There’s no denying that one of the best things about New York is the food. Not only can you get anything you want at any time of day, but the entire experience is usually a treat. Here are some of the highlights.
On one of our first nights in New York — back when we were sleeping on an air matress — we were out looking for food when it started to rain. We ran into The Chicken Festival to escape the weather, and we’re so glad we did. It’s since become one of our favorites. Reminds me a little of the food we ate in Panama. (Rice, beans, and roasted chicken. Yum.)
The Today Show introduced us to the Vendy Awards — an annual contest where the people of NYC vote on the best street food. We were so impressed by the idea that we had to try an Indian kati roll at the Biryani Cart in Midtown. As Jason said: “It was so hot it almost burned our faces off.”
It looks harmless, but its pretty darn spicy. And delicious!
Of course, we’ve sampled our share of Chinese food since visiting NYC. Our favorite is the Grand Sichuan, but on our anniversary we visited Our Place on the Upper East Side. This is a picture of the “Amazing Chicken” dish I ordered (chicken on right, some sort of beef on left). I’m not sure if it was truly “amazing,” but it was certainly worth a photo.
And then there is our dining/tourist attraction meals. While it was fun to visit the same Tom’s Diner you see on Seinfeld, the food isn’t all that great (sorry, Tom). If you are here, we recommend you stop by for a cup of coffee and then move along to Sip, just right down the road, for a great brunch.
The last couple weeks we took the office on the road. One of the perks of an location independent career. Here are the haps…
I went to Boston for a long weekend. Got to spend time with our friend Alli and watch a baseball game.
We’re always down for a wedding. Here we are in Madison, Wisconsin, enjoying friends and a view of the lake (that’s what we’re looking at, not you.)
Time with the fam in Iowa. Jason and Sydney are seriously contemplating a design choice here in this photo. Later, Katie posed as a half-dead bride. At least I think she’s a bride.
And check out this photo of my mom and sister at the Des Moines Art Walk. Neat.
If you want to know more about the Art Walk in Des Moines, read a recent article from The New York Times.
I’ll admit it. My eyes are always open for celebrity sightings. I make no apologies. I’m from Iowa. What do you expect?
We shopped with Dave Chapelle at the French Connection. We walked passed Cameron Diaz on the street in the Upper West Side. We even saw Greg Brady (from The Brady Bunch) get out of a cab three feet away from us. But the best celebrity sighting was Johnny Depp. Here I am sharing a moment with him at Bloomingdale’s. That’s Leo DiCaprio right behind us. It was a big day.
Some celebrities are easier to spot than others, especially the ones that don’t move. Here is a strange set of bronze Hello Kitty sculptures that we often pass on the way to the subway. Notice she is crying into a pool of water. Sad.
You don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to see a celebrity or some kind of activity having to do with pop culture. Jason found someone to play with right on 5th Avenue without even really trying. Here he is playing a little virtual football with Peyton Manning.
Since in New York, we’ve been trying to network and take advantage of the thousands of conferences, conventions, meet ups and networking events. It’s overwhelming, I’ll be honest. But in doing so, we’ve gotten to learn a bit and listen to some big name execs speak about marketing, etc. I even got to sit in on a panel with Wyclef Jean. Neat.
But Jason actually takes the cake with celebrity meetings at conferences. Here he is with Chuck Norris … one of Jason’s heroes. He practices Chuck’s moves when no one is looking.
ps – Johnny Depp and Leo DiCaprio are actually wax. While I certainly have some street cred, I’m not quite that cool. At least not yet.
Came across a hilarious video from a website called CollegeHumor.com about what it might look like if someone spoke in real life like they did on Twitter. The video is filmed in NYC’s Union Square so even if you don’t think its funny, there are some nice shots of the city. But if you know Twitter, you’ll think its hilarious too, I’m sure of it.
Jason and I are on Twitter, and we actually write about things other than our lunch. Well, sometimes we Tweet about lunch, but only when its awesome. LOL.
Since day one in New York City I’ve been surprised at the number of dogs in our neighborhood. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve begun to recognize my neighbor dogs more so than my neighbor people.
Creative Commons Image Credit: Lynt
It’s nice having these cuddly creatures around. They add a lot of character to the area with their dog parks and adorable faces. They also create a nice distraction for me while working at the coffee shop.
The canines are not the only dogs around this place. The stereotype that NYC streets are filled with hot dog vendors just happens to be true. We found a vendor at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and felt the need to document the moment, since it will probably (hopefully) be our last street-side wiener.
Now, for a little bit of humor. This next video has nothing to do with NYC, but a lot to do with trouble-making pooches.
I’ll set the scene. My friend Tiffany plays on a co-ed kickball team in Boulder, Colorado. After each game they pick up an injured teammate and run him or her around the bases. I guess no one was hurt during this particular game so they just did it for posterity. Little did they know that in the process of running the bases one of their teammates would get injured — by a rough and tumble pooch.
Actually, Our New Office is one year and one day old. Jason published the very first post on August 8, 2008.
You can read that first post titled, The Story Began, by clicking here.
If you are new here, then you should read my recent post, Top 27 Travel Highlights, for a summary of our international journey.
