Today Ashok and I set out on a domestic adventure! I am recovering from an eye injury and he is recovering from a bout of the flu, so we changed our plans for an East Coast badminton & bouldering trip into a food and walking tour of NYC & Philly. We are in my Tesla (purchased in 2019, pre-crazy-outwardly-racist-and-fascist-piece-of-shit-Musk!) and Ashok is doing almost all of the driving because.. vision.

Our first stop was at Atticus Market in New Haven, CT. It gets great reviews and it deserves them! They have a selection of really unique, fresh, well-thought-out dishes. We had a chicken cutlet sub and a BLT, which perhaps on the surface sound routine, but were just.. perfect. Tender chicken, sesame seed sub roll, crispy lean bacon, fresh vegetables, delicious aolis, warm and well-presented. We split them both and loved every bite. We had a French Toast Latte and a Pink Peppercorn and Maple Butterscotch Latte with our sandwiches, something I normally would never do (I don’t really drink coffee), but they looked soooo good! …and they were.

I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the market, although the real highlight was the people-watching from our window stools. There were lots of “crunchy” locals, which gave the whole place a really good vibe. The best though was a dude who walked past with a haircut that was essentially shaved bald everywhere except a circular curly patch on the back of his head. We debated all the reasons this could have happened.. lost bet, couldn’t reach further, velcro-wannabe, just to fuck with people-watchers.. an unsolved mystery that we don’t have a photo of either.

We then stopped in Harrison, NY to charge the car, which proved to be a great spot. There are 8 latest-generation chargers at a huge Wegman’s with full facilities.

We got to our dear friend Celia’s place in Riverdale, tucked my car safely into the basement garage and headed out. On the way to the subway we saw several fully blooming cherry and magnolia trees.

We got on the subway and headed south into Manhattan. I find subway “furniture” fascinating.. simple shapes touched, handled, and smoothed by thousands of people a day.

Ashok noticed that a couple sitting across from us had a bag of Banana Pudding from The Magnolia Bakery.. our first stop we were headed to. We talked to them about Magnolia as well as some other restaurants and dessert shops in the area we had in mind, which sort of randomly guided the rest of our day/evening!

We got off at 14th and walked to The Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker. It was packed when we got there, which I’ll use as an excuse for failing to take detailed pictures.. but I did get a shot of the case with many of the heavy hitters. We had the Hummingbird Cake (sort of like a carrot cake minus the carrot and plus more spices.. delicious!), and a fudge brownie (very good, but not life-altering). We wanted a Fresh Banana Pudding but they had run out 😭.

We then walked East enjoying the views…

We arrived at Casa Mono, a place our subway friends recommended highly for tapas.. and that’s pretty much all we knew.

We were able to get seats at the bar after a ten minute wait and sat down. It’s a small, cozy place and the kitchen and bar area are all in the room with you. This is when we realized the Michelin awards.. uh-oh.. budget check. Turns out they’ve been a Michelin recognized restaurant since 2010. Dishes are ~$20-40 apiece and our waiter recommended that we get four to share.

The food was AMAZING.

We then crossed the street and down a couple short blocks to Cafè Panna, a top ice cream shop I had read about. The line was long but fast and the ice cream was very fresh with unique twists on flavors. I got the Caffè Bianco Stracciatella, which is cold-steeped coffee bean ice cream with chocolate shards. Ashok got Aud’s Dream, with vanilla sweet cream and thick peanut butter swirl.

Thoroughly stuffed, restuffed, and bonus stuffed, we needed more walking! We walked loosely up 5th Ave, enjoying the tall buildings illuminating and illuminated by the misty night sky.

All cities have Tuk-tuks!

We worked our way back to the subway then back to Celia’s. For a gray, rainy, half day it really felt like we both saw a ton of the city and got a uniquely beautiful perspective.