Have you ever experienced a bruised heart while on vacation? I don’t recommend it, but if you must tend to a heart wound while traveling, New York City is a good city. Though not known for its friendliness, New York City and all its nooks and crannies can be a warm cocoon to those in need to cry. There’s even a tumblr rating places in New York on how accommodating they are to crying.
Last month, I visited New York City with a group of friends, and you see where this is going right? I had an unexpected falling out with someone I was traveling with and became a New York City cliche. That girl crying on subways by herself.
I can laugh about it now which means I can finally write about it. Really, New York City caters to the brokenhearted. I myself medicate with bowls of noodles, spending time with good friends, and browsing book stores. I got all three of these needs met during my disastrous trip. There are so many of the nation’s top-rated ramen places in the city. Also, part of the city’s magic is it’s one of those cities where I will always have a friend or two living there. It’s the revolving door of my social circle. When one good friend moves away, another moves in. Fortunately for me, one of my best friends was in the city and he accompanied me to two of the three ramen places on my list and also took me to the famed book store, The Strand. Had it been any other city, I don’t think I would have gotten this lucky!
Momofuku Noodle Bar, 171 1st Ave
I mentioned my New Yorker friend took me to two of the three ramen places. Two of the guys I traveled with accompanied me to the third. This bowl of ramen is from Momofuku. I had the original ramen with pork belly and poached egg. It soothed my achy soul. The star of this meal though was the amazing pork belly buns. Ask for them even if you don’t see it on the menu. Sean and Nils and I were so ecstatic when we were seated after a measly ten-minute wait. The night before I waited over two hours for Ippudo and they had waited over two hours for Totto. The trick is to get there right when it opens, at 5:30 pm.
When you go, be a dear and buy some of their amazing cookies to take back to your friends at home! And I mean it about the pork belly buns!
Literally, after leaving Momofuku, I left Sean and Nils and got on the subway to meet Nam at Totto. I had expected a long wait there but we got right in and I proceeded to have a second ramen dinner. Totto is Japanese for “chicken” so this is chicken-based broth and it was delicious. I got my ramen with avocado. Not pictured but also quite tasty was the fried chicken.
Excuse the grainy cell phone photo, this was my first bowl of therapeutic noodles and I’m surprised I even snapped a photo. Nam and I waited over two hours which we mitigated by visiting The Strand and browsing books. It’s a few minutes away so I recommend killing some of that wait time by heading to the book store. I ordered the Karaka Men which is the “Tonkotsu†(pork) soup noodles. Nam also introduced me to Tako Wasabi, raw baby octopus in a wasabi sauce. I love it so much I now look for it every time I’m in a Japanese restaurant.
So that’s three comforting bowls of noodles in two days. Not pictured or mentioned was an entire pan of macaroni cheese from Freemans.
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