So, with Philadelphia in the books, it was off to The Big Apple to take a chomp out of all its delectable eats. Jojo had been planning for weeks with one of his fellow Kinerds, Joey, about all the hotspots they were gonna hit up. Now, if you’re wondering what a Kinerd is, they are avid supporters of Kina Grannis’ music. I know, I know, this begs the question; who is Kina Grannis? Well, simply put, she is a very talented musician with a large online fan base, mainly through YouTube. If you want to know more about her, you can check out her website at www.kinagrannis.com
So, right when we got to the city to check into our hotel in K-Town, Joe bounced to meet up with his eating buddies. While they ate at Ippudo, a popular ramen spot and Momofuku to grab some cereal milk ice cream and pork buns, Tiff, Jay-R, and I took a short afternoon siesta. Once we got up, we headed over to SoHo to do some quick shopping. Actually, Tiff, went shopping, while Jay-R and I sulked because our stomachs were growling from hunger. When Tiff finally scratched her shopping itch, we took a stroll down Broadway to Madison Square Park to meet up with Jojo and grub on some Shake Shack burgers!
I’ve been to NYC a couple times before, and each time I’ve been denied Shake Shack because the line had always been ridiculously long. Most times, the wait can stretch out to over 2 hours! Luckily, today the wait was only about 30 minutes, so I guess my taste buds were to finally be treated with this guilty pleasure. My New York buddies and their friends swear by these burgers and always compare them to In N Out, so I was expecting a lot. I ordered a Shack Stack, a ShackMeister, and a Shack Attack and calmly waited for my meal. The Shake Stack was basically a cheeseburger with a fried portabella mushroom, the ShackMeister was their house beer, and the Shack Attack was chocolate frozen custard with chocolate chips, chocolate brownies, and chocolate chunks. An attack indeed. Not surprisingly, Shake Shack exceeded my expectations. Now, was it better than In N Out? I don’t know about that. I would probably need to do a side by side test to make a final decision. My heart still votes for In N Out, but right now my stomach begs for Shake Shack. Hmm…
After our meal, the crew took a nice stroll through the city to shake off our food coma and just enjoy the ambiance of New York. At the hotel, everyone took naps again and got ready for dinner with more friends.
The plan for the evening was to go feast on bon chon chicken at Mad for Chicken with some of my friends that lived in the city. If you have never had bon chon, simply put, it is like taking a bite of fried air. Just writing about it is already making my mouth water! If you ever hit up NYC, try to make it a point to have your folks take you out for some. Ironically, the restaurant was on the same block as our hotel so we simply went downstairs to meet up with everyone. Having dinner with us were Jill, a good friend of mine from high school, and her boyfriend, Karl along with their friends Vin and Trish. Also joining in on the fun was Raul, an old buddy I had know since grade school, and his girlfriend Val. Dinner was as expected, delicious. Afterwards, we hit up a couple bars for a few cocktails and some laughs.
Fast forward a couple hours and we were all hungry again. Let me mention that a night out on the town is not complete in New York without visiting the Halal cart on 53rd and 6th. I repeat; if you ever visit New York, go to the Halal cart on 53rd and 6th for some chicken and/or lamb and rice. You will not regret it. That is a LareDevil and Guinto Bros guarantee. Anyhow, once we had stuffed ourselves silly, it was time to retire and say our goodbyes. It was good to see everyone and hang out even if it was only for a short while. So far, Day 3 had been tiring, expensive, and overwhelming, but in the end, the juice was well worth the squeeze.
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