USA // New York 9.1 - Brooklyn Brunchin'

How Javin looks when he drinks his drink

 vs how I look when I drink mine

 One of the best dishes I had in New York!

 Brunch with a view ;)

The weather seemed warmer so we headed out of Manhattan and into Brooklyn to explore Williamsburg. Finally!! Javin was really excited about this place because we heard that there were a lot of menswear stores there. It's also known to be upcoming, hip, indie etc etc.

We started off with brunch at Fives Leaves (not Four Leaves ah Singaporeans this is upgraded hahaha), which turned out to be one of the best meals I had in New York. It's a bit of a walk from the station but it was worth it! From the outside it didn't seem like much, but when we entered, we were greeted with chatter and a lively ambience. Woody elements with lots of light made the place feel very comfortable. As we were shown our way to our table, I couldn't help gawking at everyone's food! Everything looked so delicious.

We got truffle fries, mushroom toast and ricotta pancakes to share. The truffle fries and ricotta pancakes were highly raved about on Yelp but the star of the meal for me was the mushroom toast! Oh I wish I could have it now. The gravy reminds me of ikea's meatball gravy.

Five Leaves
18 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11222
b/t Nassau Ave & Lorimer St
Greenpoint

USA // New York 8.2 - Dinner at Cocoron

We wanted to have our dinner at Egg, but it was closed. Sought help from Yelp for alternatives and went to Cocoron, the soba place we had dinner at the first night we were in New York, together with our Thai friend who was working in Manhattan for two months. Funny how we had Japanese at Little Italy.

It's not life-changing but it is super tasty and so heartwarmingly comforting in the winter. I'm not a noodle person but I love japanese noodle dishes! This hit just the right spot. This time I had the warm soba, but Cocoron is known for their dipping soba, which I tried the first time. Each dipping soba will come with an individual hot pot containing your selected sauce, with a flame below to keep it warm, and a serving of soba. If there were any add-ons ordered, they would come in a separate dish, not together with the sauce. That's perfect because I love tempura flakes and I wouldn't want them soggy from soaking up all that sauce... The way to eat is to just dip the soba into the sauce and then slurp it up. The regular serving is just nice for me, but for Javin perhaps the Large would have been better. Towards the end the sauce does get a little salty because the flame causes water to evaporate quickly and the sauce becomes pretty concentrated, but Cocoron will serve some water (?) to add into the sauce.

The warm soba doesn't come with those funky sauces, it was just soba in a light soup with some other ingredients, depending on what you order. Not as interesting, but for days when you just wanna have lots of soup with your noodles, this is great. The cucumber thing is very refreshing too! We tried the egg but it wasn't fantastic.

Cocoron has two stores, one in Lower East Side and one in Nolita. I've only been to the one in Nolita, which is the second store, but I heard that the two stores have different menus and my friend's favourite sauce is from the store in Lower East Side. I suggest being there by five to five-thirty pm, because it does get crowded during dinnertime and the space is small (typical of New York haha).

Cocoron (Delancey St)
61 Delancey St
New York, NY 10002
b/t Allen St & Eldridge St
Lower East Side

Cocoron (Kenmare St)
37 Kenmare St
New York, NY 10012
b/t Mott St & Elizabeth St
Little Italy, Nolita

USA // New York 8.1 - Buddha Bodhi in Chinatown, Shopping in SoHo

The day before we headed to Buddha Bodhi in Chinatown for dim sum, but it was dinner time and they weren't serving dim sum anymore. So we ordered two dishes to go with rice, thinking it was the normal small zi char portions we have in Singapore and they came out huge! Just look at the picture above - there were SIX tofu portions which are each about the size of a palm (for Singaporeans, the size of a full tau kwa portion). The other dish is the same size. I think our meal could feed six people.

The next day, we headed to the same place for morning dim sum and the portions were huge again. Didn't manage to take a picture of everything we ordered but I was so full after the meal, along with the previous night's huge servings, I couldn't crave Chinese food for the next week.

Walked it off in SoHo before dinner. I might have gotten some stuff from American Apparel in between... ;) Like that pair of disco pants I have been searching for since forever! And a spanking new pair of NBs! I still love NBs because I like the shape. I need a pair in white! Have no idea what store I got my NBs from but they were on offer, 60 SGD or less <3

SoHo is my favourite place for shopping. The stores are all beautiful, or so I think because Singapore doesn't get stand-alone stores. The experience is really fun! All kinds of stores there. And food.

Had to take some pictures of my outfit with my new shoes after that. (Who am I kidding, I take pictures of my outfit whether or not I have new shoes hahaha) Took some shots for Javin too.

USA // New York 7 - Greenwich Village

Val // V necklace from THE ORDINARY CO

Javin // Double-breasted suit from COMMON SUITS

I heard a lot about Greenwich Village, from friends who have visited or lived in Manhattan, and it turned out to be one of my favourite places in NYC. According to my friend, it reminds her of London, especially along Bleeker Street, which may I mention, is where the original Magnolia Bakery store is located!!

I LOVE the banana bread pudding from Magnolia Bakery. Needless to say, I sneakily led Javin to Bleeker Street to "check out the area", when I just wanted to get some of that heavenly pudding. It was crowded as usual and all the other baked goods looked so tempting but we kept our eyes focused on their crowning glory, the banana bread pudding. Alas, I gave in and got a Hummingbird cupcake along with the pudding but it wasn't memorable. I even forgot I actually got the cupcake. Now I can't even remember if it was really a Hummingbird cupcake.

We sat outside to eat as there were no seats in the bakery. The weather was really cold and even the direct sunlight wasn't enough to keep us warm, but the banana bread pudding was worth it!

After walking around for a bit, we shared a falafel sandwich from Taim, which I thought was really good, better than the one from Maoz, another chain where you can get your falafel fix. I love falafel bars here! They're usually vegetarian since vegetarian/vegan is pretty big here, so it's great for Javin and I. Taim has three falafel flavours: Green (traditional taste with cilantro, parsley and mint), Harissa (mixed with Tunisian spices and slightly spicy) and Red (with roasted peppers). The staff recommended Harissa so we went with that. If I were to go again with an emptier stomach, I would have gone for the mixed falafel platter to try all flavours!

I'm not sure about the other stores, but this store was pretty small, with seating for about five to six people. Probably not much of an eat-in place, but more of take-out. I heard the smoothies are good, but I didn't try because I knew nothing could beat Juice Press.

Greenwich is a very photogenic place with the "village vibe", so it's also known as The Village. It's the type of houses you see in Sex and the City - rows of houses with stairways that reach the pavements and many trees, which were all just branches when I was there because it was winter. I suppose it would be very pretty in other seasons!

There are many bars, cafes, book stores, clothing stores... Just walk around and explore on your own; soak in the feel of the entire place! You can visit Washington Square Park and NYU as you move towards the East.

Oh in case you're wondering, West Village is part of Greenwich Village. I know it can be confusing. There's East Village too, but East Village is not part of Greenwich Village.

Magnolia Bakery (Bleecker St)
401 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10014
West Village

Taïm Falafel and Smoothie Bar
222 Waverly Pl
New York, NY 10014
West Village