Balthazar

Balthazar is a French bistro in Soho, a bit of an NYC institution. This being the case it's also incredibly hard to get into. I didn't get there on my last trip to NYC so this time I went twice! (that's fair right?)

It's a hive of activity, especially on the weekends. People are lining up at the door and cramming around the bar waiting for their table. For my Brissy peeps out there, Belle Epoque at Emporium in the Valley is definitely channeling this place. High ceilings, traditional french brasserie booth seating, lots of mirrors and a grandiose bar with an extensive wine list.

My first visit was for brunch. The eggs benedict are highly regarded so the choice was clear. I should mention that I'm not usually a benedict orderer for breakfast, but it was great. The eggs and hollandaise were perfect and it was all served atop crunchy potatoes which was a nice touch. Even the latte was good.

My second visit (today) was for a late lunch. I had heard that the salads and french fries were also a definite 'must try' so that's what I ordered. The roasted beet salad with walnuts and blue cheese was divine. And the fries were great too. Much the same in size to McDonalds (how dare I blaspheme with this comparison but you get the gist) but super crunchy as I believe they're double fried, and served in a cute paper cone.

And to top it all off, a table of strangers across from me sent their waitress over with a glass of champagne for me. They couldn't finish their bottle and were leaving. How cute! I enjoyed every last drop. Salut!

Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade

Way to bring the weather for an outdoor parade Manhattan! It was so cold that I think I actually lost a little feeling in my feet at one point. I'm not joking.

Never-the-less, I rugged up in the full winter kit and went to get a glimpse of the Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade. The balloons are absolutely ginormous and it's kind of surreal seeing these brightly coloured cartoon characters glide along above street level, light as a feather...

Ist cab off the rank - Snoopy!

Kermit's butt

The best seats in the house for seeing right up Shek's nostril

Kung-Fu Panda air-kicking the golden arches

Pikachu on Broadway

A bittersweet last day at work

Oh how the time has flown.

While I'm very excited to get home to my loved ones, apartment and job. I'm also sad to be leaving. This has been an unbelievable adventure, full of 'new'... new city, new people, new job, new tastes and new sights.

Lots of goodbyes today at work, I'm going to miss my GOGO girls. It was a day of eating. Cupcakes galore. I thought I'd surprise them with their favourite cupcakes (Crumbs), to say thanks for having me, and they did the same. Double up!

They then ordered my favourite cheese pizza for lunch. Introduced to me in my first week at GOGO and the single best plain cheese pizza I've ever had. I guess I haven't stopped raving about it. Who would of thought that no topping could be so tasty. And then to top it off (pardon the pun) I was spoilt with my fave choccies and Season 3 of Gossip Girl! My missing season! I've watched up to S2 but S4 is now airing here so I've been a bit confused and the girls at work have been filling in the blanks for me. Super sweet of them.

The gods must of known it was my last loooong bus ride home as we had a stellar run. In the city before 6.30pm, unheard of! And then, amidst the craziness of the bus terminal on Thanksgiving eve I saw my fave bus driver who pipes up with a "Hi Mel" and a chat. Awwww.

Off the bus, onto the subway, and I find myself helping some lost folk work out which train to catch. To which they end with "we'll just follow you, you look like you know where you're going." And there you have it folks, apparently I look like I know what I'm doing in the big smoke. Ha!

Being Thanksgiving and all... I must say that I'm very thankful for this amazing opportunity, the people that encouraged me to do it, my bf for being so damn supportive, my visitors, and all the 'new' things that have crossed my path along the way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Flea Market month

There are a lot of great markets here in NYC. The last couple of weekends I've been all about the flea markets.

A friend told me about the GreenFlea on the Upper West (thanks Laura!). It's right behind the Museum of Natural History and talk about vintage sensory overload! But it bought me to a little quandry, to fur or not to fur. Fur is everywhere over here right now and there's so many arguments for and against. I must admit I do like this winter look, but faux is just as good. Anyway, I digress.