It’s not very clear what will happen to OurNewOffice.com with our travels slowing down and all. Since we’re not posting that frequently anymore, you should sign up to receive our posts by email. This way you’ll know what’s happening when they’re happening. You can sign up for email updates by clicking here.
Creative Commons Image Credit: Sandra
The blog has been quiet lately, because we’ve mostly been in the office and off the streets. But, that’s not to say we haven’t had some fun in the six weeks since we’ve arrived in New York. Here are the highlights.
We made our first major purchase as a married couple (not counting all the plane tickets we’ve bought so far). Who knew couch shopping could be so stressful fun?
Grocery shopping has been a bit challenging.
No, it’s not that we have to carry our bags, it’s that prices are absurd. Some NY grocery stores are beautiful and gourmet with aisles and aisles of chocolate and other delicious foods. Then on the other hand, there are itty bitty grocery stores that don’t have much to choose from and what they do have is not so quality. Whichever category of store you choose, the prices are at least 30% more than Denver prices — maybe even twice as much as what we’re used to.
But oh well. We heart NYC, and think its kind of cute that the diapers are right next to the sodas.
We made a new friend, thanks to Facebook.
Remember that video of me in Singapore where I was eating creamed corn on dessert? (Click here for a reminder). Well, not long ago I received a message on Facebook from a woman named Kirsty who said she didn’t know me, but Facebook recommended me as a friend. She had no idea why that would be, but she did recognize me from that silly corn-eating video.
You can read more about the incident over at her blog, Nerdy Nomad.
Anyway, we were lucky enough to have lunch with Kirsty (even though we still have no idea why Facebook wants us to be friends), because she is spending some time in New York too. What a treat to meet someone who travels and works like we do, and someone who hearts New York like we do too.
Jason took us on our very own walking tour of Soho.
We took a gander at several of the caste iron buildings in the area and enjoyed all the people watching and window shopping too. Who said you can’t live in a place and be tourists at the same time?
And then, of course, we are lucky enough to be around a lot of great friends. Here we are after an awesome pizza dinner with Alli and Larissa. Look at all those drinks! We must’ve been thirsty.
In a previous post, I talked about how we found an apartment on the Upper East Side, and then I posted a couple of pictures of the neighborhood. The pictures posted were not of our apartment building, but of quintessential Upper East Side scenery.
I wasn’t clear about that so a lot of you thought you were looking at our apartment, but you weren’t. This is our apartment…
I think that might even be our mailman too.
It’s not bad news, but things are probably going to change. Ever since we signed up for the new Google phone, it’s become evident that most of our photos will now be taken with our phones.
Just like this picture taken of Jason on our third day in New York (and our third day of eating pizza, I’d like to add).
The Google Android phone has made navigating NYC super easy. We have maps and Internet directions right at our fingertips. Top that off with one of the coolest desktops I’ve ever had on a phone. Every 30 minutes my screen updates to show a new Web cam photo taken from somewhere in the world Universe. I took a picture of my phone (with our actual camera even) to show you. The image you see on the phone is from a Web cam at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center that is snapping shots of the sun.
I love this thing.
You’re probably thinking: geez, this sounds like an ad. Well, it is.
If you have a Google Android or are thinking about getting one, then buy all your accessories from Amazon. I’d suggest you try out the Google G1 Android Phone Mega Accessories Bundle
For those that click on this link and purchase from Amazon, we will make a small commission. Any money we make on this blog helps us keep up our travels and our blog, so thank you in advance for your support.
First Unbelievable Fact
There are millions of people who live in Manhattan. I know five people and managed to see one randomly on the street. On our second day of apartment shopping we turned a corner and, lo’ and behold, my good friend Romona was walking right for us.
Now, I knew Romona lived in New York, but I didn’t know where. Turns out she lives just a block and half away from us now.
This is the same Romona who in high school had a locker right next to mine. We also walked right next to one another at our high school graduation, and then that same summer at CU’s freshman orientation we roomed together by coincidence too.
Here’s to having last names that start with “Mu.” And of course, to finding nice apartments in the same NY neighborhood — the Upper East Side.
Second Unbelievable Fact
Pedicures are a steal. I think this is one of the few things that will actually be cheaper here. Only $23 and that includes a manicure too!
Third Unbelievable Fact
Our wedding song was “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys. Now, this song is nice and lovely for a wedding, but there’s actually no particular reason we chose it except that it’s one of the few songs we both like. Our tastes in music are entirely too different.
The coincidental thing here is that apparently Alicia Keys filmed a video right here in the courtyard of our apartment building.
We weren’t there for the filming, of course, but the locksmith told Jason so it must be true.
Fourth and Fifth Unbelievable Facts
You pretty much have to hire a broker to find an apartment in Manhattan. It’s still not something I’m all that comfortable with. I mean, we’re renters and we might as well have been buying an apartment with all the paperwork and background checking we went through.
What’s more — we met with three different brokers, none of whom we were all that wild about. And guess what? We have run in to all three of them at one time or another. Again, out of millions of people and it was awkward every time too.
Creative Commons Image Credit: EdenPictures and Damek
