mind.  I concede defeat - their jeans fit me really well!
 
To refuel, we revisited Yama to fulfil our sushi desires.  This time around, our hotel was located only two blocks away :D

We started on an entree of unagi nigiri, sea urchin ships and scallop/fish roe rolls.  Mmmm num numssssssssss..

Then we followed that up with a main sushi platter. 

You know, because we didn't have enough food already. 

So happy to eat so much sushi.

We waddled back to the hotel, ready for some bedrest and sweet sushi dreams.