I had no quandries snapping up some awesome jewellery and bags at the GreenFlea...

 

The East 67th Street Market on the Upper East was next. Not as big and not as good in my book. You could skip this one and stick to the GreenFlea if it's jewellery, clothing and accessories you're after. Although they do incorporate a great farmer's market section, think homemade jams, sweet treats and fresh fruit and veg. I did get a deep green onyx ring and a 1950s thermoset plastic bracelet. Score!

 

It's really easy to spend money in this city! Oh dear. And do not fear, I'm not considering a career change to hand modelling.

All sorts on the Subway

From our four legged friends...

To well dressed retro dudes minding their own business...

Shake Shack

Yes, this is another food related post.

Listen up, I'm here to tell you how good Shake Shake is. I'd heard it was good but didn't make it on my last trip to NYC, not sure how as my bf is a total burger junkie. There's 4 locations in Manhattan and every time I pass by one the line is literally out the door and around the corner, a hint you might say.

Yes indeedy. The tasty morsels coming out of here are worth the wait. So, how to describe it... well, they describe themselves as a modern day 'roadside' burger stand and it's a good description. Simple, small-ish burgers that taste damn good. The bun isn't too big or doughy, which rates highly in my burger book and the meat pattie is juicy goodness. They also pride themselves on using only premium ingredients. Have I sold you yet?

The crinkle cut fries are delightful. And have an unusual dessert concept too - the Concrete - a frozen custard desert. Much like a VERY thick, thick shake.

If you find yourself in NYC, do youself a favour. And I promise, no money (or burgers) were received for this post.

www.shakeshack.com

Shack Burger

The Great White Way concrete - Vanilla frozen goodness, rice crispy bits and marshmallow sauce

My first Halloween

October 31 has been and gone and I feel as though I should give a little wrap up of my first American Halloween.

I didn't realise but Halloween is a whole weekend thing, not just the day of, being Sunday this year. People generally celebrate at work on Friday, then over the whole weekend. Some locals told me that they get 2 costumes, as they're going to more than one Halloween party. It's a fancy dress weekend festival!

Not knowing much about Halloween I did a little research and found out that it has Irish roots and is said to be linked to a festival that celebrates the end of the 'lighter half' of the year and the start of the 'darker half', the start of Winter. The ancient Celts believed this to be the time of year when the border between this world and the 'Otherworld' became thin, allowing spirits to pass though. So costumes and masks were donned to ward off harmful spirits. Fast forward a few centuries and Halloween seems more of an excuse for men to dress as women, and women to wear as little as possible!

At work on Friday there was a best dress & decoration competition and an invite to employees children to come in and 'trick or treat'. The whole office was kitted out. Some teams went NUTS with their decos and they even had a haunted hall set up with ghosts and ghouls hanging from the ceiling. My team did a group thing and dressed as The Olympic Norwegian Curling Team, which was the Marketing Director's brain child and something she's been planning since last year. Yes. Loud patterned pants were the order of the day. And candy galore! Seeing the little kids dressed up was too cute! Here's some pics...

The front desk at FCL USA

A cemetery

The haunted hall

Sal arrived just in time for the Sat night leg of celebrations. With so many parties popping up all over the city it was hard to choose which to attend. But we finally booked tickets to a rooftop terrace in Midtown, mingled with the locals and took in all the creative costume-ing (and drank a little too much) all under the watchful eye of the Empire State. Where's Wally (or Waldo as it's known here) and Mario & Luigi seemed to be very popular costume choices this year.

Luigi & Mario (aka Turtle from Entourage)

DJ Where's Waldo

Sunday afternoon and two sore heads later, we trekked down to Greenwich Village on a mission to see the massive Village Halloween Parade. It's a people's parade so anyone can march and anything goes. The Thriller Zombie dance troupe was a stand out... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8_qz3rAqms

We couldn't see much but taking in all the costumes in the crowd was great. Note to self, get to a high vantage point next time. People were climbing up on top of bins and up traffic lights to see. There were masses of people, 2 million apparently, which I thought would of offered more of a buffer from the cold. Afraid not. Happy Halloween!

