When in Rome...

...do as Romans do.  When in New York City...

...visit the 2nd best pizza restaurant in the U.S. of A, especially when it's just a couple blocks from your apartment.  My roommate, Naheed, and I did just that.  Naheed saw on Yahoo! that Motorino Pizza was voted the 2nd best pizza joint in the nation.  She also noticed that this particular pizza joint was on 12th street (and we live on 3rd street), which was a quick, brisk walk away.  We had to judge for ourselves if this place was worthy of such a prestigious title.  We ordered the Margherita pizza with olives, and Boy! was it Delizioso!

I also sampled their Mexican Coca-Cola, which, I'm told, is made with sugar cane instead of corn syrup like in the U.S.  I tried to keep the cute bottle it came in, but the waiter didn't get the memo and threw it away by accident.

Then we stopped by Veniero's for some awesome New York cheesecake (and an eclair for me), which was also Delizioso!  

This was the damage I did to it...  I had to take a quick pic before the box was empty!

So, the moral of the story, Boys and Girls.  When in NYC, try Motorino and, especially, Veniero's!  LOL!

Love and Aloha Peeps!

Randomness

There is one thing about this city you may never get used to - the Randomness of it all.

Everyday, as I make my way to my regular subway entrance (to the F train), I see this man selling belts and other leather goods on a fold-out table on the sidewalk.  At first, I thought this guy was a bum.    However, I was curious enough to scope out his belt selection to see if there was one I'd fancy.  Turns out, after talking with him (and to my surprise), he was very articulate, nice, and dextrous (he made the belts himself).  Needless to say, I was quite happy with my purchase.  Now, I say "Hi" to him from time to time.  (Warning... You definitely can't do that with everyone here...)

On another day, my roommate Naheed alerted me to a graphic poster that our neighbors, the Hell's Angels, put up in a bar two buildings down from our apartment...

By the looks of the poster, that party is either going to be a rager with topless women or a sword fight (e.g. a bar full of bearded dudes...)

One yet another day, while walking to my friendly neighborhood Rite Aid, I caught a glimpse of another one of these random quotes (check out a previous blog post with a similar quote)...  Apparently these quotes are litered all over the East Village.

Oh yes, to complete my story of Randomness, I just threw in a photo of the school I'm visiting...

Love and Aloha Peeps!

A Friend('s) Request

This post is dedicated to my friend Gen who had a special request...  To post pictures of touristy things of NYC...  Of course, I haven't done any touristy things to date, but I most definitely did when my parents were here...  So, here are the pictures of my parents and I playing (or actually being) tourists in NYC!!

Here we are on our way via subway to the World Trade Center site, the E train's final stop.

Here we go...

Here we are in front of the Survivor Tree, a tree that was crushed to a stump during the collapse of the towers, then nursed back to life.

This is the site of the South Tower (or North?)...

Protect and Serve, Gentlemen...  (Double shaka for my Hawaii peeps!  Alooooooooohaaaaa!)

Of course, we had to snap a pic in front of The Wall Street Journal.  My dad loves his newspapers!

Here's my mom about to grab a hotdog in Times Square...

Here we are enjoying those hotdogs (and a not-so-enjoyable lobster roll) on the Times Square bleachers...

(I think this one's self explanatory.)

If you've been living in the modern world, you'd know what this pic is...  (+ the New Years' Eve countdown ball!)

My Auntie Carrie (and my acting coach, Scott Rogers) recommended we purchase tickets from here "tkts"...  This is a great source for show tickets at majorly discounted rates.  It can be found both in Brooklyn and, of course, Times Square under the bleachers.  You can't miss it!

This is the jumbo-tron in Times Square.  Can you spot us in this picture...?

How 'bout now...?

This should get Gen excited!!  It's M&M world!!  And the largest wall of chocolate (so they claim)...

I told you we did a lot of touristy things...  Here's Radio City Music Hall where my parents and I watched Zarkana.  

This is Rockefeller Center.  During the winter, this becomes an ice skating rink and the place where they erect the Rockefeller christmas tree.  Movies love to show these places!

Here we are about to watch Zarkana!

And...  Who can forget?  The most touristy thing of all the things to do in NYC.  Eat some New York City pizza!!  Yum!

Love and Aloha Peeps!

Psst...  Mucho Mahalo GEN for the care-package (Kim-Chee ramen, Hawaiian Sun mix, and Men of the Islands calendar, Oh My!!)