I love good surprises and New York was it. My last visit to NY was when I was working as fashion photographer. The agency I was working for flew me and a group of models to a fashion convention for two weeks. The models were a pain, everything was overpriced, and people were rude everywhere I went. Needless to say, the Big Sour Apple left me with a lasting distaste.
To my astonishment this time, the people I met were outwardly friendly, prices were good, and I didn’t have to deal with models. Okay, so the last part wasn’t a surprise. Seriously, I was baffled by how nice people were. But of course, I did not need anything this time. I could manage to do things and get around without help. Patrícia had an experience more like my first time. She thinks that if I needed something of people they would have been rude. I’ll see if it is true. I don’t know if the prices are better than last time or if I shop at different places now. Also, compared to Paris and the bad exchange rate, NY is not bad at all.
I bought Rollerblades today and went to Central Park to try them out. It was a beautiful sunny day—that was good. The park is big with many places to skate—that was good. Everyone else in NY thought it was the perfect day to be in the park too—that was bad. The people that sold me my skates didn’t offer to sell me protective gear—that was bad. I was thinking it was like ice skating and didn’t consider protective gear—that was bad. I failed to learn how to stop well before I went down a big hill—that was very bad. I managed to not fall down—that was good. I did remove a chunk of skin from my hand—that was bad.
After my mishap, I put on my winter gloves, (it was cool anyway) and skated around about two thirds of the park, stopping occasionally to watch experienced skaters make me feel like I was mentally disabled. They make it look soooooo easy. I consoled myself with the fact that everything I had read about in-line skates said all beginners look like idiots. I will try again, but only with some pads.
I am working on a idea that I will continue to explore in my travels. It is this: If any busy food place claims to be the king of anything, I have to eat there. In NY's Chinatown I ran across the Custard King and could not resist. It looked as if it had been there a long time and I doubted that such a grand claim made on a giant cartoon sign, could be entirely wrong.
In exchange for my 75 cents the clerk handed me the warm little bundle of custard. I knew it was going to be good from the way it tried to escape the flakey pastry as I carried it. I took a seat in the sun drenched window and lifted it to my mouth, careful to not crush the delicate shell. The aroma of warm vanilla custard filled my senses as I took the first bite. Oh...delicious. So delicous, I had to set it down and take the picture above. And then I ate two more even though I wasn't hungry. I just cannot help myself when I am face with culinary genius.
Two other notable food "Kings" are Taco King in Washington/Oregon and The Kebab King in Granada. I will certainly keep my eyes peeled for more food nobility to test this theory.