A scary Maccas employee

The Parade crowd

Parade puppets

Bagel-ing in Brooklyn

Jeff and I had our hire car until 9am (from the previous day's trip to Woodbury Common Outlet - the Mother of all Outlets I might add) so we thought we'd get up early, avoid getting toed by NYPD (you wouldn't believe how narrowly we escaped) and drive over to Brooklyn for some breakfast. Why not.

(oh how I love a side thought in brackets)

Check out the scenery looking back at Manhattan on the drive over...

I'd heard of a great breakfast spot in Williamsburg, called Egg. Alas, when we rocked up at the fresh time of 7.15am we found out that they don't open until 9am on a weekend. Dang.

After we asked if ANYTHING was open for breakfast at that time (these yanks don't open up shop until quite late) we were pointed in the direction of The Bagelsmith.

Now, I must back track a little and say how I'm loving the bagels here. I am a fan of ANY bread & cheese products so putting the 2 together is heaven. The people at The Bagelsmith were so friendly, they're open 24 hours and they have a gazillion flavours of cream cheese. Bacon and scallion looking particularly good. Being all geared up for a cooked breakfast though, we could resist a toasted Everything bagel (www.theeverythingbagel.com) with egg, bacon and cheese. D.Vine. I best go back soon.

Madison Square Garden. 2 days, 2 ways.

Jeff and I spent 2 school nights in a row at Madison Square Garden this week.

Tuesday night we went and watched an NBA game. The New York Knicks Vs the New Jersey Nets. Lets be honest, these teams are not the greatest in the league but the NBA always puts on a good show... the entertainment, dancing and dudes running around yelling "hot dawwwgs, get your hot dawwwgs!"

Wednesday night took the cake though. Sorry NBA. I bought Jeff tickets to see Phoenix for his birthday. Madison Square Garden was completely transformed, almost unrecognisable from the night before. Phoenix are one of our favourite bands but you could of pushed Jeff and I over with a feather when the dimmed lights revealed Daft Punk on stage during the end of Phoenix's encore performance of 'If I Ever Feel Better.'

I can be quoted as saying "Is this a G-up?!" That's right, you can't take the Aussie out of the girl. Oh dear. But seriously, what an epic surprise. Especially considering Daft Punk have not performed live since 2007. It could of only gotten better if they'd busted out a rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You' for Jeff.

Back to Phoenix and lead singer Thomas Mars. Talk about epitomising the coolest of cool rockers.  This guy blew me away. His voice was amazing and looked so so effortless. And he loved us too, he kept randomly popping up in the middle of the crowd while singing and didn't hesitate to jump back over into the masses for a little crowd surfing later in the set. Did you know he's married to Sophia Coppola? A little random trivia for you.

Rewinding a little, Phoenix started out their set with 'Lisztomania' and after about an hour of playing through last year's album 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,' and a few of their earlier classics, they left the stage. It couldn't be over yet. Surely. Next moment a bright spotlight in the middle of crowd and up they pop, amongst everyone, to serenade us with an acoustic version of a 1960s French folk song. So Frenchy, so chic. Little did we know at the time, this was to distract us from a new set-up taking place on stage.

Enter Daft Punk.

Now I know words can't really describe it so I've scoured YouTube for the best footage I can find for you...

If I Ever Feel Better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9TAclxkMdU&feature=player_embedded
**Jump to 2:00 for the moment Daft Punk appears and slowly roll into Harder, Faster Better Stronger and Around The World.

Then they both contributed to an extended version of Phoenix's 1901. My highlight...

1901 part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N664ZHm1xIw&feature=player_embedded#!

