Art in Bloom

Macy's

I had a much needed, quiet weekend, with dim sum on Saturday and the Macy's Flower Show on Sunday. Dim sum, as usual, never disappoints. Most of the really good places are ones where there are only large tables, so you have to share with a bunch of strangers. I wonder if they have a system for grouping. I went with. A Chinese American friend, and we bypassed the white people table, and a Chinese from China table, to be seated at a table with a bunch of other ABCs (American Born Chinese). This place is called Oriental Garden, and what I liked was that the food, especially the shumai, was really good, and there was no wait, which is rare for a dim sum place on the weekends.

I always forget how foreign a lot of Chinese food, especially fruit, are to some people. The Manhattan Chinatown is a tourist destination, and during the weekends a lot of visitors come to take pictures and gawk at our weird food. It can be stressful, because when I go to Chinatown I just want to buy groceries and eat (a lot), so threading my way through the crowd of people taking a photo of a perfectly normal dragon fruit can be exhausting. But still worth it.

Once I receive a strange request from a young girl around my age. She said, "my boyfriend is Australian, and he loves Asian women, and I'm always insecure because I'm not Asian." 

I said, "well if he's with you, he obviously likes you." Who knows what strange motives people have though.

She shrugged, and then asked me if we could take a photo together so she could send it to him so he could look at me. It felt a bit weird, so I said no. On a related note, I think a lot of minority women in the U.S. grow up where the standard of beauty is overwhelmingly white, and it can be hard to navigate trends when very few, if any, examples of beauty in the media resemble you. I think that's changing a lot today though, and it's become more common to see Asian models in advertisements. I do hope in the future that women (and men) stop holding themselves so rigidly to those standards, whether it's a billboard, or a significant other who apparently has a very specific preference. 

Display of desert plants

A Chinese artist painting at Macy's

The flower show was underwhelming. I guess I expected more grandeur, like Macy's parades. It was pretty though, and I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't gone in with such high expectations.

Flowers

Not part of the show, but I always liked these mixers; I've had the standard
white since I was 11, and it has held up really well!

Full Circle

New York seems to collectively suffer in the rain. I love New York, but it's probably one of the ugliest cities when it rains; if cities could ugly cry, that's what New York does when it rains. Amsterdam cries pretty, but not Manhattan.

There are a lot of dogs in my neighborhood, and today all the ones I saw stood in protest. They came out of their buildings suspiciously, sniffed the air, and then dug in their heels and refused to go into the rain. Most New York dogs are small however, so with a sharp jerk of their leash they tumbled forward, and trotted grudgingly forward, looking balefully at the passerbys as their paws got wet in the puddles. I couldn't help but think, amusingly, of the Human Rights Watch slogan, "tyranny has a witness!"

Trader Joes is my local supermarket, and the line is always absurd on the weekends, wrapping around the entire store. Sometimes you even have to line up to get in. I have a dinner party though, so I had no choice but to brave the crowd. While standing in line, I heard a screech like a banshee, which turned out to be a child announcing her oncoming tantrum. She was probably on 3 or 4, but she screamed like she was being tortured. "No daddy," she managed to utter out through tears and huffing and random screams, "the line is too long. IT'S TOO LONG!!" She was right of course. But it got so bad that an employee came and took them out from the end of the line, directly to the register. A small part of me judged because I think it's not right for children to get their way just by making a scene, but for the most part I was simply grateful that the noise stopped. Rain puts everyone in a bad mood.

One of my favorite things about the city is the diversity. I spent yesterday evening in Koreatown, which isn't touristy like Chinatown. I used to only eat there, but in the past year I've come to discover a lot of really nice bars and lounges there too. 

Starry Night Lounge

I went to this restaurant called Starry Night Lounge that doubles as a bar, with Christmas Lights everywhere. They have a painting of Sailor Moon on the wall, though I'm not sure if that's for the benefit of the women or the men. The funny thing is though, they have a secret karaoke room under the stairs. We had gone there because a friend was looking for a friend, and couldn't find him anywhere. The waitress gestured to the secret room, and we opened the door. The room erupted in cheers in Korean as soon as they recognized my friend. Korean karaoke was blaring in the background. 

