Manhattan - FoodStuff

New York and gastrotourism. Wow - where to start? I did so much eating...

One of my favourite things was grabbing a bite at Madison Square Eats and then sitting in the sunshine in awe of the Flat Iron building. I ended up there twice. 

A whole host of famous restaurants have stalls in this pop-up space, all competing with their innovative culinary ideas.

Here's Roberta's pizza and a Red Hook lobster roll,

An Asia Dog hotdog topped with kimchi and nori flakes,

Then both cheese and birthday-cake flavoured mini doughnuts,

And cereal-milk ice cream from Momofuku Milk Bar. It really did taste like that milk after you finished your eating your cereal and was coated in actual cornflakes for a little crunch.

Um what's up next? Probably the craziest concept I've tasted in a while. Mac and cheese spring rolls with a gouda dipping sauce at Cafeteria,

Well I had never before seen one of these. Only in the United States. 

Talking of cupcakes, I did enjoy a gorgeous Magnolia Bakery number at Top of the Rock while taking in one of the best views over the city,

Another place worth trying is Miss Lily's which serves great Jamaican food and it's where I tried this curious but flavourful fusion: Jerk Ramen,

On my first morning in the city, Dee took me for breakfast at the Ukranian Veselka where I had a waffle the size of my face and tried my first pierogis,

Fortunately by combining all of this food intermittently with the cold-press juices and health-kick vegan cafés Dee is so into, they didn't have to roll me onto the plane. (It was touch and go there.)

Anyway, I'll wrap things up with a bagel. Very New York of me. 

This is a french toast bagel filled with birthday-cake flavour cream cheese,

"Take me back", I hear my stomach rumble.

Manhattan - Directions

I recently returned from a trip to New York to visit my school friend, Dee (the blogger behind Nous Portons). If you know me, you know I take photos of really everything. However, I have decided to restrict myself to two posts on my trip.

This one is just to be able to gawk at some of the architecture by looking up, across and down at the city.

The high line,

Boating,

Yellow cabs,

Lego bricks,

Lomo I

Here are some of the shots taken with my Lomography Fisheye 2 camera. Let me know what you think.

This first one is my absolute favourite. It's the cathedral in Valencia. I snapped once, clicked 'multiple exposure', turned the camera 180 and snapped again. The angles are perfect.

Some day ones.

 

Some night. The B setting means you can let in as much light as you want.

I love the rough and ready quality to the photos. You never know exactly how they'll turn out.

Look out for my next Lomo post, with my next set of developed favourites!

Letters

I noticed a recurring theme across the stalls of the DecorAcción market, letters for decoration. Whether they were painted wooden ones or heavy steel ones lined with light bulbs. I thought, it taking place in Barrio de las Letras ('borough of the letters'), a post focussed around these letters could be cool.

Dodgy menus in Valencia, Valencia

Looking through my Valencia photos I came across these gems. An important part of the year abroad is to develop translation skills...

We have sangría or 'bleeding',

and margarita or 'daisy',

Z A R A

Zara and its Spanish prices together are one of the main advantages of being in Spain for me. I'm not even kidding.

I waited for the opening of the new Zara flagship store on Serrano with anticipation. And then, lo and behold, in April it was revealed from behind the enormous boards.
It's massive, with 5000m² between six floors, five of which are open to the public. Definitely worth a visit; both for the selection of clothes, there'll be that shirt you were looking at, sold out almost everywhere in your size, and to take a look at what they've done to the place. The façade is intact, fitting in beautifully with the rest of the block on Calle Serrano. However, the interior was clearly completely gutted, modernising and Zara-ising it with litres of white paint, escalators and a million hangers.

Be warned, the queues for changing rooms and to pay are preetty long but it is a Madrid experience.

Along with the photo I took one night in April, I thought I'd add a photo from the inside which I found on Google to give you more of an idea,

"En la luna de Valencia"

I chose this expression as the title for my blog post just because I like it and it refers to Valencia (the subject of this post). I don't know where the expression comes from but it means to be despistado (distracted, absent-minded, away with the fairies). So there you go, a tid bit of Spanish knowledge on a Monday.

We went to Valencia in May, on the lovely puente those of us in Madrid get, where you have the Thursday and Friday off. It's a four day weekend so we thought we'd make the most of this time off to go to Madrid's nearest beaches, Valencia. Dafydd came down from Barcelona (look out for my post on when we visit him there, coming up this week), and Maria and I took a quick ride on the AVE.

My musts for a quick trip to Valencia (in no particular order):

• The cathedral - very interesting audio guide included in the entry price and you can also go up the tower but we chose to go up Torres de Serrans for a view over the city
• The Lonja de la seda - a UNESCO world heritage site
• The Torres de Serranos - not for those with a fear of heights
• Tapas and going out in Barrio del Carmen
• The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias - we just went for a look around but if you have more time and money, I've heard the aquarium is incredible
• The port - we were there off-season so it was pretty eery but I imagine a lot of fun on summer evenings
• Playa de la Malvarrosa - we chose to stay close to here for maximum beach time and there is whole host of restaurants lining the beach next to the port, buzzing both day and night
• Eat paella and fartons, and drink both agua de Valencia and horchata 

And this is my blog after all, where would we be without photos to back up my recommendations,

La catedral,

El mercado,

 La Lonja,

Ceiling vs. floor,

 

A Feria Andaluza we stumbled across,

And here are a few photos just to prove I was actually there!