1901 part 2 - with a few special Daft Punk touches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZNvRHXTpJk&feature=player_embedded#!
**Jump to 7:15 to see them all take a bow together.

Madison Square Garden

Thomas Mars

Just popping up in the crowd for a little ditty

A French full house on stage with Phoenix & Daft Punk

Job well done, take a bow boys!

It's a pumpkin time of year!

Halloween is fast approaching and it seems the topic (and flavour) on everyone's lips is the humble pumpkin.

Carving them, eating them, decorating them, searching for the perfect one and I've even heard word of albino pumpkins!

I'm not really sure how much pumpkin one person can handle in a day's worth of eating but it you fancy, at this time of year, you can have it at every meal. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin cream muffins, even pumpkin ice cream and milkshakes. And just in case you haven't had enough pumpkin... why not spread your toast in the morn with a little pumpkin butter?

I'm pumpkin-ed out!

We built this city, we built this city on acronyms

I love the way they name some of the different neighbourhoods in Manhattan. I hadn't even realised they were acronyms until recently when a tour guide enlightened us. A bit of an ‘aaahhh’ moment I thought I'd share.

By way of background... in the 1960s, Chester Rapkin, a University of Pennsylvania professor and urban-planning expert, had the idea that in New York City you can essentially call a neighborhood into existence with sheer will, imagination, and a catchy acronym. And that idea went viral. It all started with SoHo, originally South Houston Industrial Area.

It’s very handy too - using this system the name of an area also tells you right where it’s located. In the massive metropolis of NYC that’s certainly very helpful. Here's some of the most common...

SoHo
South Houston - the area below, or south of, Houston St (pronounced House-ton). Hence NoHo is North and LoHo is Lower.

NoLIta
North of Little Italy - pretty self explanatory

TriBeCa
Triangle Below Canal - it’s a triangular shaped area below Canal St. Simple stuff.

DUMBO
Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass – a little neighbourhood in Brooklyn located as the name suggests. I read that Jerry Seinfeld once joked that they added the ‘O’ on the end so as not to have an area called DUMB.

And there’s a new acronym'd neighbourhood trying to catch on...

NoMad
North of Madison Square Park – a newly coined area, home to the Ace Hotel and not much else at present. If memory serves you from my blogging tales, the Ace hotel is where I found coffee perfection at Stumptown Coffee Roasters and ate breakfast at The Breslin.

Ace Hotel...

...and it's witty charm

An indulgent weekend

The sun was shining on NYC after a miserable grey, drizzly week last week.

I was up for some pampering and I had read about this place in Soho that specialised in brow threading. I made a call and booked it in.

I thought I'd make my way to Soho via the Flatiron district for some shopping en route. I only have a limited time in this city after all! 5th avenue runs along one side of the Flatiron building and there's some good shopping around. It was ok, a lot of the chain stores like H&M, Zara and Club Monaco. Always goodies.

The threading was interesting. If you haven't heard of it, it's an ancient method of hair removal where they use twisted cotton to pluck out rows of hairs at a time. I think this is good for brows as you can get nice straight lines. Good result! Not that I really had much to shape, my damn brows won't grow. It's cheap too, only US$15. Check it out...

While I was in Soho, thought I go back and visit my little nail place again and get a mani/pedi. It's so unfair how cheap it is here. US$55 for both. How could I not. Really.

Dinner and drinks out on Sat night. Lots of fun. Around rocks Sunday. A little hungover so thought I'd get some food and hit the shops again and lazily wander around. Can you see a theme developing this weekend?! I went to Union Square and the ever impressive DSW (Designer Show Warehouse) and then payed a little visit to an old friend, Century 21. I think I wandered around that place for about 2 hours. Best way to do it though, it's big and you need to hunt.

Here's some purchasing evidence for those interested. Ray Ban aviators, plaid shirt, a felt hat and a DKNY cosmetic bag (which will now be known as a clutch)...