Leading to the second floor of Starry Night Lounge

One person in the party had suffered from a recent break up, so he really wanted to go to Circle, a Korean nightclub, which is predominantly attended by Asians directly from Asia. I have only been to Circle once, and didn't like it very much. That evening was an interesting cultural experience for me. I usually pride myself on being both Asian and American, but that night I felt very American, and very out of place, kind of like the last time I went to Circle. I wonder if it would be any different if it were a Chinese club, but I doubt it since there were a lot of Chinese people there too. I would say Circle may be the Asian equivalent of me going to a hoe down party in the Deep South, where I would probably feel extremely Asian, and also out of place. 

I don't know so much about Circle, but its reputation is that it's a racist organization. They allegedly only let East Asians in. Once I went with a white person, and they told us there was a "private party" that evening. Maybe that really was the case, but it was a bit fishy. My two German friends also tried to go once, and got denied entry. Maybe the only way a non Asian person would get in is either with a large bribe, or if they were hidden behind a chain of 10 Asians, or they were a celebrity. I think Usher was there once, with Psy, the Gangnam Style guy.

Conveniently placed inside, where most of the people who
might have been discriminated against would not see it.

We went there quite late, so the line was ridiculous. I had gone out straight from work, so I was pretty much dressed like the boys, in a suit, while the majority of the women were decked out in dresses. They had a policy of separating the women from the men in groups, so there was a line for the women, and a line for the men, with the women's line moving a lot faster. It was cold that night, but I have a pretty good jacket so that wasn't a major issue. I was more annoyed about being herded by gender like chickens--those who lay eggs here, those who don't there. I also wasn't a big fan of Circle to begin with, and when one of my friends came and told us that it would probably take at least 45 minutes for the boys to be able to go inside, I pretty much turned into a child and pulled a similar stunt as the little girl in Trader Joes.

"NO!" I said. "Just no! I am too old for this!" In reality it's probably not an age thing, because there were plenty of older people there, but I do remember being more inclined to obey bouncers and stand shivering in the winter, waiting on the doorman's whim when I was in my early twenties. Maybe I've just been in New York for long enough that clubs aren't so appealing anymore. "There are plenty of other places nearby where we don't have to go through this ridiculous line." 

Even though I explained in adult words, in my head I was thinking exactly what the little girl at trader joes had been shouting: "the line is too long. IT'S TOO LONG!!" I didn't quite go with all the gusto that the trader joes girl did, because I probably would have gotten arrested. We left the line, and a bunch of girls in five inch heels teetered forward happily to take our place. As we left however, they suddenly started letting everyone in (maybe tantrums do work), so we ended up just turning around and going in.

We ran into a friend of a friend's who was simply delighted to be there; he looked like the King of the club, beaming happily at everyone. I sang a song with him, which seemed to make him very happy. The next song came on, and I didn't know it. "You sing!" He commanded. 

"But I don't know this one," I said. 

"You hum!" He modified his request. I did my best, luckily it got drowned out by the sound of the fog machine coming on.

I did have fun, which isn't saying that much because I'm a pretty optimistic person and I usually manage to have fun wherever I go. Nevertheless, it was extremely crowded, and I felt like I was in a subway car during rush hour. I wouldn't recommend going to Circle again.

In another note, I went to a really nice concert venue in Williamsburg during the week. Not nice as in fancy, but nice as in not too crowded, smaller intimate space, and reasonably priced (tickets were 12 dollars) It's actually a record store called the Rough Trade. We went to see Shura, and she had two cover bands. Nobody was particularly famous, if at all, but they were all decent. 

I actually forgot the name of this band...but this is their guitarist

North Williamsburg

A friend of mine is relocating to New York in August, and came to visit this weekend, to get her hair done. I've never been super picky about hair, and usually get mine done in Chinatown for $20, but my hair is pretty easy--I guess I'm lucky in that sense, that I never need to comb it, it simply stays untangled, and I don't really need to use product either. But I guess for people who have very particular hair requirements, it's a big deal (a $400 per visit deal, to be precise).

