| Here's a recap of my weekend of debauchery in NYC:
Friday:
Got into JFK at about 10pm. Yuya and I met up with Amy, Nina, Roy, and Andrew at Hotel Stanford in K Town. We changed and got ready for the first night of festivities. Yuya and I grabbed a slice of pizza first at a nearby joint since they didn't serve food on the plane. Stefanie, Roy's g/f, met up with us and we headed out to Light. This place is supposed to be opened by the same owner as the one in Bellagio. The place was ok. Really small and packed with people. You couldn't hear the music well and there's just no room to move. And I didn't know if it was just that night or what but I swear I though I was in India. Needless to say, it got boring so we headed out to another place, Jade Terrace. Now this place was more our thang, mostly Asians (east, not south) and with much more room to hang out and dance. Big outdoor patio to sit and smoke. We loaded up on drinks and had a great time. Nina and Amy were both pretty gone. I was too for awhile but I sobered up by the time we left. But not before Amy left me a huge ass cigarette burn on my right forearm. Since I was so buzzed at the time, I guess I didn't feel the cigarette until it's burned me for at least 3 seconds. So yeah, it's not very pretty. We left the club when it closed at 5am. Got back to the hotel and Amy and Nina were just not in any state to go to bed. I got some great pictures of the two of them but of course I can't share those.  Finally, we all cleaned up and went to bed at around 6:30am.
Saturday:
Set the alarm for noon as we had to get ready and go to Peter Luger at 2:45. While in the lobby waiting for the rest of the group, I ran into LL Cool J. At first I just thought he came to eat at the korean restaurant right next door but it turns out that he was staying at the same hotel.
OK, on to the infamous Peter Luger Steakhouse. So there was all this hype and hoopla from everyone that has been there. I guess I didn't know what I was expecting but the steak was just good in my book. It certainly didn't blow my skirt up (if I wore skirts, that is). You can tell the meat was well-aged but some parts were still tendony and chewy. We got 2 rare steaks for 3 and 1 medium rare steak for 3. The medium rare was definitely too well done even tho it looks like how medium rare should look like. We also got the tomato/onion salad with sides of bacon (more like ham). Of course there's the usual german potatos and creamed spinach. The Peter Luger steak sauce was NTG. It was good on the salad but too sweet for the steak. To finish off the meal, we ordered one of each dessert. The Schlag was definitely one of the best parts of the meal. I would give Peter Luger a 7.5 on a scale of 10 on steak alone. A nicely BBQ'ed How's Spencer Rib Eye with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper by GYu has sometimes even tasted better than Luger's. (You can pull your head back down from the clouds now Chuz.) The bill with tip came out to $600 for 10 ppl which wasn't too bad.
Afterwards we went shopping in SOHO for a little while and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night.
First stop: Roy, Stefanie, Calvin, Anna, George, Andrew, Amy, Nina, Yuya, and I met up at Mission. It was a two story bar/club on Bowery and Prince. Again, this place was small and packed. The crowd was mixed at first but I swear everywhere we go ends up being overwhelmed with "in-du ren." We stayed at Mission until about 12:30 and then went to eat at the korean place right next door to our hotel. Gahm Mi Oak is known for it's beef bone broth with rice. It was very tasty, especially after a night of drinking.
When we finished eating, George told us that his cousin can get us in to Avalon for free. Our eyes lit up as soon as Nina and I heard this. We didn't know who the DJ was but being in the Skybox at Avalon with free drinks all night was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. The rest of the group was all tired and went home so it was just Amy, Nina, Yuya, and I for more partying. We figured we go there for an hour or two and check it out ... little did we know. So we got up into the skybox, overlooking the entire club, met the owner, while everyone kept making strong ass drinks for us. I'm talking 5 parts vodka and 1 part juice kind of strong. I had about 4 of those on top of the 5 drinks I had at Mission. We only danced a little cuz the music wasn't all that great. DJ was Dmitri from Paris or something. If only it had been this coming weekend for Tiesto ... I would have been in heaven.
Anyhoo, I got really loaded so I didn't even know what time it was when we all got up and trekked out to another club while I threw up along the way. We walked like 2 blocks to an after hours club, I think it was called Discotheque, and got a private table in the back. The whole time I was there I just kept trying to sober up while Nina got more and more loaded. The club ended up being packed with muscle men all with their shirts off. 6am rolls around and we were all beyond tired and wanted to leave, except for Nina. She asks us to stay until 7. So 7 rolls around and she asks us to stay until 8, cuz she has to go to work at 9 and she doesn't want to go back and not be able to get up for work. It's about 7:35am and Amy, Yuya and I just could not stay awake anymore so we changed the time on our watches and tricked Nina into thinking that it was already 8.
Sunday:
Finally, we get back to the hotel room at 8am. Amy, Yuya, and I thought we were finally going to be able to go to sleep but noooooo. Turned out that Nina's uncle was flying in and wanted to use the room to wash up and stuff. So we all had to pack up and leave the room by 9am. Nina went to work while Amy, Yuya, and I took a cab to Roy's apartment to crash at his place. We didn't get to really go to sleep until almost noon. The rest of the group went to the gym while we slept. They got back at 2:30 and woke us up to go eat and get ready to leave. We went to eat at Cafe Habana in Chinatown. Their Mexican grilled corn was the best corn ever! Chuz, you should try making this sometime. I think the seasoning was just chili powder, salt, and lime juice. Then topped off with parmesan cheese. I know, I don't like parmesan either but it just tasted really good on the corn. Supposedly they have the best pork chops with mushroom sauce but we were there too early for the dinner menu. Afterwards, we all went our separate ways. George, Calvin, and Anna on a bus back to D.C. Roy and Stef back to their apt. Amy back to the hotel to meet up with Nina. Yuya and I to JFK for our flight back.
So that was my crazy, sleepless weekend. It was really fun and great to see old friends but it's so nice to be home. I am so exhausted that I just want to stay in and veg for the rest of the month. But I have a wedding shower/bachelorette party this weekend and a wedding in Pebble Beach two weeks later to attend. My body is getting too old for this and flying is just too painful. I'll have to think twice about meeting up with everyone in D.C. for July 4th.
Hope everyone else had a great weekend too! |
my throat is killing me! i hate this fucking weather!!!!! ok, no, i'm fine. i'm not pissed off. i'm not annoyed. my throat just has never hurt so bad before. and i've never had such a miserable time sleeping before either. my body is definitely changing. i get really really hot and irritated easily now. i used to be able to stand the heat but not the cold. i still can't stand the cold but i can't stand the heat now either. sweating in bed (while sleeping) is just plain disgusting. one of the most icky feelings ever. ughhhhh!!! anyhoo, i hope this sore throat and cough goes away soon. 