She is scouting apartments, and is looking into moving to Brooklyn since you get a lot more space for the price. So, this weekend we went out a lot in Williamsburg. It's actually quite convenient, since the L train is pretty reliable. I've had a fairly boring winter, so it was fitting that this weekend heralded the arrival of spring; it's one of those weekends that restores the soul a bit, maybe because most of the weekend was spent ignoring adult responsibilities and pretending we were on vacation. I suppose that is fitting, since this travel blog has pretty much turned into an explore New York bar.

On Thursday we were supposed to go to the Brooklyn Bowl for a concert, but we didn't feel like paying cover, so we went to a bar next door. We ended up spending more money, but the principle of paying 20 dollars for a band we didn't know at all was something I wasn't in the mood for that day (although I actually will be doing just that on Tuesday). The evening unraveled from there, starting at a rooftop bar in the Wythe Hotel, overlooking Brooklyn. We sipped our fancy cocktails at the bar, and then decided to move somewhere cheaper, because I had spent too much money on my birthday, and she had spent too much money on her hair.

At the next bar, Kinfolk, the cocktail menu was again surprisingly expensive, so we asked the bartender, let's say his name is Stan, "Since when did Brooklyn get this expensive?" Stan said pricey is the new trend of Williamsburg, and as a magazine so accurately labeled this area of Williamsburg, it was the Brooklyn for people who can afford to live in Manhattan but don't. My friend and I spent the next couple of minutes bickering over the menu and deciding what to order (she wanted to splurge on a cocktail and I wanted to be financially responsible and get a beer), but Stan the bartender ended up making some surprise drinks, and also gave us some shots of whiskey for free. So needless to say, we felt very positively about that bar.

On Saturday, we returned to Williamsburg, around the Bedford stop on the L train. Surf bar has floors covered with sand, and colorful lights hanging from the ceiling. There is an aquarium with fish and a fake jelly fish. I asked the waitress how they keep the sand clean, and she said that they rake it every night, and replace it from time to time. People are not allowed to go barefoot though, because there could still be glass among it.

I had the best french toast on the east coast, possibly in my life (it rivals the one from Petaluma), at Cubana Social. Their other food was just okay, but I will go back for that french toast.

I went home to take a nap, and then we returned to Caracas Arepa Bar, which has a nice selection of rum and rum based cocktails. The bartenders seemed to really enjoy working there, and their good mood was contagious. They close at 11 though, but they recommended that we go to Larry Lawrence.

Larry Lawrence looks like a speakeasy, since there is no name, just an unmarked door that says "bar" in small letters above it. I liked how it was decorated--with high ceilings, and wooden walls on one side and exposed brick on the other--but I didn't like the atmosphere as much. It was like everyone was wearing a uniform--most of the men were wearing plaid shirts and beanies. I think I've come to really dislike plaid shirts--I never liked them much, even while in grad school, but now it's just a turn off (with rare exceptions. What's wrong with solid colors? I think people look nice in solid colors, or T-shirts, and actually, in my opinion, one of the most attractive looks for men is a fitted black or white T-shirt and jeans. There are also OTHER patterns aside from plaid. I hope this plaid fashion fades, but I suspect it'll be around for a few more years, at least.

From there, we went to Maracuja, which I really liked. They played a lot of music from the 80s, and the people there were really nice. We also tried another dance club on Hope Street, but I forgot the name. That one was also fun, with more mainstream music. In the back, they have some type of shooting video game with wildebeasts, and board games.

We ended the evening by getting hot dogs from Crif Dogs. These hot dogs tasted really healthy, which I didn't quite like. I had been hoping for something like the hot dogs they sell in San Francisco--wrapped with bacon, and covered with grilled onions. I ordered that, but I could tell that this was a better quality hot dog with very little grease, and grilled in a way that all the fat drained out. I could tell because the bun had not soaked up any oil. I could also tell that the onions were cooked separately from the hot dog and just placed on top. Needless to say, I was disappointed. I understand that this was a high quality hot dog, but I think some things are just supposed to be cheap and greasy. I think my next mission will be to find a place that makes proper dirty dogs in New York.